The private automobile has been an intrinsic part of our lives for around a hundred years. But over the last decade, car sharing has gained a very small but growing part of the mobility market. The more recent rise of companies like Uber and Lyft is witness to a more dramatic shift in mobility and car ownership. Private vehicle ownership to a transportation-as-a-service model has already started, and high capability SAE Level 4 vehicles will complete this trend. Cars, Ownership & FreedomThe modern automobile has played a fundamental role in shaping North American society and culture. Ever since Ford's first moving assembly lines and the mass-production of vehicles started in 1913, the car has changed how and where people live and work. Massive roadway infrastructure has been implemented to support these vehicles, from local streets to major interstates. Using a car on this vast road network makes it possible to travel from almost anywhere in North America to nearly anyone's front...more

Can you use a drone to in gold prospecting to find nuggets? An experienced gold prospector shares his thoughts. Let's find...more

The large, dome-shaped LiDARs that have become a fixture on driverless car prototypes are expensive and notably ugly. And yet, these unsightly devices should remain planted on driverless cars, even when they become available in commercial fleet services across the country in a couple of years. While solid-state LiDARs are hardly visible in cars and are cheaper, the discrepancy between the more expensive LiDARs' less-than-seemly appearance and the commercial appeal they hold among OEMs can be explained by the devices' scanning power. Among other things, these devices are able to make 360-degree scanning sweeps around the car as it drives, while feeding that visual data into the car's neural network computer system. Conversely, solid-state LiDARs are limited in scope to below 90-degree optical scans and must be embedded in the front and back bumpers of cars, in order to achieve a comprehensive view of the surroundings. In this way, there are four devices embedded in the car with two on...more

Solid-state LiDAR is cheap, robust, and compact in size — this is why the device is seen as the LiDAR of choice for future high-volume production of level 3 and level 4 cars. LiDAR sensors, or light detection and ranging sensors, play a key role in detecting surrounding objects and feeding the information to the car's artificial intelligence (AI) system for self-driving capabilities. Several different flavors of LiDARs exist, including mechanical-mirror, 3D flash, and optical phase array (OPA), as well as solid-state. The latter has emerged as the most popular LiDAR type thanks to falling per-unit costs, packaging appeal, and performance. According to analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, over 90% of all driverless cars in development have solid-state LiDARs. A Solid PurchaseSolid-state LiDAR meets the technical requirements for long-distance scanning, which is expected to eventually have a range up to 200 meters compared to the 120-meter range today's solid-state devices offer. Since it has...more

Argo AI is coming late to the party, but has begun testing a fleet of driverless cars in hopes of developing robo-taxi services to eventually compete against those that Waymo, Uber, Cruise Automation, and others plan to offer. A spokesperson from Ford confirmed that this photo the Pittsburgh Business Times published this week of a Ford Fusion hybrid sedan spotted in Pittsburgh's South Side was indeed an Argo AI driverless vehicle: Timothy Schooley/the Pittsburgh Business Times The vehicle marks one of the first cars with a self-drive system Argo AI designed, after Ford agreed to invest $1 billion in the company earlier this year. The car also had the telltale sign of a driverless test car, consisting of a rotating-mirror LiDAR on the roof Argo AI has also chosen to set up its driverless testing hub in an abandoned public market. There, local merchants told Driverless they have seen a lot of movement at the building, including Ford Fusion cars coming and going, but they did not report...more

Newly appointed Ford Motor CEO Jim Hackett admitted yesterday that demand for driverless transportation could take many different forms and that Ford was rethinking how it would tailor its cars and mobility services for self-drive modes of transportation in the future. Speaking at the Cities of Tomorrow event Ford held yesterday, Hackett, who was reportedly wearing an Apple Watch and dressed in jeans, said Ford was challenged by trying to figure out how consumers will react to driverless vehicle business models when they become commercially available. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Hackett said driverless' "biggest leap is the nature of the human interpretation of using it." If you think we're going to take the autonomous vehicle and just replace the station wagon, I don't believe that's what's going to happen. The AV will replace and do something that the station wagon can't do —not just drive itself — but other things...It's about aligning the technology to what the...more

Google largely helped to pioneer the concept of a steering wheel- and pedal-free self-driving experience when it began testing its Firefly pod-like vehicles a few years ago. Largely in reaction to Google's disruptive entry into the automotive world before Waymo was spun off as a separate driverless unit, carmakers began to aggressively design driverless options into their vehicles, which until only recently, served as more advanced cruise control options than they did as hands-off driving options. Meanwhile, the concept of designing cars without steering wheels, brake and gas pedals, and other equipment for human drivers remained largely pie in the sky and incongruous with the traditional driver-centric retail model that is over one hundred years old. Now, Ford has applied for a patent that seemingly offers the best of both worlds with a module design that makes it easy to both add and remove the steering wheel and pedals for human drivers. With this concept, Ford is hedging its bets...more

Waymo just received approval on a patent for a push-button console that replaces not only a steering wheel in a car but the brake and gas pedals, too. This reflects Alphabet's driverless arm could remain true to its original mantra of developing cars that pilot themselves without human intervention. In many ways, the push-button controls give the riders the same level of control you might have in an elevator, largely confined to just being able to make an emergency stop or to set the vehicle into motion by pressing the "GO" button, as this sketch from the patent shows: Console with Autonomous Vehicle Control Buttons - Patent No. US D794,538 S. However, Waymo recently indicated it was changing its strategy when it said it was discontinuing its driverless fleet of pod-like Fireflies it designed and tested that did not have steering wheels and pedals. Instead, the company said it was going to focus more closely on offering driverless systems for commercially available car and truck...more

Former Google and Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski's scathing accusations challenging the physics behind Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk's claims about Autopilot should force Musk to make his case that self-drive cars don't need LiDAR in the next few months. Besides the humor factor associated with the expletive-riddled rants by text Levandowski sent to former Uber CEO and company founder Travis Kalanick, Levandowski challenged Musk's claims during the pre-trial phase of Waymo v. Uber by attacking the engineering and scientific principals that he said Musk defied. More precisely, he dismissed Musk's claims that cameras, radar, and other sensors could suffice alone without the help of LiDAR in Tesla models for Autopilot's self-drive mode. We've got to start calling Elon on his shit. I'm not on social media but let's start "faketesla" and start give physics lessons about stupid shit Elon says. — Former Google and Uber engineer Anthony LevandowskiWhile describing a near miss involving a...more

A top executive from Baidu's telematics division believes the company will become the word leader in driverless by 2020, according to a report in today's South China Morning Post. Citing Xu Yongming, the general manager of Baidu's telematics division as the source, Baidu executives are confident China's equivalent of Google can put all the pieces into place to create the world's most massive driverless fleet in less than three years ahead of Waymo, which is already years ahead of Baidu in its driverless vehicle development, and other potential competitors, such as Lyft and Uber. Baidu executives say the company will draw on the resources of its Apollo artificial intelligence (AI) project to become the world leader in driverless, although Yongming remained short on specifics about how the company hopes to do that. During the interview, Yongming also claimed Baidu has put its driverless program's management woes behind it. This will be a tall order after at least two high-level...more

Elon Musk has repeatedly said Tesla models in production today have the requisite hardware to offer "full self-driving" capabilities. But for features more advanced than Level 3, Tesla will, in fact, have to revamp Autopilot's hardware to handle the extra computing load. More specifically, Tesla S and X models produced since October and Tesla Model 3s have the requisite cameras, radar, and other sensors to support Level 4 driving (when you can take a nap in the backseat as the car drives itself). But they do not have enough graphics processor unit (GPU) capacity — the chips used for neural networking and other tasks — Anirudh Venkitaraman, an analyst for Frost & Sullivan, told Driverless. Teslas just do not have the computing power required to handle Level 4 or Level 5 driving. For that to happen, Tesla is going to have to replace the suite of GPUs in its cars, which should happen before the end of the year. — Anirudh Venkitaraman, an analyst for Frost & SullivanA Small...more

Ride-sharing firm Lyft says it will continue to rely on drivers in the near and long term even as it replaces them with driverless cars, Taggart Matthiesen, Lyft's director of product, said during a Podcast with Recode. In other words, Matthiesen says Lyft plans to offer opportunities for drivers as it achieves its core mission of replacing them with driverless fleets. It will do this even though one of its core missions is to no longer have to pay for the "dude in the car," in reference to ex-Uber CEO and founder Travis Kalanick's now famous comment about how Uber sought to save costs by launching driverless cars. Over time, technology will give us the opportunity to provide additional services on our platform, whether that is a concierge service, whether that is an in-vehicle experience when a driver helps out in that capacity. These are all things that will slowly evolve and that we will work with our drivers on. If you think about hundreds of thousands of autonomous vehicles,...more

Cruise Automation, the driverless car startup General Motors (GM) bought for $1 billion in 2016, is readying a formidable fleet of robo-taxis for rollout in cities throughout the US. But when it comes to details about how the company plans to realize these lofty goals, it's been fairly tight-lipped. To gain a better understanding of how Cruise hopes to one day offer driverless cars you can hail with a phone app, we dive deep into its technology and testing. The company has just launched a beta of a driverless ride-hailing service its employees in San Francisco can use. According to Cruise, the employees can hail its fleet of over 100 driverless cars with a smart phone app practically whenever they want for trips within the city limits. The company's technology and testing strategy largely draw from the talents of co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt, an MIT graduate who is famous for selling two money-losing startups for $1 billion each before turning 31. For the day-to-day operations and...more

