Category: Driverless cars

This could be the next frontier in autonomous tech, but it has a lot of mapping to do. 

BY KRISTIN V. SHAW

First patented in the early 1900s, ground-penetrating radar has been used by geologists, archaeologists, and aeronautics engineers ever since. Notably, the Apollo 17 mission used a GPR to record depth information about the moon. GPR is not new technology, but it’s new to the application of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).

Some companies are betting on GPR to get ahead of their competitors in the field by improving the reliability and accuracy of autonomous features. Within the hot ADAS segment, everyone is looking for the panacea that will make billions of dollars and solve all of the autonomous driving challenges.

Continue reading… “How Ground-Penetrating Radar Could Help Self-Driving Cars ‘See’ Better”

By Otilia Drăgan

Only a few years ago, this might have sounded crazy, but it’s here now – the first head-to-head, high-speed race without the actual racing drivers. Autonomous vehicles will soon be competing against each other at the Indy Autonomous Challenge, an event that will probably be remembered for years to come.

Back in 2004, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge paved the way for autonomous vehicle development. Now, some of the innovators who have competed in that challenge are taking things further as advisors for the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC). Organized by Energy Systems Network and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IAC is addressed to university teams from all over the world, who will compete for the $1 million grand prize.

Hundreds of students from over 40 schools entered the first stage of the challenge. As of this month, the 10 final teams have been established, with more than 200 students from 19 universities. One of the most fascinating aspects of this historical competition is that all the racing cars will basically be the same, so it won’t be about the build or the technology, but about maneuvering and making essential decision in a high-speed context, such as avoiding unanticipated obstacles.

Continue reading… “200 MPH Autonomous Cars Will Make History in World’s First High-Speed Robo-Race”

Experimentation and innovation are driving this technology. 

By John Egan

The Lyft ride-hailing service is traveling into a new era in Austin.

Starting next year, Lyft customers in certain parts of Austin will be able to hire a self-driving car as part of a new partnership with automaker Ford and Argo AI, a provider of technology for self-driving vehicles.

“This collaboration marks the first time all the pieces of the autonomous vehicle puzzle have come together this way,“ Lyft co-founder and CEO Logan Green says in a July 21 news release. “Each company brings the scale, knowledge, and capability in their area of expertise that is necessary to make autonomous ride-hailing a business reality.”

The initiative will roll out later this year in Miami, with self-driving Lyft cars coming to Austin sometime next year. Washington, D.C., is also on the road map. A so-called “safety driver” will ride in each of the cars along with the Lyft passengers.

The three companies behind the effort hope to add at least 1,000 self-driving cars to the Lyft network over the next five years in various U.S. markets, including Austin.

Continue reading… “Lyft travels to the future with new self-driving cars coming to Austin”

The first autonomous cars ready for ride hailing will hit the road in Miami by the end of this year.

By Sean Szymkowski

Look out Miami, there are some new machines in town.Ford

Ford last year said it needed to delay its robotaxi service until 2022 because of the pandemic, but now a big first step will happen this year. On Wednesday, Ford announced that by the end of 2021 it will deploy the first self-driving cars with its partner Argo AI on ride-hailing service Lyft’s network. The first cars will land in Miami, the automaker said.

This first step is one of many to commercialize (that’s corporate speak for “make money”) autonomous ride-hailing services. Many companies and automakers have promised these services for years now, but Google’s sister company Waymo is the only one to actually pick riders up and charge them a fare. And that’s only outside of Phoenix — far from nationwide.

Continue reading… “Ford and partner Argo AI will launch Lyft self-driving cars this year”

Hyundai Motor to introduce an autonomous, demand-responsive shuttle service in South Korea, starting August 9

Hyundai Motor Company announced that it will begin a test operation of its RoboShuttle (named after ‘Robot’ and ‘Shuttle’) service on August 9. The demand-responsive, high-occupancy vehicle service, powered by autonomous driving and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, will operate along a 6.1-km route in Sejong Smart City, South Korea.

The pilot operation will be conducted using Hyundai H350, a light commercial, four-door van (known as Solati in Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam), equipped with autonomous driving technology, which applies a range of Level 4-comparable core technologies and is developed in-house by the Autonomous Driving Center at Hyundai Motor. The vehicle has also obtained a temporary operation permit of ‘autonomous driving Level 3’ from the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Based on its self-driving capabilities, the vehicle is designed to perceive its surroundings, make decisions, and control itself while driving on the road, requiring minimal intervention from a safety driver. The vehicle will operate on the 6.1-km route from Sejong Government Complex to Sejong National Arboretum, with 20 stops for passengers along the way.

Continue reading… “Hyundai Motor to pilot autonomous demand-responsive ‘RoboShuttle’ service”

Halo says it will use remote drivers to operate its vehicles over T-Mobile 5G.

