Driverless Features
News: Does the A8's 37.3 Mph Limit Mean Audi's Jumped the Shark to Level 3?
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.
News: Quora's Director of Engineering Leaves to Head Deep Learning Driverless Startup Drive.ai
It may seem strange to find the director of engineering at a question-and-answer site all of a sudden pick up and lead a new driverless startup, but to Kah Seng Tay, both engineering tasks require building the right infrastructure to handle large amounts of AI data.
News: Tata Elxsi Licenses Driverless Software to Top-Five Carmaker, Doesn't Say Which One
Global design and technology services company Tata Elxsi says it has licensed its advanced autonomous vehicle middleware platform "AUTONOMAI" to a "leading automotive OEM."
Today's Top News: Avis Manages Waymo's Driverless Fleet, Apple Goes with Hertz, Volvo to Offer Level 4 by 2021
There was big news today from Google, Apple, Volvo, and Nvidia regarding their self-driving efforts.
Today's Top News: Lyft, Faraday Recruit Top Brass, but Finding Driverless Engineers Remains a Struggle
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.
Today's Top News: BMW Slashes Combustion Engine Costs by 1 Billion Euros in Auto Industry Shift to Driverless & EVs
The auto industry continues to shift into high gear to lay the groundwork for driverless cars with an electric vehicle (EV) emphasis.
News: Tesla Seeks Deep-Dive Research Lead with Autopilot Firing & Hiring
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.
News: Q&A with Senior Director Danny Shapiro: How Nvidia Is Working with Over 225 Different Driverless Customers
Nvidia's decades-long development of graphics processor units (GPU) for PCs has given it a major leg up in the driverless space.
News: Faraday Has Little Luck Filling Empty Engineer Slots, Left with Gutted Driverless Program
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.
News: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Is Out Amid Turmoil
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.
News: Continental to Supply Driverless Tech to Startup NIO in China
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.
News: Uber Finally Turns Against Levandowski to Save Its Own Skin
Uber's legal team may have finally sold their engineering golden boy down the river as their war with Waymo continues. Anthony Levandowski isn't your average sacrificial lamb either — given the alleged stealing and all that — but Uber seems set on distancing themselves from this whole fiasco as fast as they can.
News: Nissan to Offer Driverless in Europe with SUV Launches
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.
News: Intel Hunts for Partners After Driverless Garage Launch
Intel launched their Advanced Vehicle Lab in Silicon Valley this week, and the tech giant is now on the hunt for potential partners.
News: Survey Finds the Obvious, Says Safety Top Concern of Potential Flying Car Owners
It seems like everyone wants to be flying without wings these days, and some big players in the autonomous car industry want a piece of that airborne action. Google co-founder Larry Page just invested in flying car startup Kitty Hawk, while Uber is adamant that its own-brand of flying vehicles will be zooming around the US come 2020.
News: 'Hackers-for-Hire' Attempted to Steal Baidu's Self-Driving Car Secrets
Baidu Inc, the "Chinese Google" search engine and technology company, which has been actively pursuing self-driving cars, reported that a gang of hackers recently attempted to steal its driverless car technology.
Today's Top News: Baidu Reportedly Thinks It Can Lead the World in Driverless by 2020
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.
News: Level 3 Cars Could Be Required to Spy on Drivers
Both the US and UK seem to be leaning toward requiring level 3 autonomous cars to train their "eyes" not just on the outside world, but even on the driver itself.
Today's Top News: Unions Wise Up to Commercial Trucks
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.
Today's Top News: Automakers Put Driverless Through the Paces with Searing Heat & Chaotic Conditions
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.
Today's Top News: Forget Volvo — VW Aims to Take Out Tesla with Worldwide EV & Driverless Rollout
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.
Today's Top News: Audi Slaps Silicon Valley with the First Level 3 Debut
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.
News: Uber Facing Criminal Probe, Maybe Much Worse
Uber's year is going from bad to worse, and they may be subject to a potential criminal probe in the ongoing Waymo legal battle.
News: Life Becomes More Difficult for Driverless Hackers
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), a leading IT trade association, has published its first report on risks and recommendations for connected-vehicle security, ahead of when driverless cars are about to see volume production in the near future.
News: Nissan & Renault Alliance Prepares Launch of Driverless 'Robo-Vehicles'
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.
News: Toyota Puts Blockchain to the Test for Data Security
Toyota is testing blockchain and distributed ledger technology (BC/DL) for data sharing for driverless cars and other applications. This could eventually reassure buyers of its upcoming high-end cars by making sure their sensitive data is secure.
News: Uber's Next Big Step Is Convincing You to Fly
Uber wants you to forget about cars and start thinking about fully autonomous flying as an alternative—a more "economically favorable" way of getting to your grinding nine-to-five.
It's Official: CEO Cook Confirms Apple Is Developing Driverless Software
Apple is working on autonomous systems for vehicles, which could then be implemented with the help of car manufacturers.
Forget Waymo or Uber: New Navigant Research Leaderboard Declares Ford the New King of Driverless
When we talk about driverless technology, the go-to companies are usually Waymo, Uber, or Tesla. However, traditional automakers like Ford and GM are also staking claims to the driverless and advanced driver assistance spaces.
News: Baidu Announces Apollo Platform to Speed Up Development of Driverless Cars
Chinese search engine giant, Baidu, has just announced its own autonomous car platform which is intended to speed up the development of driverless vehicles.
News: Chinese VCs Spent Over $900 Million on Driverless in Q1
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.
News: Waymo Claims Former Uber CEO Kalanick Knew About Stolen Documents as More Case Details Unfold
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.
News: Uber's Autonomous Cars Require Driver Intervention Every Mile
Leaked documents from Uber, obtained by Re/code, detail the ride-hailing app's latest wins and failures in their self-driving experiment. The reports detail the number of autonomous miles traveled, the number of driver interventions needed, and the number of times the drivers had to avoid serious damage.
News: Uber Admits to Finding Stolen Waymo Document on Employee Device
In a twist in the tumultuous lawsuit between Uber and Waymo, Uber revealed today that they found a document on an employee device, allegedly stolen from Waymo.
Today's Top News: A Multibillion-Dollar Investment by Softbank Could Revive Uber's Uncertain Driverless Program
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.
News: Take Me to the Ballgame — in a Driverless Shuttle
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.
News: Silicon Valley Big Shots Courted by Ford & GM
The driverless competition is heating up as Detroit automakers attempt to woo tech talent away from some of Silicon Valley's biggest players.
News: Nissan Joins Mobileye's Real-Time Map System for Self-Driving Cars
One thing you don't see often in the driverless industry are partnerships. When automakers are in the news together, it usually means drama. However, an important partnership between Nissan and Mobileye was announced today. One that has the potential to make driverless cars on the road better and safer.
Today's Top News: Volvo Goes All-Electric, Joins Full-Court Press Against Tesla
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.
News: Partnership with nuTonomy Expands Lyft's Asian Footprint
Uber's struggles are expected help Lyft get ahead in driverless development as it confirms its third partnership with autonomous tech company nuTonomy today.