Waymo self-driving cars in Arizona have had their tires slashed, and some of the vehicles’ safety drivers have had guns pulled on them, the Arizona Republic reports.
Twenty-one instances of people attacking Waymo cars have been recorded, according to the Arizona Republic, citing police reports.
I’m guessing you are scoffing in disbelief at the very suggestion of this article, but bear with me.
A growing number of tech analysts are predicting that in less than 20 years we’ll all have stopped owning cars, and, what’s more, the internal combustion engine will have been consigned to the dustbin of history.
Yes, it’s a big claim and you are right to be sceptical, but the argument that a unique convergence of new technology is poised to revolutionise personal transportation is more persuasive than you might think.
The central idea is pretty simple: Self-driving electric vehicles organised into an Uber-style network will be able to offer such cheap transport that you’ll very quickly – we’re talking perhaps a decade – decide you don’t need a car any more.
Cars without steering wheels will be allowed under certain conditions, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said today in an 80-page report.
The report gives guidelines, which are voluntary. Precise rules, which are binding, have yet to be spelled out. But the policy clearly is to cut rules whenever possible while reserving the right to tighten regulation if problems should emerge. “When regulation is needed, USDOT [U.S. Department of Transportation] will seek rules that are as non-prescriptive and performance-based as possible,” the report says.
Look, no hands! Big car and technology companies such as BMW, Apple and Google are investing in driverless technology.
Widespread adoption of driverless cars would release thousands of acres of land for new housing and reduce the strain on transport infrastructure, according to research published today.
The report, centred on Edinburgh, suggests that congestion is costing the city more than £300 million a year in lost time and autonomous vehicles would help to trim that figure.
Its battery-electric platform can be used for a wide variety of purposes.
The advent of battery-electric “skateboards,” powertrain platforms that can accommodate a bunch of different bodies on top, means that vehicles can become even more versatile than they already are. Mercedes-Benz has applied this thinking to its vans to create the wild Vision Urbanetic concept.
Mercedes-Benz today unveiled the Vision Urbanetic, a battery-electric, autonomous van that Mercedes believes will contribute to a whole new segment of mobility that’s efficient, comfortable and sustainable — and, of course, capacious, being a part-time van and all.
Waymo is ready to start charging for its self-driving trips, but first, it needs to master the dreaded art of fleet management.
In a nondescript depot in suburban Arizona, the future of transportation is getting a tune-up. This is where Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, houses its growing fleet of self-driving cars: hundreds of Chrysler Pacifica minivans fitted with highly advanced hardware and software that enables them to safely ride on public roads without a human driver behind the wheel.
For over a year, Waymo has been offering trips to the 400-plus members of its Early Rider program who use Waymo’s ride-hailing app to summon the minivans for free trips to school, the mall, the gym, or elsewhere within its suburban Phoenix service area. Soon, Waymo will make that service available to the general public and it will start charging money for it, too. At the outset, the company plans on offering fully autonomous rides with a Waymo employee in the car only as a chaperone. And when that happens, it will make history as the first fully driverless taxi service in the world.
Less than a month after Uber’s fatal accident in Arizona, California regulators issue a proposal for a pilot test of passenger-carrying autonomous vehicles.
California may start allowing self-driving cars, like this one for Lyft, to carry passengers without a human driver behind the wheel.
Regulators in California are moving closer to allowing driverless cars to carry passengers, even without a backup driver present.
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is nearing an agreement with Volkswagen (VW) to deploy a “purpose-built” fleet of VW vehicles in its home country, according to The Wall Street Journal.
As part of the joint venture, the German carmaker would provide around 100,000 vehicles, electric and autonomous vehicle technology, and manage the fleet.
Two mega trends are coming together: The Collaborative Economy and the Autonomous World, which means shared mobility from self-driving cars.
Early this year, we published a research report on the Business Models of Self-Driving Cars, and we’ve presented our findings at a number of industry events. A commonly asked question is: “In the future, will we even own cars?” I want to share a few scenarios that are likely to emerge.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Self-driving cars that back up their computerized system with a remote human operator instead of a fallback driver at the wheel could be tested on California roads as early as April, the state department of motor vehicles said.