The Audi A8 may be short on the wow factor as the industry's first Level 3 car, but Audi has revealed some interesting details about one stand-out feature underneath the hood: the car's ability to self-pilot itself at stop signs and lights. Indeed, when the A8 goes on sale this fall, it will be the first production car that has machine-taught neural network capabilities used to recognize and react to stop signs and lights in ways that mimic how human brains function. While Tesla's Model S, X, and 3 will allow you to race down the highway at up to 90 mph in Autopilot mode, their Level 2 driving mode, among other things, is not yet able to self-pilot at stop signs and lights. But first, a few caveats about the car. In many respects, the A8's self drive is really advanced cruise control. The driver can only let the car self drive during limited highway conditions without the ability to switch lanes. The self-drive mode only works at a very slow maximum speeds of 37 mph. Also, the car is...more

Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk has repeatedly said this year all Tesla models made since October 2016 have the requisite hardware for "full self-driving" capabilities, yet the company has reportedly begun to add a second graphics processor (GPU) to its computer platform for Autopilot — without officially saying why. The addition of a newly configured neural network computer platform — codenamed HW 2.5 — coincides with the Model 3 launch, Electrek reports. The extra GPU is embedded in Nvidia's Drive PX2 neural network chip platform. This addition is on top of the other new hardware in the model 3. As Driverless has previously reported, the Model 3's gearshift option is more geared for Level 4 driving compared to the Model S and X's, which were geared toward adaptive cruise control. The Model 3 also has a driver-monitoring sensor, which the Model S and X do not have. However, Tesla has reportedly been downplaying the significance the additional GPU, maintaining that it will not...more

Elon Musk's SpaceX is launching the world's most powerful rocket. The Tesla founder and CEO says the company is about to go through "manufacturing hell" to make delivery schedules for its new Tesla 3. Somehow, Musk says Tesla will offer Level 5 driving (so you can take a nap while your car drives you to and from work) within two years. Is this the right time to begin developing a commercial truck fleet? Tesla did not disclose many details about the project, after Musk tweeted in April that Tesla planned to design an all-electric commercial truck for an unveil in September, without describing whether it would be driverless or not. Following Musk's announcement, Reuters reported this week that Tesla was in negotiations with the Department of Motor Vehicles of the state of Nevada for permission to test a fleet of driverless heavy commercial trucks. According to the report, Tesla is preparing to begin testing a prototype platoon of self-drive commercial trucks. The trucks will travel...more

Intel's driverless division will be managed by Israel-based Mobileye, as the chip giant emerges from relative obscurity in the driverless space to become a major supplier after completing its $15.3-billion purchase of Mobileye this week. In other words, Intel is uprooting its driverless chip business and relocating it halfway around the world from Silicon Valley where Intel was founded to merge with Mobileye in Tel Aviv. This is but one example of how Intel has waged a colossal multibillion-dollar bet that Mobileye will be able to help it gain a major foothold in the driverless vehicle segment. It also obviously remains to be seen whether the $15.3 price tag was worth it or not. In this way, the bulk of Intel's and Mobileye's engineering, marketing, and operations will be combined, and based in Tel Aviv, effective immediately, a Mobileye spokesperson told Driverless. Intel's autonomous driving group consists of a variety of different businesses, some of which they got from...more

Cruise Automation follows Waymo's and Uber's lead with its debut of a beta version of an app-based driverless ride-hailing service for its employees in San Francisco, ahead of a possible launch of a full-fledged commercial offering within four years. Cruise CEO and founder Kyle Vogt announced the beta service in a Tweet while a company spokesman confirmed the details about the program TechCrunch reported. Cruise, which General Motors (GM) purchased last year for about $1 billion, also published a video about its Cruise Anywhere beta program earlier this week that shows employees hailing Cruise's Chevrolet Bolt driverless cars in San Francisco with a smart phone app. The service appears in the video to work like Uber's or Lyft's ride-hailing services, and is available for use by its employees up to 24 hours a day. Cruise confirmed it is expanding its fleet by 100 cars, but did not disclose what the total will be. However, as the video shows, a technician remains behind the wheel of the...more

Recently released accident reports by the state of California's Department of Motor Vehicles show humans did a lot of dumb things to cause accidents with General Motors' (GM) Cruise Automation driverless vehicles in San Francisco this year. As a counter example to human folly, videos Cruise published of its self-drive cars in driving conditions like those in the DMV-vehicle reported accidents show just how much smarter — and arguably safer — self-drive vehicles have become. Among other things, the DMV data shows that human drivers were at fault in every reported incident involving Cruise vehicles when they were in autonomous drive mode this year in San Francisco. The accident reports also serve as a good list of silly things humans so often do when driving: a car clipped the side of a Cruise vehicle while passing it when the self-drive car slowed down at a stop sign;a van rammed a Cruise vehicle from behind as it was starting to move forward just after a stoplight turned green;as a...more

Ex-Uber CEO and founder Travis Kalanick's bad and likely illegal behavior aside, his vision of not wanting to pay "the other dude in the car" has lead to a ground-breaking driverless test fleet. But now that he has left the company and is not coming back, Uber's robo-taxi development work is ongoing, a Uber spokesperson tells Driverless.id. And that's a potentially good thing. We know Kalanick is not returning to run Uber after reportedly attempting to garner support among his former colleagues to regain control of the company's board, according to several reports. In a Wall Street Journal-reviewed email, Uber co-founder Garrett Camp unequivocally informed employees earlier this week that, rumors aside, Kalanick would not return to the company as its CEO and that his replacement was being actively sought. Meanwhile, following Kalanick's recent departure from the company amid allegations by Waymo that Uber stole driverless-related trade secrets, sexual harassment claims, and other...more

General Motors (GM) seems to have gone to great lengths to avoid lawsuits as it launches its first hands-off driving system in its soon-to-be-launched Cadillac CT6. As GM makes the Cadillac CT6 available to a limited number of reviewers ahead of its launch this fall, early tests reveal the GM's Level 2 capabilities fall short of the range of driverless features Tesla models offer at comparable premium segment prices. Cadillac's Super Cruise, as its name implies, serves more as an advanced cruise control than as a self-drive system. It will let the driver occasionally take their hands off the steering wheel during what GM says are "limited-access driving conditions" on highways only. Super Cruise's main feature is it offers automatic lane-centering as well as self-braking and acceleration on highways. After an icon near the speedometer indicates the autopilot mode is available, the driver activates self-driving by pressing a button on the steering wheel. A green light on top of the...more

The fatal crash of Air France Flight 447 is one of the most tragic accidents in avionic history — while it also serves as a stark reminder of what can go wrong when humans rely too much on driverless vehicles. The tragic 2009 plane crash off the coast of Brazil involved an Airbus A330-200, which has some of the most technologically advanced self-pilot controls available in modern commercial aircraft. It assumes many take-off, cruising, and landing controls. But the human continues to play a role, since at least one pilot must be ready to take control of the plane at all times, similar to how drivers must always be prepared to take over driving Level 1 through Level 3 autonomous vehicles. In a nutshell, among the conclusions drawn from the post-crash analysis of Flight 447 is that the pilots were unprepared to take back control of the plane as it failed to right itself and gain altitude while it fell thousands of feet from the sky before crashing into Atlantic ocean, resulting in the...more

Uber resumed its pilot program for driverless cars after one of its autonomous vehicles crashed in Tempe, Arizona last weekend. The program was grounded in Arizona, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco after the incident on Friday, when a Volvo self-driving SUV collided with another car at around 6:30 p.m. local time. However, testing quickly resumed. Uber told Engadget that it was "resuming our development operations" in San Francisco this morning. The site reports that Uber fleets in Arizona and Pittsburgh are still grounded. The news comes after the crash on Friday, in which a car failed to yield to Uber's driverless SUV and struck it, causing the Uber car to roll over on its side, according to ABC 15 Arizona. Fresco News hit the scene and posted some images to Twitter, in which the car can be seen on its side with smashed windows and severe damage due to the force of the crash. The Uber driverless car crash Mark Beach/Fresco News TwitterAlthough there were no backseat passengers riding...more

The ride-sharing firm Lyft and Faraday Future, a troubled electric carmaker and potential Tesla competitor, have quietly appointed new top executives, but like the rest of the industry, they struggle to find talent for their driverless programs. Lyft has tapped Salesforce.com to name Mike Johnson as its first chief information security officer, according to Johnson's LinkedIn profile. A graduate of North Carolina State University in computer science, he has held mostly information security-related roles. He will also play a key management role in the development of different businesses, including Lyft's driverless program, according to a Lyft spokesman, who confirmed the veracity of a The Wall Street Journal report. Faraday has extended CFO Stefan Krause's responsibilities to include serving as the company's chief operating officer, according to his LinkedIn profile. The former long-time BMW executive will also fill in as the troubled company's CEO until that open position is filled,...more

Nissan has confirmed reports that the Nissan Leaf's Propilot option will go on sale in the US in September, but when it does, don't expect it to compete against the Tesla Model 3's driverless features. Ahead of the Propilot's launch in the US, details revealed about Nissan's Propilot features indicate that the all-electric Tesla Model 3, which is also geared for the mainstream sector, has driverless capabilities that are unequivocally more advanced than what Nissan's all-electric model offers. In other words, the Leaf's Propilot arguably does not really compete again Tesla's Autopilot, even as a poor man's alternative. In addition to Tesla models, the Propilot capabilities are also more limited than what Audi, Acura, and Mercedes have offered for a number of years in the traditional combustion-engine car sector. The key limiting factor of the Nissan Leaf's Propilot is that the driver's hands must remain on the steering wheel at all times when the Leaf's Propilot is activated. The...more

Cruise Automation, General Motors' (GM) driverless car arm, has hired two hackers who were once seen by many as a safety threat to help find vulnerabilities in its self-drive car network. Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt confirmed the hires of security consultants Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek in a tersely worded Tweet. They will be tasked with discovering potential vulnerabilities that could, in theory, be used to remotely seize control of Cruise's entire fleet. Miller and Valasek's most famous exploits were disclosed in Wired after they showed how they could "kill" 2014 Jeep Cherokee models with over-the-air attacks that resulted in Fiat Chrysler's recall of over 1.4 million cars. Vogt, an auto industry outsider known more for his engineering and software skills than for his business prowess before selling Cruise to GM for an estimated $1 billion, reflects an industry shift in philosophy about hacking and hacking culture. It wasn't that long ago when carmakers sued hackers who sought to...more

Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk said during the Model 3 launch party Friday night that all Tesla cars in production have the same driverless hardware, signaling that Tesla's jump to Level 4 hinges on a software update — but Musk didn't exactly say that. Often overlooked is how Tesla has said since last year that its new Tesla models made after October 15 have the requisite hardware in place for Level 3, Level 4 driving, or "full self-driving" capabilities. Musk also confirmed Friday that the Model 3, like the other new-generation Tesla models, has eight cameras, 12 sonars, and four radars powered and processed by a 10 teraop computer. The cars will be increasingly autonomous. You won't really need to look at an instrument panel all that often, because you'll be able to do whatever you want. You'll be able to watch a movie, take to friends, go to sleep.. Every Tesla being produced now, the Model 3, the Model S, the Model X, has all of the hardware necessary for full autonomy. And I...more

The AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Division, which represents 32 unions in the US, has successfully lobbied for the removal of 10,000-lb. and heavier commercial trucks from provisions in bills expected to pass that could allow for millions of driverless vehicles on public roads and streets, Bloomberg News reported. The exceptions in the bills' provisions effectively block the development and use of driverless trucks for long-haul commercial shipping in the US, serving as a potential blow to Waymo's and Uber's driverless truck programs. The AFL-CIO has been outspoken about its claims that driverless commercial trucks pose a threat to safety and to millions of jobs connected to the commercial truck industry in the US. On its website, the union coalition has published the results of studies that purportedly show the risks and dangers associated with commercial trucks and the public's mistrust about driverless vehicles. At issue is how the US House of Representatives Energy & Commerce...more

BMW seeks to hire 2,000 engineers for its driverless program ahead of the launch of its iNext Level 3 model in 2021, a source close to the company told Driverless. According to the source, BMW hopes to boost the number of its driverless-related workforce, most of which will be engineers, by 4% among its 50,000-strong workforce. A BMW spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny the company targets a 2,000-person hire metric for its driverless program, but said self-drive vehicles and mobility solutions will increasingly represent a key part of the company's offerings. However, AI and machine learning specialists are in short supply, so BMW will likely struggle to meet its hiring quota, Eyal Amir, CEO of Ai Incube and an associate professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told Driverless. The level of basic knowledge and abilities required right now in the autonomous-cars market is also in high demand in other growing markets, such as marketing...more

Faraday Future's all-electric super sports car concept attracted a lot of attention at CES earlier this year, but now it is struggling to replace key driverless engineers and program directors who left the company amid its recent financial troubles. Following cash flow shortages and concerns about main Faraday investor Jia Yueting's solvability, the electrical vehicle (EV) startup and potential Tesla competitor continues to post numerous job listings for autonomous driving-related positions that remain unfilled. Driverless-development staff Faraday has yet to replace include: Jan BeckerJan Becker, senior director of automated from driving 2016-2017; Sangmin Oh, who rejoined Nvidia as an autonomous driving engineer in March 2017, after a roughly one-year stint at Faraday in an engineering capacity;Yong Dian Jian, a staff computer vision scientist for Tesla since May, served as a senior technical specialist for autonomous driving at Faraday Future from Apr 2016 until Apr 2017;Robert...more

All eyes will be on Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk tonight to see if he is reveals details about the status of Tesla's challenged Autopilot at tonight's official Model 3 launch party. Taking a step back, the Model 3 debut arguably represents Tesla most-important launch to date, as the company delivers its most-affordable model that will retail for $35,000. The self-touted everyman's Tesla is expected to offer a top range of 215 miles on a charge and a zero-to-60 mph acceleration of 5.6 seconds. These are very solid specs for an EV but certainly don't give the Model 3 the super sports car status of the Model S. But when it comes to Autopilot, Tesla has long claimed the Model 3, as well as the Model S and X, have the hardware in place to offer "full self-driving" capabilities. The key word is "hardware," since Autopilot's performance depends on over-the-air software updates. Since Tesla split with Mobileye, it has struggled to reconfigure Autopilot without the Israeli camera sensor and...more

Tesla's Autopilot self-drive interface in its new Model 3 signals the carmaker is already prepping its cars for Level 4 driving years ahead of the competition. The incremental-yet-revealing modification consists of the Model 3's Autopilot gearshift option. Unlike the cruise control-like Autopilot in the Model S and X, the Model 3's Autopilot is activated with the gearshift, according to spy shots taken of the interior ahead of the launch (a Tesla spokesperson told Driverless the company will officially disclose the vehicle's specs during the "coming days"). This does not mean too much for the Model 3's Level 2 and even Level 3 driving, because the driver is going to need to keep their hands near and around the steering wheel when the car is in driverless mode. However, adding Autopilot as a gearshift option makes more sense for Level 4 driving (Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk recently said during a TED talk that Tesla will offer Level 5 in less than two years). This is because, in the...more

The status of Uber's driverless program remains a big unknown amid the company's recent woes, but a reported multibillion-dollar shot in the arm by Japanese tech giant Softbank could change all that. Softbank has approached Uber unilaterally about offering to purchase a multibillion-dollar stake in the troubled ride-hailing company and is in direct negotiations with Uber about a potential deal, The Wall Street Journal reports. Citing unnamed sources, any deal with Uber is contingent on Uber finding a new CEO, following Uber's ex-CEO and founder Travis Kalanick's recent departure from the company, according to the report. Softbank's purchase of a stake in Uber would follow its investments in Asia's three-largest ride-hailing services: Singapore-based GrabTaxi Holdings, the Indian firm Ola, and China-based Didi Chuxing Technology. Obviously, the degree to which any minority stake purchase would help to fund Uber's driverless program remains to be seen. Uber has also neither confirmed...more

There has been a lot of comings and goings among senior engineers and research staff at a handful of companies with the pretensions of offering the technology that will underpin the driverless revolution. Among those with research experience and expertise in neural network-based artificial intelligence that can be applied to self-driving vehicles, Nvidia and startups Aurora and Argo AI have drawn top engineers from Waymo, Tesla, and other companies. Uber, which along with China's Baidu and Faraday Future, have seen a particularly large exodus of talent. Here is an infographic of the comings and goings of some of driverless' best-and-brightest lead engineers. Juliet Gallagher/Driverless Don't Miss: Multi-Cores, AI & Computer Parallelism — How Gaming Chips Drive Cars Follow Driverless on Facebook and TwitterFollow WonderHowTo on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+Cover image via...more

A Norwegian carrier's launch of a pilotless container ship next year could lead the way to a new era in sea transportation and shipping if successful. Norway-based Yara International ASA, a self-touted "Tesla of the seas," claims the eletric-powered vessel will be the world's first autonomous commercial ship in operation when it sets sail next year to begin shipping fertilizer between ports in Norway. Kongsberg Gruppen, a merchant marine, offshore, oil and gas industry, defense and aerospace systems provider; will design and produce the ship. This will include integrating the sensors, onboard computers, and mapping software for the autonomously piloted commercial vessel. Kongsberg Gruppen will also integrate the ship's electric drive, battery, and propulsion control systems. Similar to driverless cars and trucks, driverless ships require advanced neural networking capabilities to process massive amounts of data to make piloting decisions. Yara's pilotless boat will thus rely on...more

Long before Nvidia figured out how to embed neural networks in its graphics processor units (GPUs) for driverless vehicles, it and other chipmakers were already making the same kinds of devices for 3D games and other apps. GPU makers, including AMD, and to a lesser extent, Intel, as well as Nvidia remain in a decades-long horserace to pack their chips with more powerful GPUs. This collective development effort, in turn, gives game developers better processor hardware to design more sophisticated games. Specific to driverless applications is the continued cross pollination between GPUs for games and the GPU-based computing platforms that power self-driving cars. Here are a few technologies that continue to see improvements for both GPUs for gaming and driverless cars. Parallel Computing That Can Handle a Lot of StuffSeparate instruction sets for games are often programmed to work simultaneously thanks largely to parallel computing. Defined by when different computing processes run...more

Lyft officially laid its stake in the ground to develop driverless fleets following its Friday announcement, but how fast it is catching up to ride-hailing competitor Uber's driverless initiative remains to be seen. Following Uber's ex-CEO and founder Travis Kalanick's recent departure from the company and legal woes with Waymo over its alleged theft of trade secrets and sexual harassment lawsuits files by former employees, the exact status of Uber's driverless program amid its woes remains a big question mark. Officially, Uber continues to test its Ford Fusion driverless cars using technology at the heart of the Waymo lawsuit, but that does not exclude the possibility that the program is on hold. Meanwhile, regardless of whether Uber continues to develop its driverless program or not, Lyft, at the very least, is set to offer a driverless fleet service that will replace human drivers that will at least compete against Uber if and when it launches its fleet. Lyft will also compete, of...more

Some drivers give Tesla's Autopilot update released this week rave reviews, after version 8.1 has taken longer than expected to live up to Elon Musk's "smooth as silk" Tweet from earlier this year. With this update, drivers report noticeable improvements in Tesla models' driverless features, especially when changing lanes and rounding curves, with reportedly less jerky lateral movements and more precise self-steering (we have not yet tested the vehicle to see for ourselves how much better it is). The latest version of Autopilot 8.1 is described in the release note that appears on Tesla S, X, and 3 model center screens as "2017.28," which corresponds to the 28th week in the year, and is code-named "c528869." A dealership representative could not confirm the schedule for the over-the-air update outside the US, while a Tesla spokesperson could not comment. However, a Tesla spokesperson downplayed the significance, noting "updates happen all the time so we tend not to do announcements...more

