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UK begins testing unsupervised autonomous transport pods
Shoppers at a UK mall have the opportunity to try out autonomous transport pods this week which -- in a UK first -- operate entirely without supervision. The driverless pods are being tested at the Cribbs Causeway mall in Gloucestershire, and run between 10AM and 4PM every day for a week, transporting passengers around the premises and along shared pedestrian spaces.
Walmart will test driverless grocery deliveries in Houston
Walmart is about to experiment with autonomous grocery delivery in a big way. The big-box retailer is launching a pilot program in Houston that will use Nuro's self-driving R1 vehicle to shuttle food from "select" stores to customers who've opted into the program. The companies didn't outline how customers would enroll, but Houstonians can expect service to start in the "coming weeks."
Waymo’s fully-automated shuttles are picking up riders around Phoenix
Waymo is now offering limited "rider-only" trips in Phoenix, Arizona, Chief Executive John Krafcik told reporters this weekend. At the moment, the fully-autonomous ridesharing service is only available to a few hundred early users.
Singapore is testing Volvo's full-sized driverless buses
Universities have proven solid training grounds for self-driving shuttles in Michigan and Melbourne. Now, a campus in Singapore is set to test a full-sized autonomous bus from Volvo. The Swedish auto-maker's single-deck 7900 electric vehicle will carry up to 80 passengers at a time from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Kroger adds driverless vehicles to its grocery delivery fleet
Earlier this year, Kroger teamed up with the self-driving startup Nuro for a grocery delivery service, and in August the company began piloting an autonomous delivery service in Arizona. At the time, the deliveries were made by a self-driving Toyota Prius fleet with safety drivers on board. But now, Kroger is adding Nuro's R1 vehicle to its fleet and the move introduces a driverless component to the company's autonomous delivery service.
Waymo may launch its self-driving car service in early December
It's been a long time in coming, but Waymo finally appears to be on the cusp of launching a commercial self-driving car service. Bloomberg sources claim that the Alphabet-owned brand will launch its autonomous transport option in the Phoenix suburbs sometime in early December. Many details are reportedly still under wraps, but it would operate under a new brand and "directly" challenge ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft, right down to the pricing. It'd serve a roughly 100 square mile area and would initially rely on passengers from Waymo's Early Rider Program, but they would be free to talk about it take people from outside the program.
BMW developed a self-driving motorcycle to further its safety efforts
This week, BMW Motorrad showed off a self-driving version of its R1200GS, a motorcycle that it spent more than two years developing. You can see in the video below that the motorcycle, sans rider, can start, accelerate, lean into turns and stop all on its own. But don't expect to see this bike on the roads anytime soon. The company explained that it created the self-driving motorcycle not for consumers but to learn more about how it can implement new safety features.
Yandex begins public tests of its self-driving cars in Russia
Russia's Yandex has taken its self-driving efforts one step further, launching an autonomous ride-hailing service in the university city of Innopolis, Russia. The company claims it's the first such service to launch in Europe. For now, there will be two self-driving vehicles in operation and they'll provide rides to specific locations, such as the university, the stadium and residential blocks, for free. A safety engineer will ride in the passenger seat and around 100 people have agreed to test the service.
Kroger starts testing self-driving grocery delivery in Arizona
You now have a chance to try Kroger's self-driving grocery delivery... if you happen to live in the right part of Arizona. The chain has launched its driverless delivery pilot at a single Fry's Food Stores location in Scottsdale, giving you a chance to receive foodstuffs courtesy of Nuro's autonomous vehicles. Order through the Fry's website or app and the robotic courier can deliver either the same day or next day for a $6 flat fee. You'll have to live in the same 85257 ZIP code, so you can't make them drive across town just to satisfy your curiosity.
Waymo tells law enforcement what to do in case of emergency
In a decade or so, law enforcement could already be used to dealing with incidents and accidents involving self-driving vehicles. For now, Waymo wants to make sure cops, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders know how to handle their driverless vehicles, so the company put together a 41-page law enforcement interaction protocol. According to IEEE Spectrum, the Alphabet-owned company has submitted the protocol to the California DMV as part of its application to test fully driverless vehicles -- ones with no human tester behind the wheel -- on its roads. And to summarize the booklet's contents (PDF), Waymo wants authorities to prioritize calling the company, immobilizing the vehicle and protecting its autonomous tech in case of emergencies.
