Automobiles – Page 13

Automation, Automobiles, Driverless cars, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Autonomous taxis have made their driverless debut in London

October 22, 2019

Are London cabbies’ days numbered?

SELF-DRIVING taxis have hit the streets of London for the first time during a week-long trial in the capital.

The culmination of a 30-month development process lead by the government and industry-supported the DRIVEN autonomous vehicle technology consortium, the tests saw a collection of Ford Mondeo-based test cars complete short runs on a pre-programmed course on public roads through Stratford, in the east of the city, a short distance away from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, venue for the 2012 Games.

While this isn’t the first time autonomous vehicles have been tested in an urban environment (the same self-driving research vehicles were put through their preliminary paces in Oxford earlier in the year), DRIVEN said these tests have been “the most ambitious” yet, due to the demands that come with driving in a megacity.

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Automation, Automobiles, Driverless cars, Science & Technology News

Hyundai to start mass production of driverless cars in 2024

October 22, 2019

South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Group will start mass production of self-driving cars within the next five years, said Chung Euisun, the heir to the auto giant, as he made a hefty investment in a joint venture the company established with Aptiv on Sept. 23.

At a luncheon session held in New York with Korean correspondents on the same day he signed the $4 billion deal with the US software developer, Chung said the company would apply the autonomous driving technology to be developed jointly with Aptiv to Hyundai cars starting in 2024. The executive vice chairman, who holds the second-highest position in the carmaker — his father, Chairman Chung Mong-koo, is No. 1 — said the company had decided to hold the same number of shares as Aptiv, rather than be a minority shareholder in the venture, in an effort to transform itself from a mere car manufacturer into a future mobility solutions provider.

“We expect the era of autonomous vehicles to come early, but it will be possible for customers to go anywhere they want in a driverless car after 2030,” said Chung, who has taken the lead in the absence of his ill father.

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Automation, Automobiles, Employment, Science & Technology News, Self-driving Cars

Top companies hiring for autonomous vehicle talent

October 22, 2019

Over the last few years, the autonomous vehicle industry has grown rapidly. Here are thoughts and stats from Indeed for the top companies hiring for autonomous vehicle talent.

When news about autonomous vehicles filled headlines a few years ago, it was characterized by bold claims: that entire lanes would be dedicated to hands-free driving by 2020 and door-to-door autonomous trips would be possible around 2030, for example.

Since then, the frenzy about an autonomous takeover of our personal transportation system has waned. But a new reality has set in: Autonomous vehicles are already operating in a number of industries, such as transportation, farming, and small deliveries. While it may not be driving the news cycle, the work on this technology hasn’t slowed down.

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Automobiles, Electric Automobile, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Motorway speed limits could rise to 80mph across the country – and it’s all thanks to electric cars

October 7, 2019

SPEED limits on motorways across the country could be increased to 80mph, according to the transport secretary.

Grant Shapps said he was “thinking about” increasing the speed limit following a surge in the number of eco-friendly vehicles on the road.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he is considering raising the motorway speed limit to 70mph

Speaking at the Conservative Party conference, Mr Shapps said: “On 80mph speed limits, I’ve been thinking about this issue and maybe even sought advice on the subject of late.

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Automobiles, Driverless vehicles, government, Science & Technology News

Self-driving carmakers urge regulators to toss the steering wheel out the window

September 24, 2019

Waymo, Cruise, and others call on the NHTSA to take action on human controls

The federal government should rewrite the safety rules for automobile manufacturing so self-driving carmakers can deploy vehicles without traditional controls like steering wheels and pedals, according to public comments submitted by top car and tech companies.

And they should be quick about it.

“We urge [the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration] to move ahead promptly to remove the regulatory barriers the agency has identified,” David Quinalty, head of federal policy and government affairs at Waymo, wrote in a letter posted online on Thursday.

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Automobiles, Elon Musk, Science & Technology News, Tesla

Tesla offers insurance to car buyers in California, with eye toward driverless future

September 20, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tesla owners in California can now buy insurance from the electric car company in what may be the first step toward the unconventional automaker providing coverage for a fleet of driverless taxis.

The expansion announced Wednesday comes four months after Tesla CEO Elon Musk told analysts the company would branch into insuring its own cars for people who buy or lease them.

Musk believes Tesla has learned so much about its cars that it will be able to offer rates 20% to 30% below those offered by traditional insurers. That will likely to appeal to Tesla owners who have been complaining about being charged too much for coverage.