Research group OpenAI, a research institute co-founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, says it is possible to trick driverless cars' neural networks into mistaking images for something else. In a blog post published on OpenAI's website, Anish Athalye, an undergraduate studying computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), describes how it is possible to spoof objects by zooming on them by as little as 1.002 in a way that alters neural networks' perception. The OpenAI example showed how an image of a cat could be made to appear as a desktop computer using a hacking technique called "adversarial examples," involving malicious input to machine learning systems. The vulnerability poses obvious concerns about how signages and other roadside objects could be altered in ways imperceptible to the human eye so that a driverless car's neural network might mistake a stop sign for a tree or another object, for example. The OpenAI blog post was in response to a paper published by...more

Nvidia's decades-long development of graphics processor units (GPU) for PCs has given it a major leg up in the driverless space. Lead by charismatic founder and CEO Jensen Huang, Nvidia has recently extended its engineering knowhow to add neural networks for machine to its GPUs used to pilot self-drive cars. Nvidia's driverless group may represent less than 10% of its total revenues, but it has also secured design wins with virtually every OEM, supplier, or research team seeking to develop driverless systems. As it turns out, there are over 200 customers that use Nvidia's GPU designs or knowhow for the development of self-drive vehicles, the company says. Driverless was able to speak with Danny Shapiro, senior director of automotive for Nvidia, about what it is like working with hundreds of customers vying for a place in a sector that is expected to disrupt transportation on a seismic scale. Here are some excerpts from our recent conversation with Shapiro. Driverless: After designing...more

Nauto, which develops driver-monitor cameras and algorithms for autonomous vehicles, is among a growing list of driverless startups able to attract tens of millions of dollars in funding after raising $159 million in its latest round of financing. Led by a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp. and Greylock Partners, other participants include BMW, iVentures, General Motors Ventures, and Toyota AI Ventures. Also this week, self-piloted robotics maker Brain Corp. raised $114 million, with investments from VC firm SoftBank and the investment division of chip maker Qualcomm Ventures, while Embark secured $15 million to develop neural network self-drive systems it is testing in Peterbilt commercial trucks. Last month, a group of recent Stanford University grads secured $50 million in investment capital for their driverless car startup drive.ai. And don't forget Ford's $1.0 billion investment in driverless startup Argo AI earlier this year following GM's $1.0 billion investment in Cruise...more

Nvidia has emerged as the indisputable leader in chips for Level 3 and even more advanced driverless applications, catching some of the world's largest semiconductor makers and automotive suppliers by surprise. After the car industry figured out that AI-piloted vehicles were not the stuff of science fiction and had the potential to shake up the world as we know it, like the industry revolution did over 100 years ago, Nvidia's graphics processor units (GPUs), used mainly for gaming and computer graphics platforms, happened to be what automotive OEMs needed at just the right time. For the development of any computing platform for self-drive vehicles that requires neural networking and machine learning, it is now hard to find something Nvidia is not into. Gory Video Games Meet Advanced AIFor the past two decades, the Santa Clara-based firm has mainly been known for its GPUs and graphics cards. Its devices have the processing horsepower 3D gamers crave to boost performance in graphically...more

Self-driving car models and fleets get most of the media attention, but it is the suppliers that design and make the technologies underpinning the driverless revolution, says Guillaume Devauchelle, the vice president of innovation and scientific development for leading tier-one supplier Valeo. Driverless spoke with Devauchelle about the role suppliers will continue to play in the driverless revolution and how the OEM and supplier relationships are evolving. Driverless: How have your partnerships with Mobileye changed following Intel's purchase of the company? Guillaume Devauchelle We are still working with Mobileye. We use their software like many other suppliers do. After Intel's acquisition of Mobileye, not much has changed. Our existing agreement with Mobileye is still in place: we design and make front-facing camera and LiDAR (light detection and ranging sensor) systems using Mobileye's EyeQ microprocessors and computer vision algorithms. That said, it is possible that Mobileye is...more

Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk offered some insight into how hackers might seek to turn driverless cars into zombie fleets, but remained upbeat about what can be done about it. Speaking at the National Governors Association this weekend, Musk covered a lot of ground when asked about cyber security. He both invoked the light side of hacking, while also taking the threat seriously. One interesting remedy: allowing the passenger to bring a driverless vehicle to a stop with an encrypted connection at any time. The risks for autonomous vehicles is somebody achieving a fleet-wide hack. If someone were able to hack all of the Teslas, they could say, as a prank, just send them all to Rhode Island (laughing) from across the United States. That would also be the end of Tesla. There would also be a lot of angry people in Rhode Island. (laughing) We have to make sure that the fleetwide hack is basically impossible and the people in the car have override authority. Whatever the car is doing or if...more

Hyundai Motor Company says it will launch its driverless tech ahead of schedule, but the Korean carmaker will remain behind mainstream rivals, including General Motors (GM), Nissan, and Honda. Speaking to the Korean IT news outlet the Electronic Times, Hyundai said it was launching its HDA2 (Highway Driving Assist) one year earlier, which could be available in Hyundai models as soon as 2019. It will mainly offer Level 2 self-driving and features that the company said will be "near level 3 on freeways," but was not more specific. But even if Hyundai were able to deliver a Level 2-capable car by 2019, the Korean carmaker's driverless debut will follow GM's driverless Super Cruise driverless tech introduction in the Cadillac CT6 later this year. It will be even further behind than its Japanese rivals Honda and Nissan, which have offered Level 2 features in select models since last year, although they have mainly been limited to Japan. In the premium car sector, Tesla has offered Level 2...more

The launch of the Audi A8 marks the world's first Level 3 car on offer in retail channels, except there is one catch: it can only take full control of driving at speeds of 37.3 mph or less. Audi would have certainly set the A8's self-drive to work at much higher speeds if it could, but the technology to do that was just not ready in time. And yet. As one of Germany's top premium brands among BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche; Audi has indeed jumped ahead, reflecting the rich history of German engineering and car culture by setting a new level for a premium driverless as well as overall driving experience. While you can't take a nap in the backseat as the car drives itself, you can (once the feature becomes legal to use), read, work, or as Audi says, watch TV or movies on the console screen as the car self-pilots in gridlocked traffic along divided highways. If you spend hours driving to work every day in heavy traffic conditions at slow speeds, a robotically controlled chauffeur will...more

The Chinese government's tight restrictions on gathering data by foreign firms for 3D mapping, the lifeblood of machine-taught driverless systems, could at least slow down access to the market by Waymo, Tesla, General Motors (GM), Ford, and other players hoping to make inroads there. Citing security concerns, companies headquartered outside of mainland China must form partnerships with local firms to collect the data, the Wall Street Journal Reports. Having to share data gathering technologies with Chinese firms will likely raise a number of issues related to trade secret protections and software licensing. Mapping involves complex algorithmic data-processing techniques, which typically cover road structure and damage, traffic patterns and conditions, and weather patterns, in addition to signages and other road objects. The data is transferred to a GPU and a neural networking computer platform, which graphics processor unit (GPU) maker Nvidia typically makes for most Level 3 and Level...more

Data for mapping and other applications is the lifeblood of machine-driven cars, and so far, Tesla has taken a definitive lead in information it has gathered ahead of other driverless players, including Waymo. But Tesla's position could be short-lived, if the world's largest carmakers, such as General Motors (GM), Volkswagen, and Nissan using Mobileye sensors embedded in their car models, begin to upload data from millions of cars they sell every year. The stakes are high, since collecting the most data could play a decisive role in the race to develop truly safe and reliable Level 3, Level 4, and more-advanced driverless cars first. The Tesla AdvantageTesla's Autopilot uploads data from cars to improve its driverless capabilities. Tesla recently informed owners of Model S and Model X models produced since October that it was uploading videos that the the cars' exterior cameras take. The electric carmaker is also uploading data from its recently launched Model 3 after deliveries began...more

Waymo and Lyft have remained highly secretive about their driverless car programs, but may be forced to reveal a lot about their plans after a judge in a US federal court granted Uber's request to review documents about Waymo and Lyft's partnership. Waymo and Lyft haven't released the documents yet, but by complying with the court order, we can learn a lot about their business plans and how much they think their project is worth in a few days or weeks. In Waymo v. Uber, Waymo was forced to reveal details about its driverless program in court filings that it otherwise would not have disclosed in its occasional posts on Medium, Twitter, or its website. In Uber's response earlier this year to Waymo's lawsuit claiming it stole intellectual property for its self-driving car fleet project, Waymo was forced to reveal it was relying on Velodyne to supply its LiDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors for its driverless cars. Waymo also described in court filings that LiDAR sensors were in...more

The laws and regulations in place in the US for driverless vehicles are a mess, but Republican congressional members say they can fix it. The congressmen hope to pass a bill scheduled to go before the House of Representatives this week that will allow carmakers to test and sell self-piloted cars anywhere in the US. While congressional democrats have expressed concern over potential safety issues associated with the proposed legislation, the idea of creating federal laws that supersede the patchwork of different applicable rules and mandates in effect in different states has received bipartisan support. The Republican-backed bill this week will mandate that all US states not only allow for driverless car testing, but would force states to green light the sale of vehicles that drive themselves. By allowing the sale of 100,000 cars per year per OEM under the terms of the bill, the US could see a radical jump ahead of the rest of the world as millions of Level 3 or more-advanced...more

Forget Waymo, Uber, Tesla, and other other heavily mediatized driverless contenders — German premium carmaker Audi AG has become the first OEM to introduce a Level 3 car sold in retail channels. With the debut of Audi's next-generation A8 flagship at a media event held today in Barcelona, Audi will offer a car that will let you read, work on your PC, or watch Netflix as the vehicle drives its along the highway, even in busy traffic. While Audi has previously disclosed it will offer Level 3 self-driving in the new A8, it reveals more details today about how the technology will work and what it will offer drivers. Audi calls its self-drive system the "traffic jam pilot," which takes over the driving (once the Audi AI self-drive is activated) in slow-moving traffic at speeds up to 37.3 mph on freeways and highways with a barrier to separate incoming traffic. What is key is that once activated, the driver no longer has to monitor the car's self-accelerating, -steering and -braking....more

