self-driving cars

Speaking solely from a technology point of view, Google believes that autonomous cars will be a reality in three to five years. For the most part, the hardware exists today, so the stumbling block is really perfecting the software and firmware. As Bloomberg points out, the obstacles that autonomous...

Recent reports have suggested that Audi’s new autonomous driving system, dubbed “Piloted Driving” by the German luxury automaker, will debut on its A8 flagship sedan around the year 2016. Audi recently showcased its Piloted Driving autonomous system at the 2013 Consumer...

Major automotive supplier Bosch has given an update on the development of its autonomous car technology, which it says will first start appearing on new cars by as early as 2014. The development of autonomous car technology is a gradual one but it’s already in its deeper stages. That's...

Audi has been a pioneer in the world of autonomous cars, having tested a self-driving TT sports car for several years and more recently becoming the first automaker to attain Nevada’s license for the use of autonomous cars on its roads. At the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show earlier this...

Autonomous cars, and the technologies that drive them, are the rage at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Aside from the gnawing fear and insecurity such cars instill in the pit of your stomach, they're pretty cool--as this Audi Piloted Driving demo proves. Here, you'll see a car drive...

Safety tech might not be as sexy as big horsepower figures, track-ready traction control, or even the latest in infotainment capabilities, but the level of technology that's already integrated into the upper echelon of today's luxury cars--and what's on the horizon--is mind-boggling when you get...

If you’re tracking the development of autonomous vehicles, you know that several companies have now begun testing in the state of Nevada, where autonomous cars can now be licensed for use on public roads. To be clear, Google was the first company to receive such a license from Nevada...

The Consumer Electronics Show has, over the past several years, become more and more about automotive technology. This year, Lexus will be flaunting its latest, including its take on autonomous driving tech. While the company is touting the system as if it were about to reach production, one look...

Get into any new car—okay, well maybe not a Smart Fortwo—and you’ll find power steering. Power steering systems have, for the most part, become so good, so transparent in a way, that we tend to forget that they exist. Yet we should keep in mind that for the typical driver, to...

In the race to develop the world’s first self-driving car, Japanese firms have been lagging their European and North American counterparts. Google has already developed a fully autonomous vehicle and has even gained a license to test it on public roads in the state of Nevada. Mercedes-Benz...

The 2014 Mercedes-Benz S Class due out next year will be the first car in history to offer customers a fully autonomous system, whereby the car will be able to drive itself--in certain situations--without any driver involvement. This is made possible due to an extensive array of sensors on the new...

Ron Medford is currently the deputy director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which makes him second in command of the agency responsible for establishing motor vehicle safety standards. Medford has been involved with the federal government for over four decades, and has had a...

Like it or not, autonomous cars are coming. But with any new technology, especially one that’s particularly groundbreaking, the introduction of self-driving technology in cars is being done gradually, with each introduction merely a stepping stone to the next facet of the technology. First...

Like it or not, a future filled with semi-autonomous (and eventually, fully-autonomous) automobiles is coming. For all the complaining from enthusiasts (ourselves included), there’s no denying that self-driving cars will improve safety for today’s attention-impaired drivers, as well as...

Earlier this month Volvo signed a Memorandum of Understanding with fellow members of the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium being run in Europe, helping pave the way for the implementation of Car-2-Car and Car-2-Object communication technology in its cars. By enabling vehicles to communicate with...

While Google and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) may be the two names most closely associated with autonomous vehicles, they’re hardly the only organizations working on self-driving cars. Ceatec Japan is an annual conference highlighting the latest advances in...

Volvo is paving the way for the implementation of Car-2-Car and Car-2-Object communication systems in its own vehicles with the signing today of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with fellow members of the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium being run in Europe. The consortium’s goal is to...

Representing a major coup for proponents of autonomous cars, the Governor of California, Jerry Brown, has signed a bill that will set out laws to allow self-driving cars on the state’s roads. The new bill, put forward by Democrat Senator Alex Padilla, helps establish the rules that will...

Europe’s SARTRE (SAfe Road TRains for the Environment) project, first established in 2009, has come to an end, with the results proving positive for all those involved. One of the partners was Swedish automaker Volvo, which is now looking at integrating some of the findings in its production...

Coinciding with a similar program being run in Germany, the U.S. Department of Transportation is about to start a trial of technology relying on car-to-car and car-to-object communications. The hope is that cars, either through warnings made to their driver or through autonomous systems will be...