Mercedes-Benz safety-car concept monitors the road ahead and your kids
The Mercedes-Benz Experimental Safety Vehicle 2019 was designed for a world where humans and machines share driving duties. It can use lights to communicate with other road users, and even monitor an infant's vital signs. It's the latest in a long line of Mercedes-Benz safety-car concepts.
Faith in superior abilities of machines is key to accepting self-driving cars
Some people love the idea of self-driving cars, while other people find the concept terrifying or creepy. A new survey has revealed the biggest difference between these groups is not how open they are to new technology in general, but whether they believe machines can outperform humans in driving tasks.
Lyft taps Waymo for driverless robo-taxi rides in Phoenix
Ridesharing company Lyft is about to begin offering a robo-taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona, thanks to its partnership with autonomous-vehicle specialist Waymo. It'll begin with 10 self-driving vehicles, with Lyft customers able to request rides through the app, in the usual way.
Waymo wants you to know its autonomous driver recognizes children and cyclists
Self-driving car company Waymo published the first in a series of public-assurance promotions that depict safe behavior of Waymo's autonomous vehicles. The initial release includes videos that show how the Waymo "driver" -- the technology, not a human -- responds to school children and cyclists.
Nvidia agrees with Tesla’s take on self-driving cars, but corrects specifics
Nvidia's vice president of investor relations Rob Csongor underscored his company's agreement with broad statements by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the EV company's April 22 Autonomy Investor Day. However, Csongor took exception to what he termed were inaccuracies about Nvidia's self-driving car computer.
Tesla will have ‘autonomous robotaxis’ in 2020, Elon Musk says
Tesla will deploy self-driving cars in a "robotaxi" service in 2020, CEO Elon Musk said at the automaker's Autonomy Investor Day. Current Tesla cars have all hardware needed for fully-autonomous driving, he said.
Volkswagen puts self-driving cars to the test on the streets of German city
Volkswagen is testing prototype self-driving cars in Hamburg. The automaker claims this is the first test of autonomous cars on the streets of a major German city. Five self-driving cars operate with human safety drivers on board. VW is working with Hamburg's government on other tech initiatives.
Stanford wants to teach its autonomous race cars to learn from their past
Researchers at Stanford are working on a new way to control self-driving cars. It leverages artificial intelligence to help driverless prototypes plan their next move by analyzing data generated by the situations they have previously encountered. The technology is promising, but it's not ready for production yet.
Intel claims Nvidia copied its self-driving car strategy
Intel recently railed against competitor Nvidia for allegedly copying its self-driving technology. In particular, Intel's senior vice president Amnon Shashua says Nvidia's recently revealed “Safety Force Field” is cribbed from Intel's "Responsibility Sensitive Safety" paper published in 2017.
Aptiv releases massive self-driving car data set, aiming to boost safety research
Aptiv and its NuTonomy division are releasing a data set from self-driving car sensors in order to aid research. Data comes from real-world testing of self-driving cars in Boston and Singapore. Aptiv claims this is the largest dataset of its kind to be made available to the public.
Waymo boosts robo-taxi plans with new service center in Arizona
Waymo has announced plans for a facility in Phoenix, Arizona, that will help to service, maintain, and grow its fleet of autonomous Waymo One cars. The vehicles operate as part of the company's robo-taxi ridesharing service that launched in the area toward the end of 2018.
Automakers are spending billions on self-driving technology people are afraid of
Automakers are spending billions of dollars on developing the technology that will power self-driving cars, but research shows consumers have no interest in giving up control. Will they ever recoup their investment? The future doesn't look bright in 2019, but the next decade will bring major perception changes.
Nuro’s awesome robot delivery pods are tootling into Texas
Robo-delivery startup Nuro is taking its awesome delivery pods to Texas. The vehicles will deliver Kroger groceries to customers' doors in Houston following a successful pilot program in Scottsdale, Arizona. Nuro’s futuristic pod is driverless, though a trailing safety driver keeps an eye on its progress.
Ford to expand autonomous-car research in race to launch robo-taxi service
Ford is in a race with Waymo and GM Cruise to launch large-scale taxi and delivery services using autonomous vehicles. Already testing its technology in four U.S. cities, the automaker is reportedly making plans to expand its program to Austin, Texas, for further trials on public roads.
GM Cruise to double its autonomous-car team to meet robo-taxi goal
With its eye on the launch of a robo-taxi service by the end of 2019, General Motors' Cruise Automation says it will add 1,000 workers to its autonomous-vehicle team over the next nine months, doubling its workforce. The San Francisco-based firm launched in 2013 and was acquired by GM three years later.
The future of self-driving cars
Self-driving cars are one of the tech world’s trendiest topics right now, but they’re more complicated than just “car” or “robot car.” There are degrees of automation, with each level turning over more responsibility to machines. Here’s where self-driving cars are now, and where they’re going.
Waymo’s self-driving prototype obeys a traffic cop’s hand signals
One of Waymo's self-driving prototypes successfully navigated a situation that leaves even some human drivers confused: an intersection whose traffic lights are down. It waited for the traffic cop to wave it on. The company began teaching its cars to interpret hand gestures in 2016 as a way to keep cyclists safe.
