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Schockmel: CLEPA Members Ready For Autonomous Opportunities
Amid the glitz and glamour of the 2015 Geneva Auto Show, European auto supplier group CLEPA proclaimed its members would have a part to play in the autonomous game. According to Just-Auto, group CEO...
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While You Were Sleeping: Chevrolet Sub-Camaro, Toyota/Honda Best Supplier...
As I fly down to Nashville to drive Nissan’s latest iteration of their 4DSC (“four-door sports car”) – the Maxima – we will have all the articles you expect on a Monday. Here’s what happened over the...
View ArticleToyota Will Spend $50M Researching The Perfect Robot Car
Toyota announced Friday it would invest $50 million in research facilities at Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study and develop artificial intelligence for future safety and...
View ArticleCountry Mice, City Mice, and Autonomous Vehicles
The autonomous vehicle is coming. Everybody says so. Or at least everybody who is paid to be optimistic about the fascist-corporate future of the Western World says so. Autonomous vehicles are already...
View ArticleVolvo Will Accept Liability If Their Autonomous Cars Crash
Volvo Cars President and CEO Håkan Samuelsson announced Thursday in Washington, DC, that the automaker would “accept full liability whenever one if its cars is in autonomous mode,” making Volvo one of...
View ArticleOntario Is Getting It Right With Cars Today, Closer to Xanadu
Ontario announced this week that it would be the first Canadian province to allow autonomous driving on its roads (although maybe not autonomous Volts) and it would make insurance companies discount...
View ArticleIs Stanford’s Self-drifting Delorean The Back to the Future of Autonomous...
I think we can all take a moment to appreciate the fine, fine work that Stanford researchers have put into making a 1981 Delorean do its own donuts in a parking lot on “Back to the Future” day...
View ArticleLA 2015: Volvo’s Concept Car Doesn’t Need Wheels, Paint, Car
Volvo’s newest concept car is so advanced it doesn’t need sheet metal, wheels, doors, headlights or even an engine, man. The Volvo Concept 26, unveiled Wednesday at the Los Angeles Auto Show, is the...
View ArticleTTAC News Round-up: Elio’s Already on Thin Ice; Magna and Getrag Seal Their...
Regulators may rain on Elio’s parade even before they got started. That, Volvo takes a serious stab at full-size luxury conventional wisdom, the big get bigger and Ford’s hybrids only go so far … after...
View ArticleTTAC News Round-up: Toyota’s a Big Tease, New Lada Savior, and Buick Puts the...
Toyota is hoping to break the internet with an alluring butt shot of an upcoming Prius variant. That, a new guy will turn around Lada (again), Buick says you’ll never drive an Avista, the second GM...
View ArticleUber Allegedly Buys 100,000 S-Class Cars, Confusing Everyone
Uber wants to eliminate drivers from its operation, but the ride-hailing service reportedly just purchased an armada’s worth of Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedans that don’t yet have fully autonomous...
View ArticleTesla Faces Backlash Over Autopilot Technology in Wake of Crash
Safety advocates are claiming Tesla’s reputation as a leading innovator in the automotive world could breed overconfidence in its new technology, putting drivers in danger. The May 7 death of a Tesla...
View ArticleNo LIDAR Means No Safety in Self-Driving Vehicles, Says Auto Supplier Exec
If you’re going to let people take their hands off the wheel and let the vehicle do the driving, you’d better offer every tool available to make sure it’s safe. That’s the view of Stefan Sommer, CEO of...
View ArticleNHTSA Investigating Another ‘Autopilot’ Crash as Tesla Comes Out Swinging at...
Tesla’s bad news week has now spilled over into a second, after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a second investigation into a Tesla crash involving the semi-autonomous...
View ArticleAutopilot is Here to Stay, Says Musk, as NHTSA Delves Deeper into Fatal Crash
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has no plans to remove the Autopilot feature from his vehicles, despite demands from safety and consumer groups. Musk told the Wall Street Journal that lack of education is the...
View ArticleNo Fixed Abode: What’s the Auto-Point of It All?
One of the first things any child learns in the modern technological era is that there are tools for which the true purpose is explicitly stated and tools for which the true purpose is hidden behind...
View ArticleOn Autopilot, Elon Musk Has a Friend in NHTSA Chief
His company’s product is under investigation by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk likes the favorable press the NHTSA gave to its Autopilot system. Musk...
View ArticleElon Musk’s Future Vision: Your Tesla Gets a Day Job, and Why That Might Not...
In his Master Plan, Part Deux, some of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s visions make a lot of sense, like a compact SUV based on the Model 3 platform, and a pickup truck, which will presumably have more than...
View ArticleVolvo Partners with Uber, Unleashes Self-Driving XC90s in Pittsburgh
Volvo is partnering with ride-hailing service Uber, a $300 million deal expected to spawn a fleet of self-driving vehicles on U.S. roads. Both companies plan to develop their own autonomous technology...
View ArticleTesla Will Tweak Autopilot to Reduce Crashes, Liability, Bad Press: Report
Earlier this summer, headlines flew fast and furious around Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot driving system, and the often hazy crashes associated with it. Now, the electric automaker plans to tweak...
