Autonomous cars
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Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles' Chelsea Proving Grounds (CPG) is home to a new multi-million dollar autonomous technology testing facility. The automaker announced on Wednesday it has invested $30 million in the new facility, which begins testing this month. While CPG spans nearly 4,000 acres, the new autonomous testing area covers more than 35 acres and includes a safety-feature evaluation center, a command center, and a highway-speed track. Each portion of the new test facility will allow FCA to test various levels of autonomy, advanced-driver assistance systems (ADAS), and develop automated...
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Arizona Kroger charges $5.95 for trial service of grocery delivery via self-driving car
Residents of Scottsdale, Arizona, can now get their groceries delivered by autonomous vehicles. Grocery giant Kroger and technology partner Nuro are rolling out a trial program at a single Fry's Food location. The cost to participate? Just $5.95 per delivery with no minimum order. The program began...
Jeff Glucker -
Ford to spend $740M to turn Detroit train station into tech HQ
Ford recently made news when it purchased the defunct Michigan Central Station. Closed in 1988, the former Amtrak hub is now going to be turned into a tech center for the Blue Oval brand. Now Ford has revealed it will shell out hundreds of millions of dollars to get the old building into shape...
Jeff Glucker -
Investigators say Tesla Autopilot sped up before fatal Model X crash
Federal investigators said Thursday that a Tesla Model X traveling on Autopilot in California sped up before crashing into an highway barrier, killing its driver and striking two other cars. A preliminary report was made available by the National Transportation Safety Board detailing the moments...
Aaron Cole -
VW tests automated parking system at German airport
We've seen a handful of concepts to help alleviate the stress of parking in congested areas, but Volkswagen has taken things a step further. The automaker announced Friday that it will begin trials for an automated parking system at Hamburg Airport in Germany. The concept is exactly what it sounds...
Sean Szymkowski -
Cadillac XT4 will add Super Cruise (eventually)
Cadillac’s Super Cruise promises cutting-edge semi-autonomous driving, and the Cadillac’s 2019 XT4 has just been revealed before it goes on sale later this year. An obvious pairing? For now, Cadillac says, its newest crossover won’t offer its latest safety technology. Cadillac...
Brandon Turkus -
Imagine a world where you can send instructions to your car with your thoughts alone. It might sound like science fiction but Nissan is actually attempting to develop such a system. The Japanese automaker on Wednesday said it was developing a technology called Brain-to-Vehicle, or B2V, which will enable cars to interpret signals from the driver’s brain. The applications could benefit both manually driven cars as well as fully self-driving cars, Nissan says. For example, in a manually driven car, the system would be able to catch signs that the driver’s brain is about to initiate a...
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nuTonomy’s self-driving cars now giving Lyft users rides in Boston
Boston, Massachusetts-based self-driving car startup nuTonomy made headlines in 2016 when it launched the world’s first self-driving taxi service. Albeit a trial only, the service, which covered a few streets in Singapore, provided an early look at a likely future where self-driving cars run...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Volvo delivers first self-driving cars to families in Drive Me project
Volvo is undertaking an ambitious project where up to 100 of its self-driving prototypes will be handed over to regular customers in Gothenburg, Sweden, the automaker’s hometown. The customers will drive the prototypes in everyday conditions, including on approximately 31 miles of selected...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Rinspeed explores plug-and-play chassis with Snap concept
Swiss automotive think tank Rinspeed is returning to the Consumer Electronics Show next year with a concept that demonstrates a possible future where the chassis and body of a car can go their separate ways. The result is that cars, or at least their bodies, could also offer meaningful immobile...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Ford to build electric SUV in Mexico instead of Michigan
Ford in 2015 outlined plans for 13 new electrified cars to be launched by 2020, one of which will be an electric SUV with a range of 300 miles. The original plan was to build the SUV at Ford’s Flat Rock plant in Michigan, where Ford is spending $700 million to transform the site into a hub...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Honda to partner with China’s SenseTime on AI tech for self-driving cars
As part of its 2030 Vision strategy announced in June, Honda aims to have a car with Level 4 self-driving capability on sale by the year 2025. The target date is later than what rivals are promising (typically around 2021) but is probably more realistic, perhaps not because of the ability of the...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Marketers, advertisers, and companies in general are itching to implement the next era of entertainment and connectivity. It's coming, and it will likely be broadcast in future self-driving cars. Intel sees the future today, and on Wednesday the tech giant announced a new deal with Warner Bros to develop in-car entertainment experiences. The deal will work on rider experiences on content for passengers in self-driving cars, and both companies plan to build a concept to demonstrate what in-car entertainment will look like in the future. The opportunities for entertainment companies are...
