WiTricity, a venture capital (VC)-backed startup that’s developing wireless charging technology for electric vehicles (EVs), has acquired Qualcomm’s EV wireless charging unit Halo. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Qualcomm said it will become a minority shareholder in WiTricity as a result of the transaction. Challenge While the […]
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This week, Waymo announced that it will turn an old factory in the Detroit, Michigan area into a retrofitting facility for level four autonomous vehicles. There’s plenty of unused factory space in the Midwest, but Waymo chose Michigan because of the state’s long history as the center of auto manufacturing. “In […]
Read MoreJit Ray Chowdhury attended CES in his capacity as an autonomous vehicle engineer, and while there, snapped a picture of a self-driving car equipped with a LIDAR system from Aeye; he says the LIDAR’s laser lanced through his camera’s aperture and zapped its optical sensor, burning a permanent spot into it and ruining the […]
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Frustrated with House Democrats’ inability to push through legislation on autonomous vehicle development and testing, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) believes the new Congress needs to reassess the situation and rally together behind a tweaked proposal Senate Republicans are still willing to back. Dingell claimed Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who will chair […]
Read MoreWriting in New York Magazine, Naked Capitalism’s Yves Smith draws on Hubert Horan’s outstanding series on the underlying economics of Uber to describe why the company’s IPO will be a terrible bet for the investors who buy into it. It’s only been a year since Softbank offered to buy out shareholders on a […]
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We’ve arrived. It’s officially #TheFuture. After years of talk within the auto industry, Waymo says it will become the first company to offer a commercial taxi service using autonomous vehicles when the program launches in Arizona today. Called Waymo One, the Google subsidiary plans to offer the first batch of rides […]
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Enlarge / When AI is doing the driving, what we call a “car” may look and act like something else entirely. Hulton Archive/Getty Images reader comments 11 with 10 posters participating Share this story Welcome to Ars UNITE, our week-long virtual conference on the ways that innovation brings unusual pairings together. Each day this week […]
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Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co. continue to become more chummy with each passing day. They may even be on the cusp of sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. After signing a Memorandum of Understanding in June, executives are now hinting at widespread collaboration. Ford wants help in Europe and Latin America, areas […]
Read MoreIn Patent 10049419, “Mobile law enforcement communication system and method,” Motorola engineers describe “A communication system, comprising: a self-driving vehicle within which to detain a detainee by a law enforcement officer” that locks you up, administers a breathalyzer, reads you your rights, figures out who your counsel of record is, conferences you in with […]
Read MoreUber is shutting down its self-driving trucks unit due to a lack of progress and the controversy surrounding its multi-million dollar acquisition of Otto in 2016. The firm was purchased with the intent of developing self-driving cargo haulers, potentially saving the trucking company a fortune by outsourcing driving jobs to robots. But it was slow […]
Read MoreSelf-driving cars aren’t just great for delivery, highway driving, and long-haul trucking. As researchers at MIT posited in 2011, they have the potential to fill gaps in local transportation — the so-called “last mile” between destinations and public infrastructure like buses, trains, and light rail. It’s an area of study Google spinoff Waymo intends to explore. […]
Read MoreThe bedroom community of Frisco, Texas might seem like an unusual place to find a self-driving vehicle. But here in this city of nearly 175,000 people, there are seven. And as of Monday, they’re available for the public to use within a specific sector of the city that has a concentration of retail, entertainment venues […]
Read MoreSelf-driving Uber cars will be a familiar sight in Pittsburgh.Image: AP/REX/Shutterstock By Sasha Lekach2018-07-26 00:13:00 UTC Uber’s self-driving cars are back on the road in Pittsburgh, but with a lot of changes. In the four months since a self-driving Uber hit and killed a woman walking a bicycle on an Arizona road, the ride-hailing company […]
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reader comments 8 Share this story Billions of people—and a growing number of autonomous vehicles—rely on mobile navigation services from Google, Uber, and others to provide real-time driving directions. A new proof-of-concept attack demonstrates how hackers could inconspicuously steer a targeted automobile to the wrong destination or, worse, endanger passengers by sending them down the […]
Read MoreZoox, a once-secretive self-driving car startup, is closing a $500 million at a $3.2 billion post-money valuation, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. Prior to the deal, Zoox was valued at $2.7 billion, Zoox confirmed to TechCrunch. The round, led by Mike Cannon-Brookes of Grok Ventures, brings its total amount of funding to $800 million. Zoox’s plan, according […]
Read MoreA former Apple employee allegedly stole trade secrets from the company with the intent to bring them to a new employer, The Mercury News reports today. The materials notably involved autonomous vehicle technology — a business that Apple has reportedly been working on for years under a shroud of secrecy. Xiaolang Zhang was stopped by federal […]
Read MoreTo meet the goal of autonomous vehicles that can operate safely and without any need for human input — that is, L5 automation — automakers must train AI systems to navigate myriad conditions they’ll run into in the real world so that they don’t actually run into anything in the real world). Our highways and roads are, […]
Read MoreSo much data comes through self-driving cars, so the NAV Alliance wants to make sure it’s safe and secure.Image: Jae C. Hong/AP/REX/Shutterstock By Sasha Lekach2018-06-26 22:48:56 UTC Self-driving cars eventually won’t need a human operator — but what the vehicles will need is a network powerful enough to handle the massive amount of data generated […]
Read MoreAudi is turning to Israeli startup Cognata to help the automaker validate its autonomous vehicles in the virtual world before they head out on the road for testing. Autonomous Intelligent Driving, Audi’s self-driving unit led by a team of former Microsoft, Tesla, and internal Audi veterans, says it will use Cognata’s autonomous vehicle simulation platform […]
Read MoreThe race to develop autonomous and electric vehicles could be a race to the bottom for the automotive industry — at least in the near-term. A new global study by consulting firm AlixPartners paints an ominous forecast for automakers in the next few years, a toxic cocktail of big spending and lots of competition mixed […]
Read MoreAutonomous cars carry a lot of emotional baggage for a technology in its infancy. A whopping 73 percent of Americans say they would be afraid to ride in an autonomous vehicle, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA), and self-driving cars are expected to leave as many as a million service drivers — including taxi […]
Read MoreToday’s leading minds talk AI with host Byron Reese Advertisement About this Episode Sponsored by Dell and Intel, Episode 51 of Voices in AI podcast features host Byron Reese and Tim O’Reilly discussing autonomous vehicles, capitalism, the Internet, and the economy. Tim is the founder of O’Reilly Media. He popularized the terms open source and Web 2.0. […]
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