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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

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

 

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

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.