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Analysis, Automobiles, Driverless cars, Science & Technology News

Special report: Driverless cars are the new dot-com bubble

September 20, 2019

We simply don’t know what sort of jobs will be available in the future. After all, imagine yourself in the year 1900 peering into the future. How could you know then that the proportion of people employed in agriculture in the USA would fall to a twentieth of what it was then?

Or that there would now be more people employed as mental health nurses in the NHS than there are sailors serving in the Royal Navy? Or that large numbers of people would pay good money to personal trainers to put them through their paces and ensure that they suffered the requisite amount of agony?

History is full of people who have made long-term predictions and who have been proved utterly wrong. Among economists one of my favourites is the great William Stanley Jevons, one of the most distinguished economists of the nineteenth century. In 1865 he predicted that industrial expansion would soon come to a halt due to a shortage of coal. Poor old Jevons.

So we must tread warily. Having said that, and having dosed ourselves with lashings of humility, and drunk deep from the well of scepticism, there is a lot that we can say about the future of employment in the new robot- and AI-dominated future.

One of the most widely talked about categories of jobs supposedly at risk is drivers: bus drivers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, chauffeurs, delivery drivers, and many more. A 2017 trucking industry report predicted that by 2030, out of 6.4m trucking jobs in America and Europe, about 4.4m of them could have disappeared as “robots” do the driving.

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Automobiles, Big Problems, government, Science & Technology News

Major cities are introducing noise radars that automatically issue fines to loud vehicles to combat noise pollution

September 13, 2019

The measuring devices will be able to precisely measure and locate sounds from moving vehicles, as well as register their licence plates.

Noise pollution is one of the leading health problems in cities after environmental pollution.

In France, a noise radar has been installed to fine the noisiest vehicles, according to Reuters.

The radar isn’t actually the first of its kind in Europe; earlier this year, Switzerland also began installing the first of its own noise radars.

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Automobiles, Batteries, Electric Automobile, Science & Technology News

Lamborghini Sián: The world’s first supercapacitor-hybrid supercar

September 13, 2019

Sensual curves meet jagged angles in the remarkable Sian, Lamborghini’s first hybrid and the first car in production history to use a supercapacitor hybrid system

Lamborghini has chosen a radically different way of dipping its toe in the waters of hybridization with the announcement of its new Sián, which couples a screaming, naturally aspirated V12 engine with a supercapacitor-based secondary electric system.

Supercapacitors, as opposed to batteries, offer a unique set of advantages and drawbacks to automakers. They have enormous charge and discharge rates, meaning they can put out huge amounts of power, charge up almost instantly, and pull in a much larger amount of energy through things like regenerative braking, in which a battery’s ability to accept charge becomes a limiting factor. They also don’t deteriorate over time, maintaining their performance over millions of cycles.

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Automobiles, China, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

China’s autonomous vehicles to reach 1.5 million units by 2025

September 9, 2019

China’s autonomous car market is expected to reach 1.5 million units by 2025, growing on a compound annual growth rate of 28.4%.

According to the latest study by ResearchandMarkets.com, the automotive industry is China is likely to shift into a higher intelligence level by 2025. At present, the L1 and L2 autonomous vehicles are available in the market, with total sales of 300,000 units in 2018. In the passenger car segment, 96.5% of autonomous vehicles are L1 and L2 private cars.

However, the study predicts that in the years ahead autonomous vehicle technology will see more adoption in passenger cars business segments such as public taxis and mobility service vehicles. Public taxis and other mobility service vehicles will account for a little more than a quarter or 25.6% of the passenger car market share in 2025.

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Automation, Automobiles, Driverless cars, Science & Technology News

Waymo cars refuse to drive in unsafe conditions

September 7, 2019

Heavy rain and blizzards aren’t the only forms of severe weather Waymo’s self-driving vehicles encounter on the regular. In a blog post published this morning, the Alphabet subsidiary laid out the ways its cars in over 25 cities tackle fog, dust, smoke, and other dangerous conditions that trip up even human drivers.

“Challenging [environmental] conditions, which affect human driver and vehicle performance, are one of the leading contributors to crashes on our roads … Poor perception creates significant risk for other road users including pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicle occupants,” wrote Waymo chief safety officer Debbie Hersman. “Waymo is working hard to master a variety of weather scenarios as part of our mission to improve road safety.”

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