Waymo formally applies for fully driverless car tests in California
Waymo has officially applied to the California DMV to test autonomous cars without drivers in the state. A source told the San Francisco Chronicle that the company will start trials around its Mountain View headquarters where it's been testing its self-driving Chrysler Pacific minivans, though those had personnel behind the wheel just in case. Eventually, they'll expand no-trial driving to more of the Bay Area, the source said.
China will allow self-driving car tests on public roads
China is opening up its roads to self-driving cars. The Beijing Municipal Transport Commission released a statement today saying that on certain roads and under certain conditions, companies registered in China will be able to test their autonomous vehicles.
Baidu teams with ride-hailing service to fast track self-driving cars
If Chinese search giant Baidu is going to fulfill its dreams of building a self-driving car platform, it needs maps accurate enough that vehicles can safely get from point A to point B. Thankfully, it has a solution: the company has just forged a partnership with the state-backed ride-hailing service Shouqi. Baidu will supply Shouqi with the tools it needs for both its existing business and driverless cars, including map services, its Apollo autonomous platform and its conversational AI platform DuerOS. In return, Shouqi will supply Baidu with high-precision maps.
GM might beat its competitors to driverless car production
While a large number of companies are working on self-driving cars, including Google/Waymo, Uber, Audi and Tesla, it might be General Motors that beats them all. In a blog post, GM's CEO of Cruise Automation, Kyle Vogt, says that his team has created the "world's first mass-producible car designed to operate without a driver." Vogt notes that this is not just a concept, but a fully-made automobile with "airbags, crumple zones and comfortable seats" that has been produced by a high-volume plant that can make hundreds of thousands of vehicles per year. In other words, GM is ready to make self-driving cars at scale as soon as the software and regulations are up to par.
Semi-autonomous truck convoys due to hit UK roads next year
Convoys of semi-autonomous trucks are expected to be tested on public roads in the UK before the end of next year, the government announced today. The Department for Transport and Highways England have rustled up £8.1 million in funding between them to pass on to the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), the independent organisation that'll conduct the trials. TRL will start with simulation studies and driver training before moving onto a test track and finally, public roads by the end of 2018.
Portland wants to get driverless cars on its roads this year
A new initiative from the city of Portland, Oregon hopes to attract the fast-growing self-driving car industry to the city's streets. According to Bloomberg, Mayor Ted Wheeler and the city's Bureau of Transportation are working to finalize a new set of rules governing autonomous vehicle pilot programs and hope to have driverless vehicles on the roads by the end of this year.
Driverless pods begin ferrying the public around Greenwich
It's been almost a year since the UK's Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) opened sign-ups for a driverless pod trial in Greenwich. The original plan was to start before Christmas, but given today's date that obviously didn't happen. Still, better late than never, eh? Over the next three weeks, roughly 100 people will clamber aboard "Harry," a self-driving shuttle named after clockmaker John Harrison. It will take them around a two-mile course in London's North Greenwich, near The O2, to demonstrate how the technology could be used for "last mile" trips in urban areas.
Uber's self-driving vehicles are picking up folks in Arizona
Uber's fleet of self-driving vehicles are now cruising the streets of Tempe, Arizona. After a spat with the California Department of Motor Vehicles in December, Uber moved its line of 16 custom, autonomous Volvo XC90 SUVs to Arizona, where Gov. Doug Ducey welcomed the company with open arms (and no extra restrictions on self-driving vehicles).
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.
Singapore will trial a full-size autonomous bus
Singapore will trial a pair of driverless buses. No, not micro buses, nor "Ollis" -- full-sized buses, measuring 12 meters (40 feet) long. The vehicles will operate in the Jurong West region of Singapore, where the island's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is situated. The buses will ferry up to 80 people between NTU and the neighboring "eco-business" hub CleanTech Park -- around a one-mile journey. The team behind the trial is also considering servicing a nearby train station, which would extend the route to around a 5-mile round trip. The vehicles will charge at depots and at bus stops via charging masts.
