Drive Lowered Cars

Waymo revealed more clues about its future business model after it said yesterday it plans to kill its Firefly pod-like car project and focus more closely on offering driverless systems for commercially available car and truck models. A blog post published yesterday by Waymo' ...more

Tesla says the new version of Autopilot is now as good as the previous one, after having completed over-the-air updates of the driverless software during the past few days. Model S and Model X Tesla models the electric car firm began to make October 16 last year lacked certai ...more

Antique car collecting and restoration is a very popular hobby practiced by many around the world. A quick drive through my town turns up with a handful of classic cars parked in their respective driveways, some in pristine condition, and others not-so-much. While some people ...more

Data for mapping and other applications is the lifeblood of machine-driven cars, and so far, Tesla has taken a definitive lead in information it has gathered ahead of other driverless players, including Waymo. But Tesla's position could be short-lived, if the world's largest ...more

As Intel steps up their investment in driverless technology with a $15 billion acquisition of Mobileye, so have automotive supplier Bosch and NVIDIA teamed up to manufacturer driverless car systems with the much-awaited Xavier chip. The Xavier chip is the NVIDIA AI complete s ...more

China's Baidu, the Chinese equivalent of Google, live streamed a video yesterday of CEO Robin Li riding a self-drive vehicle along the streets and highways of Beijing. Since it's illegal to even test driverless cars on public roads and streets in China, the stunt culminated i ...more

The auto industry continues to shift into high gear to lay the groundwork for driverless cars with an electric vehicle (EV) emphasis. In the latest high-profile move by a carmaker to gain an edge in self-drive vehicles and EVs, German premium carmaker BMW plans to slash 1 bil ...more

The private automobile has been an intrinsic part of our lives for around a hundred years. But over the last decade, car sharing has gained a very small but growing part of the mobility market. The more recent rise of companies like Uber and Lyft is witness to a more dramatic ...more

The fatal crash of Air France Flight 447 is one of the most tragic accidents in avionic history — while it also serves as a stark reminder of what can go wrong when humans rely too much on driverless vehicles. The tragic 2009 plane crash off the coast of Brazil involved an Ai ...more

Volvo Cars' claims it will offer Level 4 models by 2021 means the premium carmaker will likely have to finalize the driverless design to meet the aggressive timeline by next year at the latest. But in consideration of the Swedish carmaker's aggressive goals, the extent to whi ...more

Tesla's Autopilot self-drive interface in its new Model 3 signals the carmaker is already prepping its cars for Level 4 driving years ahead of the competition. The incremental-yet-revealing modification consists of the Model 3's Autopilot gearshift option. Unlike the cruise c ...more

Exotic sports cars are the province of the ridiculously wealthy but, thanks to augmented reality, you can now get closer than ever to a Bugatti Chiron. Social and mobile gaming powerhouse Zynga has updated the iOS version of its popular racing game meets Fast & Furious simula ...more

France's Groupe PSA (formerly known as PSA Peugeot Citroën) — one of the world's top-10 carmakers — aggressively seeks to take a lead in the rollout of the industry 's first driverless cars, as it becomes the first mainstream carmaker to announce it will launch a Level 3 self- ...more

For those who don't know, LEGO recently came out with a new line called Monster Fighters. This set is about fighting monsters, sure, but it's about fighting classic monsters in a Steampunk universe. Just look at this promotional picture from the LEGO site: That LEGO dude (prop ...more

Demand for Tesla's driverless features as well as its ultra-long battery ranges and a reputation for offering the best-in-class electric car driving experience helped Tesla see a 32% surge in its value as a brand, topping out at $5.9 billion in the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable ...more

Coming into this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the common sentiment among observers was that this was expected to be the big year for augmented reality. But as the biggest tech conference of the year draws to a close, the reality is that 2018 seems more likely to be ...more

Cruise Automation, the driverless car startup General Motors (GM) bought for $1 billion in 2016, is readying a formidable fleet of robo-taxis for rollout in cities throughout the US. But when it comes to details about how the company plans to realize these lofty goals, it's be ...more

General Motors (GM) has begun production of 130 Chevrolet Bolt EV driverless test vehicles at its Orion Township, Mich. plant as it expands its fleet to total 180 models deployed in San Francisco; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Detroit. GM said it is the first company to assemble s ...more

Elon Musk has repeatedly said Tesla models in production today have the requisite hardware to offer "full self-driving" capabilities. But for features more advanced than Level 3, Tesla will, in fact, have to revamp Autopilot's hardware to handle the extra computing load. More ...more

Google quickly learned over five years ago electric vehicles (EVs) were the powertrain of choice for its then fledging driverless car program and the industry has since followed its lead. Now, every major carmaker has an EV program of some kind, while all-electric powertrains ...more

Intel's driverless division will be managed by Israel-based Mobileye, as the chip giant emerges from relative obscurity in the driverless space to become a major supplier after completing its $15.3-billion purchase of Mobileye this week. In other words, Intel is uprooting its ...more

More redneck fun. Bob Moravitz plus family and friends have created an 8 hour event of propelling vehicles off cliffs. Held yearly, admission is free but donations are encouraged (to cover insurance costs). "“The idea was inspired last year by boredom and a strong desire to d ...more

One of the roles our government has taken on is to provide us with information to be used in making decisions. For example, the EPA stickers on the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt state that these electric cars can travel 93 and 99 miles per equivalent gallon. Unfortunately, the ...more

