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News Roundup: Volvo’s Autonomous Garbage Truck, Paris’s Driverless Race Car, and More

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A roundup of news headlines to come out of the driverless and connected-car industries this week:

Volvo shows off its new autonomous garbage truck

This week Volvo debuted a video that shows its new prototype autonomous garbage truck in action. The concept is being hailed as the future of waste management. It will reportedly save money on personnel as it only requires one employee to manage, versus a team of two to three employees currently (one to drive, and at least one to load and unload garbage cans) and it will streamline refuse collection by doing it faster and more efficiently. The way it works is this: one employee walks on foot and follows the garbage truck, which drives itself. With each stop, the employee pushes a button and loads garbage cans into the machine and then takes them out after they have been emptied. The truck features sensors and software that is identical to that in Volvo’s prototype self-driving passenger cars, which Volvo gets from its partner, Uber. Uber’s mapping capabilities allows the route to be pre-programmed into the system so the truck knows exactly where to go. Read more, see photos and videos from Motoring.com.

 

Autonomous race car debuts in Paris

The French city of Paris saw its first autonomous vehicle hits its streets recently when the self-driving Robocar wowed crowds in Formula E’s Paris ePrix. The car completed 14 turns of a 1.9-kilometer track, negotiating completely by itself without a driver. “The team has worked so hard to get us to this point in a short amount of time. The car is alive and it has emotion and its own personality already. Roborace is the only company in the world right now testing driverless technologies on city streets without a human in the car – this is something truly unique,” Robocar CEO Denis Sverdlov told media. Robocar is capable of speeds over 200mph.  The car uses a number of technologies to drive itself including five lidar sensors, two radar sensors, 18 ultrasonic sensors, two optical speed sensors, six A.I. cameras, GNSS positioning, and is powered by NVIDIA’s Drive PX2 brain, which is capable of up to 24 trillion A.I. operations per second, to be programmed by teams’ software engineers. Read more from Gadget.

 

Ford CEO Mark Fields being replaced by director of self-driving car division

Earlier this week the news broke that Ford’s CEO Mark Fields had been ousted, largely due to the fact that the company’s stock has dropped roughly 40 percent in the few years since he took over the company. Today, the New York Times reports that the executive to take Fields’s place as CEO is none other than Jim Hackett. Hackett previously served as the CEO of the office furniture giant Steelcase, and had recently joined Ford as the director of the company’s smart mobility division, which includes the research and development of self-driving cars. Though Ford has been working on self-driving car technology for a few years now, Fields reportedly had been criticized for not advancing the technology quickly enough. Read more from the New York Times.

Image: Still photo from Volvo video

News Roundup: Uber Self-Driving Car Arm Nearly Shut Down, New Partnerships For Delphi, Waymo, Lyft, BMW and Intel

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A roundup of recent headlines to come out of the driverless and connected-car industry this week:

Google’s Waymo teams up with Lyft

Google’s driverless company, Waymo, announced it is teaming up with ride-hailing company Lyft to develop self-driving car technology. The two companies have agreed to work together on “pilot projects” with the aim of bringing driverless vehicles into the mainstream. Working with Waymo will give Lyft access to loads of data, and working with Lyft will allow Waymo to expand its testing and open doors to new areas. Read more from The Telegraph.

 

Uber narrowly avoids shut-down of self-driving car work over lawsuit

A federal judge stopped just short of shutting down Uber’s self-driving car operations due to Waymo’s lawsuit against the company for allegedly stealing its technology. Instead, the judge has banned Anthony Levandowski from having anything to do with Uber’s self-driving car work. Levandowski used to be the head of Google’s self-driving car division (later spun off into the separate company called Waymo) until he left for a similar job at Uber. Waymo alleged Levandowski stole the company’s technology secrets and took them to Uber. A federal judge this week barred Levandowski from working on Uber’s self-driving car technology. The move is likely to cause significant delays in Uber’s progress toward developing its own fleet of autonomous cars. Read more from the New York Times.

 

Delphi partners up with BMW and Intel

Delphi has announced that it is joining into a partnership with BMW and Intel to develop self-driving technology. In particular, the three companies said they will be collaborating on “perception, sensor fusion and high-performance automated driving computing.” In addition, an executive from BMW said other companies could be joining the multi-company partnership very soon. Delphi is seen as being very lucrative to the partnership because of the company’s expertise in “data analysis and electrical architecture,” which are viewed as critical to the development of autonomous cars. Read more from USA Today.

 

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

 

Volkswagen Shakes Off Diesel-Gate, Powers Big D20 Rebound

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After two consecutive weeks down, and losing more than 4 percent of its value, the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) roared back into the black this past week, largely led by Volkswagen.

Eighteen price gainers, compared to only two price losers, guaranteed the D20 a lift.  The D20 rebounded to 190.49, adding 3.3 percent and easily beating both the Dow and S&P 500.

