Driverless Features
News: Driverless, Autonomous, Self-Driving… Naming a Baby Is Easier Than Naming New Car Tech
Many new parents will tell you how hard it is to name a baby. Some have stories of how they knew what the name of their child would be from before conception, only to change their mind when they were born. Sometimes new babies can go weeks without a name since there is an endless selection to choose from.
News: Audi Set to Launch Level 3 Model — But You Have to Hack It for Self-Drive
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.
News: Velodyne Joins the Cheap Solid-State LiDAR Game with the Velarray Sensor
Velodyne wants to set the standard for the driverless industry when it comes to LiDAR. To do that, the Silicon Valley-based team just announced its next step — create a low-cost, fixed-laser sensor that can be embedded into a wide range of automotive and autonomous vehicles. That next step is named the Velarray. A sturdy, compact, and affordable LiDAR laser.
News: Can Volvo Deliver Level 4 by 2021?
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.
News: Self-Driving Race Car Successfully Completes Full-Speed Lap
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.
News: Apple's Self-Driving Dream Team Revealed! Meet Ruslan Salakhutdinov & His Crew
Rumors that Apple is honing its automated car technology have skyrocketed. Thanks, now, in no small part to some enterprising members of the media who leaked the names of Apple's self-driving car team to the public.
News: Head of FedEx Freight Wants Laws to Make Truck Drivers More Like Pilots
We've heard a lot about self-driving taxis, as car and ride-sharing companies compete to win the driverless gold rush. But FedEx wants to bring its enterprise into the mix, as the head of its freight division has asked the US government to develop laws for self-driving trucks.
News: Google's Self-Driving Car Job Postings Hint at Big Things Coming
Alphabet's moonshot factory, X (formerly "Google X"), is a secretive place, but it seems that when they are close to graduating a project, then they need to staff it up quickly. Watching for these job ads is one easy way to know they're close to budding off a baby.
News: Why You're Probably Always Going to See Those Ugly Dome-Shaped LiDARs on Driverless Fleet Cars
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.
News: Who the Heck Is NOT Using Nvidia?
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.
News: Sony Develops New HDR Camera Sensors for Self-Driving Cars
In the driverless race, technological advances can sometimes just add more tension to an already heated competition, if Waymo suing Uber over their allegedly stolen LiDAR technology is any indication. Now, Sony is offering a new camera sensor, one that should help self-driving cars "see" the road with much more accuracy than any other camera sensors available for vehicles currently.
News: Waymo's Move to Trucks Should Be a Smooth Ride
Waymo's transfer of its driverless car know-how to commercial trucks will likely pose few challenges for the self-driving unit of Alphabet, which owns Google.
News: A 22-Year-Old May Be About to Disrupt the Entire LiDAR Industry
Uber has been in the hot seat for awhile now, for many reasons, especially for being sued by Waymo over stolen LiDAR designs. But now, perhaps the attention will be taken off both Uber and Waymo as a new contender enters the LiDAR arena; A small, independent company called Luminar has finally let the world in on what it has been cooking up.
News: So Long, Bird Poop! Waymo's Plans for Dirty LiDARs Revealed
Waymo has done a lot of things over the course of their driverless journey, but their solution to little birdies pooping all over a self-driving car's LiDAR system is definitely our favorite.
News: And Suddenly, Tesla Becomes a $5.9 Billion Car Brand with 32% Jump in Value
Demand for Tesla's driverless features as well as its ultra-long battery ranges and a reputation for offering the best-in-class electric car driving experience helped Tesla see a 32% surge in its value as a brand, topping out at $5.9 billion in the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study, released June 5.
News: A Fatal Airbus Crash Paints an Ugly Picture for the Future of Level 3 Cars
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.
News: Quanergy CEO & Founder Louay Eldada on Early LiDAR Development & the Driverless Revolution
Quanergy CEO and founder Louay Eldada is, by any standard of measure, a pioneer in the development of LiDARs for driverless vehicles.
News: Waymo Taps Avis to Manage Its Driverless Fleet
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.
News: 'Google's' Self-Driving Car Just Graduated—Welcome to Waymo
Earlier today, Alphabet announced that the Self-Driving Car Project has officially graduated from their innovation factory (X) and will now operate as an independent company called Waymo.