By Allison Johnson

Driverless car startup Halo has announced a new service coming to Las Vegas later this year: a fleet of remotely operated electric vehicles, using T-Mobile’s 5G network. It’s potentially a big step toward fulfilling the promise of 5G remote driver tech, with a significant catch: the cars don’t operate solely on T-Mobile 5G. While it’s the primary network they’ll use (mid- and low-band 5G, specifically, with LTE as a fallback), they will also rely on other networks. 

The idea is simple enough: Halo employs remote drivers to operate the vehicles, delivering them to waiting customers who then get behind the wheel and take the car to their destination. When the trip has ended, the car moves on to its next pick-up under remote control. Halo is also currently operating test drives with safety drivers in vehicles, which it says it won’t include when the service launches for paying customers. That’s easier said than done.

There’s no shortage of driverless and autonomous vehicle pilot programs in Las Vegas; Lyft has operated a driverless taxi service in the city, and more recently Motional has been testing autonomous rides without a backup driver behind the wheel. Halo’s service is a little different, using a remote driver, along with an “Advanced Safe Stop” mechanism to automatically bring the car to a halt if a hazard is detected. The company says that ultimately it hopes to achieve full autonomy, and that in the meantime its vehicles are designed to “learn” from their human operators.

Continue reading… “Startup Halo will bring driverless car service to Las Vegas later this year on T-Mobile 5G”

Plans to roll 1,000 of ’em off the production line in three years

By Laura Dobberstein

Chinese tech giant Baidu and state-owned BAIC Group’s ARCFOX Brand have teamed to build 1000 autonomous electric vehicles (EVs) for use as taxis over the next three years — and claim they’ve cut manufacturing costs to just $75,000 apiece.

The announcement claims the reasonable price is due to maturation in technology and mass production capabilities and makes the vehicle, called the Apollo Moon, only one third of the cost of average L4 autonomous vehicles.

Apollo Moon has a projected operating cycle of over five years and is built on the fully electric midsize crossover SUV, Arcfox α-T. As for the tech, it uses the ANP-Robotaxi navigation platform, which is currently in pilot. Baidu claims the architecture can “reduce the weight of autonomous vehicle kits while sharing intelligent driving vehicle data to create a closed-loop information ecosystem.”

Continue reading… “Chinese web giant Baidu unveils Level 4 robo-taxi that costs $75k to make”

By LUKE CHILLINGSWORTH

SELF DRIVING cars will force the Highway Code to “change entirely” as most of the rules “will be redundant” under the new technology, according to solicitors.

Legal experts say road rules will have to be “changed entirely” to ensure the laws are relevant to the new driverless technology. Specialists warn drivers may not need to be taught things like stopping distances or how to indicate as cars will do this automatically.

Hojol Uddin, Head of Motoring and Partner at JMW Solicitors said the new technology will help the car do “everything else we were taught to do”.

He said: “The Highway Code will have to be changed entirely to determine the relevance of certain rules.

“For example will the driver really need to know stopping distances and times if the computer is going to do the thinking for you as well as the stopping.

“In addition, will it be necessary for mirror signal manoeuvre being drilled into every student when cars of the future will do this for you?

“Most of the Highway Code will be redundant, as cars will be able to read signs and everything else we were taught to do.”

Continue reading… “Self-driving cars will force Highway Code to ‘change entirely’ with major new law changes”

By Song Jingli

The firm plans to roll out driverless mobility services for passengers in the US.

Guangzhou-based WeRide received approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles on Monday to test driverless vehicles on public roads in San Jose, two and a half months after Baidu was granted a permit to do the same.

WeRide has been testing autonomous vehicles with safety drivers since 2017. The company will run trials without that precaution, using two cars that are confined to designated streets, the DMV said on its website. The vehicles will operate on roads with posted speed limits not exceeding 45 miles per hour, but not during heavy rain or foggy conditions.

Continue reading… “WeRide’s cars to go fully driverless in California”

One of Waymo’s Chrysler Pacificas in the Phoenix area.

By Raphael Orlove

As the day when our robot overlords take control of Earth away from humans approaches, it remains unwise to taunt, provoke, or anger the robots of today. It is with this in mind that I salute the brave residents of Phoenix, AZ, for egging the self-driving Google-backed Waymo minivans testing on their roads.

Self-driving cars seem like an evolutionary step up from regular cars. Cruise control becomes adaptive cruise control becomes Super Cruise becomes driverless cars. Once you make the transition to full autonomy, though, self-driving cars become something more like giant robots that can pick your kids up from school, or help you get from your distant exurb to your downtown cube farm, or whatever other distopia awaits us.

Do we choose to bow prematurely to these robots, our future overlords? The people of Phoenix do not, as the Phoenix New Times reports. The Google-backed startup Waymo has been using the sunny streets of Phoenix to test its self-driving tech, in part because the government of Arizona is significantly less strict than neighboring California and because driving in Phoenix has got to be easy for a robot. There’s no rain to get on your sensors. There are no confusing off-the-grid old town streets. There’s just endless urban/suburban thoroughfares designed with cars in mind.

The people of Phoenix have been egging these Google cars:

Continue reading… “The Good People Of Phoenix Are Egging The Self-Driving Google Cars”