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"The Grand Tour" hosts see a future with self-driving cars
For decades, the automotive media has taken automobiles and discussed how they drive, their features, and why one might be a better buy than the other. When the day arrives where a car is ready to do the driving, there may be a bit less to talk about. Nevertheless, "The Grand Tour" hosts believe...
Sean Szymkowski -
Waymo's self-driving car fleet clips 4-million mile mark, set to kick off self-driving taxi service
Four million miles down, unlimited potential to go. Waymo's fleet of self-driving cars has officially reached the four-million-mile mark in about eight years of total operation. And in the coming months, the company will launch a self-driving taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona, for the public to use...
Sean Szymkowski -
Porsche not ready to abandon the steering wheel
The idea of a self-driving sports car seems like a ripe oxymoron, but even assisted self-driving could soon find its way to performance cars. Porsche won't flip a switch to drop the ability to actually drive its cars, but the luxury and performance brand does recognize times are changing. Porsche...
Sean Szymkowski -
Uber orders 24,000 Volvo XC90s for its self-driving fleet
Uber is in the race to develop a fully self-driving system to one day power a fleet of driverless taxis. To develop the system, Uber is using a fleet of Volvo XC90 SUVs fitted with all the necessary hardware required for self-driving capability, such as cameras and sensors. The vehicles also...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Self-driving Jaguar Land Rover prototypes take to public roads in UK
Self-driving prototypes from Jaguar Land Rover last week took to public roads in the automaker’s home market for the first time. The test was part of the United Kingdom’s Autodrive project, a government-backed 3-year initiative that involves testing of self-driving cars on the streets...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Nissan recently demonstrated an Infiniti Q50 prototype fitted with the most advanced version of its ProPilot self-driving system. ProPilot is Nissan and Infiniti’s new banner for self-driving technologies, and right now it only consists of electronic driver assist features, such as adaptive cruise control, automatic braking and warning systems. However, much more advanced features are coming, and sooner than you think. The system demonstrated on the Q50 prototype is said to offer fully self-driving capability from your door to your destination. You simply key in your destination in the...
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Waymo found drivers asleep, so it dumped partial self-driving feature
Alphabet Inc.'s self-driving car subsidiary, Waymo, has made a conscious decision to skip partial self-driving technology. Why? The company found its test drivers napping behind the wheel, which meant they'd be unable to resume control of the car if needed. Clearly, this speaks volumes as to how...
Sean Szymkowski -
Bob Lutz gives grim prediction for the future of the automobile
Bob Lutz has been a senior figure in the automotive industry for longer than most, so when he speaks about where it’s headed there's a certain authority behind what he has to say. Some zingers include his skepticism of man’s effect on climate change, as well as the long-term viability...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Delphi buys self-driving startup nuTonomy for $450M
Boston, Massachusetts-based self-driving car startup nuTonomy made headlines in 2016 when it launched the world’s first self-driving taxi service. Albeit a trial only, the service, which covered a few streets in Singapore, provided an early look at a likely future where self-driving cars run...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Lexus LS+ concept previews new design cues, self-driving tech
Lexus rolled out the LS+ concept car on Wednesday at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show. The concept is based on the recently introduced fifth-generation LS but is slightly longer, wider and lower, giving it a more imposing stance. It also features unique styling treatments that hint at the next evolution...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Nissan IMx is a self-driving electric SUV concept
Nissan is developing its next generation of cars around the three core tenets of connectivity, electrification and self-driving capability, which the automaker groups under the heading of Nissan Intelligent Mobility. These attributes, Nissan says, help strengthen the link between the car and its...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran