Driverless cars

Xpeng launched a feature that allows its cars to semi-autonomously navigate urban environments, marking its latest challenge to U.S. electric vehicle giant Tesla.The Chinese start-up announced Monday that it was piloting a feature known as City NGP, which stands for navigation guided pilot.Xpeng claims that City NGP will allow the vehicle to perform a "full range of driving tasks," including cruising at a "safe distance" from a car ahead, changing lanes and overtaking, getting around stationary automobiles or objects and…

Nvidia has found success in China by selling automotive chips to the country's electric car companies. But the U.S. semiconductor giant has been restricted from sending some products to China. So far, electric vehicle makers do not seem to be affected.Budrul Chukrut | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesBEIJING — U.S. restrictions on Nvidia chip sales to China won't affect Chinese electric car companies, as they're using auto systems that don't include the sanctioned products.Chipmaker Nvidia's shares have plunged…

XPeng is still focused in boosting the sales of its electric cars. But it has been focusing on building out future businesses in flying cars and robotics.Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesChinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and electric vehicle startup Xpeng are opening a computing center to train software for driverless cars, the two companies said Tuesday.Autonomous driving systems require huge amounts of data to be processed in order to train algorithms.Xpeng claims that the new computing center will reduce the…

Kyle Vogt, co-founder, president and chief technology officer for Cruise Automation Inc., speaks as he stands next to the Cruise Origin electric driverless shuttle during a reveal event in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAutonomous vehicle venture Cruise, which is majority-owned by General Motors, just scored the final permit it needed to offer its robotaxi service to paying riders in San Francisco, the company announced on Thursday.Cruise boasted in a…

Drew Angerer | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesHyundai Motor said on Sunday it plans to invest $5 billion in the U.S. by 2025 to further develop mobility technologies in areas like autonomous driving, robotics, and A.I.The investment comes alongside the automaker's recent announcement of a plan to spend $5.54 billion to build its first dedicated electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facilities in the U.S., located outside of Savannah, Georgia. That facility is expected to open during the first half of 2025 and is…

An Apollo Robotaxi runs at Shougang Park as Baidu launches China's first driverless taxi service in the city on May 2, 2021 in Beijing, China.He Luqi | Qianlong.com | Visual China Group | Getty ImagesFor years, Alphabet's Waymo and others leaders have promised autonomous vehicles are just around the bend. But that future has not arrived yet. Why not?"In one word, it's complexity," said James Peng, CEO and co-founder of Pony.ai, an autonomous vehicle company. "Every time there is a technical breakthrough, there are…