autonomous vehicles

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine.Driverless cars and planes are no longer the stuff of the future. In the city of San Francisco alone, two taxi companies have collectively logged 8 million miles of autonomous driving through August 2023. And more than 850,000 autonomous aerial vehicles, or drones, are registered in the United States—not counting those owned by the military.But there are legitimate concerns about safety. For example, in a 10-month period that ended in May 2022, the National…

Cruise, the GM self-driving subsidiary, said Thursday that federal prosecutors and securities regulators have opened investigations into the October 2 incident that left a pedestrian stuck under and then dragged by one of its robotaxis. The probes by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which were revealed as part of an internal report conducted by law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and released Thursday, join numerous other investigations at nearly every level of…

Autonomous vehicle operator Cruise said Thursday that federal regulators are looking into its handling of an October 2 pedestrian collision in San Francisco.“We are fully cooperating with the state and federal regulatory and enforcement agencies which have opened investigations or inquiries in connection with the incident, including the California DMV, the California Public Utilities Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange…

A law firm hired by the General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary Cruise to investigate the company’s response to a gruesome San Francisco crash last year found that the company failed to fully disclose disturbing details to regulators, the tech company said today in a blog post. The incident in October led California regulators to suspend Cruise’s license to operate driverless vehicles in San Francisco.The new report by law firm Quinn Emanuel says that Cruise failed to tell California’s Department of Motor Vehicles that…

Aurora Innovation, the autonomous vehicle technology company aiming to launch a “driverless” self-driving trucks business by the end of 2024, laid off dozens of workers this month, according to sources familiar with the action. The Pittsburgh-based company, which also has facilities in California, Colorado, Texas and Montana, has since confirmed that about 3% of its workforce was laid off in the beginning of the year, following an organizational review. Aurora employed about 1,800 workers as of…

Bryant Walker Smith, an associate professor of law at the University of South Carolina, echoes this concern. “These companies are competing with an Uber driver who, in any estimate, makes less than minimum wage, has a midpriced car, and probably maintains it themselves,” he says.  By way of contrast, robotaxis are expensive vehicles packed full of cameras, sensors, and advanced software systems, and they require constant monitoring and help from humans. It’s almost impossible for them to compete with ride-sharing…

A Vay remotely-driven vehicle.German remote-driving startup Vay said on Wednesday it had launched its first commercial service in Las Vegas where a "teledriver", or remote driver, delivers electric short-term rental cars to customers then collects them after the rental.The service is currently available around the University of Nevada Las Vegas and the city's arts district renting out cars by the minute. Unlike autonomous vehicles, it relies on a remote human driver. CEO…

Another CES has come and gone and transportation was still one of the central actors on one of the world’s largest tech stages. It wasn’t just electric cars either that captured our attention at CES 2024. Companies and startups focused on automated driving, EV charging, software (and more specifically AI), sensors, aviation, boats, drones, micromobility — you name it — were there. And luckily, so was TechCrunch. Here are some of the tech themes that stood out to us at CES 2024. Everything electric Image Credits:…

LiDAR sensors help generate a more precise and comprehensive image than radar, offer better range than sonar, and are more effective in harsh lighting and weather conditions than the cameras.New Delhi: Global automotive supplier Valeo, which is working on new technology strategies and software-defined vehicles (SDVs), is betting big on ADAS and electrification at the ongoing 4-day CES being held in the US.The France-based Tier-1 supplier has created hardware and…

Ten of TuSimple’s autonomous big rigs are set to be auctioned off later this month, just a few weeks after the self-driving trucking startup that went public in 2021 announced it was exiting the U.S. market. The trucks, along with a slew of research and development equipment and office supplies, will be sold off in two online auctions. The first is slated to run January 23-25, and a second is scheduled for February 6-8. A spokesperson for the auction company confirmed 10 trucks will “initially”…