Volvo Cars' "all-electric" announcement last week was seen as a direct threat to Tesla's electric vehicle (EV) and driverless lead, but German auto giant Volkswagen (VW) says it is in a better position to challenge Tesla. Speaking to Bloomberg News, Herbert Diess, VW's chairman of the board, said VW "can stop Tesla, because we have abilities Tesla doesn't have today." Diess made reference to VW's worldwide industrial base and production knowhow that can allow it to produce over a million of EVs per year. Tesla has yet to make 100,000 cars per year after producing less than 90,000 vehicles in 2016. After the Wall Street Journal reported Tesla may be challenged by its recent share price decline and a potential shortfall in cash flow, Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk tweeted last week "Stop biting my fingers, dammit" in response. Volkswagen is weeks away from launching its first all-EV model, which it says will have advanced drivelers features. The vehicle is based on the Neo concept,...more

The auto industry continues to shift into high gear to lay the groundwork for driverless cars with an electric vehicle (EV) emphasis. In the latest high-profile move by a carmaker to gain an edge in self-drive vehicles and EVs, German premium carmaker BMW plans to slash 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) from its procurement costs almost exclusively related to its combustion engine production to help fund its driverless and electric powertrain development. In an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt, BMW's head of production Markus Duesmann said the company spends about 20 billion euros a year on indirect procurement for its cars, out of which he said the money saved will be better spent on BMW's self-drive vehicles and EVs. So far, BMW's all-electric i3 does not offer driverless features, while last year, BMW, Intel, and Mobileye said they were joining forces for the development of a level 3-enabled model BMW plans to launch by 2021 called the iNext. BMW's bid to slash 1...more

A vulnerability in the design of LiDAR components in driverless cars is far worse than anything we've seen yet outside of the CAN bus sphere — with a potentially deadly consequence if exploited. The hack is also going to be hard to fix, researchers Hocheol Shin, Dohyun Kim, Yujin Kwon, and Yongdae Kim, from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, wrote in a paper for a study supported by Hyundai. The researchers described how they engineered more potentially lethal and stealthier attacks for driverless car LiDAR sensors compared to previous similar attack vectors. These exploits both spoof LiDAR beams and cause denial-of-service attacks with signal saturation. The paper, called "Illusion and Dazzle: Adversarial Optical Channel Exploits against LiDARs for Automotive Applications," was published by the International Association for Cryptologic Research. The Korean researchers' hack exploits how LiDAR beam signals create dots in a cloud-like area that the machine-taught...more

China's Baidu, the Chinese equivalent of Google, live streamed a video yesterday of CEO Robin Li riding a self-drive vehicle along the streets and highways of Beijing. Since it's illegal to even test driverless cars on public roads and streets in China, the stunt culminated in Li's arrest broadcast live. According to press reports, the video has gone "viral." While obviously not a Chinese-controlled state media source, Reuters wrote China has been "catching up in the race to develop self-driving cars, helped by supportive regulation and Beijing's desire to shift to an economy driven by high-tech and consumer sectors rather than heavy industry and low-end manufacturing." To whit, in addition to the live video feed of Baidu's CEO testing a driverless car and his subsequent arrest, Baidu made a series of driverless-related announcements during its artificial intelligence conference held this week. Other "proof" that the Chinese firm is catching up to its US counterparts includes Baidu's...more

Google quickly learned over five years ago electric vehicles (EVs) were the powertrain of choice for its then fledging driverless car program and the industry has since followed its lead. Now, every major carmaker has an EV program of some kind, while all-electric powertrains are expected to dominate driverless, at least in the long term. This is why Volvo Cars' announcements this week make a lot of sense, as the Swedish carmaker plans to go "all-electric" by 2019. After stating its bold claim it will offer Level 4 driverless models by 2021, Volvo has begun to phase out all-combustion engine models and will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021. And this is bad news for Tesla. While the push by mainstream carmakers to offer EVs is arguably good for the all-electric carmaker as non-combustion engine cars become mainstream, Volvo is now encroaching on Tesla's space as the leading carmaker in this premium space. BMW's all-electric i3 serves as a premium EV alternative,...more

Volvo Cars' claims it will offer Level 4 models by 2021 means the premium carmaker will likely have to finalize the driverless design to meet the aggressive timeline by next year at the latest. But in consideration of the Swedish carmaker's aggressive goals, the extent to which Volvo-badged cars will be able to allow the driver to take a nap in the backseat as the vehicle self-pilots from point A to point B also remains to be seen. Volvo's timeline to offer a Level 4 vehicle by 2021 also means it will likely have to complete the design of the neural network onboard computer, mapping software, sensors, and other technology by next year since the design cycle for cars is typically three to five years. Compared to Level 3 cars, which require input from the driver when prompted to take control of the vehicle, Level 4 models auto-pilot the vehicle from point A to B without human intervention. When contacted by Driverless, a Volvo spokesman said the company was confident it will deliver...more

The automotive industry is traditionally very conservative, so when a carmaker says it will launch a particular model or feature by a certain date, it means a lot. Flashback to how carmakers have largely relied on design and ergonomics to sell cars instead of rushing into the digital age, as OEMs from other sectors have. The fact that smart phone makers have long outpaced the automotive sector for in-car communications is but one example. Indeed, if it were not for Waymo, Tesla, and Uber; carmakers would have been much slower to embrace driverless. It's even possible that the auto industry might not have even have begun to speak of offering "hands- and eyes-off" driving if Tesla, Waymo, and Uber had not taken the lead. In short, carmakers leave little to chance, especially when safety is concerned. Driverless is no exception. So while entering the game relatively late, you can bet traditional carmakers will meet their schedules. A case in point is how Ford's Ken Washington, vice...more

Many wonder how driverless cars will ever be able to navigate through any driving condition imaginable — but the point is self-taught machines, in theory, have the innate ability to adapt to chaotic and extreme driving conditions in ways far superior to what humans are capable of. India represents a brilliant test case. There, driverless cars, especially in urban areas, will have to weave their way around moving obstacles in ways unimaginable for those who have never witnessed what driving in one of the world's most densely populated regions is like. This includes yielding to cows wandering through busy streets, yielding to pedestrians and other cars that suddenly dart in front of your car, and figuring out signages that, to put it euphemistically, are too-often conspicuously absent. In other words, it's chaos and madness for the uninitiated. As Bloomberg reports, Tata Motors is struggling to develop a driverless version of its Nano car model, which retails for $3,500, that can...more

Most carmakers now agree with Waymo that piloting driverless cars is best left to the machine — with no meddling from the human. In Waymo's case, this assumption dates back years ago. More recently in 2014, Google's driverless arm (before it became Waymo) shocked Detroit when it debuted a car prototype without a steering wheel and gas and brake pedals. Not only were human drivers not required to operate the vehicle, but human intervention posed a safety threat, Google said. The then-Google prototype car followed an experiment by Google in 2012 when the search engine giant allowed a group of employees to borrow self-driving Lexuses the company had designed. The employees were warned that at all times they had to be ready to take back control of the car when prompted, especially in the event of an emergency. Instead, they often climbed in the backseat, watched videos, or otherwise didn't pay attention. Google determined that humans simply couldn't be trusted to monitor the car's...more

While not quite a true self-driving car, Mercedes is gearing to release a vehicle with a plethora of assistive-driving features, some that might have you excited about what autonomous vehicles can do in the future. Mercedes-Benz's updated S-Class vehicles, to be revealed at the Shanghai Motor Show later this month, and released in the fall of this year, will be able to assist drivers in new ways. The vehicles will be able to adjust speed depending on the situation, such as slowing down for a toll booth or bends and intersections, then speeding up again on its own. This is, in part, thanks to new camera and radar systems built into the vehicles, as well as giving the cars accessibility to the satellite navigation, allowing the cars to, for lack of a better phrase, "read the map." Also, the S-Class vehicles will have updated features for changing lanes automatically, as well as reading and following speed limits signs. It will be able to drive through stop-and-go traffic, and perform...more

All the Driverless news you need to know from the past 24 hours, bundled together in a tightly written package, about Uber, London delivery services, capital investments, and kangaroos. Ousted Uber Founder & CEO Says He Didn't Know About Stolen DocumentsIn the latest court filing in Waymo v. Uber, ex-Uber CEO and company founder Travis Kalanick says he was unaware that former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski had stolen documents and data from then Google and now Waymo prior to the lawsuit. The statement runs counter to Waymo's filing last week in a San Francisco federal court, in which the company claims Kalanick knew that Levandowski was in the possession of stolen documents while employed at the troubled ride-sharing firm. According to Waymo, Uber is depending on illegally gotten knowhow from Waymo to develop its driverless fleet, especially for the implementation of LiDAR (light-detection and ranging sensors). London Calling Driverless Grocery DeliveriesUK-based online grocer...more

Drive.ai (a startup founded by Stanford University graduates), Waymo, General Motors, and serial entrepreneur and author Vivek Wadhwa are featured in today's top news. Driverless Car Startup Drive.ai Raises $50 MillionA group of recent Stanford University grads has secured $50 million in investment capital for their driverless car startup Drive.ai. The company's founder and CEO Sameep Tandon said the money will be used to pay for R&D, new hires, and international expansions, but was not more specific. Andrew Ng, a Stanford University professor who also serves as chief scientist for Baidu, joins Drive.ai's board of directors. Waymo Driverless Commercial Trucks SpiedJalopnik has published what it says are spy shots of a Peterbilt 579 commercial truck that is part of Waymo's commercial driverless truck test fleet. Sent by an anonymous source, the photos reveal the unsightly dome-shaped LiDAR (light detection and ranging), radar, and other sensors on the truck's exterior. As previously...more

