Autonomous Cars

I experienced the City NGP function under XNGP in a P7i in Shanghai, and later in a G6 in Guangzhou. With my second experience I soon realized it was a tale of two cities. In Shanghai it was quite smooth, and at least one of the interventions made was due to me being disoriented rather than the car. In a few other cases it was me being overly cautious.While in Shanghai the system appeared to cut out for no obvious reason only once or twice, this happened far more frequently in Guangzhou. One possible reason for this is…

The act of vandalism reflect a chaotic environment for robotaxis in San Francisco, where public ire has risen after the dragging and bicyclist accidents. California lawmakers and labor unions rallied on Monday to call for laws to not allow autonomous trucks without human drivers, amid rising safety concerns after accidents involving self-driving taxis from General Motors and Alphabet. A robotaxi from Alphabet's Waymo was torched by people celebrating Chinese New Year on…

A Waymo self-driving car was set upon by vandals in San Francisco on Saturday evening. According to footage and eyewitness reports of the incident, the attackers graffiti’d the car, before smashing its windows and throwing fireworks inside. The vehicle then caught fire and burned out before fire crews arrived to extinguish the blaze. No passengers were in the Waymo vehicle when it was set upon, and no bystanders are thought to have been hurt in the incident. The fire department posted pictures of the remains of the…

Qualcomm made two big reveals at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, including detailing its on-device AI for the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chip for virtual and mixed reality headsets. Qualcomm continued the classic CES trend of showing off the latest automotive tech with its Snapdragon Digital Chassis platform, which enables connected car services for on-the-go work and life efficiency. Author’s note: This article will be updated to reflect the Jan. 10 Qualcomm keynote. Also, TechRepublic is covering CES 2024 remotely.…

Waymo After several years of testing its autonomous vehicles on city streets without a human engineer behind the wheel, Waymo is about to send its fully driverless cars onto freeways for the first time. The Alphabet-owned company announced the move in a blog post on Monday, signaling a notable expansion of its driverless car program. Waymo has been offering robotaxi rides to regular folks enrolled in its Waymo One ridesharing program in Phoenix and San Francisco, but the first freeway rides across Phoenix will be…

Cruise Beleaguered autonomous car startup Cruise has laid off 900 workers, equal to about a quarter of its workforce. The news comes a day after nine executives were also dismissed. The General Motors-backed firm has suffered a series of setbacks in recent months, triggered by an accident on the streets of San Francisco in October when one of its self-driving cars came to a halt on top of a woman, pinning her to the ground just moments after she’d been hit by a human-driven car. The incident caused the woman serious…

It’s not getting any easier for beleaguered autonomous-car startup Cruise after a report on Tuesday suggested its main backer, General Motors (GM), is about to slash funding for the startup. Cruise recently suspended nationwide testing on U.S. streets following a string of troubling incidents involving its autonomous cars, the most serious of which occurred in San Francisco last month when a Cruise car came to a halt on top of a woman who seconds earlier had been knocked over by a human-driven vehicle. GM will reveal…

The findings of the pre-competitive research project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and initiated by the VDA flagship initiative, autonomous and connected driving will be discussed in detail at the final presentation at the Carl Benz Arena in Stuttgart.Four years ago, the German automotive industry joined forces with 21 partners in a project to develop the world’s first structures for the verification of safety standards for…

Cruise co-founder Daniel Kan has quit the beleaguered autonomous-car company, Reuters reported on Monday. His departure as chief product officer comes a day after Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt announced he was leaving the company that the pair set up 10 years ago. The significant upheaval follows a string of safety-related incidents involving its driverless cars on the streets of San Francisco, the same city where the General Motors-backed startup is headquartered. The most of serious of these happened in San…

Cruise General Motors-owned  Cruise has halted production of its fully driverless vehicle — the Origin — just over a week after it suspended robotaxi operations nationwide following a number of troubling incidents involving its cars. The news was announced by Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt during a meeting with staff on Monday, according to Forbes, which obtained audio of the gathering. The Origin van is a purpose-built driverless vehicle that has no steering wheel or pedals and was trumpeted as the future of Cruise’s robotaxi…