View ArticleTesla Investigates Deadly China Collision; Could Be the First Fatal Autopilot...
The death of a young Chinese man in a Tesla this past January could be the first fatality linked to a malfunctioning Autopilot system. Tesla claims it is investigating the crash as the company faces a...
View ArticleTesla, Former Supplier Continue their Vicious Public Row
Tesla Motors isn’t backing down in its public falling out with Mobileye N.V., and neither is its former supplier. This week has seen a constant back-and-forth between the two companies after Mobileye...
View ArticleFederal Government Considering New Powers to Regulate Self-Driving Cars
The federal government doesn’t want to leave the issue of autonomous vehicle safety for states to decide, and may create new powers of oversight and approval for autonomous technology. After president...
View ArticleComma.ai Bypasses NHTSA, Releases Self-Driving Technology to the Public
George Hotz has revived his Comma One self-driving technology project — sort of — after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shut down the commercial launch of his product earlier this...
View ArticleUndistracted Driver: Waymo’s Self-driving Minivans are Becoming Eerily Competent
According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles and its autonomous vehicle disengagement report, self-driving cars are in need of less and less human intervention. Waymo, Google’s autonomous...
View ArticleWhich Companies are Winning the Autonomous Vehicle Race?
Ford’s head of research, Ken Washington, suggests that the general public won’t be able to buy a fully autonomous vehicle until sometime between 2026 and 2031. That’s a little later than CEO Mark...
View ArticleCadillac’s Super Cruise is Super Late, Takes Aim at Autopilot
Cadillac announced its autonomous driving system Super Cruise is ready and will be available this fall. The system, designed to compete directly with Tesla’s Autopilot, will first appear on the...
View ArticleHere’s What the Average Buyer is Willing to Pay to Avoid Doing All the Driving
While many would argue that piloting your own vehicle is a key part of freedom and enjoyment of life, there are times when we really wish our vehicle could take us home from the bar. Cabs are...
View ArticleCadillac Changes Its Super Cruise Strategy, Commences Media Campaign Prior to...
Setbacks notwithstanding, we’ve been eagerly anticipating Cadillac’s entry into the world of semi-autonomous driving with its Super Cruise system, developed to help reinforce the automaker’s position...
View ArticleNo Pedals, No Wheel: GM Unveils Bolt-based Autonomous Fleet
General Motors has showcased its plan to launch public ride-hailing services by teasing a self-driving vehicle with no manual controls whatsoever. The fleet is said to arrive in 2019, which gives us...
View ArticleCadillac President Attributes ‘Measured Approach’ to Super Cruise Success,...
Speaking at a conference in California on Wednesday, Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen threw some gentle shade at his rivals by stating General Motors’ measured approach to hands-free driving was...
View ArticleMusk Claims Tesla’s New Autopilot Chip Is Only Six Months Away
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says a new chip aimed at improving its vehicles’ Autopilot features will be available in about six months. However, if you’re hoping the automaker is preparing to light some candles...
View ArticleSAE Consumer Autonomous Driving Study Finds… Public Acceptance?
With the realities of autonomous driving growing increasingly apparent, the Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) decided to conduct a survey to gauge public sentiment surrounding the technology. We’ve...
View ArticleElon Musk: Level 5 Autonomous Driving ‘Very Close’
Tesla is reportedly “very close” to achieving complete driving autonomy, according to CEO Elon Musk. “I’m extremely confident that level 5 or essentially complete autonomy will happen and I think will...
View ArticleSlammed by the NTSB, Uber Now Promises to Make Autonomous Test Data Available...
Uber Technologies promised to make the safety information related to its self-driving program more widely available following some fairly harsh criticism from the National Transportation Safety Board...
View ArticleTesla Full-Self Driving Option Comes Up Empty
Elon Musk said in a tweet, “All Tesla cars delivered in the final three days of the year will get three months of the Full Self-Driving option for free. Delivery & docs must be fully complete by...
View ArticleHonda SENSES Hands-Off Driving in Japan
Honda has begun leasing Legend EX sedans with the Honda SENSING Elite safety system in Japan today. The first Level 3 automated technology to be approved in that country, the system includes Traffic...
View ArticleThe Week of Driving Autonomously in an Xpeng
XPeng, a Chinese maker of EVs, sent a fleet of XPeng P7s on a 2,284-mile, weeklong autonomous driving jaunt across six provinces, the longest by any mass-produced vehicles in the country. A...
View ArticleFord Introduces ‘Hands-Free’ BlueCruise System for F-150, Mach-E
On Wednesday, Ford Motor Co. announced its upcoming hands-free driver-assist system intended to rival Tesla’s Autopilot or General Motors SuperCruise. The service, which the manufacturer has renamed...
View ArticleAuthorities Claim No One Was in the Driver’s Seat in Tesla Crash
A crash involving a Tesla Model S in Texas killed two passengers. We say “passengers” instead of “occupants” because it appears there was no one in the driver’s seat at the time of the crash. At...
View ArticleConsumer Reports Tricks Tesla’s Autopilot
We wrote earlier this week about a Tesla crash in Texas in which the car may or may not have been driving itself, although the driver’s seat was apparently unoccupied. It’s still not clear if Tesla’s...
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