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Watch Einride’s autonomous truck take on the ‘Top Gear’ track
Einride recently revealed its revamped autonomous delivery truck, which is more aerodynamic than the previous version. To give a glimpse of the Pod in action, the Einride team put the AV through its paces on the Top Gear track in Surrey, England. The video perhaps doesn’t have the glossy production that Top Gear fans are used to, but it provides a solid look at the Pod in motion. It also shows that on straights, the Pod can travel at over 80 km/h — that’s the typical speed limit for heavy goods vehicles in the European Union.
Daimler and Bosch pick San Jose for autonomous taxi trial
Mercedes' parent company Daimler and automotive supplier Bosch announced back in 2017 their plans to get autonomous vehicles on the road "by the beginning of the next decade." Now, the partnership is getting ready to roll out testing, and has earmarked San Jose for a pilot trial in the second half of 2019.
Uber applies for permission to test self-driving cars again
Uber has published a Voluntary Safety Self-Assessment report in a bid to convince authorities to give it the go-ahead to test its self-driving vehicles on public roads again. The ride-hailing firm suspended all self-driving trials in March after a fatal crash in Tempe, Arizona killed a pedestrian. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, Uber's software detected the pedestrian six seconds before impact, but it didn't activate emergency braking until 1.3 seconds before the collision. The human backup driver was unfortunately distracted and streaming a show on their phone. Uber has since applied for permission to resume testing on public roads, and it's currently under review by the Department of Transportation.
Honda teams with GM to produce autonomous vehicles
This week, Honda that announced that it is purchasing a stake in GM's autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise. It's part of a larger plan for the Japanese and American vehicle manufacturers to work together in order to develop and produce an autonomous vehicle.
Skydio drops the price of its R1 follow-me drone to $1,999
Today, Skydio, the company behind the camera drone R1, announced new features for its autonomous photography and video device. These include new Skills which are focused on obtaining quick, easy video clips that are optimized for sharing on social media. They can also be used as a shortcut to obtaining different angles for longer videos. These One-Shot Skills include Dronie, Boomerang, Vortex and Rocket, and Skydio has added a Stabilize option to help streamline editing shaky video.
Volvo's autonomous concept car is about more than commuting
Autonomous vehicles are supposed to make our daily commutes more pleasant and potentially quicker. But Volvo wants to take that idea a step further with its 360c concept vehicle. Unveiled at its Gothenburg, Sweden headquarters, the automaker envisions a world where cars become mobile offices, sleep quarters and even a way to skip the airport for short trips.
The race for self-driving taxis at the 2020 Olympics is heating up
Companies around the world are fervently vying for first place in the race to vehicular autonomy, and now it looks like one venture has crossed the finish line. A self-driving taxi has successfully taken passengers through the busy streets of Tokyo in a demonstration of what could be a fully-fledged service by the time the Olympic Games arrive in the city in 2020.
Alphabet puts down more roots in China with local Waymo office
Google's parent company Alphabet is continuing its push for a presence in China with a new Waymo subsidiary, based in Shanghai. Waymo – one of the world's leading autonomous car designers -- has confirmed it has set up a legal entity in the country and has people working there, but hasn't commented on its future plans.
Tesla is quietly making its own AI chip for self-driving cars
In a recent earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed the automaker has been 'stealth' developing a custom-built AI chip for at least two years.
Aston Martin’s Volante Vision is a luxurious flying taxi
Aston Martin is the latest luxury car company to express interest in creating a personal aerial vehicle. Today, the company unveiled its plans for a "flying car," a three-seat aircraft called the Volante Vision Concept. The hypothetical concept craft's design will make its debut at the Farnborough Air Show this month.
Uber driver was streaming Hulu just before fatal self-driving crash
Late yesterday, the Tempe Police Department released a 318-page report on the self-driving accident in which an Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian. The report shows that the driver, Rafaela Vasquez, was playing Hulu on her phone up until the approximate time of the crash. "We continue to cooperate fully with ongoing investigations while conducting our own internal safety review," an Uber spokesperson told Engadget. "We have a strict policy prohibiting mobile device usage for anyone operating our self-driving vehicles. We plan to share more on the changes we'll make to our program soon."
Police chief says Uber 'likely not' at fault in pedestrian accident
Yesterday, Uber called a halt to all self-driving tests after a highly publicized crash in Tempe, AZ, on Sunday evening. Now, it looks as though Uber might not be at fault for the accident. Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir told the San Francisco Chronicle that, based on footage from the vehicle's on-board cameras, "it's very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or human-driven) based on how [the pedestrian] came from the shadows right into the roadway."
