Category: Automotive

Velodyne Lidar hires bankers for an IPO – Business Insider

A Velodyne LiDAR sensor is seen mounted on a self-driving vehicle during a self-racing cars event at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, California, U.S., April 1, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam (Reuters) – Autonomous vehicle technology company Velodyne Lidar has hired bankers for an initial public offering, Business Insider reported on Saturday, citing sources familiar with the process.… Continue reading Velodyne Lidar hires bankers for an IPO – Business Insider

“Let us go as we wish”

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Aston Martin CEO claims Valkyrie will attempt a ‘Ring record, report says – CNET

The idea that this 1,200-horsepower monster would show up to set a lap record on an open track day is bananas. Aston Martin The automotive world has been freaking right the hell out about Aston Martin’s technological tour-de-force: the Valkyrie. I mean, there’s every reason to. It’s got a naturally aspirated V12 that revs to… Continue reading Aston Martin CEO claims Valkyrie will attempt a ‘Ring record, report says – CNET

India asks scooter, bike makers to draw up plan for EVs

NEW DELHI, June 22 (Reuters) – India's federal think-tank has asked scooter and motorbike manufacturers to draw up a plan to switch to electric vehicles, days after they publicly opposed the government's proposals saying they would disrupt the sector, two sources told Reuters.
Niti Aayog officials met with executives from companies including Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and TVS late on Friday, giving them two weeks to come up with the plan, according to one of the executives.
The think-tank, which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and plays a key role in policymaking, had recommended that only electric models of scooters and motorbikes with engine capacity of more than 150cc must be sold from 2025, sources have told Reuters.
Automakers opposed the proposal and warned that a sudden transition, at a time when auto sales have slumped to a two-decade low, would cause market disruption and job losses.
India is one of the world’s largest two wheeler markets with sales of more..

Daimler to recall 60,000 Mercedes diesels in Germany over emissions

The Daimler logo is seen before the Daimler annual shareholder meeting in Berlin, Germany, April 5, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Daimler must recall 60,000 Mercedes diesel cars in Germany after regulators found that they were fitted with software aimed at distorting emissions tests, the Transportation Ministry said on Saturday. The model affected is… Continue reading Daimler to recall 60,000 Mercedes diesels in Germany over emissions

Via Far Outpaces Uber, Lyft in NYC Utilization

Published June 21, 2019 6:01 pm, Via NYC
Via Far Outpaces Uber, Lyft in NYC Utilization
A new study by the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commissions reveals Via has a substantially higher utilization rate than its competition, cutting down on ‘cruising’

Newly proposed ride-hailing regulations in New York City reveal that Via is outpacing the competition yet again, this time showing that Via has a dramatically higher utilization rate than its competitors.

That’s according to a new study by the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission on how to improve efficiency and manage for-hire vehicle growth in NYC. The city announced it will soon require for-hire vehicles in Manhattan be empty no more than 36 percent of the time by February 2020, and 31 percent by August 2020. But according to the TLC, Via is already at only 13 percent, while every other company is at least 42 percent.

According to the report, Via “has a substantially higher utilization in the Manhattan core (87%) than do Uber, Lyft, or Juno (54-58% in the Manhattan core). Of the other three high-volume FHV companies, Uber has the highest utilization and Juno the lowest, but the difference is small.”

Taking home the top spot for utilization is nothing new for Via, either. In 2018, the TLC reported that Via had the highest utilization rate of any for-hire vehicle service in New York City. Since launching in 2013, 95 percent of the company’s rides in NYC have been booked as shared. To date, Via’s shared rides eliminated 30 million driver miles on New York streets.

That’s compared to self-reported data from Uber and Lyft, which saw only 20 percent and 35 percent booked as shared, respectively.

The city’s latest report on utilization, however, comes just months after it mandated widespread driver wage increases, where it became clear that Via already paid its drivers far above the new minimum wage restrictions. And not by coincidence, Via’s higher driver pay and vehicle utilization are linked.

The TLC’s new report outlines how Uber, Lyft and Juno’s low utilization rates “cause drivers to spend over 40% of total work time empty and cruising for passengers. Combined with decreasing per-trip pay, this underutilization led to significant declines in driver income.”

Much like NYC’s updated minimum wage requirements, Via is already far exceeding the city’s new proposed “cruising” requirement. New York officials are now demanding that Uber, Lyft and Juno play catch-up.

Between Via’s exceptional utilization rate and high driver wages, the company continues to prove that it’s possible to run a highly efficient transportation service that both treats drivers fairly and reduces traffic congestion.

