semi-autonomous
Latest
Tesla owner faces 18-month ban for leaving the driver's seat
Tesla will be one of the first to tell you not to put too much faith in Autopilot. It's currently more of an advanced driver assist than a full self-driving system. However, one driver recently ignored that advice in dramatic fashion. Nottingham, UK resident Bhavesh Patel has received an 18-month driving ban after he was caught sitting in the passenger seat of his Model S on the M1 in May 2017. The man said he invoked Autopilot and was betting that its "amazing" semi-autonomous guidance would keep the car rolling at the estimated 40MPH of surrounding traffic.
Nissan's Rogue is its first US car with semi-autonomous driving
You won't have to wait long to try Nissan's semi-autonomous ProPilot Assist on American streets. The automotive giant has announced that the 2018 Rogue crossover will be the first car in the US to have the feature as an option. Not surprisingly, it won't come standard. While the Rogue starts at $24,680, you'll need to spend about $35,000 for a Rogue SL with the Platinum Package to get that robotic assistance. In classic car maker fashion, you'll have to spend on extras you probably don't care for (like leather seats and large wheels) just to get the one option you do.
Nissan's next Leaf is cheaper and can almost drive itself
The Nissan Leaf does pretty well for the automaker. It's one of the best selling EVs ever and today the company introduced a redesigned $29,990 Leaf with ProPilot, a hands-on semi-autonomous feature for heavy traffic. With a 150 mile range and a price about $700 cheaper than it predecessor, Nissan is determined to stay at the top of the electric-vehicle sales-numbers pile.
Tesla quietly upgrades Autopilot hardware in new cars
Tesla may have promised that all its newly-made vehicles from October 2016 onward would have the groundwork for self-driving capabilities, but that doesn't mean its technology is set in stone. Electrek has learned that Tesla is quietly equipping new Model 3, S and X production units with upgraded Autopilot hardware (HW 2.5). Don't put your barely-used P100D up for sale, though, as this isn't a night-and-day upgrade. Although Electrek says the new gear includes a secondary node to enable more computing power, a spokesperson says 2.5 is really about adding "computing and wiring redundancy" that "very slightly" boosts reliability.
Nissan preps its semi-autonomous driving assist for the US
Nissan is one step closer to bringing its semi-autonomous ProPilot Assist feature to American roads. The automaker has shed more light on the US-optimized version of the assistant ahead of its launch in the new Leaf near the end of 2017. As Nissan stresses, the initial version is intended only to make life easier during single-lane highway driving. Think of it as a sort of Autopilot lite. It'll use a camera, radar and sensors to keep you in your lane, maintain speed and brake if the driver ahead slows down, but it won't change lanes, handle city streets or brake in an emergency. It's definitely not a hands-free option -- it'll deactivate if you have a less-than-firm grip on the steering wheel.
Audi introduces its semi-autonomous A8
After a sneak peak of the vehicle parking itself and appearing in Spider-Man: Homecoming, the Audi A8 luxury sedan is finally being shown off in all its high-tech glory. With level-3 autonomy, active electronic suspension, a mild hybrid engine and brand new infotainment system, it's the future of the German automaker's vehicles.
Tesla's Autopilot lawsuit ends with a ho-hum settlement
Tesla's lawsuit over the alleged theft of Autopilot trade secrets is coming to a quick end. The electric car maker has settled its lawsuit against Sterling Anderson, who was accused of violating his contract by making off with Tesla technology and forming a competing self-driving startup, Aurora Innovation, with the help of both former Tesla engineers and Google's Chris Urmson. The deal has Tesla withdraw its claims without asking for damages, court costs or any findings of guilt. In return, though, Anderson and Aurora are not only paying $100,000, but will face some very close scrutiny.
Cadillac unveils its answer to Tesla's semi-autonomous tech
Outside of Tesla, semi-autonomous driving modes are still quite rare. GM, however, wants to make it relatively mainstream. The upcoming 2018 Cadillac CT6 (due this fall) will be the company's first car with Super Cruise, a technology that can take over during highway drives. If you believe the Cadillac crew, this is the first production car with "true" hands-free driving. Where Tesla's newer Autopilot versions require that you keep your hands on the wheel, Cadillac only requires that you look at the road. An infrared camera on the steering column tracks your head to make sure you're paying attention, and the vehicle will send alerts or even bring the car to a stop if you won't (or can't) keep your eyes forward.
Tesla's big Autopilot update is now active on newer cars
Tesla's Enhanced Autopilot has been months in the making, but it's finally here -- no, for real this time. After days of laying dormant, the upgrade is now active for all HW2-era (that is, self-driving capable) Model S and Model X vehicles with Autopilot enabled. You may need to have Tesla technicians modify your camera angles first (the car will tell you if this is the case), but you're otherwise golden. Provided it works as promised, it should give you a more sophisticated take on semi-autonomy.
Tesla's big Autopilot update reaches a handful of cars
Tesla didn't roll out its Enhanced Autopilot in mid-December as initially reported, but it is giving drivers something right before 2016 comes to a close. Elon Musk has revealed that the new Autopilot software is reaching about 1,000 HW2-era (that is, October and beyond) cars, with the rest of the HW2 fleet getting it the following week if there are no problems. The P100D performance update should hit on January 5th, too, so you'll have an extra treat if you splurged on a recent Model S or X.
