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Las Vegas' self-driving bus crashes in first hour of service
Las Vegas' self-driving shuttle service marked its return by getting into a minor collision, according to local NBC station KSNV News 3. French startup Navya's autonomous electric vehicle shuffles at around 15 MPH on a 0.6 mile circuit in the downtown Fremont East district. But, just an hour into its year-long trial (which follows a successful stint in January) the shuttle was hit by a delivery truck that was backing up.
Navya puts its self-driving shuttle tech in an autonomous taxi
Uber and Lyft have been racing to apply autonomous technology to their ridesharing platforms, but Navya might have beat them in the race for the first self-driving taxi. Today, the company announced its Autonom Cab vehicle, which is built to haul up to six people around cities without a driver.
Comma AI’s dash cams are a stepping-stone to autonomous driving
I'm never sure what to expect when I walk up the steps of Comma AI's office (which is actually a house in a San Francisco neighborhood). Its founder and all-around rabble-rouser George Hotz (the iPhone and Playstation hacker more commonly known as Geohot) has strong opinions about the automotive industry and how he can fix it. The company's "ghost riding for the masses" tagline won't win over regulators, but Comma AI's long-term goal of running your car's operating system seems doable. But first, the company is concentrating on dash cams that tap into your car's data.
Addison Lee is looking into self-driving taxis too
Driverless car trials are happening all around the UK, but the epicentre is arguably Greenwich, in London. We've seen driverless pods ferry passengers around the O2 and autonomous delivery vans drop off Ocado hampers near Woolwich. That's because a chunk of the borough has been ring-fenced as a "Smart Mobility Living Lab" for autonomous projects and research. The latest initiative to fall under that banner is "Merge," which will look at how a driverless ride-sharing service could work in the city. The work will be led by Addison Lee, alongside a consortium that includes Ford, the Transport Research Laboratory and Transport Systems Catapult.
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.
GM's Cruise buys LIDAR company to drastically cut self-driving costs
GM has already said it has what it takes to get a fleet of autonomous vehicles on the road before anyone else, and that timeline might've sped up further. Cruise Automation, the company GM acquired a little over a year ago, has announced it's made a purchase of its own: Strobe, which specializes in shrinking LIDAR arrays down to a single chip. The most immediate benefit here is cost. In a post on Medium, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt writes that LIDAR-on-a-chip will drop the price "by 99 percent" versus other LIDAR systems.
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.
US Senate reaches deal on self-driving cars
Democrats and Republicans can't get on the same page about most things, but robots driving cars is apparently a-okay no matter your political affiliation. After the House approved a bipartisan pact, both sides in the Senate agreed to a deal making it easier for Ford, GM and other automakers to get self-driving cars on public roads. "We expect adoption of self-driving vehicle technologies will save lives, improve mobility for people with disabilities, and create new jobs," Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Gary Peters (D-MI) said in a statement.
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.
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.
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.
Recommended Reading: Meet the brothers behind 'Stranger Things'
Turned Upside Down Adam Sternbergh, Vulture Netflix darling Stranger Things returns for a second season this fall and the hype is already building. Vulture caught up with the Duffer brothers, the twins who created the nostalgic series that's equal parts horror and adventure. The duo chats seasons 2 and 3, including details of how they plan to end the show at the conclusion of the fourth season.
Germany will implement ethical guidelines for self-driving tech
Germany is working on implementing a handful of new rules for autonomous cars that address ethical questions that come with the technology. In June, the ethics commission of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure -- made up of 14 scientists and legal experts -- released a report with guidelines it believed self-driving vehicles should be designed to follow. This week, the ministry said it would implement and enforce those guidelines.
Intel studies how to make people accept self-driving cars
It's natural to fear what you don't understand. For example, according to a AAA study, 78 percent of drivers are afraid to ride in a self-driving car. That's completely understandable. It's tough to give up control of a few tons of metal flying down the road at 70 miles per hour and feel safe. Intel decided to investigate this fear, and ultimately see if it can solve our autonomous-anxiety problem.
US self-driving car bill heads to the House floor
Last month, a Senate committee created a proposal to allow autonomous vehicles onto the roads under specific safety and "tech neutral" requirements. Now that the bill has hit House of Representatives, the bipartisan Energy and Commerce Committee voted to send it along to the full chamber. The Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research In Vehicle Evolution Act, or SELF DRIVE, is aimed at allowing companies like Uber and Google to test up to 100,000 autonomous vehicles across the country. While we're far from an actual bill, this seems like good forward movement.
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.
Alphabet drops all but one patent claim in its case against Uber (updated)
Alphabet's autonomous-car business, Waymo, has streamlined its lawsuit against Uber, dropping three claims of patent infringement entirely and focusing on a single case of alleged patent theft.
Uber sought a Google partnership before they became bitter rivals
New court filings in the Waymo v. Uber lawsuit document the breakdown between the two companies' cooperation and potential partnership. The filings contain a series of emails between former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Google senior VP David Drummond, who at the time was also an Uber board member. The exchange, which happened in early 2015, show Kalanick becoming increasingly concerned over rumors that Google was looking to start its own ride-sharing service with the self-driving cars it was developing. From the emails, it appears that Uber was looking to partner with Google in its autonomous vehicle efforts and Kalanick, worried about the rumors, repeatedly sought a meeting with Alphabet CEO Larry Page.
A car-tracking dongle could make self-driving systems better
George Hotz is intrigued by artificial intelligence. The man who hacked the iPhone and PlayStation 3 as a kid, has moved on to self driving cars with his company Comma AI because of the autonomous vehicle technology's reliance on machine learning. After an initial hiccup that involved the company cancelling a device that would make cars semi-autonomous (because of a run in with regulators), Comma AI is back The new $88 Panda OBD II dongle, like most universal car interfaces, plugs into your car (1996 or newer) and gathers data.
Baidu's latest autonomous car road test may have been illegal
China's largest search engine provider, Baidu, has gotten itself into some trouble. The company has been developing self-driving vehicles and during a conference this week, it aired a live video chat of its product in action. During the video chat, Baidu's CEO Robin Li sat in a self-driving car as it navigated its way through Beijing traffic. But the police weren't too thrilled with the stunt and said they were investigating whether any laws were broken.
