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News Roundup: A Semi-Autonomous Motorcycle, Driverless Cars Hit Public Roads in England, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A roundup of some of the most interesting news to come out of the driverless, connected-car world this week:

BMW says helmets won’t be needed with their self-balancing motorcycle

While most of the world is focused on semi-autonomous features that can make cars safer, BMW has been quietly focusing on a semi-autonomous motorcycle. This week, the auto manufacturer unveiled its design for the Vision Next 100 bike, with features like semi-autonomous steering and self-balancing wheels. Instead of a helmet, the bike will come with a visor that has an internal display super-imposed over the road and surrounding environment. The bike’s connected-vehicle system will give alerts about obstacles and risks on that display. BMW says the self-balancing wheels are so effective, a rider won’t even need to put their feet down on the ground when they stop, and it will be so hard to crash the bike, traditional helmets and padded, protective clothing won’t be necessary. Read more about the Vision Next 100 on CNNMoney.

Driverless cars tested on UK public roads for the first time

As Britain keeps moving toward its goal of having driverless cars on the road by 2020, a test car hit the public streets of Milton Keynes for the first time on Tuesday. Traveling at about 5 km per hour, the small two-seater driverless pod car navigated the streets of the largely pedestrianized southern town, stopping for people that crossed in front of it and safely turning corners. The pod car, heavily adapted from a compact Renault car, was developed by the Oxford University spin-out Oxbotica. Read more about the driverless car’s first public trip from Reuters.

Lots of driverless news out of California this week

According to news outlets like Ars Technica, Wall Street Journal and Elektrek, things are really heating up in California, where the number of companies that have been issued permits to test autonomous vehicles has just climbed to 17, up by three just since the end of summer. The two newest permits were issued to Wheego, an electric vehicle powertrain engineering company, and Valeo, a familiar name in the industry as a longtime tier-one automotive supplier. Also recently, Chinese tech firm Baidu received a testing permit. In other California news, Elektrek was one of the first to spot prototypes of Google’s long-awaited self-driving Chrysler Pacific mini-vans in Mountain View last weekend, and published a few somewhat grainy photos. Read more recent industry news from Ars Technica.

Image: Vision Next 100 semi-autonomous motorcycle prototype, by BMW.

Tesla Recruits Creator of iPhone’s Processor to Work on Self-Driving Cars, AutoPilot

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Tesla Motors has recruited former Apple engineer Jim Keller to work on its AutoPilot and self-driving car projects.

“Jim Keller is joining Tesla as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering,” Tesla confirmed to ZDNet. “Jim will bring together the best internal and external hardware technologies to develop the safest, most advanced autopilot systems in the world.”

Keller is famously known as the creator of the A4 and A5 processors that powered most of Apple’s mobile devices, including the iPhone, from 2010 to 2012, ZDNet reports, speculating that Keller will “presumably take a big role at Tesla, under Elon Musk, to develop chips that power AutoPilot.”

AutoPilot is a feature of Tesla’s Model S, which debuted in late 2015. So far, AutoPilot has been plagued with widely-reported problems.

As The Verge reports, within days of the feature’s rollout, users were posting frightening videos on the Internet of how their car performed with the AutoPilot mode engaged. One video showed the car suddenly jerking to the right, almost crashing the car into a bush, as it exited the freeway.

Other videos showed drivers simply making bad decisions including climbing into the backseat and letting the car drive itself, even though Tesla urged users to keep their hands on the wheel at all times, as AutoPilot is still in its “beta” phase.

Perhaps with Keller aboard, Tesla will continue to improve upon AutoPilot, as well as make progress toward fully autonomous cars.

As for its traditional models, however, Tesla continues to encounter obstacles. On Tuesday, several news outlets reported that its efforts to begin selling its cars in Michigan were met with a fight, as Governor Rick Snyder made a move toward changing its laws by a single word, presumably to keep Tesla out.

CNN Money reports Michigan changed its law to specify the word “dealer”-meaning that only dealers can sell cars in the state.

Many say that change was explicitly directed at keeping Tesla out, because Tesla does not sell its cars through dealers, but rather only through Tesla retail stores, cutting out the middle-man and selling cars directly to consumers.

CNN estimates around 400 Michigan residents already own and drive Teslas, which they had to either drive out of state to buy, or had to order online, “sight unseen.”

 

BMW’s New Concept Car Has 3 Modes: Manual Drive, Assist Mode and Autonomous Mode

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Here’s one of the coolest cars unveiled at CES 2016: BMW’s new concept car, the iVision Future Interaction.

Excitingly, the car has three modes: Manual Drive, in which the human driver controls the car like any normal car; Assist Mode, which has partially autonomous features; and Auto Mode, which BMW describes as “highly automated driving.”

The car seats two, and has a number of cool features as welBMW-iVision-Future-Interaction-concept-car-2l as the noticeable lack of certain expected features:

  • No Rearview Mirrors: Side mirrors have been replaced by a multi-camera system that BMW says cover larger viewing angles and “eliminate dangerous blind spots.” The typical in-car rearview mirror has been replaced with a 21-inch display screen that show feeds of what the multiple cameras are picking up.
  • Empty Dashboard: The in-car dashboard is practically empty, because they say the 21-inch display screen has every control you need-and can be managed by voice control, touch, or even hand gesture.
  • Gesture-Controlled Parking: Tech Insider says the driver can “wave a hand” to indicate when they want the car to pull in or out of a parking space.
  • No Doors: Noticeably, the two-seater car has no side doors and a sleek design.

There is no word on whether BMW actually plans to mass-market this car anytime in the future, however.

Read more about the iVision Future Interaction and see concept illustrations on Tech Insider.

That wasn’t the only unveiling BMW did at CES — replacing mirrors with cameras is a big passion for BMW currently. They also unveiled a mirrorless i8 concept car. See more about that on CNNMoney.

Stay tuned to DriverlessTransportation.com for more news out of CES 2016!

What do you think of the iVision Future Interaction concept car? Tell us in the comments.