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BMW’s new research center is dedicated to autonomous driving
The world of autonomous cars is coming. Maybe it's a utopian future where all the vehicles drive themselves, while traffic jams and road rage are a thing of the past. Or maybe it's just a bunch of fancy robo-taxis (and hopefully buses) that ensure city commuting is less of a pain. No matter how it plays out, it's coming and BMW wants to be prepared, by establishing its own autonomous driving campus.
Phantom Auto will drive your autonomous car if it gets confused
Imagine, you're sitting in your autonomous taxi when suddenly the power goes out and the traffic signals in your area no longer function. To keep things moving, traffic officers arrive at the intersection, waving cars through and the vehicles with human drivers move on without too much trouble. But your robot-controlled car stops.
SF Motors reveals two electric SUVs with 300 miles of range
While much of the automotive world is focused on the New York Auto Show, a small car startup has unveiled its first-ever vehicles on the other side of the country in Santa Clara, California. SF Motors, the US arm of Chinese company Sokon, has just announced two cars -- the SF5 and the SF7 -- as part of a whole new line of electric vehicles. The SF5 is a medium-size crossover SUV, and the SF7 is a full-size crossover. The SF5 will be available for preorder by the end of this year and will ship in 2019.
NVIDIA aims to make self-driving safer with virtual simulations
Amid the torrent of news at CES in January, it was easy to miss the unveiling of NVIDIA's Drive platform -- a way for the company to test out its self-driving algorithms through repeated simulations. At that point, it was more of a concept than an actual product. Today, the company revealed its Drive Constellation system, a multi-server setup that'll let its partners run those self-driving simulations on their own. Think of it as The Matrix for autonomous algorithms: It's a way to train those vehicles to deal with extreme situations, without endangering anyone in the real world. The news comes after NVIDIA announced that it'll be pausing its self-driving testing on roads, following last week's fatal Uber self-driving accident.
Waymo and Jaguar will test self-driving I-Pace SUVs later this year
Waymo is adding a luxury vehicle to its fleet of self-driving test vehicles, the upcoming I-Pace EV. At an event ahead of the New York Auto Show, the two companies announced that testing of the I-Pace outfitted with Waymo's autonomous technology will be on public roads later this year in Phoenix, Arizona.
Uber’s transparency is key to making self-driving cars safer
Yesterday evening, a self-driving Uber vehicle in Tempe, Arizona, struck a woman at a crosswalk. She would later die in the hospital as a result of the accident. Even though there was a human safety driver behind the wheel, the car is said to have been in autonomous mode at the time. The incident is widely described as the first known pedestrian death caused by an autonomous vehicle.
Waymo will begin self-driving semi truck pilot in Atlanta next week
Today, Waymo, which is Alphabet's self-driving company, announced a pilot program located in Atlanta to further test its autonomous technology. This time, though, the focus is on semi trucks. Beginning next week, Waymo's self-driving trucks will begin hauling cargo to Google's data centers. There will, of course, be highly trained drivers in the cabs in case anything goes awry.
Uber’s self-driving trucks are making deliveries in Arizona
Uber announced today that its self-driving trucks have been operating in Arizona for the last couple of months. The company said it has two main transfer hubs in Sanders and Topock, but other than that, Uber is being pretty tight-lipped about the operation. For instance, it hasn't shared how many trucks are in use, how many miles they've driven, what they're shipping or how often drivers have to take over for the autonomous system, and has only said that the trucks have completed thousands of rides to date.
Embark’s self-driving semi completes trip from California to Florida
Last year, autonomous trucking company Embark announced that it would begin using its Level 2 autonomous semis to deliver refrigerators from Texas to California. Now, TechCrunch reports, the company has taken it a step further as one of its trucks has now completed a 2,400 mile trip from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Florida. The trip took five days, which included scheduled rest breaks for the driver that was on board, and TechCrunch says that Embark's team is now assessing all of the trip's data. While there's no word yet on just how often the system required the driver to step in, those on board said that the truck went "hours at a time with no disengagements, and when they did occur they were usually only a few seconds," according to Embark CEO Alex Rodrigues.