News: Guess Who's Back? Sherif Marakby Returns to Ford After Uber Stint
Sherif Marakby has returned to Ford as the VP of AVs & Electrification after a brief stint with Uber. Marakby's VP title will be effective June 12.
News: Waymo Kills Much-Hyped 'Fireflies' in Shift Away from Designing Own Cars
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.
Today's Top News: Tesla Jumps Aheads with a Truly 'Silk Smooth' Autopilot Update
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.
News: Google's New Self-Driving Car Spinout Waymo Debuts Their Fleet of 100 Chrysler Pacificas
Last week it was announced that Waymo, the former Google Self-Driving Car project, had graduated from Alphabet's X innovation center. This graduation had been in the cards for many months with senior members of the project team and X hinting that it would be soon.
Today's Top News: Lyft Is Going to Keep the Dude in the Car
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.
News: The Audi A8 Is Smart Enough to Read & React to Signposts
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.
News: To Avoid Crashes, Cadillac's Super Cruise Will Only Work on Highways
It be would the ideal morning commute—sit back, drink some coffee, and read the news as your car drives you to your destination. That reality isn't quite here yet, but Cadillac is offering something close with "Super Cruise" on the CT6.
News: Valeo R&D VP Guillaume Devauchelle on Why Waymo Can't Go It Alone
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.
News: Ford Pins Its Survival on Driverless with Its New CEO Appointment
Ford's appointment of Jim Hackett as its new president and CEO reflects how the company is largely pinning its long-term survival hopes on its driverless business. Following his previous role as head of Ford's Smart Mobility division, which overseas Ford's autonomous driving activity, Hackett will help the company take a more self-driving direction as a whole.
News: Tesla Says New Autopilot Is Now as Good as Old One
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.
News: Google's Self-Driving Car Is Here & You've Gotta See This Thing in Action
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past five years, you've at least heard murmurs of Google's self-driving car, with Big G even getting California and Nevada to sign off on legislation to allow these motorist-less vehicles on the road. But now, Google is showing off their in-house manufactured vehicle, as opposed to the Prius' that doned their hardware in the past. And it's...well, it's something.
Today's Top News: Tesla Discretely Preps Autopilot Gearshift for Level 4 Before Everybody Else
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.
News: New Shots of Model 3 Shows Tesla Is Doubling Down on Cameras
While it may seem like the Cold War 2.0 is happening, at least some US spies are getting the content Americans need. That's right, Electrek has gotten some new pictures of the Tesla Model 3.
News: DMV Accident Reports & Cruise's Driverless Videos Show How Dumb Human Drivers Are
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.
News: Elon Musk Gives Preview of Nearly Complete Tesla Model 3
Just like a rapper engaged in tweet feud, Elon Musk was working overtime on Twitter this morning, dropping information about the upcoming Tesla Model 3. He even gave a sneak peek of the "release candidate" version of the car, sharing a brief clip of the car driving, which, let's be real, doesn't really tell us anything. Aside from the video, Musk also revealed the fun fact that the car gots its name after Ford sued Tesla for trying to name it the Model E, which would make the abbreviation of ...
Today's Top News: BMW, GM, Toyota Invest $114 Million in Camera Startup as the VC Spending Tap Gushes
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.
Today's Top News: CEO Arrested After Baidu Pulls Crazy Stunt to Show China's Still in the Driverless Race
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.
News: Former Google Self-Driving Car Boss Receives Funds for New Project
Google's former driverless car boss Chris Urmson raised considerable funds to get his new startup company Aurora Innovation up and running. Axios initially reported that Urmson raised over $3 million to fund his brainchild in the wake of his Alphabet exit, according to an SEC filing.
Today's Top News: Tesla Quietly Upgrades Autopilot Hardware
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.
News: Here's How Apple Is Training Their Self-Driving Car Engineers
Apple staff will be put through their paces now that the company's "Automated System" for driverless cars is in motion.
News: Show's Over, Shakespeare! Self-Driving Cars Will Be Tested in Stratford
Stratford may soon become Canada's answer to Silicon Valley as the driverless car industry arrives. Potentially changing the character of the Ontario town known for hosting the Stratford Festival, a celebration of all things Shakespearean and stage-related.