There was big news today from Google, Apple, Volvo, and Nvidia regarding their self-driving efforts. Avis Will Service Waymo's Driveless FleetGoogle parent Alphabet's Waymo has selected Avis to service its growing fleet of driverless cars. It now seems Waymo has all of the pieces in place to offer Level 4 fleet services — Waymo adds its self-drive tech to car models you can already buy, such as its existing fleet of Chrysler Pacifica minivans, and Avis offers Uber-like ride-hailing services, possibly through Zipcar. The question now remains when and where legislation catches up with Level 4 ride-hailing service business models: when you can take a nap, read book, and remain in the back seat as the driverless car takes you want to go. Apple Seals Its Agreement with AvisAnd within hours of the Waymo/Avis announcement, Bloomberg reported Apple has formed a partnership with Avis-rival Hertz under which Apple is licensing a fleet of Lexus RX450h models from Hertz for driverless tests....more

Today it was revealed that Avis Budget Group will now support and maintain Waymo's driverless car fleet in Phoenix, the company's first public trial of self-driving cars. This is an unprecedented partnership in the autonomous vehicle field and conveys the steps driverless companies are taking to make their vehicles more accessible to the public. This partnership is intended to support Waymo's growing driverless fleet and early rider program in Phoenix. By working with Avis, Waymo hopes to present customers with self-driving cars that are ready to use whenever needed. Don't Miss:Waymo Kills Much-Hyped 'Fireflies' in Shift Away from Designing Own Cars Based on the terms of the agreement, Avis will alter selected rental facilities to make room for Waymo's fleet. The company will also clean the cars' interiors and exteriors, perform oil changes, tire rotations, maintain all automotive parts, and perform any other services on the care when needed. Despite caring for the cars, Avis will not...more

France's Groupe PSA (formerly known as PSA Peugeot Citroën) — one of the world's top-10 carmakers — aggressively seeks to take a lead in the rollout of the industry 's first driverless cars, as it becomes the first mainstream carmaker to announce it will launch a Level 3 self-drive vehicle launch by 2020. In the premium space, Audi is rolling out the A8 equipped with sensors, a mapping system, and an onboard machine-taught computer for Level 3 driving in July, but the model will require a software update to activate it. BMW plans to offer Level 3 capabilities when it introduces the iNext, but it is not slated for launch until 2021. PSA will introduce Level 2 capabilities in its DS 7 Crossback SUV next year for sale in Europe and China, confirming PSA's earlier plans to debut its most advanced technologies in its DS brand. The group will equip its Citroën C5 Crossback SUV with Level 2 capabilities following the DS 7 Crossback SUV launch. PSA will call the driverless features Traffic...more

German groups ZF Friedrichshafen AG and HELLA are collaborating to add to their autonomous portfolios with camera and radar development. In a press release issued by the companies, Stefan Sommer, CEO of ZF Friedrichshafen AG said of the partnership: This strategic partnership for sensor technology with HELLA enhances our position as a complete systems supplier for modern assistance systems as well as autonomous driving functions. — Stefan Sommer, CEO of ZF Friedrichshafen AGDr. Rolf Breidenbach, CEO at HELLA added: HELLA is a strong and experienced provider of sensor technologies. Our knowledge aligns perfectly with ZF's expertise. By combining our strengths, we clearly aim to provide market leading and high performing assistance systems and autonomous driving functions. — Dr. Rolf Breidenbach, CEO at HELLAThe partnership is non-exclusive, more of a spoken understanding between the companies that they are to share their automotive experience and information with each other to further...more

Tesla says the new version of Autopilot is now as good as the previous one, after having completed over-the-air updates of the driverless software during the past few days. Model S and Model X Tesla models the electric car firm began to make October 16 last year lacked certain Autopilot driverless features that models produced prior to that date already had. As of last week, the over-the-air Autopilot updates have improved Autosteer functionality and enabled driverless perpendicular parking, which the older version already offered, Tesla says. Company representatives, speaking on background, denied reports purporting Tesla had postponed the Autopilot over-the-air updates. In some cases, the reports likely stemmed from customers who may not have activated the updates or the network connections required to complete the software installation when prompted to do so, one US-based Tesla service center representative told Driverless. He said he and his team have helped customers complete the...more

Waymo's hardware development team for self-driving vehicles will now be led by Satish Jeyachandran, previously director of hardware engineering at Tesla. Jeyachandran made the announcement yesterday on LinkedIn. He left Tesla a few months prior to the move to Waymo. Jeyachadran says of the choice, "I wanted to join Waymo because it has a talented, mission-driven team that has made impressive advancements in self-driving hardware." Don't Miss: Drama Amongst the Driverless—Did Wayne Unnecessarily Drag Uber into Its Lawsuit? Jeyachandran worked on autopilot systems, in addition to other vehicle aspects for Tesla. In his new position, he said: "At Waymo, I'll focus on building out Waymo's custom self-driving hardware, and pursuing opportunities to scale Waymo's technology." Jeyachandran also praised the Waymo team as "laser-focused on bringing its products to market." He also described Waymo as an opportunity for him to make a difference in the world: I've always wanted to be part of...more

Driverless transportation is definitely coming closer to the mainstream, but most companies developing the technology have said it will be another couple of years before we see autonomous vehicles being used as an alternative for typical transportation. According to Global Life Park, it's actually going to be within the next 30 days. On Wednesday a meeting was held in Arlington to discuss the billion dollar new ballpark that is being built for the Texas Rangers. However, a new feature for the old ballpark was brought up as well: driverless shuttles. According to Mayor Jeff Williams: In the next 30 days, autonomous people movers are going to be in use at Global Life Park. — Jeff Williams, Mayor of ArlingtonThis is huge for autonomous development, as most of the technology hasn't seen the light in the way that these shuttles will. Still, if it's going to happen, it's no surprise that it's happening in Texas. Arlington, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and Dallas are places that were picked...more

The new Leaf with Nissan's ProPilot driverless feature could launch as soon as this year, following a teaser image and video the Japanese carmaker released of its flagship EV yesterday. A company source told Driverless that ProPilot could become available in the new Leaf before 2018, but added that shipments might not actually begin until 2018. The exact timing of the driverless feature's rollout has yet to be determined, the company source said. Given the Leaf's status as a tech flagship for the company, it is likely that the model will offer ProPilot in the US and in Europe ahead of when the driverless option is available in the Qashqai and X-Trail flagship SUV. Those models are set to launch in Europe next year. Carlos Ghosn, who was then CEO of Nissan, at CES in Las Vegas in January that Nissan will offer ProPilot in the all-electric Leaf "very soon," but was not more specific. The teaser image shown above marks the first time Nissan has released a video of the new Leaf's...more

A spokesperson from the Nissan and Renault Alliance told Driverless the group is testing self-driving electric "robo-vehicles" for future mobility services and is "not ruling out anything" for future services the group might offer, as the alliance widens its driverless business model to include both fleets and private sales. However, the spokesperson said a Reuters report from early Thursday purporting that Nissan and Renault have set plans to launch a fleet of ride-sharing cars "takes some liberties." The Alliance is currently testing self-driving vehicles (robo-vehicles) for future development of services taking advantage of our EV leadership and experience. The timing, other than a 10-year horizon, or structure has not been communicated yet. — Spokesperson for the Renault-Nissan AllianceThe Alliance spokesperson's comments reflect a recent conversation this writer had with Ogi Redzic, head of Nissan-Renault's connected vehicles and mobility services division. Redzic said the Nissan...more

Waymo claims in court documents filed yesterday in its lawsuit against Uber that ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick knew that former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski was in the possession of stolen documents while employed at the troubled ride-sharing firm. The federal court yesterday also ordered Levandowski to surrender documents related to the case to Waymo, which Levandowski has claimed are protected by attorney-client privilege. Waymo is asking a US federal district court in San Francisco to hold Kalanick in contempt for previously claiming to not know Levandowski had information Waymo says he stole while employed there as a lead engineer of its driverless program. According to Waymo's filings yesterday in the US District Court, Northern District of California, Levandowski informed Kalanick and Uber executives Nina Qi and Cameron Poetzscher he had files on disc belonging to Google before Waymo was spun off to become Google parent Alphabet's driverless arm. In March 2016, Kalanick...more

Uber's driverless cabs began picking people up in Arizona in February, after its attempt at a pilot test in San Francisco. Now, one of these cars has been in an accident, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The pilot, and issues stemming from it, are just the start of a terrible year for Uber. Here's a quick timeline of their troubles, with the major events bolded. December 14, 2016Uber's San Francisco pilot starts.After Uber's first day of the SF pilot, a video emerges showing an Uber self-driving car running a red light. Company blames "human error." You can see Uber's self-driving Volvo run the red at 10 seconds in to this video:California demands that Uber stop their SF pilot, apply for testing permits for $150 per car, and adhere to California regulations. Uber refuses.December 21Uber stops SF pilot after California DMV pulls their registrations.January 28, 2017During widespread protests at airports, JFK's taxi drivers strike for an hour. Uber continues operating rides, but...more

Researchers are putting driverless shuttles on campus next year at the University of Michigan and the rides are free for students and teachers. The project was created by Mcity, an autonomous and connected vehicle research center. It includes two shuttles running about every 10 minutes, with each carrying 15 passengers. The researchers chose a two-mile route between the North Campus Research Complex and the Lurie Engineering Center on the university campus. Initially operating during typical business hours, rides may be available even more of the day later on. The vans, made by Navya Arma, are entirely electric. Each has plenty of equipment for both navigation and information-gathering. For navigation, they have LiDAR, and onboard cameras, GPS, and Wi-Fi for data gathering. The shuttles cannot move faster than 28 mph, presumably for the safety of others on campus. Don't Miss: Self-Driving Cars Are Coming to New York, but Only for a Limited Time The shuttles will be used not only to...more