General Motors acquired Cruise Automation in March 2016 for a reported $1 billion (well, at least $581 million). GM President Dan Ammann made a point of being in the press release photograph with Cruise founders Kyle Vogt and Daniel Kan (see photo below). On January 19, 2017, ...more

While the technology companies continue to drive forward with autonomous vehicles, Nissan's vision of the future of self-driving automobiles lies in a cooperative experience between human and machine, facilitated by augmented reality. At CES 2019, which officially kicks off t ...more

Udacity, the online education startup that set out to train a school of self-driving car engineers, is now spinning off into its own autonomous tech company called Voyage. Sebastian Thrun, who founded Udacity, will have a stake in the company as part of the spin-off deal led ...more

Global design and technology services company Tata Elxsi says it has licensed its advanced autonomous vehicle middleware platform "AUTONOMAI" to a "leading automotive OEM." A top-five car OEM worldwide will use the platform to speed up its driverless car development and event ...more

Last month, Alexander Heit drifted into oncoming traffic after being distracted from the road. His sudden correction forced his vehicle to roll and flip over. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital shortly thereafter. All because of a freaking text message. He was only 22 ...more

A spokesperson from the Nissan and Renault Alliance told Driverless the group is testing self-driving electric "robo-vehicles" for future mobility services and is "not ruling out anything" for future services the group might offer, as the alliance widens its driverless busines ...more

Well, well, well. Uber, we knew you were investing a ton of money into creating self-driving taxis and flying cars, but what we didn't know is that you were already testing out your driverless vehicles on the streets of New York City. Just kidding! I mean, I know Uber isn't ...more

Google largely helped to pioneer the concept of a steering wheel- and pedal-free self-driving experience when it began testing its Firefly pod-like vehicles a few years ago. Largely in reaction to Google's disruptive entry into the automotive world before Waymo was spun off a ...more

Waymo and Lyft have remained highly secretive about their driverless car programs, but may be forced to reveal a lot about their plans after a judge in a US federal court granted Uber's request to review documents about Waymo and Lyft's partnership. Waymo and Lyft haven't rel ...more

Nauto, which develops driver-monitor cameras and algorithms for autonomous vehicles, is among a growing list of driverless startups able to attract tens of millions of dollars in funding after raising $159 million in its latest round of financing. Led by a subsidiary of SoftB ...more

Waymo claims in court documents filed yesterday in its lawsuit against Uber that ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick knew that former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski was in the possession of stolen documents while employed at the troubled ride-sharing firm. The federal court yest ...more

Nvidia has emerged as the indisputable leader in chips for Level 3 and even more advanced driverless applications, catching some of the world's largest semiconductor makers and automotive suppliers by surprise. After the car industry figured out that AI-piloted vehicles were ...more

Those going on crazy off-road adventures, taking their inspiration from various SUV commercials, are likely to encounter many unexpected, all-terrain dangers. Automaker Mitsubishi is ready to put those dangers in the foreground with augmented reality warnings on a heads-up-di ...more

Cruise Automation follows Waymo's and Uber's lead with its debut of a beta version of an app-based driverless ride-hailing service for its employees in San Francisco, ahead of a possible launch of a full-fledged commercial offering within four years. Cruise CEO and founder Ky ...more

A vulnerability in the design of LiDAR components in driverless cars is far worse than anything we've seen yet outside of the CAN bus sphere — with a potentially deadly consequence if exploited. The hack is also going to be hard to fix, researchers Hocheol Shin, Dohyun Kim, Y ...more

Snapchat has broken new ground in its augmented reality advertising efforts, as BMW has opted to show off its new X2 model in AR with the Augmented Trial Lens. Users who opt in to the experience via ads running between user or publisher stories (or scan the corresponding Snap ...more

Four augmented reality companies made deals this week to grow their businesses. Two companies, TechSee and Car360, completed funding rounds, while DAQRI signed with a production partner and Decalomania landed a prime spot with a top retailer. TechSee Secures $7.5 Million to F ...more

There was big news today from Google, Apple, Volvo, and Nvidia regarding their self-driving efforts. Avis Will Service Waymo's Driveless Fleet Google parent Alphabet's Waymo has selected Avis to service its growing fleet of driverless cars. It now seems Waymo has all of the ...more

Ride-sharing firm Lyft says it will continue to rely on drivers in the near and long term even as it replaces them with driverless cars, Taggart Matthiesen, Lyft's director of product, said during a Podcast with Recode. In other words, Matthiesen says Lyft plans to offer oppo ...more

We've had to resort to actual spying to get information on the highly anticipated Tesla Model 3, but today Elon Musk himself gave out some exciting news. The Model 3 is going to be officially unveiled in July, according to Musk's Twitter. Musk also revealed that Tesla will unv ...more

Nissan said Thursday it will add automatic emergency braking (AEB) capabilities to one million models of its cars and trucks in the US by 2018. But the Japanese carmaker largely remains an exception among mainstream automakers by offering the system as standard. To date, only ...more

Australia is looking to the future and finding driverless cars and other autonomous vehicles to be a top priority. Spacial Source reports that the state government has put AU$10 million into their Future Mobility Land Fund "to drive local development of autonomous vehicle tech ...more

This past Halloween, 26-year-old Gabrielle Wathen learned the hard way about Uber's ridiculously expensive surge prices. After a night out and an Uber ride home, she learned that the 20-minute drive cost her more than $360. If you're unfamiliar with Uber's surge pricing, it b ...more