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Baidu's all-electric self-driving car is a modified Chery EQ
Baidu's plan to make self-driving cars a consumer reality by 2018 just changed gears, so to speak. According to Business Insider, the company has swapped out its modified BMW 3-series test vehicles for an all-electric car designed for the Chinese market: the Chery EQ. Unmodified, the diminutive EV can drive about 120 miles on a full charge. Baidu intends to use it to further test its driverless tech in China.
The creator of Google's self-driving car now works for Uber
Bloomberg has taken a look at Uber's future in the autonomous vehicle world and uncovered a small, but important detail. The website is reporting that Uber has purchased Otto, the driverless freight truck startup that was launched a few months back. That news wouldn't be interesting but for the fact that Otto was founded and staffed by former members of Google's self-driving car team.
MIT's ridesharing network is learning to dodge pedestrians
Lyft and Uber already operate in and around Boston, but students on MIT's campus in Cambridge, MA also have a new, research-oriented option for on-demand ridesharing. Ford and MIT announced today a new project that will shuttle students around on both campus walkways and city streets in a fleet of electric shuttles -- but the project isn't just for helping lazy college kids get to class, it will also be conducting research on pedestrian traffic patterns that will help it optimize the service, as well as future generations of autonomous vehicles.
Audi is trying to beat Tesla at its own game
Audi's ramping up its electric car plans and hopes to have three models by 2020. It'll also form a new subsidiary to work on autonomous cars.
Mercedes' autonomous bus makes a landmark trip on public roads
Mercedes-Benz's CityPilot autonomous bus technology just got a real-world, long-range test drive on the streets and highways of the Netherlands. One of the company's Future Bus vehicles successfully followed a 20km Bus Rapid Transit route between Amsterdam's Schiphol airport and the nearby town of Haarlem, navigating through tight turns, intersections and pedestrian areas all without the need for human input.
UK takes first steps toward laws for autonomous cars
The UK is proving to be quite the testbed for autonomous vehicles, thanks in no small part to government support. Tens of millions in funding is being funneled into various driverless car projects, and we already have rules of the road encouraging trials on public streets. With research and development simmering away nicely, the government is starting on the next course: Making sure laws, rules and regulations are updated for the autonomous age.
Jaguar Land Rover plans semi-autonomous car tests on UK roads
Fresh off of the announcement of its plan to take self-driving cars off paved roads, Jaguar Land Rover revealed that it's preparing to test autonomous and semi-autonomous tech, or what the company calls Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technologies, on roads in the UK. First, the automaker is planning to amass a fleet of over 100 test vehicles over the next four years, the first of which will cruise a 41-mile test course around Coventry and Solihull this year. The company says the first stage of testing will involve semi-autonomous technology that allows cars to communicate with each other and with infrastructure like signs, traffic lights and more.
Mercedes Benz's E300 is a luxury car that happens to be high-tech
The Mercedes Benz E-Class has always been fancy. Wood, leather and a sense that you've made some pretty solid life choices are all part of the package. But the automaker has also been on the cutting edge of tech. For example, it added radar-aided adaptive cruise control to its vehicles back in 1998. So it's no surprise that the 2017 E300 is filled to its German gills with the latest and greatest in car technology. The car is indeed impressive, but not without a few hiccups.
A driverless Rolls-Royce means you can fire your chauffeur
While other electric or autonomous vehicle companies might be content to build a sensible, everyday mode of transport, noted luxury automaker Rolls-Royce is rejecting that notion entirely with its first driverless vehicle concept. In a decidedly lavish announcement, Rolls-Royce says its new Vision Next 100 car has been designed for "the most discerning and powerful patrons in the world."
A 45-year-old New York law is holding up autonomous vehicles
In New York state, legislators are worried a law from 1971 could be a roadblock for autonomous vehicles in the near future. As the New York Daily News reports, the state is the only one in the country that requires drivers to keep at least one hand on the steering wheel while driving. Obviously, this could be a problem for self-driving cars, since they don't have hands.
