Detroit may be the next stop for Uber’s self-driving cars

By Stephen Edelstein Published September 20, 2016

Hot on the heels of the launch of its self-driving car demo in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Uber has hinted that it may expand to the heart of the U.S. auto industry.

The ridesharing company plans to open a facility in Detroit, Michigan, according to Automotive News (subscription required). Sherif Marakby, Uber vice president of global vehicle programs, reportedly mentioned these plans at a recent event hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in the Motor City. A Detroit outpost could help facilitate partnerships with the automakers and suppliers that are vital to Uber’s autonomous-car efforts.

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Marakby said Uber plans to work with Tier 1 suppliers, the companies that supply parts directly to automakers, rather than design major hardware components itself. Along with Pittsburgh, Detroit could also become a testing ground for Uber’s autonomous ridesharing service. Michigan is one of a handful of states that has explicitly legalized the testing of self-driving cars on public roads.

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Read more: Ford engineers will work at new University of Michigan robotics lab

The home state of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler is attracting more interest from companies developing autonomous cars. Earlier this year, Faraday Future discussed plans to test self-driving cars in the state. Google will open a Michigan outpost as part of its collaboration with Chrysler. And Ford is testing its own autonomous cars near its headquarters in Dearborn, and at the University of Michigan’s “Mcity” facility in Ann Arbor.

The Pittsburgh pilot program, which launched last week, uses modified Ford Fusion sedans built by Uber. Each car travels with a human driver behind the wheel as a backup, and is assigned to randomly pick up passengers who have agreed to participate in the program. Rides are free for the time being.

Uber also has an existing partnership with an automaker, but not one that hails from Detroit. Volvo has an agreement to provide cars as platforms for future Uber autonomous vehicles, and the two companies have pledged a combined $300 million to joint research efforts.

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Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

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The UK’s Wayve brings its AI automated driving software to U.S. shores

wayve ai automated driving us driver assist2 1920x1152 1

It might seem that the autonomous driving trend is moving at full speed and on its own accord, especially if you live in California.Wayve, a UK startup that has received over $1 billion in funding, is now joining the crowded party by launching on-road testing of its AI learning system on the streets of San Francisco and the Bay Area.The announcement comes just weeks after Tesla unveiled its Robotaxi at the Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, California. It was also in San Francisco that an accident last year forced General Motors’ robotaxi service Cruise to stop its operations. And it’s mostly in California that Waymo, the only functioning robotaxi service in the U.S., first deployed its fleet of self-driving cars. As part of its move, Wayve opened a new office in Silicon Valley to support its U.S. expansion and AI development. Similarly to Tesla’s Full-Self Driving (FSD) software, the company says it’s using AI to provide automakers with a full range of driver assistance and automation features.“We are now testing our AI software in real-world environments across two continents,” said Alex Kendall, Wayve co-founder and CEO.The company has already conducted tests on UK roads since 2018. It received a huge boost earlier this year when it raised over $1 billion in a move led by Softbank and joined by Microsoft and Nvidia. In August, Uber also said it would invest to help the development of Wayve’s technology.Just like Tesla’s FSD, Wayve’s software provides an advanced driver assistance system that still requires driver supervision.Before driverless vehicles can legally hit the road, they must first pass strict safety tests.So far, Waymo’s technology, which relies on pre-mapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), is the only of its kind to have received the nod from U.S. regulators.

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Are self-driving cars the death of car ownership?

Tesla Cybercab at night

Self-driving cars are coming. It remains to be seen how long that will take. Plenty of vehicles can more or less drive themselves on highways, but for now, they still can't completely reliably drive themselves on all streets, in all conditions, taking into account all different variables. One thing is clear, though: the tech industry sees autonomous driving as the future of personal transportation, and they're spending billions to reach that goal.

But what happens when we get there? Tesla made headlines for not only announcing its new Cybercab fully autonomous vehicle, but simultaneously claiming that customers will be able to buy one. That's right, at least if Tesla is to be believed, the Cybercab doesn't necessarily represent Tesla building its own Uber-killing fleet of self-driving cars, but instead giving people the ownership over the self-driving car industry.

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Waymo’s Hyundai robotaxi deal may steal the show from Tesla

A Hyundai Ioniq 5 is equipped as a robotaxi.

Just days ahead of Tesla’s much anticipated robotaxi event on Thursday, Hyundai unveiled a partnership with Waymo that will add Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 to the fleet of the robotaxi operator.In the first phase of the partnership, Waymo will integrate its sixth-generation fully autonomous technology, called the Waymo Driver, into the all-electric Ioniq 5 SUV, which will be added to the Waymo One fleet over time.On-road testing with Waymo-enabled Ioniq 5s is due to start in late 2025 and become available to riders of the Waymo One robotaxi service the following year.Alphabet-owned Waymo currently operates the only functioning robotaxi service in the U.S., with a fleet of about 700 self-driving vehicles already on the road in Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The service is also being tested in Austin, Texas.Last year, General Motors’ competing robotaxi service Cruise had to stop operations after one of its vehicles struck a pedestrian in San Francisco. Cruise’s GM vehicles are nonetheless expected to resume operations next year through a partnership with Uber.Driverless vehicles have stumbled on two main obstacles on the road to commercialization: The complexity of the technology and tight safety regulations.For now, Waymo’s existing footprint gives it a marked advantage over its competitors. Its sixth-generation technology is said to handle a wider array of weather conditions with fewer on-board cameras and sensors. In their joint statement, Waymo and Hyundai emphasized the proven safety of both the Waymo technology and the Ioniq 5. Waymo’s technology relies on pre-mapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar and lidar (a laser-light radar). It's an approach that might be very costly but has met the approval of safety regulators. All this adds pressure on Tesla to deliver the goods with the launch of its robotaxi -- expected to be called the Cybercab.Tesla’s ambition has been to eventually provide full driverless capacity directly to consumers. Tesla owners can already buy software called Full Self-Driving (FSD) that operates like an advanced driver assistance system and requires constant driver supervision.Tesla’s FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.The technology, however, has not yet convinced all current and former traffic safety officials.