Tag: Uber

Driverless cars are ‘a little bit in the distance’ says Ford heiress – ArabianBusiness.com

The era of the driverless cars dominating our roads is still some time away, according to Elena Ford, the heiress to the legendary American carmaker told Arabian Business in an interview. “I think at this point that is a little bit in the distance,” Ford said in a phone interview when asked when she thought… Continue reading Driverless cars are ‘a little bit in the distance’ says Ford heiress – ArabianBusiness.com

Drive.ai, a self-driving car startup once worth $200 million, is closing – San Francisco Chronicle

Mountain View startup Drive.ai, which made kits to turn regular cars into autonomous ones, will shut its office in June and lay off 90 workers in a permanent closure of its business, according to a filing with a state agency. At the same time, Apple has hired a handful of hardware and software engineers from… Continue reading Drive.ai, a self-driving car startup once worth $200 million, is closing – San Francisco Chronicle

Carnegie Mellon will help Argo AI advance its self-driving vehicle tech

Sponsored Links Argo AI Ford’s autonomous vehicle arm Argo AI is already testing self-driving vehicles in a handful of cities. But the company has a few key puzzles to solve before it can deploy its fleets on a large scale. To help answer the remaining questions — like how can autonomous vehicles reason in highly… Continue reading Carnegie Mellon will help Argo AI advance its self-driving vehicle tech

Argo AI is investing $15 million into a self-driving car research center at CMU

Argo AI will invest $15 million over five years to create a center for autonomous vehicle research at Carnegie Mellon University, one of the latest efforts by the Ford-backed company to accelerate the development of self-driving cars. The center, Carnegie Mellon University Argo AI Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research, will focus on advanced perception and… Continue reading Argo AI is investing $15 million into a self-driving car research center at CMU

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..

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.

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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

Waymo inks driverless car deal with Renault, Nissan to develop autonomous vehicles

Waymo unveils a self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivan in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. on January 8, 2017.Brendan McDermid | Reuters Waymo has signed a deal with Renault and Nissan to develop self-driving cars and trucks for use in France, Japan and possibly other countries in Asia, including China, the autonomous car company announced Thursday.
It's the first agreement Waymo has signed to provide its technology and services to automakers working to build their own self-driving cars and services.
Waymo, a subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet, is currently testing a small fleet of autonomous vehicles just outside of Phoenix. Those vehicles, which are modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans, are part of Waymo's work to develop autonomous ride-share services. With Renault and Nissan, Waymo's relationship will be more as a provider of technology and services that each automaker will use as they develop their own self-driving vehicles.
“Our Waymo Driver can deliver transformational mobility solutions to safely serve riders and commercial deliveries in France, Japan and other countries,” John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo said in a prepared statement.
Renault and Nissan — which have a close yet strained relationship since the arrest and detention in October of Renault's former CEO Carlos Ghosn, who was also chairman of Nissan — are putting aside their differences when it comes to autonomous vehicles.
The companies said they're creating a joint venture companies to focus exclusively on driverless mobility services.
Thierry Bolloré, CEO of Renault, said in a statement that the deal will put his company, “at the forefront of driverless mobility new business streams in our key strategic markets.”
Hiroto Saikawa, president and CEO of Nissan echoed that confidence.
“Our expertise in the global automotive industry and expertise in strategic partnership will enable us to explore opportunities to grow our portfolio and deliver new value to customers with Waymo, the recognized leader in this space,” he said.
Waymo, formerly known as the Google Self Driving Car project, is considered a leader in autonomous vehicles, analysts and technology executives say.
That lead, however, is far from safe. General Motors' subsidiary Cruise, is expected to publicly launch its first autonomous vehicle later this year. Meanwhile, Uber is also working to develop autonomous ride-share vehicles.

Walmart to test self-driving delivery from warehouse to warehouse

A Wal-Mart employee pushes grocery carts at a store in Miami.Getty ImagesWhen most people think about how self-driving cars will help retailers, the image that comes to mind often is a robot car whisking a delivery to a customer's door, but according to an article in Bloomberg the reality — at least in the near term — will be different.
Analysts cited by the news service estimate the market for transporting goods on a fixed route from warehouse to warehouse using driverless vehicles could reach $1 trillion. These miles in the middle help get goods closer to their final destination.
Walmart, which has experienced a boom in online sales, will begin using robot cars to transport goods in between warehouses, in the hopes that the company will be able to cut costs and increase efficiency.
Walmart spokeswoman Molly Blakeman told CNBC the retailer is working with its partner Gatik, a self-driving vehicle startup, to test out a self-driving vehicle. It will travel along a two-mile route in Bentonville, Arkansas between two stores.
“We are working with city and state officials to obtain the approval we need to operate and plan to start the pilot program this summer with the aim being to learn about the logistics of adding AVs into our ecosystem, operation and process changes, and more opportunities to incorporate this emerging technology,” Blakeman said.
Consumers have grown wary of robot-taxis due to accidents like the killing of a pedestrian last year by Uber's new test car, Bloomberg reported.
The robo-trucks also take out the human element, eliminating the hassle of human passengers and the cost to create a passenger compartment in the first place.
With the rise of online shopping, the robots also fill a huge demand for truck drivers. A shortage of drivers has led to 60,000 unfilled long-haul positions, according to data Bloomberg cited from the American Trucking Association.
Read the full Bloomberg story here.
VIDEO3:5003:50Walmart announces an in-home grocery delivery serviceSquawk Box