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News Roundup: Volkswagen Shows Off Sedric the Level-5 Autonomous Car in China, Major Players Weigh In on California’s Proposed Driverless Testing Policies, and More

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A look at some of the biggest news stories to come out of the driverless and connected-car world this past week:

Major players weigh in on California’s proposed self-driving testing policies

Representatives from major players in the autonomous drive game, such as Apple, Uber, Tesla Motors and Ford, have been sending comments to California officials on what changes they would like to see made in the Golden State’s proposed policies for testing self-driving vehicles. In particular, Apple wants to change the way companies report “disengagements,” which we assume refers to accidents or collisions. Tesla wrote that they disapprove of the idea of barring testing of vehicles that weigh more than 10,000 pounds. Uber said it should be allowed for people to pay to ride in an autonomous vehicle with a driver behind the wheel in order to provide the company with honest feedback. Tesla also warned that restrictive policies would encourage developers to leave the state. Read more from Business Insider.

 

What to do with the ‘ocean of data’ connected and driverless cars will create each day?

Barclays analyst Brian Johnson said recently that as more and more cars are outfitted with sensors, cameras and LiDAR, the more data they will begin to generate. In fact, a single autonomous car will be capable of generating as much as 100 gigabytes of data per second. “Assuming the entire U.S. fleet of vehicles - 260 million vehicles - has a similar data generation, it would create an ocean of data. To put it in context, one hour’s worth of raw data across the entire U.S. fleet would be around 5,800 exabytes in size,” Johnson said. One exabyte is equivalent to one million terrabytes. That presents a wealth of problems when it comes to the storage, management and analysis of that much data. Many big companies like Tesla, Delphi and Intel have ideas about how to tackle this problem. One idea is “edge analytics,” where information is analyzed close to the sensor itself rather than being sent elsewhere through the cloud. Read more from CNBC.

 

Volkswagen wows with ‘Sedric’ Level 5 autonomous concept car in Shanghai

We first saw “Sedric” the Level-5 autonomous car in March, when Volkswagen showed off renderings of the concept car. Now, Volkswagen is showing off the real thing. The company recently took Sedric to China to show it off at the Auto Shanghai 2017 show. The car is capable of full Level-5 self-driving, and in fact executives said all a passenger has to do it climb in, press a single button to start the car, and then control it throughout the rest of the trip via voice commands. The car has no brakes, controls or pedals. In fact, the car features no “cockpit” at all. See more from Automotive Tires and Parts.

Photo: Interior of Volkswagen’s ‘Sedric’ car / Credit: Volkswagen

 

News Roundup: Google Forms Self-Driving Car Company Called ‘Waymo,’ Uber Starts Testing Driverless Taxis in San Francisco Without Permission, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A look at some of the most interesting headlines to come out of the driverless and connected-car industries this past week:

Google spins out driverless car arm into its own company: Waymo

It’s finally happened-Google has officially launched its own self-driving car company, known as Waymo. Google officially announced the formation of Waymo this week on Dec. 13, 2016, along with the launch of Waymo’s own website. Using the same fleet the company has been testing in four U.S. cities over the past few years, Waymo says its next steps will be to start allowing people to test drive its self-driving cars “to do everyday things like run errands or commute to work.” Read more on Waymo’s website.

 

Uber starts testing self-driving taxis in San Francisco without DMV’s permission

The industry marveled when Uber rolled out self-driving cars in Pittsburgh earlier this year, but the government was less than happy when the ride-hailing giant began trying out autonomous taxis in San Francisco this week-without the DMV’s permission. Not to mention, some people are reporting seeing the driverless cars make traffic violations such as running red lights. News reports indicate the California DMV is currently trying to get Uber to halt the use of the driverless cars in California until testing permits are finalized. Read more from Business Insider.

 

Univ. of Iowa to use USDOT grant to research autonomous cars, pedestrians

The University of Iowa will share a $1.4-million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation with four other institutions, and says one of the areas it will focus on with the research money is the safety and viability of self-driving transportation. Dr. Joseph Kearney, a computer science professor at the school, said “There’s work being done and work that will be done, that will look at interactions between pedestrians and bicyclists, and automated vehicles and semi-automated vehicles, in order to see how pedestrians respond.” Read more and see video footage from KCRG-TV.

Prediction: These 5 Companies Will Dominate the Driverless Industry, Bring Cars to Consumers

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A new report by the firm Juniper Research declares the five companies they believe will dominate the driverless car industry, and bring the first driverless cars to consumers, reports Business Insider.

Though countless companies have declared they will have mass-market driverless cars on public roads sometime between 2019 to 2025, Juniper has announced the five they think will win the race.

The five companies are:

  1. Google
  2. Volvo
  3. Daimler
  4. Tesla
  5. Apple

We at Driverless Transportation track four of these five companies in our exclusive D20 Stock Index.

Some may be surprised to see Apple - the lone company on Juniper’s list that we don’t track on the D20 - anywhere on the list, considering the company has all but denied they are doing any work toward researching and developing autonomous car technology. Countless news outlets have been pointing to signs that Apple is working on it in secret, though, including reports that Apple executives met with California Department of Motor Vehicles officials earlier this year to discuss laws and regulations for driverless vehicles.

Juniper said it handed the number-one spot to Google due to the fact they have been testing driverless cars longer than any other company in the game, and continue to collect mountains of real-time data every day.

Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, made headlines earlier this year by driving an autonomous big-rig truck on a public highway. Daimler’s head of development has also publicly declared that the company will be the first to launch autonomous functions in production vehicles, “within this decade.”

Do you agree with Juniper’s predictions? Tell us in the comments.