UK group planning complex 200-mile autonomous car trial
As the UK attempts to position itself at the forefront of autonomous driving, the government -- with help from startups and universities -- has embarked on a number of trials in order to rack up the necessary miles on the road. This normally involves putting a self-driving through the small patches of the best and worst British highways have to have offer, providing car makers with the data they need to manufacture a safe autonomous vehicle and pave the way for updated laws and regulations in order to govern them.
Cruising the Las Vegas Strip in the Smart Vision EQ concept car
Introduced at the Frankfurt auto show in September, the Smart Vision EQ from Mercedes-Benz is the automaker's EV concept that combines mobility, autonomy and connectivity. The result is a car built on the Smart Fortwo platform, can wink at pedestrians, has level-five autonomy (no steering wheel or pedals), and welcomes passengers by name. It also took me for a short ride on the Las Vegas Strip.
AAA is testing self-driving cars to see how safe they are
Fully autonomous cars won't be allowed on the streets until they're safe, but how will we know when that happens? The American Automobile Association (AAA) is trying to figure that out by testing self-driving cars powered by Torc Robotics "Asimov" system. The aim is to gather information and develop safety criteria that could be used by any company developing self-driving tech. "By creating a blueprint for automakers to follow, we hope to build public trust in technology," said AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah CEO Tim Condon.
Kia unveils its electric and autonomous future
Kia's showed off a new Niro EV along with its plans for an electrified and autonomous future (aka mobility). The electric concept shows that the company is thinking beyond gas and hybrid crossovers, but also showcases a new HMI (Human Machine Interface). It'll show up in showrooms in the later half of 2018.
Qualcomm can start testing its self-driving tech in California
California has given a few more autonomous driving hopefuls permission to test vehicles on its roads, and one of them is a familiar name: Qualcomm. The chipmaker has received permission to test one vehicle and three drivers on December 12th, joining rival Nvidia and other companies that can test their technologies in the state. Qualcomm isn't making its own self-driving cars the way Waymo is, though, and any vehicle it tests will contain the 9150 C-V2X chipset it announced a few months ago.
GM's self-driving ambitions don't include 'small-scale pilots'
Cruise is GM's self-driving division, and it has found surprising success with the Chevy Bolt, which has been deployed in test programs across the country. This week, CEO and Cofounder Kyle Vogt outlined the company's plans for the deployment of their autonomous vehicle fleet. A key takeaway is that Vogt isn't interested in small-scale pilot programs; they are also "not going to launch a ride hailing pilot where you've got drivers still in the car," according to Vogt in TechCrunch.
Judge grants Waymo trial delay because Uber withheld evidence
Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving unit, sued Uber earlier this year over the alleged theft of self driving tech. The latest bit of drama comes today as a US judge granted a request from Alphabet to delay the trial, which was scheduled to start December 4th. This is apparently because Uber and its attorneys may have withheld evidence, and Waymo has requested time to investigate, according to Reuters.
‘Connected’ cars are hitting UK roads for the first time
Slowly, the UK government is realising its dream of making the nation a self-driving research hub. UK Autodrive, a publicly funded consortium that includes Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and TATA Motors, has announced a new set of trials in Coventry today. They will focus on self-driving cars and vehicles that can instantly share information with other motorists and city infrastructure. Researchers will be testing a signal, for instance, that can be sent out by the emergency services -- ambulances, fire trucks and police cars -- to nearby drivers, advising them when and where to move aside.
You can’t buy a self-driving BMW until 2021 (and that’s a good thing)
At this point, if you're an automaker and you're not talking about autonomous cars, you might want to take a long, hard look at your product road map. During a briefing at its Mountain View research campus, BMW talked about how it plans to bring a Level 3 (autonomous driving in very specific circumstances where the driver should be ready to take over control) car to consumers in 2021 and deliver Level 4 and 5 ride-hail vehicles to urban pilot programs the same year. Right now, a lot of that strategy hinges on its partners while the automaker maintains the BMW brand.
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.
Cadillac’s hands-free feature fixes the worst parts about driving
The 145-mile jaunt between Flagstaff, Arizona, and Phoenix is almost entirely downhill. With a drop of approximately 5,800 feet between the two cities, the road that joins them -- Interstate 17 -- has multiple warnings about saving your brakes (meant mostly for big rigs) and is peppered with sharper twists and turns than your typical highway. Yet, while I was behind the wheel, I did almost nothing for the entire drive thanks to Cadillac's new Super Cruise feature on the 2018 CT6.