In a recently released video, it was revealed that Formula-E's partner Roborace has developed a driverless race car that can complete laps at full racing speed. Roborace tested out its DevBot — an autonomous electric race car — on the Formula-E track in Berlin. The car completed laps at multiple speeds, maxing out at 124 miles-per-hour with no driver in the car. Roborace has clearly put a lot of work into the electric race car since past trials, as it has previously crashed on comparable tracks. Don't Miss: NTSB Data Confirms Tesla Crash Victim Wasn't Watching Harry Potter, but Was Warned to Take Wheel The car's max speed is incredibly important, considering that a standard Formula-E car maxes out at 140 miles-per-hour. The completion of this full-speed lap is a strong indicator that driverless race cars are not so far away. A video displaying the interior of the car allows us to view the vehicle's cockpit as it accomplishes this great feat. In the video, you can see the car brake and...more

Tesla hopes high-level personnel changes will help it gain an edge in neural network knowhow for its models' self-drive features, following the replacement of its Autopilot chief and the appointment of a recent Stanford grad to head its AI and Autopilot vision research. To that end, Tesla has appointed Andrej Karpathy as director of AI and Autopilot vision. Karpathy hails from OpenAI, a leading AI research institute Tesla CEO Elon Musk co-founded, and he recently earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University in deep learning and computer vision. Tesla also announced yesterday the departure of Chris Lattner, a former Apple head engineer who developed the Swift programming language, who leaves Tesla six months after joining the company in January. Jim Keller, another Apple veteran who joined Tesla 18 months ago to head Autopilot's hardware development, replaces Lattner. Chris just wasn't the right fit for Tesla, and we've decided to make a change. We wish him the best. — Tesla spokespersonIn...more

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it is still investigating the circumstances of a fatal Tesla crash last year to determine if the car or Tesla's Autopilot driverless system was at fault, but revealed more details about the circumstances of the crash. The main finding the NTSB published is that the driver, a former US Navy Seal and Tesla enthusiasts, only had his hands on the steering wheel for less than 30 seconds during the 37 minutes when Autopilot was activated. The report also reveals the driver was prompted by an audible signal six times to place his hands on the steering wheel and warned seven times with a visual signal on the dashboard before the Tesla slammed into a truck that was crossing the divided highway. Brown was suspected of watching a Harry Potter movie at the time of the crash, but the NTSB report also served to debunk the truck driver's witness account. "Without the offset of the laptop clock to real time, it could not be concluded whether or not...more

Leading tier-one supplier Continental has confirmed it will sell driverless platforms developed from BMW, Mobileye, and Intel'spreviously announced alliance, giving the company a potential edge over competitors by widening the range of technologies it offers directly to OEMs. Under the terms of the partnership announced today, Continental will offer what a Continental spokesperson described to Driverless as a "scalable solution it can provide any OEM that wants to develop driverless." We can offer a complete package, system integration, or separate components for driverless. The alliance is developing a platform they want to market to different OEMs and we can do that for them. That is something we are also good at. — Continental spokespersonBMW, Intel, and Mobileye (which Intel bought earlier this year) will also be able to rely on Continental's industrial base and supply chain worldwide to offer a driverless platform, much of which OEMs would otherwise have to develop in-house, the...more

Millions of dollars continue to pour into the Chinese driverless market. Now, according to research firm CB Insights, $929 million have been invested in the first quarter of this year. The Chinese markets are very intent on getting driverless vehicles on their roads. From buses to trains to cars, the news has been populated with Chinese innovations where driverless development is concerned, and it's apparent from the amount of money that has been poured into it just this quarter. A multitude of companies have either gotten investments or have invested in driverless development. Many of them have started testing already, but those who haven't plan on testing very soon with the intent of getting driverless vehicles into the mainstream ASAP. Shanghai-based startup company NextEV invested $600 million into Baidu's 'NIO' cars. Nio is aiming to get self-driven cars out there ASAP, there are hopeful that it will be in the next three years. Don't Miss:Baidu Teams Up with Leading Chinese...more

Cruise Automation is actively seeking to recruit a lead engineer to head its development efforts of 3D maps with expertise in city environments, signaling the GM driverless unit's move towards a mobility-as-a-service business model. Given what Cruise has revealed so far, the secretive startup is putting everything in place to launch a fleet for driverless ride-hailing services in cities, instead of readying production of GM-badged cars for private sales, Egil Juliussen, an analyst for IHS Automotive, told Driverless. Cruise has already begun testings its Bolt EVs in city environments where its partner Lyft, a ride-sharing startup and Uber competitor, mainly operates. Additionally, Cruise seeks a lead engineer to head the implementation of the driverless fleet service. As the want ad specifies on LinkedIn and other websites, Cruise hopes to hire an engineer who "will eventually scale mapping to 100+ cities." Since ride-hailing without a driver and mobility as a service will happen in...more

Texas has become the 18th state to pass a bill into law regarding autonomous vehicles, the third this month to do so. The bill, signed by Governor Greg Abbott, is meant to explicitly allow autonomous vehicles to operate on Texas roads, without a human driver. There was never a law that said that driverless vehicles couldn't test in Texas. In fact, Google has been testing them in Austin since 2015. However, Texas has attempted to make a concrete bill allowing it before in 2015, but it was opposed by Google and other manufacturers for reasons they chose not to disclose. Not as much progress was being made in the state of Texas — when compared to states like California — in regards to autonomous technology. Manufacturers were hesitant to get their driverless cars on the road in the state without explicit permission; namely for testing their vehicles in real traffic. So when the state proposed the bill again, this time manufacturers were on board. State Senator Kelly Hancock said at a...more

Apple CEO Tim Cook's June 5 announcement that the company is developing autonomous software should have some companies rattled. At least, Morgan Stanley thinks Tesla should be. In a recent report from Morgan Stanley analysts, it was stated that — although Tesla appears to be a leader in the race for driverless — Apple's entrance in the field means serious competition in terms of both talent and investment capital. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas thinks Tesla should brace for impact because Apple has the resources to develop technology that could surpass what it has already created. In a recent report, Jonas and other Morgan Stanley analysts stated they predict Apple will create its own autonomous vehicle software, hardware, and launch a platform for third-party services. Don't Miss:Waymo's Move to Trucks Should Be a Smooth Ride It's still unknown whether Apple will focus solely on software or eventually venture out, but the Morgan Stanley analysts believe we will one day see a...more

Tesla has confirmed the EV carmaker has begun to upload videos from models equipped with its latest flavor of Autopilot, as Tesla seeks to "fleet source" data to help improve its cars' machine learning capabilities. Tesla has informed owners of Model S and Model X models produced since October that it was uploading videos that the the cars' exterior cameras take. Customers were recently put on notice about the project when an in-car popup message on the display began to appear last month. Tesla owners also have had the opportunity to cancel the video uploads from their cars. Tesla hopes it video uploads will improve upon Autopilot's self-drive features. The video data uploaded to a collective data pool can be used to make the machine-taught software that much smarter. Videos taken by several cars, at different times, of signposts and other objects along the same streets and roads can be analyzed and cross-referenced for more accurate 3D maps. Tesla A Tesla spokesperson would not offer...more

Nissan began to offer Level 2 driving capacities in a mainstream model when it debuted its ProPilot self-drive option for its Serena minivan in Japan last year. Nissan spokespersons have now confirmed the Japanese carmaker will offer ProPilot in its Qashqai and X-Trail flagship SUV in Europe by end of next year, as Nissan tries to secure its place as a leading driverless OEM in the mainstream sector by offering advanced self-drive features outside of Japan for the first time. Earlier this week, Nissan also said it has begun to offer Propilot in its Nissan X-Trail in Japan. Nissan said it will offer ProPilot in the US, China, and in other markets in addition to Europe and Japan by 2020. Nissan spokespersons also reiterated comments made by Carlos Ghosn, who was then CEO of Nissan, at CES in Las Vegas in January that Nissan will offer ProPilot in the all-electric Leaf "very soon," but was not more specific. However, the Nissan spokespersons did not elaborate on how the Qashqai's and...more

General Motors (GM) has begun production of 130 Chevrolet Bolt EV driverless test vehicles at its Orion Township, Mich. plant as it expands its fleet to total 180 models deployed in San Francisco; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Detroit. GM said it is the first company to assemble self-driving test vehicles in a "mass-production facility" after it started making driverless Chevrolet Bolt EVs in January. "To achieve what we want from self-driving cars, we must deploy them at scale," said CEO Kyle Vogt of Cruise Automation, GM's driverless division. The inherent facility of EV production also helps to support GM's mass production claims for the Bolt. This is because ramping up production of EVs for full-volume commercial production is easier than adding capacity for combustion engine cars. Among other things, EV batteries, for example, are much simpler to integrate into cars compared to combustion-engine powertrains. Meanwhile, Tesla and Audi have begun to mass-produce models packed with Level...more

Much work needs to be done before laws and regulations no longer block driverless' rollout in the US, Rob Csongor, vice president and general manager of Nvidia's automotive division, said today during a US Senate committee hearing. Speaking before the US Senate's Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee called "Paving the Way for Self-Driving Vehicles," Csongor echoed industry sentiment as he described how different state laws have impeded driverless vehicle tests. He called for federal rules and regulations to supersede the patchwork of different state laws in effect to pave the way for nation-wide tests, and eventually, the timely commercial rollout of advanced driverless cars. Audi, Mercedes, Tesla, Toyota, and Volvo have said they plan to use Nvidia's processor and software platform to offer the computing horsepower required to enable machine-taught self-driving. However, current laws do not allow for road tests in all 50 US states, which are required before Level 3 and...more

