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Waymo’s driverless taxi service will open to the public soon
Waymo is working on an autonomous taxi fleet, modeled after the pilot program it currently offers outside of Phoenix. The big difference here is that once fully launched, Waymo's service won't have a driver behind the wheel. Additionally, the company will up its fleet of self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans from 100 to 500. As you'd imagine, the entire ride-hailing process will be handled via a mobile app. While the initial service area will be limited to the Phoenix metro area, in a post on Medium, the company says eventually it will "cover a region that's larger than the size of Greater London." Waymo says that the public will be able to start taking autonomous rides "over the next few months" in the agricultural suburb, Chandler, Arizona.
Tencent is the latest tech company working on autonomous cars
Tencent is pushing beyond its WeChat messaging app and gaming, moving into the autonomous driving space. The Chinese conglomerate will tap its artificial intelligence and mapping initiatives to compete against the likes of Baidu, according to Bloomberg's sources. Back in 2015 Tencent announced it'd partner with electronics maker Foxconn (responsible for the iPhone and countless other gadgets in your house) to make smart vehicles. That happened in the same 24 hours that Baidu announced similar motives.
GM may bring its self-driving Cruise program to Uber
Remember how GM's autonomous vehicles division Cruise was planning to work with Lyft? The two companies hoped to put 300 more self-driving Chevy Bolts on the road next year. The fleet was supposed to start testing within the next year, and GM was already testing a ride-hailing system in San Francisco just for employees. Unfortunately, the thrill is gone between the two companies, according to a report by The Information, which says that GM is now meeting with Uber to launch those self-driving cars by next year.
Apple’s self-driving tech appears to be one fully-contained unit
Like so many companies, Apple has been working on its own version of self-driving technology. Last year, we learned that the company had moved away from designing its own vehicle, opting instead to develop a system that could be incorporated into existing vehicles. We've had glimpses of this system before -- it's codenamed Project Titan -- but thanks to Voyage cofounder MacCallister Higgins, we now have an up-close view of it.
GM aims to be the first to test self-driving cars in New York City
It looks like New York City will be hosting its first test of fully autonomous vehicles very soon and surprisingly, they're not from Waymo or Uber. Instead, General Motors and Cruise Automation have submitted the first application for sustained testing and are aiming to do so in Manhattan.
Baidu plans to start mass-producing autonomous vehicles around 2019
Like its US counterparts, Chinese internet titan Baidu has been working on autonomous vehicle research for years. After a failed partnership with BMW, Baidu opened itself up to teaming up with other companies, notably bringing on NVIDIA to power its Apollo self-driving car program. The internet giant has another partner now: Chinese automaker BAIC, which will pair its cars with Baidu's tech to start mass production of level three autonomous vehicles around 2019, followed by L4 vehicles around 2021.
Cadillac’s Super Cruise maps are key to our robotaxi future
Cadillac is doing something new with LiDAR. Instead of sticking a puck on its cars, it's using the sensors to map the highways of the United States and Canada and geofence its semi-autonomous Super Cruise feature, instead of letting drivers use it anywhere they want. It seems like a bold move, but in reality, it's how self-driving cars will initially enter the market.
NVIDIA introduces a computer for level 5 autonomous cars
At the center of many of the semi-autonomous cars currently on the road is NVIDIA hardware. Once automakers realized that GPUs could power their latest features, the chipmaker, best known for the graphics cards that make your games look outstanding, became the darling of the car world.
Waymo ad campaign aims to get the public behind self-driving cars
Waymo announced today that it has created "the world's first public education campaign for fully self-driving cars." It's called the "Let's Talk Self-Driving" campaign and it aims to increase understanding of self-driving technology and convince would-be riders that it's safe.
Voyage tests its self-driving cars in retirement communities
Online learning company Udacity decided to redirect the engineers it's training into a new spun-off self-driving tech company, Voyage, back in April. Now they're starting to test their autonomous technology with folks who could be greatly empowered by autonomous vehicles: Retirees in San Jose.
Passenger Drone lives up to its name with manned flight
There are quite a few companies working on developing drones for human transportation, but a new one has just jumped into the fray. With an almost fully developed prototype and plans to start producing them commercially next year, the aptly named Passenger Drone introduced itself by showing off a manned flight on its first prototype.
