Zoox is a company that has been building and testing autonomous L3 vehicles for the last four years. So far, all of the testing is being conducted in Las Vegas and San Francisco, giving them lots of information on how the hardware reacts in warmer and drier climates. Zoox is now gearing up to test its autonomous vehicles in other parts of the country, subjecting them to different environmental conditions.
GM-backed Cruise aims to have a million autonomous vehicles on the road by 2030, an aggressively ambitious target that comes as General Motors looks increasingly to EVs and high-tech transportation to bolster profits. Cruise - majority-owned by GM, though which counts Walmart and others as investors - is readying its first custom design vehicle, the Origin AV, built atop GM's Ultium electric platform.
Tesla plans to release its latest "Full Self-Driving" beta to drivers at the end of the week, Elon Musk confirmed today, though only those owners deemed to be safest behind the wheel will get the newest software. The automaker is using a so-called Safety Score system to gatekeeper access to the functionality, a decision which has become fairly controversial in recent weeks.
FedEx, PACCAR, and Aurora announced an "industry-first collaboration" for real-deal autonomous semi truck deliveries in Texas. The first commercial pilot will "regularly and autonomously" haul FedEx deliveries between Dallas and Houston along the I-45 corridor. That 500-mile round trip will include a safety driver (just in case something goes amiss), and initiates Aurora's latest development phase: "Refine and Pilot."
Ford and autonomous vehicle company Argo AI are working with Walmart to launch a driverless delivery service, with the goal of filling in the last mile of home orders. It'll be the retail behemoth's first multi-city autonomous delivery collaboration in the US, Walmart said today, and see the total number of locations taken to three.
NASA is looking into the factors behind fatigued driving and how new automation technologies may both help -- and exacerbate -- the problem. Drowsy driving is responsible for many vehicular accidents and deaths every year, according to the NHTSA, but partially automated vehicles equipped with smart features may make this issue worse, not better.
Tesla has a large early access fleet consisting of owners of its vehicles who are willing to beta test software. Tesla often pushes new software updates out to this smaller number of users before rolling it out to the masses. Reports are coming in that Tesla started pushing its Full Self-Driving Beta v10 software out to owners who are part of its early access fleet.
Police in Singapore have announced that, for the first time, they will conduct a trial that will see robots patrolling the streets augmenting police officers. The robot, called Xavier, is part of a project that involves five public agencies in Singapore, including HDX, National Environment Agency, Land Transport Authority, Singapore Food Agency, and Housing & Development Board. Xavier will patrol the streets during a three-week trial launching on September 5.
In Munich, automakers and partners are gearing up for the first IAA Mobility conference. Two of the companies showing off high-tech vehicles during the show are Argo AI and Volkswagen. They are showing off the all-electric ID. BUZZ AD, the "AD" in the name stands for Autonomous Driving.
A new study has looked into the science behind microscale concave interfaces (MCI). This type of structure reflects light and can produce rainbows which are potentially useful optical phenomena. The goal of this study was to learn how the technology works. The paper outlines how light interacts with an MCI, hoping to open the door for potential uses down the road.
People worldwide are being encouraged to transition from conventional combustion engine vehicles to hybrid or fully electric vehicles. Pressure is being put on fleet operators that have large fleets of vehicles, such as taxi and ride-hailing services, to transition away from combustion vehicles to EVs. At the same time, ride-hailing services are also working to integrate autonomous vehicles into their fleets for safety and reduced costs.
Waymo is pulling the plug on its ambitions to be a LIDAR supplier, with the autonomous vehicle company set to be the only customer for its homegrown sensor tech. LIDAR - or light detection and ranging - sensors have become commonplace in developing self-driving vehicles, though Waymo had hoped to push adoption of the technology in other industries.