Yavapai County prosecutors said today that Uber is not criminally liable in a crash last year when one of its self-driving cars fatally struck a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. The autonomous SUV, which had a backup driver behind the wheel, collided with Elaine Herzberg while she was walking across the street. She later died as […]
View More Prosecutors find Uber not criminally liable in 2018 Arizona self-driving crash that killed a pedestrianCategory: Autonomous Vehicles
Study says some self-driving car systems have trouble detecting darker skin
A new study by Georgia Tech researchers says some self-driving car systems have trouble detecting darker skin. They came to this conclusion after using footage from the Berkeley Driving Dataset to study how systems would react to different types of p…
View More Study says some self-driving car systems have trouble detecting darker skinSome self-driving car systems have trouble detecting darker skin, study says
Last year, Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon were called out for using facial recognition technology that was biased against people with dark skin. Well, it looks like self-driving cars could have the same problem.
An analysis from Georgia Tech researchers …
Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ feature is back on Autopilot
Tesla made a big announcement Thursday about a Tesla Model 3 electric car that starts at $35,000, but other new options popped up on the Tesla website under the Autopilot section, like the semi-autonomous driving feature.
Full self-driving mode was p…
Jimmy Fallon geeks out over ‘unbelievable’ FedEx delivery bot
“This is the future right here,” said Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon.
He was watching FedEx’s new SameDay autonomous delivery bot navigate through sand, rocks, water, and up a step.
“This is unbelievable,” Fallon said in what seemed l…
Even Apple’s self-driving car safety report is super secretive
Apple’s autonomous car program is as secretive as ever.
Compare the seven-page safety report Apple submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this week to the 43-page color explosion from Waymo, the self-driving car startup from Google parent company Alphabet.
Apple’s first page.
Image: apple / nhtsa / screengrab
Waymo’s first page.
Image: Waymo
Both talk about each companies’ safety practices and guiding principles when it comes to self-driving vehicles, but only one (guess which one) keeps it brief and vague. Other companies like Ford, GM’s Cruise, and Nuro also share additional details and include charts, vehicle pictures, and images of — wait for it — people. Read more…
More about Apple, Safety, Autonomous Vehicles, Project Titan, and Tech
View More Even Apple’s self-driving car safety report is super secretiveElon Musk would rather sit in freeway traffic with Autopilot than use Waze
While making bold predictions about full self-driving cars during a podcast session with an investment firm this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also shared how he gets around – in a very Tesla way.
In the conversation with ARK Invest — a Tesla shareholder that wrote a stern letter to Musk after he tweeted about taking Tesla private — Musk said Tesla vehicles would be capable of self-driving by the end of this year and that by the end of 2020 human drivers wouldn’t have to pay attention while the car drives and you could even take a nap until arriving to your destination.
#Autonomous cars are coming sooner than you think. Don’t just take my word for it, listen to @elonmusk on the latest @ARKInvest #FYIpodcast. Thanks again for sitting down with @CathieDWood and me! https://t.co/8G4ARYGjM6 pic.twitter.com/VCpXloV0FE
— Tasha Keeney (@TashaARK) February 19, 2019 Read more…
More about Tesla, Autopilot, Autonomous Vehicles, Waze, and Navigation Apps
Vision system for autonomous vehicles watches not just where pedestrians walk, but how
The University of Michigan, well known for its efforts in self-driving car tech, has been working on an improved algorithm for predicting the movements of pedestrians that takes into account not just what they’re doing, but how they’re doing it. This body language could be critical to predicting what a person does next.
View More Vision system for autonomous vehicles watches not just where pedestrians walk, but howWaymo tops new self-driving report while Apple brings up the rear
Apple’s self-driving car project isn’t doing so well. Last month more than 200 employees from the team were sent to other machine learning divisions. Then in a report this week, Apple came in dead last out of 62 companies permitted to test drive auto…
View More Waymo tops new self-driving report while Apple brings up the rearAutonomous cars are driving the reinvention of IP protection
Our concepts of intellectual property protection will need to evolve, if not require invention of new concepts, to enable transition to autonomous vehicles.
View More Autonomous cars are driving the reinvention of IP protectionTesla rival gets cash infusion from Amazon to develop self-driving cars
Watch out, Tesla. One of your rivals, Aurora, just got serious money from retail behemoth Amazon.
Aurora isn’t just another self-driving tech company. Co-founder Sterling Anderson was the head of Tesla’s Autopilot program and was sued by his former employer back in 2017 for allegedly taking information and engineers with him to his new company. The case eventually settled and Aurora paid Tesla $100,000.
Now, Amazon is one of several backers in a $530 million funding round announced Thursday for Aurora, which is based in Palo Alto but maintains a big presence in Pittsburgh.
Aurora doesn’t build self-driving cars. It provides software for partners, including Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Chinese carmaker Byton — which promises vehicles capable of Level 4 autonomy by 2021. Last year Aurora secured the first state permit to test its vehicles throughout Pennsylvania, beating out Uber. Read more…
More about Amazon, Aurora, Autonomous Vehicles, Tech, and Transportation
View More Tesla rival gets cash infusion from Amazon to develop self-driving carsUnlike most of US, autonomous vehicles in the UK won’t require riders
As soon as this year, self-driving cars in the UK could be truly driverless.
That is, except for the remote control driver monitoring the vehicle while it drives in trial runs. But no one has to be in the car, so the future really is here.
The UK’s D…