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Uber opens its network to self-driving cars, starting with Daimler
Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler has agreed to eventually roll out a fleet of self-driving vehicles on the Uber network, in the hope of making ridesharing safer and more environmentally friendly. To be clear, Daimler doesn't currently have any self-driving vehicles on the market, but it's working on a line due out "in the coming years," according to Uber.
Volvo is forming a global car-sharing business
Swedish automaker Volvo is establishing a car-sharing business that will operate not just in Sweden, but in other countries across the globe. It will be based on Sunfleet, the car-sharing service that it's been running in its homeland for decades. According to TechCrunch, you can avail of Sunfleet's services by booking a car through its website, which you can then unlock with an app. While you can book a car for a day or two, you can also set up a monthly subscription. The new business will likely offer something similar, though the company says it will also introduce "an entirely new range of mobility services." Who knows -- someday that might even include the ability to rent one of its self-driving vehicles.
Volvo is testing self-driving cars with real families
Picture a self-driving car test in your head and you probably see an engineer or two scrutinizing data... and no one else. Everyday people, if they're present at all, tend to be relegated to the back seat. Volvo is trying something different: it just revealed that it's conducting autonomous vehicle tests with an ordinary family, the Hains from Gothenburg, Sweden. The four-person household is convenient for marketing, of course (we care about people!), but they serve an important purpose: they'll help Volvo understand how non-engineers deal with self-driving tech. How do they react when the car switches between manual and autonomous modes, and what do they do at those times when they aren't taking the wheel?
Volvo's high-end cars will come with Skype built in
Many people depend on Skype to chat with family, colleagues and clients throughout their working day. To help them stay connected while they're outside the office, Volvo has announced plans to integrate Skype for Business into its high-end 90 Series cars. Accessible through a large touchscreen dashboard, drivers will see a list of scheduled meetings and a shortcut to their complete contact list. Tapping once will reveal a meeting summary, including the organiser, participants and the ways in which they can join the call. A "Join Meeting" shortcut will reside at the bottom so users can quickly dial in -- no pesky pin codes required (hopefully).
Uber brings its self-driving cars to San Francisco
Uber's self-driving cars are now roaming beyond the streets of Pittsburgh. The ridesharing firm has started deploying autonomous vehicles in downtown San Francisco, giving UberX passengers a (small) chance at ordering a robotic ride. There's still a driver ready to take over when the car can't navigate by itself, but you're in for a special experience all the same -- especially since these aren't just the modified Fords from the Pittsburgh test.
Volvo Concierge brings the gas station to you
Today at the LA Auto Show, Swedish car maker Volvo introduced its new Concierge app. The application is a quick way to get third-party vendors to wash, refuel and service Volvos. The best part is that you don't even have to leave your house to have any of these services completed.
Volvo's self-driving cars will hide from UK 'bullies'
If you could see that the car in front of you was being driven autonomously and therefore navigating in an ultra-safe manner, how would you react? Would you treat it as you would any other road user or be more inclined to torment it, knowing it would yield to your advances? It's a very real question that car makers and insurance companies are wrestling with and one that has prompted Swedish automotive giant Volvo to take preemptive action. The Guardian reports that it's decided that when the first 100 self-driving 4x4s hit London's streets in 2018, they'll look no different to any other Volvo of the same model so that other road users aren't tempted to "take them on."
Lynk & Co's EV is the first car with a dedicated app store
As a rule, automakers see software in a car as a means to an end. Even Tesla, as cutting edge as it may be, is only willing to give its code so much attention. However, China's Geely wants to see what happens when you put code at the forefront. It's launching a new Lynk & Co brand whose inaugural electric vehicle, the 01 compact SUV, is supposedly the most connected car to date. The centerpiece is an open software platform (built with help from Alibaba and Microsoft) that lets developers sink their teeth in -- it even has the first dedicated app store for cars, according to the company. Lynk & Co doesn't provide examples, but it's easy to see a streaming music service offering an app just for your 01, or custom navigation apps that go beyond the usual in-car GPS.
Volvo's e-buses will honk at oblivious pedestrians
Volvo's e-buses, which are already shuttling passengers in some European cities, are silent operators like other electric vehicles out there. The automaker's idea of minimizing their chances of colliding with pedestrians, however, is giving them the capability to make a lot of noise. Volvo's new pedestrian and cyclist detection system uses a camera to constantly monitor its buses' surroundings. If it spots someone nearby, it emits a gentle warning sound to signify that a vehicle is approaching. It also uses audio and visual cues to alert the driver of people nearby, just in case he's fallen asleep at the wheel. If it senses an "imminent risk of an accident," though, it does more than just give off a few beeps: it honks. Loudly.
Volvo creates a company to sell self-driving car software
Volvo isn't going to hoard its self-driving car expertise. It's partnering with safety supplier Autoliv on a joint venture that will create autonomous driving software (including driver assistance) not just for Volvo, but for any company looking to add hands-free features to their lineups. The two firms hope to start selling driver assistance tech by 2019, and full-fledged autonomy by 2021.