Google's self-driving car project sets up shop in Michigan
The Google Self-Driving Car Project, as it is accurately named, announced via Google+ yesterday that it is building out a 53,000 square-foot technology development center in Novi, Michigan where it will "further develop and refine self-driving technology."
Acura introduces a sleeker self-driving test car
As we creep ever closer to an autonomous-car future, one thing is for certain, most of the driverless cars we see being tested look hideous thanks to all the sensors strapped to the roof. Today Acura introduced its second generation Automated Acura RLX Development Vehicle with updated sensors and a more pleasing aesthetic.
Lyft and GM will test self-driving fleet within a year
General Motors and Lyft's planned network of on-demand, self-driving taxis will begin testing in one undisclosed city sometime in the next year, the Wall Street Journal reports today. While the details of the plan are still scarce, the accelerated timeline will put a fleet of publicly available autonomous vehicles on the road ahead of either company's major rivals in Silicon Valley.
Volvo will test self-driving cars on the public next year
Volvo has been working on its autonomous vehicle program for several years now, but there's only so much you can learn from testing tech in controlled conditions. While the company has run trials on public roads before, it's now planning to take engineers and technicians out of the equation to see how regular road users take to self-driving cars. As part of its ongoing "Drive Me" project, Volvo is going to put real people behind the wheels of "semi-autonomous" vehicles from early next year, in order to understand how they are suited to everyday scenarios like doing the school run and picking up the weekly grocery shop.
The After Math: Siri take the wheel
Wow, this week just sped by like a couple of LA heisters. We saw news of super computer-controlled Roboracecars, autonomous big rig convoys, "guardian angel" emergency override systems and the Google Car's toughest test to date. Come, take a look at the future of driving, where every seat is shotgun.
Toyota's developing a 'guardian angel' to take the wheel
Toyota's taking a different approach to creating the self-driving cars of our future. Unlike other automakers and tech giants that have already begun investing time and resources into the space, the Japanese company's developing a partially autonomous system to occasionally take the wheel. According to MIT Technology Review, the "guardian angel" feature, which is under development at Toyota Research Institute, would only temporarily take control from the driver during potentially hazardous moments.
Recommended Reading: Olivia Munn on why we're all nerds now
Putting on Her Game Face Connie Guglielmo, CNET Olivia Munn plays Psylocke in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse movie and CNET caught up with the actress to chat gaming, smart home tech and more. Munn says that there's no reason to continue to call folks geeks or nerds now that tech is everywhere. She also has a solid solution for how to remedy traffic jams.
Google lays out its autonomous car proposal to the Feds
The head of Google's self-driving car program, Chris Urmson, sent a letter to the Department of Transportation on Friday outlining a proposal that would fast-track self-driving car technology and expedite the process of taking the technology mainstream. Current US law prohibits vehicles which cannot be driven by a human -- as is the case with the steering wheel-less Google Car -- from operating on public roads. And, rather than wait for these existing laws to eventually catch up to the technology, Google wants the government create a special permitting system wherein any auto manufacturer, having shown that their vehicle meets federal safety standards, could petition regulators for permission to sell them. For their part, regulators would be empowered to dictate usage limitations for the applicant vehicles based on prevailing safety concerns.
Baidu will soon test its self-driving cars in the US
Chinese tech giant Baidu is planning to make self-driving cars a commercially viable option by 2018. To take another step in that direction, the company will test its autonomous vehicles on roads in the US. The plan to bring those cars stateside was announced by Baidu's chief scientist Andrew Ng this week, inviting better cooperation with the United States government and the ability leverage resources from its Silicon Valley tech center. That office, which is lead by Ng, is staffed with a number of employees tasked with the development of self-driving tech.
Ford's 'mobility' subsidiary to focus on autonomous cars and more
GM isn't the only US automaker making self-driving car announcements today. Ford revealed a new subsidiary, Ford Smart Mobility, that will focus on developing new technology for autonomous vehicles, in-car connectivity and transportation services. Former Steelcase CEO and Ford board member Jim Hackett will oversee the new offshoot, which the company says is part of its goal to be "both an auto and a mobility company."
