Waymo's autonomous cars may not be as advanced as widely believed, with insiders along with human drivers sharing the roads with the Alphabet company's Arizona trial warning a reality-check is required. The self-driving car project was spun out of a Google division, and began real-world testing in Phoenix, AZ in 2016.
Google employees are quitting the company in protest of Project Maven, the artificial intelligence collaboration with the US Department of Defense. Promising to speed up the analysis of drone footage by assessing images for photos or objects, Maven has prompted serious controversy within the search giant among those who disagree with AI being potentially involved in warfare.
Alphabet company Verily is working on a health device that collects blood using exploding micro-needles, according to sources. The device reportedly features magnets and tiny needles, attaching to the patient's body to collect blood in a less invasive way than existing blood collection tech. Sources claim the company has been working on this device for several years.
Waymo has released a video from the driverless car involved in a collision in Arizona today, suggesting there was little either the vehicle or the safety driver could have done to avoid the crash. The incident took place in Chandler, Arizona, one of the cities in which Alphabet-owned Waymo is running trials of its autonomous vehicle technology.
A Waymo self-driving minivan was involved in a crash in Arizona this afternoon, though initial reports suggest the autonomous prototype was not to blame for the collision. Waymo is one of a number of companies running driverless car trials in the state, after efforts by Arizona's governor to encourage high-tech investment with easier regulations.
Alphabet's self-driving division Waymo has applied to test driverless autonomous cars on California roads, the company has confirmed. The application was submitted earlier this week with the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Assuming sources expanding on the matter are correct, Waymo plans to start its testing in Mountain View and expand into the Bay Area later on.
Alphabet's "moonshot factory" X is tackling the world's food problems. X head Astro Teller recently revealed details about the effort at MIT Technology Review's EmTech Digital event, where he explained that machine learning is being explored as a potential boon to farming, essentially bringing an AI twist to agriculture. The project is still in its early stages, though.
Waymo just re-introduced the Jaguar I-Pace SUV, what they call the world's first premium electric self-driving car. Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover are in the mix together on this, bringing this vehicle to the self-driving world of cars - for testing - later this year. With this partnership, in the first 2-years of production, the company will be able to create 20k more vehicles for their self-driving fleet.
Waymo has shared video of the first experiences of early riders in its self-driving cars, and anybody hoping for horror or white-knuckle excitement will probably find the whole thing fairly anticlimactic. The Alphabet-owned company, spun out of Google's driverless car research, began trials in Arizona last year, but it's only recently that the state has allowed Waymo to do away with the safety driver altogether.
Strap on your VR headsets and prepare to let Waymo take the wheel. Few of us will get to hitch a ride in Waymo's self-driving minivans - at least, not for some time yet - but you can get a taste of how it feels to be chauffeured by a robot with a new Waymo 360-degree experience.
Uber has conceded to allowing an independent audit on its autonomous car technology, it's reported, as part of its lawsuit settlement with Waymo. The two companies reached an agreement to end the lawsuit today, having spent already several days in court. Uber will avoid a jury verdict as a result, but there were apparently fierce wranglings over just what the ride-sharing firm was willing to allow.
Uber v. Waymo has been settled, with Uber ending its autonomous car rival's lawsuit by coughing up an equity stake as mea culpa. The case had already begun to be heard in court this week, with Alphabet-owned Waymo alleging that Uber had misappropriated driverless car tech secrets when it brought a former Google engineer onboard to lead its autonomous vehicle team.