Read more

Airbus-owned Voom will compete with Uber Copter in the US in 2019

The U.S. air taxi market is heating up: Aeronautics industry giant Airbus will be among the companies operating on-demand air travel service in 2019 in American skies, FastCompany reports. Airbus’ Voom on-demand helicopter shuttle operation will set up shop in the U.S. starting this fall, after previously providing service exclusively in Latin America. Uber announced… Continue reading Airbus-owned Voom will compete with Uber Copter in the US in 2019

AEye Team Profile: Vivek Thotla

On June 26th, AEye Staff Engineer, Vivek Thotla, will be speaking on a panel called “Should We Take CV To The Edge?” at IoT Forum on Computer Vision @ Sensors Expo.
Vivek is a staff engineer at AEye, where he leads product verification and validation, and is responsible for LiDAR simulation and data strategy in producing automotive grade products. Previously, he was a Component Owner / Functional Delivery Owner for point cloud algorithms at Continental, where he was responsible for planning, requirements, design and development of embedded platform-based algorithms for a Hi-Res 3D Flash LiDAR, in addition to enforcing ADAS process stages to meet ASPICE levels and functional safety. He has also held engineering roles at Tribis, AmpliSine Labs, Missouri S&T and Enigma Portal. Vivek holds an MBA in Information Technology Project Management and a PhD and Masters in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering.

We sat down with Vivek to learn more about the advantages of integrating computer vision at the sensor, building automotive grade LiDAR products, and why he decided to move to the Bay Area.

Q: How much of an autonomous vehicle’s computer vision should be done at the sensor, as opposed to a central processor?
The amount of data produced today by a perception system is enormous. And incorporating all the data from the different kinds of sensors used (like radar, camera, and LiDAR) makes it very difficult and expensive to process and store. In a typical perception system, roughly 80% of the data produced by the sensors is thrown out.

However, intelligent sensors – like what we develop at AEye – are software definable. Meaning, you can adjust its settings to get high resolution data from an object and get sparse data in the background, cutting down the overall amount of data processed by more than 80%. This makes computer vision algorithms at the central processor faster and efficient because once you preprocess data, latency becomes less of an issue. Currently, AV companies are spending a tremendous amount of money storing useless data. Preprocessing saves both time and money.

Q: What is the largest challenge in producing automotive grade LiDAR products?
Industry wide, the greatest challenge is maintaining the quality, reliability, and consistency needed on all components and software that go into a LiDAR sensor of over 100,000 samples or more and over the sensor’s lifetime. Another major challenge for bringing LiDAR products to the automotive market is designing the sensor to fit in different regions of the car. There are a lot of constraints based on where the sensor is placed on the vehicle and certain issues that arise from each placement. For example, a sensor placed behind a windshield might need a completely different design than a sensor that’s placed in the front bumper.

There are many interesting LiDAR architectures out there that work really well at smaller samples and in the lab. But the moment the product needs to scale and deal with all the quality and environmental requirements of being an automotive grade product, they fail. AEye is mitigating these challenges by partnering directly with Tier 1’s who know the process of making large-scale, automotive grade products. In my own experience, I’ve found that once a Tier 1 partners with you, they are extremely supportive because they believe in you, and that proves you are capable of achieving it.

In addition to our partners who help us push the sensor to automotive grade, we have a great functional safety team here at AEye. I came to AEye from a Tier 1, so I know what goes into developing an automotive grade sensor, and the AEye team is made up of people from all over the automotive industry that have great, diverse insight into how to bring a product to market.

Q: You moved to the Bay Area from Santa Barbara. What was it about Silicon Valley that drew you here?
It has always been my dream to come to Silicon Valley – you hear about it so much as the epicenter of technology and innovation. And it’s true: Silicon Valley is at the heart of the autonomous driving industry. All the innovative and novel work happening today in the LiDAR industry is happening here and I did not want to miss my chance to help develop the tools for true autonomy.

Connect with AEye at Sensors Expo! Learn more here.

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Natron Energy to add sodium-ion batteries to fast charging station at UC San Diego

Natron Energy, a developer of sodium-ion batteries, has received a $3-million grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to manufacture and install an energy storage system at a fast charging station on the University of California San Diego’s campus. Natron says the project will result in a cost-competitive, at-scale alternative to Li-ion batteries and offer… Continue reading Natron Energy to add sodium-ion batteries to fast charging station at UC San Diego