Tesla will release fully self-driving cars in 2019 — with a big asterisk
Tesla reaffirmed its goal of releasing a fully self-driving car by the end of 2019, but it warned the system won't work perfectly 100-percent of the time. Convincing regulators that it's safe to use will require some effort, too. Elon Musk predicted Tesla owners will be able to sleep behind the wheel by 2020.
Apple opens up about its self-driving car program in letter to NHTSA
Apple has traditionally kept details about its self-driving car technology under wraps, but it has revealed details about the program in a rare instance of openness. The company takes safety seriously, and it won't fast-track the technology to production in order to beat rivals Waymo and Uber to the punch.
Waymo rules and Apple trails in California self-driving car benchmarks
Each year the State of California Department of Motor Vehicles releases reports of self-driving car disengagements for autonomous vehicles tested on public roads. Based on the most recent California data, Waymo had the best performance, GM Cruise came in second, and Apple's self-driving program was in last place.
Self-driving startup Aurora attracts major Amazon investment
Amazon is showing a growing interest in autonomous tech, having recently taken part in a $530 million funding round for Silicon Valley-based self-driving startup Aurora Innovation. Aurora was founded in 2016 by contributors to driverless-car projects run by Google (now Waymo) and Uber, among others.
U.K.’s ‘advanced’ self-driving car trials won’t require human safety drivers
The U.K. government has announced that it is moving toward 'advanced' trials of self-driving cars -- meaning trials that do not have human safety drivers on board. This is the latest part of the United Kingdom's promise to have fully self-driving cars on the road by 2021.
Waymo may take a ride with Nissan-Renault for robo-taxi services
Autonomous car company Waymo is reportedly preparing to partner with the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance to develop robo-taxis and other services linked to the technology. Waymo has already inked deals with several automakers, though this latest deal could help it to take its self-driving tech to more markets.
Want to build self-driving cars? The University of Toronto will teach you how
The University of Toronto and online-education company Coursera are offering a specialization program in self-driving cars. The series of courses provides an overview. Despite the explosion of interest in self-driving cars, relatively little attention has been paid to training people to work on them.
Lyft and Aptiv’s self-driving car program has come a long way (but not far enough)
Many companies talk about self-driving cars, but Lyft and Aptiv are already using a fleet of them to transport paying customers in Las Vegas. The two companies claim to have given about 30,000 rides in modified BMW 540i luxury cars over the past year, with rave reviews from passengers.
Nissan IMs concept teases a future long-range, autonomous electric car
Debuting at the 2019 Detroit Auto Show, the Nissan IMs is an electric car with a 380-mile range, autonomous-driving capability, and a backseat designed for being chauffeured. Too bad it's just a concept car. Nissan may eventually launch a longer-range production electric car, however.
Where are they now? A look back at last year’s Top Tech of CES winners
What happened to the 14 prize-winning products we singled out as the coolest things we saw at last year's CES 2018? Join us as we take a look at what the past 12 months has meant for each one. Spoilers: They're still as awesome as they were on the day that we first met them.
Bell is building a self-flying air taxi, and it brought a prototype to CES 2019
Bell has a long and storied history in the aviation and aerospace sectors with innovations that include WWII combat aircraft and the world's first supersonic jet plane, but it's making new history at CES 2019 by unveiling the Bell Nexus, a prototype design of a flying taxi.
Toyota’s Guardian system aims to help human drivers, not replace them
Toyota believes self-driving cars could still use a human touch. At CES 2019, the Japanese automaker offered more details on its Guardian system, which is designed to assist human drivers. Toyota plans to develop Guardian in parallel with a fully autonomous system called Chauffeur.
This futuristic autonomous pod hotel drives you around as you sleep
Toronto-based design studio Aprilli is reimagining the future of transportation with its 'Autonomous Travel Suite' concept, describing a kind of self-driving sleeper van that’s like a hotel room on wheels. Coming soon to a freeway near you? It's not as crazy as it sounds.
Toyota rolls out an updated autonomous car prototype for CES 2019
Toyota's latest autonomous-driving test car, dubbed Platform 4.0 (or P4 for short) is based on the latest Lexus LS luxury sedan. It also features more sensors and greater computing power than its predecessor. The car debuts at CES 2019 and enters Toyota's test fleet later this year.
After conquering the Sahara, the U.K.’s self-driving rover is ready for Mars
The U.K. Space Agency has completed tests of new self-driving software, which will allow future Mars exploration rovers to autonomously explore their environment. The tests were carried out in the Sahara desert, the closest thing Earth has to the harsh Martian landscape.
Waymo’s autonomous cars are coming under attack in Arizona
It's not just technological challenges that autonomous-car firms have to overcome. Waymo's testing of self-driving cars near Phoenix, Arizona, shows that they still have to win over some members of the public, too. Reports highlight a series of incidents where Waymo's cars and safety drivers have faced abuse.
Kia wants future autonomous cars to be able to read passengers’ emotions
Kia collaborated with the MIT Media Lab on a system that can recognize human emotions using artificial intelligence. The automaker believes this tech will be a valuable addition to self-driving cars. Kia will demonstrate the system, called READ, at CES 2019 in a mockup car interior.