Tesla Autopilot avoids a crash before it happens
Tesla's Autopilot 8.0 has a particularly clever feature: it uses radar to track road activity two cars ahead, helping it avoid danger that you wouldn't normally see. And it now appears that this tech just averted a disaster. Dutch Model X owner Frank van Hoesel has dashcam footage showing his electric crossover reacting to a bad highway crash before it even starts. As you can hear in the video, the Model X's Forward Collision Warning system starts braking when it detects the SUV two vehicles ahead coming to an abrupt stop, even though the driver of the car directly behind it is unaware. The result? Van Hoesel's EV remained untouched when it could easily have contributed to a pile-up.
Geohot will sell a semi-autonomous driving kit this year
Legendary iPhone and PlayStation hacker George Hotz (aka "Geohot") isn't wasting time translating his DIY self-driving tech into something you can buy. His Comma.ai startup plans to release a semi-autonomous driving kit, Comma One, before the end of 2016. The $999 upgrade combines its camera with your car's existing front radar (read: it won't work with every vehicle) to relieve you of some control during your drive. It's "about on par" with Tesla's Autopilot, Hotz claims, and reportedly good enough to take you from Mountain View (conveniently, Google's HQ) to San Francisco without touching the steering wheel or any pedals.
Tesla hopes existing tech improves its semi-autonomous driving
Many have speculated that Tesla could have prevented the Autopilot-related Florida crash if its cars had lidar (visible light detection and ranging) to better understand the world around them, not just cameras and radar. However, Tesla might have a way to improve its semi-autonomous driving without grafting on new equipment. Elon Musk explains that his company hopes to adapt its existing radar systems to produce a lidar-like map of the surrounding environment with the help of "temporal smoothing" that compares object positions over time. The current hardware should produce a high-enough resolution for this to work, he adds. And unlike lidar, it can see through dust, rain and snow.
Tesla's Autopilot blamed for a Model X crash
Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot mode is coming under fire for the second time in as many weeks. Art dealer Albert Scaglione claims that the feature was responsible for a crash that rolled his Model X on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on July 1st. According to the police report, the electric SUV smacked into a guard rail and hit the median before landing on its roof. Both Scaglione and his passenger (his son-in-law) thankfully survived.
Google hires the lead for Tesla's semi-autonomous driving tech
Apple and Tesla aren't the only two tech companies grabbing each other's staff to fulfill their automotive dreams -- Google has quietly hired Robert Rose, the lead for Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot program. It's not clear what he's working on besides software at Google Robotics, but it won't be surprising if he's working on self-driving cars. He's unlikely to be working for Boston Dynamics, whose staff are relatively independent from the Google mothership. One thing's for sure: Tesla will notice his absence. Rose was the lead engineer for some of SpaceX's earlier rocketry and reported directly to Elon Musk while at Tesla, so this clearly wasn't a trivial move.[Image credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Tesla will put more limits on Autopilot to discourage stunts
Tesla introduced Autopilot features to the Model S for the sake of convenience, but some drivers have been using it as a chance to goof off. They've invoked the semi-autonomous mode while speeding, or even while they're sitting in the back seat. Understandably, Tesla isn't happy with these stunts -- and it's getting ready to clamp down. The company's Elon Musk has revealed that Autopilot will get "additional constraints" so that owners can't abuse it. There's no mention of what those features will entail or when you'll see them, but it'd be reasonable to expect speed limits and occupancy checks.
Daimler tests a self-driving, mass-produced truck on real roads
Daimler's dreams of self-driving big rig trucks just took one step closer to reality. The automaker has conducted the first-ever test of its semi-autonomous Highway Pilot system in a production truck on a public road, driving an augmented Mercedes-Benz Actros down Germany's Autobahn 8. While the vehicle needed a crew to keep watch, it could steer itself down the highway using a combination of radar, a stereo camera array and off-the-shelf systems like adaptive cruise control. The dry run shows that the technology can work on just about any vehicle in the real world, not just one-off concepts.
Tesla starts testing its autopilot features with Model S drivers
As promised, Tesla's latest autopilot features are out in the wild. A handful of Model S drivers are now testing the electric car's upcoming semi-autonomous tech, including highway autosteer (which tackles lanes, passing and vehicle distance) and automatic parallel parking. Ideally, these vehicular pioneers will find the last remaining quirks in both the autopilot's behavior and its interface -- those edge cases that tend to creep up only in the real world.
Quadriplegic racer will drive a Corvette using only his head
When Indy Racing League driver Sam Schmidt crashed in 2000 and became a quadriplegic, many assumed that his driving days were over. However, technology is about to put him back on the track. Arrow Electronics has developed the Semi-Autonomous Motorcar (SAM) project, a modified 2014 Corvette Stingray that will let Schmidt drive using only head tilts. An array of infrared sensors will translate his head movements into steering commands, letting him race around with ease; the only control he'll touch is a pressure sensor in his mouth for braking. GPS will also keep Schmidt out of harm's way by creating virtual fences around the track walls that nudge the car back on course.
Mesa Robotics' mini-tank is perfectly happy on point (video)
The Acer ground-bot from Mesa Robotics does way more than your average 4,500-pound semi-autonomous mule. In addition to carrying kit and providing that extra bit of ballistic steel-deflecting cover, it also scans for IEDs using ground-penetrating radar and then autonomously switches into "flail" mode when it finds one -- digging up and detonating that critter with barely a break in its 6MPH stride. Did we mention it also acts as a landing pad for small drones? No? That's because the video after the break says it all. Cue obligatory guitars, game controllers and armchair gung-ho.