Bosch details its work on present and future self-driving cars
There are so many companies working on different pieces of the self-driving puzzle, it's hard to keep track of all the partnerships and small developments that are pushing us ever closer to kicking back in a fully autonomous vehicle. While not as visible as some other firms, Bosch is a significant force in the automotive industry, producing various car components alongside the power tools and home appliances most regular consumers will associate the brand with. Naturally then, given its industry experience, Bosch is working on self-driving technologies of its own, recently heading to London's Somerset House to show off some of the things it's doing right now, as well as what it might do in the future.
'Platoons' of autonomous Freightliner trucks will drive across Oregon
Most of the self-driving truck attention has revolved around Tesla's much-teased reveal of its EV big rig next month and all the auto companies rushing to introduce their own electric models. But there's another autonomous truck-related race to develop tech and mechanisms to enable the safe travel of extensive convoys of these vehicles, known as 'platooning.' At the North American Commercial Vehicle Show this weekend, German automotive titan Daimler announced its trucks will engage in 'platooning' tests on highways in Oregon and Nevada.
Intel's self-driving tech will make Waymo vehicles fully autonomous
Intel has been so committed to break into the self-driving car market that it bought autonomous tech-maker MobilEye for $15 billion earlier this year. While Intel's tech has powered Waymo's test fleet of autonomous Chrysler minivans for a while, the chipmaker just entered an official partnership with Google's self-driving offshoot. Part of their agreement: Intel's tech will eventually enable Waymo's cars to become fully autonomous.
Ford invests in Michigan's autonomous car testing grounds
Ford might not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of autonomous vehicles (unless you really like Domino's pizza), but that doesn't mean the automaker is sitting by while everyone else is making leaps and bounds in the space. The company just announced that it's making a $5 million investment in the American Center for Mobility. "This is an investment in the safe, rapid testing and deployment of transformative technology that will help improve peoples' lives," Ford's CTO Ken Washington said in a press release (PDF).
Drones won't be delivering weed in California any time soon
In the near future, your pizza, Big Mac, and groceries could all be delivered autonomously. But, the good Cali folk out there expecting their newly legalized batches of pot to arrive in the same manner, are in for a bummer. The California Bureau of Cannabis Control recently declared that weed deliveries cannot be made by autonomous vehicles -- that includes UAVs and unmanned self-driving cars. Therefore, don't go expecting the robot delivering your munchies to bring you Scooby Snacks too.
Waymo simulation is teaching self-driving cars invaluable skills
Last month, Alphabet offered up its first proper look at Carcraft. The simulation is a virtual home away from home (the real world) for Waymo's self-driving vehicles. Here, you'll find a replica of every real-world mile the autonomous cars have driven. And, each day, Waymo's 25,000-strong fleet of Chrysler Pacificas traverse 8 million of these simulated miles. That's according to the company's latest blog post, which further breaks down its software. By honing in on a traffic signal in a particularly busy intersection, Waymo demonstrates how Carcraft can teach its connected vehicles to envision an exhaustive amount of scenarios (including hazards). In turn, the cars can then practice the manoeuvres that will help them safely navigate these situations in the real world.
Shropshire farm completes harvest with nothing but robots
Researchers in Shropshire, England have managed to sow and harvest a field of barley using nothing but robots. Many aspects of farming have now been automated, but rarely is the entire process — planting, tending, monitoring and harvesting — completed without someone stepping foot inside the field. The 'Hands-Free Hectare' project was set up last October by a team from Harper Adams University. With £200,000 in government funding, they modified a tractor and combine harvester with cameras, lasers and GPS systems. Drones and a robot "scout," which could scoop up and carry soil samples, helped the group monitor the field from afar.
US House sends self-driving car bill to the Senate
We've been following the progress of the SELF DRIVE Act, legislation that would allow autonomous vehicles on regular roads, for awhile now. Back in July, the Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously voted to send the bill to the full chamber for a vote; that vote was held today. It passed the House in a bipartisan victory.
US might soon reveal its revised self-driving car guidelines
We might finally get to see how the Trump administration has tweaked the Obama-era self-driving vehicle guidelines next week. According to Reuters, the Department of Transportation is slated to unveil the revised guidelines on September 12th at an autonomous vehicle testing facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That's a bit over three months after DOT secretary Elaine Chao announced that she has begun reviewing the existing guidelines in response to automakers' requests for the right to put more autonomous vehicles on the road for testing. By being able to test more vehicles, the companies have a much better chance of adhering to their plans of releasing autonomous cars in the next few years.
