“About to Accelerate” Tesla appears ready to kick its vehicles’ fully autonomous capabilities up a notch. In an email to employees this week, obtained by Inverse, CEO Elon Musk pledged that Tesla’s fully autonomous driving system was “about to accelerate significantly.” Musk hasn’t always delivered on his ambitious public promises, but the email signals that he is… Continue reading Musk: Tesla’s Fully Autonomous Capabilities “About to Accelerate”
Tag: Waymo/Google
Honda at the CES 2019
The Japanese vehicle manufacturer Honda will also present its innovations at the CES 2019. This includes an autonomous off-road vehicle. Most industry participants in the field of Autonomous driving and Co. are also on the pendingCES 2019 in Las Vegas represented. This includes the Japanese manufacturer Honda, Honda ATV. Source: Honda Honda will showcase its… Continue reading Honda at the CES 2019
Peugeot Returns to U.S. to Help People Get Around, but Not With Its Cars – The New York Times
PARIS — Nearly three decades ago, Peugeot abandoned the United States market, stung by years of dwindling sales that were punctuated by a dispiriting 4,291 cars sold in 1990. Two years ago, Peugeot’s parent, the big European carmaker PSA Group, announced its return to the cutthroat North American market. The move stunned some industry observers… Continue reading Peugeot Returns to U.S. to Help People Get Around, but Not With Its Cars – The New York Times
Ex-Google engineer says he just finished first cross-country self-driving car trip
Angela Merendino | AFP | Getty Images
Anthony Levandowski, Otto Co-founder and VP of Engineering at Uber.
Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of a now-settled lawsuit between Alphabet self-driving car company Waymo and Uber, claims he has completed a trip across the country in a self-driving car.
Levandowski is launching a new autonomous driving start-up, Pronto.ai, according to The Guardian, and is touting the impressive feat as the company's first success.
“We are not building technology that tells vehicles how to drive. Instead, our team of engineers is building tech that can learn how to drive the way people do,” Levandowski said in a Medium post. “Our new approach has already enabled us to make great progress. We drove a vehicle coast-to-coast without any human intervention.”
Levandowski told the Guardian he didn't touch the steering wheel or pedals — except for periodic rest stops — for the full 3,099 miles. He posted a video that shows a portion of the drive, though it's hard to fact-check the full journey.
It would be quite the milestone for autonomous driving, and a potential comeback for the engineer, who was one of the pioneers of Google's self-driving car efforts (before they were rebranded as Waymo), and later defected to Uber. The companies got into a legal battle over confidential documents that Levandowski allegedly took with him, and he was briefly barred from the autonomous driving industry during the trial. The companies settled the case early this year.
The technology isn't “perfectly autonomous,” Levandowski said. And, he added, “The age of autonomous vehicles crisscrossing the country by themselves is still quite a ways off.”
Pronto is rolling out it first product next year.
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Careem co-founder Mudassir Sheikha makes the Bloomberg 50 list
Careem CEO and co-founder Mudassir Sheikha has been included in the Bloomberg 50 – the annual list of people who are changing the global business landscape.
The annual list of people in business, entertainment, finance, politics, technology and science whose 2018 accomplishments were particularly noteworthy was unveiled today in New York, and the list is seen as an annual barometer of people in key industries who are shaping modern culture and business.
Others who made the list include Daniel Elk the CEO and co-founder, Spotify, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, $8 billion hedge funder Michael Gelband, the Time’s Up legal defence team, Microsoft’s CFO Amy Hood, Nadiem Makarim the CEO of Go-Jek Indonesia, John Krafcik CEO of autonomous car company Waymo and pop star Taylor Swift.
You can view the entry here.
California issues its first approval for an autonomous ride service
Zoox Which company did you think would be most likely to offer an autonomous ride service in California? A heavyweight like Waymo or Uber? No — it’s an up-and-comer. The state’s Public Utilities Commission has revealed that self-driving car startup Zoox will be the first to transport the public. It’s joining a pilot program where… Continue reading California issues its first approval for an autonomous ride service
UPDATE 1-Self-driving startup Zoox gets OK to offer autonomous rides to the public – Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Self-driving car startup Zoox Inc has become the first company to receive approval from California regulators to operate an autonomous ride service for public passengers, state regulators said on Friday. The California Public Utilities Commission said Silicon Valley-based Zoox is the first company to join a state pilot program in which… Continue reading UPDATE 1-Self-driving startup Zoox gets OK to offer autonomous rides to the public – Reuters
Future Tesla Autopilot chips may come from Samsung self-driving push
2017 Tesla Model S testing at Consumer Reports
The race to build self-driving cars is heating up, with Google (Waymo), Tesla, Uber, Lyft, Ford, GM (Cruise), and others all vying to build the first reliable self-driving system.
Now add Korean electronics giant Samsung to that list—with a twist. Its first client could be one of the major competitors in the business, Tesla.
Tesla once had a partner in developing self-driving software, Israel's Mobileye, when it first launched its Autopilot system to great fanfare in 2014.
DON'T MISS: Teslas to get new self-driving, Autopilot chip in spring 2019
After a widely reported fatal accident in Florida tied to the company's original Version 1 Autopilot system, which used the Mobileye hardware, Tesla has been on its own to develop the next-generation Autopilot 2 hardware.
In October, the company introduced new software that enabled full on-ramp to off-ramp self-driving in the system it calls Navigate on Autopilot, on existing Autopilot chips. CEO Elon Musk has since tweeted that with the upcoming faster chips, the system will be able to handle commuting from home to work without human intervention.
Industry sources told the Investors Business Times that Samsung has been on a hiring spree for electronics engineers with automotive experience.
CHECK OUT: Consumer Reports tests Tesla's Navigate on Autopilot
Musk announced in October that the company would roll out new, faster chips in the spring that will enable the company's long-promised Full Self-Driving Mode features, which many customers have pre-paid for. He tweeted that the new chip will be 50 to 200 times faster than the current hardware.
IBT sources say that Samsung has already begun assembling the chips expected to be rolled out to the Model 3 in March.
Central to Musk's plan to have Navigate on Autopilot work in more situations and on surface streets is having more drivers use the system and feed driving data back to Tesla's artificial intelligence servers. If a new chip is also on horizon, however, more data may not be enough.
READ MORE: Tesla drivers log 1 billion miles on Autopilot
Samsung has denied the rumors that it is forming a new self-driving car division.
The insiders noted that Samsung's practice is to line up a leading customer before launching new business lines.
With the Consumer Electronics Show on the horizon in Las Vegas early next month, it wouldn't be surprising to see the electronics giant introduce such a system there.
Green Car Reports reached out to Tesla for comment on this story, but had not heard back before publication.
‘Waymo’s not on our radar’ – Henrik Fisker on the future of premium shared mobility – Automotive World
At the tap of a button, your ride from the coffee shop to the airport has been confirmed – a ticker on the smartphone displays an approximate arrival time, and a pin highlights the exact pickup location. With little more than a whirr from its electric motors, a shuttle soon glides to the side of… Continue reading ‘Waymo’s not on our radar’ – Henrik Fisker on the future of premium shared mobility – Automotive World
An amazing year for SEAT
2018 has been an exceptional year for SEAT. In these past 12 months, SEAT saw the birth of CUPRA, the company’s first sub-brand, and the launch of the Tarraco, the brand’s new flagship model. The year began with record results and the company expects to post historic high sales figures by the end of December.… Continue reading An amazing year for SEAT