Ford patent details system for autonomous police cars
This month, Ford was granted a patent for an autonomous police car. The car can work in cooperation with a human officer or by itself, and it can tell when a traffic law has been violated and act accordingly. These may be described as "autonomous police vehicles," but I'm just going to say what we're all thinking: This is RoboCop.
Intel is making a big bet on autonomous driving in 2018
Now that Intel's MobilEye acquisition is complete, the tech titan is ready to get the ball rolling. In fact, we might see semi-autonomous vehicles powered by MobilEye's Road Experiment Management (REM) system as soon as this year. Intel has signed contracts with 11 carmakers, which will use the Level 2+ autonomous driving tech MobilEye developed, on vehicles slated to be released throughout 2018 and 2019. This particular technology will add semi-autonomous features, such as simple braking, steering and acceleration, to cars. It's worth noting, though, that REM was created to make fully autonomous cars possible, and that's still Intel's ultimate goal.
Sony's autonomous concept would make a great party bus
Sony's concept vehicle is all about entertainment on the go. Naturally. Its SC-1 (translated) is more or less a shuttle outfitted with high-res image sensors, displays, AI, 5G data connectivity via Docomo, alternative fuels, LIDAR and a bevy of ultrasonics onboard. It can be operated autonomously, or driven, and Sony claims that the image sensors placed around the car are sensitive enough (and the displays inside high-quality enough) that you could drive the buggy at night without headlamps.
Volkswagen's electric Crozz SUV gets closer to reality
Volkswagen continues to push its electric road map. At the Frankfurt auto show, it dropped a newer version of the pure electric ID Crozz Crossover. Initially unveiled in Shanghai, the crossover is the third vehicle with the ID brand, along with the microbus Buzz and the four-door ID. All three vehicles will be built on the company's upcoming Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB).
Renault aims to make toll booths a breeze for autonomous cars
With autonomous vehicles at the top of car manufacturer's to-do lists, many are focusing on the basic technology required to get self-driving cars on the road -- and we've seen a number of partnerships formed as a result. Renault, however, is looking further ahead and has partnered with French road toll operator Sanef to develop technology that works with existing road infrastructure. Namely toll barriers, which Sanef, with 1,700km of road under its control, is famously zealous about. One of the overarching questions surrounding self-driving cars is what happens at barrier road crossings -- a simple obstacle for a regular car and driver but a massive challenge for autonomous vehicles in providing continuous eyes-off/hands-off travel. The two firms are therefore developing equipment which will allow toll road infrastructure to communicate with cars using short-range WiFi, enabling the vehicles to take appropriate action.
Here's updated mapping vehicle paves way for self-driving cars
It may have been a while since we last we came across a Here 3D mapping vehicle, but that's not to say the company hasn't been using its cars lately. In fact, the Here True collection vehicle is now in its third revision, and I got to hop on one -- based on a Volkswagen Golf Variant 280 TSI Highline -- during Computex. The ride features much faster D-GPS tracking that no longer requires a half-hour calibration (to reach an accuracy of under one meter), along with a Velodyne LiDAR with an accuracy of better than 2cm (within a range of up to 70 meters) and four 16.2-megapixel MARS panoramic cameras. This set of gear is almost identical to what we've seen before, so the real highlight this time is the updated backend to support high-definition mapping.
Toyota taps NVIDIA Drive PX to power its autonomous vehicles
The work we've seen Google and Uber put into self-driving cars is impressive, but short of Tesla's autopilot mode, consumer applications of autonomous driving are few and far between. Soon, that could change. Speaking at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference, company CEO and Founder Jensen Huang announced that Toyota has chosen the NVIDIA Drive PX platform as the heart of it future autonomous vehicles.
How Roborace is building driverless race cars
The lights dimmed and a hush fell over the crowd. The last hour had been building to this. Denis Sverdlov, CEO of Roborace, and Daniel Simon, chief design officer, took a step back as some knee-high panels were taken away and a silky cloth was lifted, revealing a mechanical monster underneath. More than a year after the project's announcement, the pair had finally revealed their first production-grade Robocar: a fully electric, driverless race car built from the ground up for a new breed of motorsport. One where the heroes are programmers, concocting the smartest and most competitive AI drivers.
