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Man says CES lidar’s laser was so powerful it wrecked his $1,998 camera – Ars Technica

A man attending this week’s CES show in Las Vegas says that a lidar sensor from startup AEye has permanently damaged the sensor on his $1,998 Sony camera. Earlier this week, roboticist and entrepreneur Jit Ray Chowdhury snapped photos of a car at CES with AEye’s lidar units on top. He discovered that every subsequent… Continue reading Man says CES lidar’s laser was so powerful it wrecked his $1,998 camera – Ars Technica

Tesla Autopilot Miles Soaring

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Published on January 5th, 2019 |

by Zachary Shahan

Tesla Autopilot Miles Soaring

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January 5th, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

Tesla Autopilot miles have been soaring as the company has scored insane sales growth in recent quarters. None of those Autopilot miles have been fully autonomous, of course. However, what many Tesla enthusiasts have learned — yet much of the market seems to discount or not know at all — is that Tesla vehicles with Autopilot hardware (which is all new Teslas in recent years) are learning with every tire rotation. The ones with the software enabled must be a learning a bit more, since they are processing how Autopilot thinks it should drive and where and how drivers occasionally correct it, but I’m sure the vehicles with Autopilot latent are still gathering important data.

It is the deep learning aspect of Tesla vehicles that makes Tesla’s move toward autonomy seem so formidable. Sure, Waymo uses deep learning as well and has a compelling approach to autonomy that is moving forward and even, within the limits the technology can operate, trialling full self-driving without a human technician onboard. But Waymo’s system is built around limited geographical areas, a very limited vehicle fleet, and more limited learning. Tesla has a fleet of hundreds of thousands that is growing by ~90,000 vehicles per quarter at the moment and is not built around a dependency on super precise maps.

As Mike Barnard, using his robotics background, explained extremely well in 2015 (republished recently) and Paul Fosse put into other words two months ago, Tesla’s Autopilot software is a deep learning animal. Tesla Autopilot, like a young human with a voracious appetite for improvement, is getting closer and closer to some human-level driving abilities every day while already having superhuman abilities in vision, data processing, and attention span.

With all of that in mind, the below update from Lex Fridman of MIT is all the more exciting.

We have a Tesla Model S with Autopilot 1 hardware. Admittedly, I haven’t driven it in many months and there have been some software updates related to Autopilot since I have used it (it’s in our Tesla Shuttle fleet in Europe), but either way, I was struck by how much better Autopilot was in the first Tesla Model 3 I drove last year. I was again struck by how much it had improved months later in another Model 3 test drive. The technology is improving continuously, and with big step changes improvements supposed to roll out in coming months, I can hardly fathom where Tesla Autopilot will be in a year or two.

Well, actually, I can fathom it. I expect the cars will be capable of driving me from point to point without making me sweat for a second. And perhaps then charging itself with a robotic snake charger.

Technically, according to Elon Musk in 2016, Autopilot may now be out of beta mode. Though, that’s not guaranteed. 1 billion miles was considered a minimum amount of experience for the tech, but I’m not sure what other parameters graduate Autopilot from beta mode. Perhaps it is when Tesla feels comfortable releasing Full Self Driving capability to the public?

f you would like to buy a Tesla and want the benefits that come with a referral, feel free to use my referral code — http://ts.la/tomasz7234. Or not.

About the Author

Zachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species). He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the president of Important Media and the director/founder of EV Obsession and Solar Love. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, and Canada.

Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these particular companies and feels like they are good cleantech companies to invest in. But he offers no professional investment advice and would rather not be responsible for you losing money, so don't jump to conclusions.

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Walmart taps Udelv for latest driverless car tests to deliver groceries

Source: Walmart
An Udelv car that's being used in Walmart's test in Arizona.

Walmart is expanding its tests of driverless cars as a way to get online grocery orders to shoppers' homes more quickly.

The big-box retailer is now piloting a program to use Udelv autonomous-driving vans to deliver fresh groceries in Surprise, Arizona.

“We want to make sure we stay on the cutting edge of grocery delivery by exploring what's new and next,” Tom Ward, senior vice president of Walmart's digital operations in the U.S., said Tuesday in a blog post.

Walmart has already announced other pilot programs with self-driving car companies, including Ford and Alphabet's Waymo. The company plans to end this fiscal year with an online grocery delivery option in roughly 100 metropolitan areas, reaching more than 40 percent of U.S. households. For 2019, it plans to add that to another 800 stores.

There's good reason for retailers to be investing in online grocery delivery.

Online spending by U.S. consumers for groceries is expected to climb 15 percent this year, according to a survey by Brick Meets Click, an advisory group for grocers. That would push the share of grocery sales that take place on the internet to 6.3 percent of overall sales.

Companies that offer delivery and pick-up options for grocery orders should see even bigger growth, Brick Meets Click said. Those retailers' online sales could grow by 25 to 30 percent in 2019. By the end of the year, roughly 90 percent of U.S. households are forecast by Brick Meets Click to have access to at least one delivery or pick-up service for groceries. Other businesses experimenting in the space include Kroger, Whole Foods (via Amazon) and Albertsons.

Earlier this week, Walmart launched a campaign that aired during the Golden Globes and showed famous cars — like the Scooby Doo mystery machine — pulling up to Walmart stores and using its online grocery pickup service. That's also now available nationally.

Walmart's head of e-commerce in the U.S., Marc Lore, recently said the retailer was focused on taking food delivery to the next level, in addition to its driverless car tests. He envisions a day when food will be delivered to shoppers' refrigerators.

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Machine Guns: US Citizens Attack Self-Driving Waymo Cars

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Automotive Lidar: Lidar for self-driving cars comes in many competing forms – Laser Focus World

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General Motors’ No. 2 exec to run self-driving car unit – Albany Times Union

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General Motors shares soar as SoftBank invests $2.25 billion in automaker’s self-driving vehicles – CNBC

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