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A single autonomous car could greatly reduce man-made traffic
Traffic. We all hate it, but what can honestly be done to significantly reduce it? Well, according to an experiment conducted by the university of Illinois, simply introducing a few self-driving cars to roads could be the answer. Conducting experiments in Tucson, Arizona the team discovered that even adding a single autonomous vehicle to the roads can massively reduce traffic. They programmed a self-driving car to loop a track continuously and then added 20 other human-driven cars to the mix. While humans somehow naturally create stop-and-go traffic even without lane changes or other disruptions, thanks to the robotic racer, both traffic and fuel consumption were reduced by 40 percent.
Intel and BMW's highly-automated cars hit the road
Intel is great at building chips for computers. Everything else, not so much. But the company that's been powering most of the computers on the market for decades is going full bore into autonomous cars. Today it announced the launch the first vehicle of its highly automated car test fleet with partner BMW. The vehicles will also include technology from Intel's latest acquisition, Mobileye.
Tesla plans to show off its electric semi truck this fall
According to Telsa CEO Elon Musk, the automotive arm of his company will unveil a semi truck this coming September. Musk dropped the news via a tweet. The company is currently gearing up to start full production of the Model 3, set to start being delivered at the end of 2017. But now it looks like Musk is getting ready to dive into into long-haul trucking.
The Future IRL: Our Jetsons future has arrived
Fictional housekeeping robots and the flying smart cars in The Fifth Element have inspired technologists to keep pushing the bounds of electronics for years, which is how we've gotten video chatting and Bluetooth in our cars. But pop culture has also served up many warnings. Who among you doesn't remember Hal, the calmly murderous computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey, without shuddering in horror? If you haven't realized it yet, the technology these fictional stories foretold is being constructed in the real world right now. The reality can be awe inspiring or frightening, but should be carefully watched either way. Engadget's new video series, The Future IRL, will take on the big stories in tech and explore how companies are turning sci-fi concepts into everyday reality. This first episode focuses on self-driving cars, with engineers from Ford and Delphi explaining what challenges still lie ahead. We'll bring you a new episode twice a month so please, enjoy the ride.
Las Vegas is testing autonomous shuttles this week
Public self-driving vehicle tests are becoming more and more commonplace, and the latest to launch in the US just hit the roads in Las Vegas. French driverless electric vehicle manufacture Navya just announced that its autonomous electric shuttle is now taking passengers through Las Vegas' Fremont East entertainment district from today through January 20th. Navya and the city of Las Vegas say this is the first autonomous electric shuttle to hit a US street, though Uber is already providing public transportation with autonomous cars in Pittsburgh.
Qualcomm wants to make smarter cars by sharing sensor data
You don't need us to tell you that modern cars aren't just cars. They're places to surf the web and watch movies, and they're getting smarter by the day. With the launch of its new Drive Data platform, Qualcomm is trying to add another big role to that list. As far as the company is concerned, modern cars are roving sensors too, and there's a lot to be done with all the data they collect.
UK insurers detail the data they'll want from driverless cars
As car makers outfit their vehicles with more autonomous features, insurance providers are carefully weighing up how to cover owners of driverless cars while figuring out exactly who should be liable in an accident. The UK government agrees it's a major priority and has already laid down a common-sense framework to guide discussions, but the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has today published a specific list of rules that providers believe will best protect everyone involved.
ICYMI: Another thing likely to survive with the cockroaches
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Scientists just mapped the DNA of a microscopic organism that can survive both oxygenless places and the Antarctic. Researchers believe they might help humans survive too much radiation, which is a thing we'll probably need soon enough so get hyped, people. Meanwhile a Danish car company is showing off its prototype of a tiny carpooling electric vehicle that will one day be modified for autonomous rides. In case you're interested, you can see the Japanese Pokemon Go video here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
You can hail a self-driving Uber in Pittsburgh starting today
Uber's self-driving cars have been spotted around Pittsburgh for a few months now, but starting today you can actually take a ride in one. The company announced that as of today, Uber's most "loyal" Pittsburgh customers might receive a ride in a self-driving Ford Fusion when they request an Uber X. As predicted, being a test subject in the company's cars will net you a free ride.
ICYMI: Neck pillows that work and self-driving everything
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Ford Motor Company joined the self-driving car race, taking on Uber, which just bought autonomous truck company Otto. We're just excited to see the self-driving vehicles of the future, though those two had better hurry up, since Easymile is already testing actual transport around a large city now. Two Kickstarter projects for actually useful neck pillows are trending. We are fans of the FaceCradle but the nodpod may be just as useful to you. You might also be interested in this video of a dog dressed as Pac-Man, going after all the balloons. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Ford plans to have fully autonomous cars on the road in five years
At the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto, California the automaker announced it would have a fully autonomous car on the road with a ride sharing service in 2021. CEO Mark Fields said self-driving cars will be as important to Ford as the assembly line. "We're designing the first generation of autonomous vehicles specifically for ride sharing and ride hailing," Fields told the audience.
BMW partners with Intel to get autonomous cars on the road by 2021
BMW has already said it wants to get autonomous cars on the road by 2021, but the automaker doesn't have all the technological know-how to make that a reality. To get there, BMW today announced a partnership with Intel and computer vision / sensing company Mobileye to build a platform that'll help the company meet its goals. But what the three companies are working on won't just benefit BWM -- it sounds like the idea is to make an open industry platform that other car makers can use in an effort to make autonomous vehicles more widely available.
The UK gets its first driverless car insurer
As cars have gained more assistive driving features, questions have been raised over how driverless vehicles will be insured. If someone has an accident while being piloted by an autonomous car, is the driver or the car itself to blame? While governments, car makers and search giants attempt to figure that out, specialist UK insurer Adrian Flux has today launched what is believed to be one of the world's first dedicated driverless vehicle policies. It's done so to allow drivers to place more faith in assistive controls and force policymakers to implement changes around how and when driverless cars could be held liable.
Toyota is the top bidder for robotics pioneer Boston Dynamics
Over the past couple of months, Google's parent company Alphabet has been looking to offload its robotics division, Boston Dynamics, as it seeks to divert its attention to self-driving cars. Toyota's Research Institute was thought to interested in picking up the company from the start, but Nikkei is now reporting that the car maker's R&D arm is close to signing a deal for not only Boston Dynamics, but also Google's Japanese robotics company, Schaft.
NVIDIA will power the first-ever driverless race cars
NVIDIA made autonomous cars a major company focus a few years ago, but today it announced something a bit more daring at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose today. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang that NVIDIA technology would power the custom sports cars competing in the upcoming driverless racing series Roborace. Specifically, the company's Drive PX 2 liquid-cooled supercomputer (which was announced at CES) would make up the brains of these futuristic vehicles.
Google's self-driving cars hit the rainy streets of Washington state
Google is expanding its self-driving car test to the rainy and hilly city of Kirkland, Washington. In fact, citizens of the Seattle suburb have probably already noticed one of the company's Lexus RX450h SUV driving around over the past few weeks mapping the roads. The rest of the fleet of autonomous vehicles will be hitting the road next month.
