autonomous

The rules for autonomous cars in the US are being updated, with the NHTSA announcing an overhaul that addresses driverless vehicles with no traditional controls, and AVs that aren't designed to carry people at all. Billed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as an "historic step" that should help remove regulatory barriers to deploying autonomous vehicles, it also exempts some types of AV from certain crash-testing.

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Apple reportedly weighed acquiring or investing in electric vehicle startup Canoo, potentially tapping its innovative drive-by-wire platform as it works on its own autonomous EVs. While Apple's Project Titan - the in-house team working on car and driverless tech - has seen its longterm goal evolve over the years since its existence was revealed, currently the group is believed to be developing a full Apple vehicle that would showcase its technology.

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Intel and Mobileye have developed a pair of new sensors for autonomous vehicles, aiming to bring radar and LIDAR down in price and help power driverless cars that can train each other to deal with new locations. Announced at CES 2021, the new sensors look to tackle one of the biggest hurdles for making autonomous vehicles more prevalent, by bringing down the cost of the comprehensive sensor suites that they use to see the world around them.

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Automotive manufacturers are moving towards integrating all sorts of telematics features into vehicles of the future. These features bring baked in high-speed Internet connectivity for streaming data to and from a vehicle. Samsung Electronics introduced the first 5G-ready telematics control unit (TCU) in 2019. Samsung is now talking about its 5G mmWave TCU that will enable new functionality.

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Cruise AV, the GM-backed autonomous vehicle startup aiming to replace cabs with driverless electric pods, has brought in the big guns as it readies for a broad robotaxi rollout. Gil West, former Delta Air Lines Chief Operating Officer, has joined Cruise as its new COO, where he'll be responsible for figuring out how to launch autonomy at scale.

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For years, Apple has been repeatedly rumored to be setting its sights on self-driving cars. Those rumors seem to have come to a head in the past few weeks, with more concrete talks of Apple's plans, especially in the battery department. The latest word now is that Apple is in talks with South Korean car manufacturer Hyundai and, judging by how the latter's share immediately jumped, interest in this venture is pretty high, as are the expectations around Apple's self-driving car that may not even appear until 2028.

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Waymo is drawing a line in the sand for driverless terminology, announcing today that it will no longer refer to its vehicles as "self-driving" and arguing that the industry needs more consistency in how it refers to cars that can operate themselves. Though the language change may seem slight, the Alphabet-owned company concedes, it's actually key to making sure human drivers know just what is and isn't required from them in future vehicles.

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The media frenzy around self-driving vehicles has mostly been drowned out by this year's more pressing concerns. That said, the need for contactless ways to transport goods has actually become even more important exactly because of those concerns. Deliveries have become more common, especially in places where movement has been restricted but human drivers and couriers still pose a health risk these days. It's pretty opportune, then, that Nuro just received California's deploy permit that allows it to commercially operate its autonomous vehicles to make deliveries in two counties.

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Some rumors just never seem to die, and the Apple car is shaping up to be an excellent example of that. Ever since the existence of Apple's Project Titan team was first revealed in 2014, we've seen a "will they, won't they" speculation frenzy as to just what the Cupertino firm has in mind, and what it intends to actually sell.

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The Apple car is still on the roadmap, insiders say, with the long-rumored electric vehicle potentially aiming for a 2024 launch. The subject of numerous leaks over the past years, the EV - which is part of Apple's Project Titan, an internal group focused on automotive and self-driving technologies - would see Apple expand its ambitions to create a full vehicle.

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Following favorable legislation recently passed in the state, Walmart has tapped autonomous vehicle company Gatik to launch a grocery delivery pilot in Arkansas. Under this pilot, Walmart will test the use of autonomous vehicles for customer grocery delivery, though the pilot will be restricted to a small region in Bentonville.

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Autonomous vehicle startup Zoox has revealed its self-driving car, a purpose-designed robotaxi that the Amazon subsidiary says is ready for the road. Founded in 2014, Zoox was bought by Amazon earlier this year and has come up with a distinctively different take on the driverless vehicle category compared to most vehicles we see claiming to be autonomous.

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