Waymo revealed more clues about its future business model after it said yesterday it plans to kill its Firefly pod-like car project and focus more closely on offering driverless systems for commercially available car and truck models. A blog post published yesterday by Waymo's YooJung Ahn, lead industrial designer, and Jaime Waydo, lead systems engineer, signals, at least in the near term, the drivelers car division of Google parent Alphabet is shedding its utopian vision of offering pod-like fleets of cars as an urban transportation alternative. Instead, Waymo's "next phase" involves offering driverless technology that OEMs can fit into their existing models, which Ahn and Waydo said yesterday now include a family car-sized Chrysler mininvan. "Now that we've moved to our next phase — letting members of the public use our self-driving cars in their daily lives — we're ready to retire our fleet of Fireflies and focus on integrating our latest technology into vehicles like our new...more

Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick is taking an indefinite leave of absence from the company, as Uber's recent upheaval has far overshadowed any developments in its driverless initiative during the past few days. While Kalanick cited his mother's recent accidental death as the reason for his exit, the company announced it was making changes to address workplace environment issues on the same day. The past year has been a trying time for Uber. In February, Susan Fowler — a former engineer at Uber — published a blog in which she claimed that she was discriminated against and sexually harassed by her superior. In response to her complaints, she stated the company did essentially nothing to help her. Upon discovering these allegations. Kalanick hired former US Attorney General Eric Holder and Tammy Albarran to investigate. The law firm Perkins Coie also investigated the company's culture, and their findings led to the recent termination of 20 Uber employees. In addition to the...more

Apple is working on autonomous systems for vehicles, which could then be implemented with the help of car manufacturers. Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed Apple's work in the field in an interview with Bloomberg on June 5. In April, the company received a permit to test self-driving cars in California. "Autonomy is something that's incredibly exciting for us, but we'll see where it will take us. We're not really saying from a product point of view what we'll do," — Tim Cook, in an interview for BloombergApple's experiments with autonomous vehicles have been codenamed Project Titan, and they may have started around 2014; however, this is the first time their interest in autonomous vehicles has been publicly acknowledged by the company. Don't Miss: Here's How Apple Is Training Their Self-Driving Car Engineers Apple's focus appears to be on software, rather than production of its own driverless cars. It also had other ambitions once, according to Bloomberg's anonymous sources. Reports...more

A Norwegian shipping company says it will launch an unmanned container ship within four years, as the shipping industry begins to apply driverless technology to commercial sea transportation. Norway-based Yara International ASA claims the vessel will be the world's first autonomous commercial ship in operation when it sets sail by 2020. The ship will begin remote-controlled shipments of fertilizer by the end of next year from Porsgrunn to ports in Brevik and Larvik in Norway by end of next year. Yara claims the self-piloted vessel will reduce trips by commercial trucks to and from the sites by 40,000 truck journeys a year. Kongsberg Gruppen, a merchant marine, offshore, oil and gas industry, defence and aerospace systems provider; will design and produce the ship. This will include integrating the sensors, onboard computers, and mapping software for the autonomously piloted commercial vessel. Kongsberg Gruppen will also integrate the ship's electric drive, battery, and propulsion...more

The $25 million development alliance Jaguar Land Rover's mobility unit InMotion has formed with US-based ride-share firm Lyft reflects how the British luxury carmaker is leaning towards a fleet service business model for its driverless offerings. The agreement marks the iconic British brand's largest announced direct investment in self-driving vehicles to date as it helps to underwrite Uber competitor and rided-sharing provider Lyft to develop Jaguar and Land Rover models for driverless car-sharing services. Jaguar Land Rover has yet to announce specific plans to offer Level 3 and more advanced driverless vehicles to retail customers as luxury car competitors Audi, BMW, and Mercedes have done. A Jaguar Land Rover spokesperson would not comment on "future" releases when queried by Driverless about whether Jaguar Land Rover had a target date by when or if it expects to offer Level 3 or Level 4 models for private sales. Jaguar Land Rover said the investment will support Lyft's "expansion...more

Baidu signed a cooperation agreement on June 7, the first day of the CES Asia conference, with multiple companies in the autonomous vehicles industry. The companies listed in the press release include Desay SV, United Automotive Electronics, and Hangsheng Electronics, as well as possibly additional auto manufacturers. Baidu plans to "jointly develop" upcoming intelligent driving production plans. The partnerships are focused on BCU ('Baidu automatic driving dedicated computer program') and MapAuto. It was also reported on June 7 that MapAuto and the voice recognition program "Duer OS Auto" will be developed by Baidu and Hyundai together. Baidu is contributing to its partners in the areas of artificial intelligence, automatic driving, and data assistance. Baidu creates both hardware and software for autonomous vehicles that can be adapted by manufacturers to help their own vehicles handle tasks like perceiving obstacles and navigating. The other companies are mostly auto manufacturers,...more

Quanergy CEO and founder Louay Eldada is, by any standard of measure, a pioneer in the development of LiDARs for driverless vehicles. Eldada's involvement with designing and engineering optical sensors dates back to his research work on LiDAR (light detection and ranging sensors) for the US Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as part of his PhD thesis in optical engineering at Columbia University in 1990. At that time, self-driving vehicles were largely a study of comparatively rudimentary rule-based programming as much as they were about robotics. This was long before deep machine learning with neural networks would allow cars to teach themselves to drive as they have begun to do today. After completing this doctorate work at Columbia, Eldada already had firsthand knowledge about LiDAR's potential. He began to apply his engineering skills and develop his business acumen over the course of his professional career while serving as a lead engineer or...more

The next-generation Audi A8 to launch in July is expected to be the world's first Level 3-capable production car to go on sale in retail channels. But aside from demo drives scheduled for journalists and analysts Audi plans to organize this month, the model's advanced driving features will remain switched off. They will only become available when the A8 goes on sale in Europe later this year, pending legislation that will allow for Level 3 driving. In other words, only those with advanced hacking skills who might seek to activate the system ahead of time will be able to take advantage of the A8's Level 3 features before they become fully available to private owners. An Audi spokesperson did not specify whether the self-drive features will eventually be activated entirely over the air or if they will require a visit at an Audi service center. Drivers will not begin to experience the option until next year at the earliest when Germany is expected to become the first country to legalize...more

Nissan said Thursday it will add automatic emergency braking (AEB) capabilities to one million models of its cars and trucks in the US by 2018. But the Japanese carmaker largely remains an exception among mainstream automakers by offering the system as standard. To date, only about 17 percent of models the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has tested have collision-avoiding braking, Reuters reported. Automatic-braking is a low-level self-drive feature compared to Level 3 technology, which allows a driver to relinquish control of the vehicle in certain conditions. It is widely accepted that AEB has the potential to prevent thousands of deaths and injuries a year if all cars are required to offer the system as a standard option. The technology works by automatically applying the vehicle's brakes when embedded sensors detect that a collision is imminent. Despite pressures from lawmakers, regulatory bodies, and consumer groups; AEB is often only offered by German and Japanese...more

Delphi Automotive PLC has announced it is partnering with Transdev Group to develop on-demand driverless transportation systems, a deal that shows promise for autonomous development on a global scale. Delphi has been creating self-driven cars since May through its partnership with mobileye, a company Intel is aquiring. Transdev is a Paris-based public transport service, one of the largest mobility network operations in the world. It boasts various types of transport, 85,000 employees, and 40,000 operating vehicles across 19 countries. DelphiThe first stage of the partnership's plan is to launch a "first mile, last mile" service operating at a small distance from a campus to a train station, and then continue to grow based on findings. The service will begin later this year and will use two Zoe minicars in Normandy, and one shuttle bus in Saclay, Paris. The overall goal is to get the service up and running in a wide public market by 2019, and from these tests, they hope to garner more...more

With autonomous technology being developed so quickly, auto companies have begun working on the next step in driverless development, passenger safety. German automotive supplier ZF has begun giving this some thought and has come up with a new kind of airbag, one that could define safety features in autonomous vehicles. As can be seen in the photo, the airbag is external and attached to the sides of seats. It was originally intended for all contemporary cars, but with the possibility of moving seats and the lack of a steering wheel airbag for extra support in future autonomous cars, this innovation could offer a great solution to ensuring passenger safety. It was originally designed to move around a person's head when deployed to keep it from knocking against things during a crash, but is now being developed to wrap around a person's entire body. The design is meant to hold a person in place in the case of being jerked around during a crash and could provide extra security where it...more

Driverless partnerships continue to appear as Continental AG, leading German automotive manufacturing company, has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with global electric startup, NIO. The goal of this partnership is to research, share, and develop autonomous technology, among other developments. As reported by a press release from Continental, the agreement has the companies collaborating closely on electric vehicles, namely on intelligent transportation services and autonomous driving. The companies are hopeful that this collaboration will be long-term, starting with Continental providing NIO with parts for self-driving vehicles. The two have been collaborating on other projects since 2014 with Continental supplying NIO with suspension systems and tires, but both have recently been focused on the future of autonomous cars. In a statement made by William Li, Founder and Chairman of NIO, the company expressed their excitement about furthering driverless development. We are...more

Honda president Takahiro Hachigo has just announced that Honda will complete development of fully self-driving cars by 2025. While the company aims to have level 3 — or conditionally autonomous cars requiring human intervention only in emergencies — on the road in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, these level 4 cars would require no intervention in most environments and thus bring Honda one step closer to producing fully driverless cars. According to Hachigo, Honda's goal is to produce cars requiring no steering wheel or brake operations that are capable of driving in cities. This announcement came during a talk by the company's CEO outlining Honda's goals for the next 13 years, and it's clear that driverless cars are a major focus of the company. Based on Waymo's continued success, the partnership between Honda and Waymo that was vaguely discussed in December will likely help the automaker achieve this 2025 goal, although not much is known about how the companies are collaborating....more