NVIDIA's made-for-autonomous-cars CPU is freaking powerful
NVIDIA debuted its Drive PX2 in-car supercomputer at CES in January, and now the company is showing off the Parker system on a chip powering it. The 256-core processor boasts up to 1.5 teraflops of juice for "deep learning-based self-driving AI cockpit systems," according to a post on NVIDIA's blog. That's in addition to 24 trillion deep learning operations per second it can churn out, too. For a perhaps more familiar touchpoint, NVIDIA says that Parker can also decode and encode 4K video streams running at 60FPS -- no easy feat on its own.
Volvo's two-hour delivery leaves packages in your trunk
Volvo has been toying with the idea of delivering goods to your car instead of your home since 2014. After some testing, the company's so-called in-car delivery service is ready for the masses. Teaming up with Swedish startup Urb-it, Volvo is offering drop-offs for the items that you order online in under two hours. Urb-it's speedy service is guaranteed to deliver items a couple of hours after you complete a purchase on your phone, only instead of bringing it to your home, the package is left in the trunk of your Volvo automobile.
Volvo will test self-driving cars on the public next year
Volvo has been working on its autonomous vehicle program for several years now, but there's only so much you can learn from testing tech in controlled conditions. While the company has run trials on public roads before, it's now planning to take engineers and technicians out of the equation to see how regular road users take to self-driving cars. As part of its ongoing "Drive Me" project, Volvo is going to put real people behind the wheels of "semi-autonomous" vehicles from early next year, in order to understand how they are suited to everyday scenarios like doing the school run and picking up the weekly grocery shop.
Ford, Google and Uber form a group to push for self-driving cars
Some of the biggest names in transportation tech aren't waiting around for the US to legalize self-driving cars -- they're determined to give the government a boost. Ford, Google, Lyft, Uber and Volvo have formed the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets in a bid to have officials "realize the safety and societal benefits" of autonomous vehicles. In other words, they're going to advocate for federal laws and regulations that put self-driving technology on roads across the country.
The After Math: Siri take the wheel
Wow, this week just sped by like a couple of LA heisters. We saw news of super computer-controlled Roboracecars, autonomous big rig convoys, "guardian angel" emergency override systems and the Google Car's toughest test to date. Come, take a look at the future of driving, where every seat is shotgun.
Volvo will conduct China's largest test of self-driving cars
Volvo is about to embark on one of the greatest adventures in the history of self-driving cars... at leat, if everything goes according to plan. It's planning an experiment in China (reportedly the country's biggest to date) that will have as many as 100 autonomous vehicles driving on public streets in regular traffic conditions. Real-life tests aren't completely novel -- just ask Google. However, this would both offer a rare chance at a large-scale test and give Volvo a toehold in China's increasingly hot self-driving car space.
Volvo shows off a prototype of its self-emptying trash can
Volvo's ROAR (RObot based Autonomous Refuse handling) project has moved into prototype testing, the company announced earlier this week. The ROAR system is designed to autonomously empty trash cans from the back of a garbage truck, saving the driver from having to manually load bins into the hopper. The initial concept involved just the robot, which relied on maps of the neighborhood and likely bin locations (as well as GPS, LiDAR and accelerometers) to help it navigate. The new iteration, on the other hand, also employs an aerial drone that lifts off from the garbage truck's roof to act as a pair of "eyes in the sky" for the ROAR, telling it where the trash cans actually are, not just where they're supposed to be.
Volvo is the latest to add phone-free Spotify to its rides
Volvo has been involved with a fair bit of high-tech stuff as of late, but the latest announcement from the company is a little less fantastical than garbage-collecting robots. The Swedish car manufacturer is partnering with Stockholm-based Spotify for a native streaming app in its XC90 SUV, S90 sedan (above) and V90 wagon this spring, no mobile device required. Accessing the streaming service in your new ride will require a Spotify Premium account, much like using it on a PlayStation 4 or other device would.
Volvo will (kinda) let drivers ditch car keys for phones
From 2017, Volvo will offer its customers the option to ditch keys and buy a car that's only unlocked with your smartphone. The firm is piloting the technology for the rest of this year with car-sharing outlet Sunfleet, based in Sweden. Subsequently, a limited number of retail vehicles will be given the Tesla-like ability to have smartphone-only access as well as remote start. Since access to the ride will be entirely app-based, users will be able to swap digital keys with other people or simply add a rental car to their device's list of trusted cars.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: 'Deathproof' vehicles and more!
Many automakers are working on self-driving cars, but Volvo is the first to announce plans for completely "deathproof" vehicles by the year 2020. Meanwhile, General Motors invested $500 million in Lyft to create a network of autonomous vehicles. Snowstorms snarl traffic, but engineers have a solution: electric roads that de-ice themselves without the need for road salt. We also spotted a unique circular bridge in Uruguay that encourages drivers to slow down and enjoy the view. And Ford teamed up with fashion designers to debut a collection of couture made from recycled upholstery.