The Dow crept up 0.5 percent to close at 20547.76, while the S&P 500 climbed 0.8 percent to end the week at 2348.69.

Ahead of the expected Volkswagen earnings announcement on April 28, several analysts have upgraded their price targets for the Germany-based automaker. Other indicators are pointing up for the beleaguered automaker as Volkswagen finally appears to be emerging from the self-inflicted cloud of Diesel-gate. Volkswagen jumped $2.29 per share last week to close just below $30 a share at $29.99. This 8.3-percent price jump led all D20 stocks for the week.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

Uber and Lyft are being sued for patent infringement by a holding company called Hailo Technologies, LLC. This particular Hailo is not the ride-hailing business by the same name that Daimler purchased in 2016 — it is a U.S.–based company that owns a U.S. patent issued in 1999 that describes a system that dispatches vehicles for rides and incorporates a payment system.

News Roundup: Serious Crash Involving Self-Driving Uber Car Under Investigation, Why Driverless Crash Liability Should Be Modeled After Vaccine Laws, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A roundup of recent headlines to come out of the driverless and connected-car industries over the past week:

Uber’s self-driving test cars return to the roads after 3-day halt following serious crash

Uber’s fleet of self-driving test cars returned to the roads in San Francisco Monday after the entire program was halted for three days following a serious crash in Arizona Saturday. Testing in Tempe, Arizona and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania remains halted as the investigation into the crash continues. Police in Tempe, Arizona said the accident occurred when a normal human-driven vehicle failed to yield to the driverless Uber car in an intersection. The two cars collided, causing the Uber car to roll over. Tempe police reported that the driver of the normal car was cited for the accident. An Uber employee was sitting behind the wheel of the Uber car, and fortunately was not injured. Uber representatives say a more detailed report will be released after the investigation concludes. Read more from TechCrunch. See photos and video from the accident on ABC15 Arizona.

 

What if driverless vehicle legislation were modeled after vaccine compensation cases?

In this article, Automotive News writer Katie Burke presents an interesting theory, in which legislation regarding liability in driverless vehicle collisions were modeled after the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. That law created the Office of Special Masters within the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, with the sole purpose of hearing cases in which a family claims their child was injured as a result of a vaccine. The law also created a special fund from which families who prove their child’s injury was caused by a vaccine are compensated. The act marked a turning point for U.S. pharmaceutical companies, allowing them to confidently continue researching and creating new vaccines without fear of losing billions in injury lawsuits. Burke thinks modeling legislation regarding liability in driverless car crashes in a similar way will encourage automakers working on developing the technology to continue their work without similar fears. What do you think of the idea? Read more from TheTruthAboutCars.com.

 

North Dakota Senate unanimously passes law requiring full study of autonomous vehicles

On Monday, the North Dakota Senate passed a new law 45-0 requiring the Department of Transportation (DOT) to work with the technology industry to conduct a study of the use of autonomous vehicles on the state’s highways. In addition, the study will focus on laws surrounding self-driving vehicles, including licensing, registration, insurance, ownership of data, and inspections. Results of the study must be presented at the next general assembly. In the same session, the Senate rejected a related bill that would have made the owner of a driverless vehicle the owner of any data gathered by or stored within the vehicle. Presumably, lawmakers want to encourage driverless vehicle manufacturers to share data collected by the vehicles with transportation agencies to allow for continued improvement of systems. Read more from InForum.

 

Photo Credit: Uber

Ford is Week’s Biggest D20 Loser Due to More Quarterly Sales Declines

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With 11 price losers, led by Ford Motor Co., and nine gainers, led once again by Renesas, the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) slipped 0.5 percent to end the week at 190.35.

Both the Dow Jones Industrials and S&P 500 stepped back this week as well.  The Dow lost 1.5 percent to close at 20596.72 while the S&P 500 closed at 2343.98, down 1.4 percent.

The fourth quarterly sales decline in the last six quarters pushed Ford (F) to a 6.9-percent loss last week making it the largest price percentage loser for the D20. Ford closed the week at $11.62 a share.

Up 22 percent during the last four weeks, Renesas Electronics (TYO:6723) was the leading price percentage gainer again last week, moving up 3.5 percent to close at ¥1140. Renesas continues to benefit from good reviews of its recently completed acquisition of Intersil, as well as corporate restructuring.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers: 

Uber continues its string of bad news with an announcement that one of its driverless vehicles was involved in a high-speed accident in Arizona.  Although the vehicle had no backseat passengers at the time of the accident, Uber has suspended all autonomous driving in the U.S. as it investigates the incident.

DeepScale, based in Mountain View, California, raised $3 million in seed funding to help driverless automakers use standard low-wattage processors to build more perceptive autonomous systems. DeepScale was founded by UC-Berkeley alumni, Forrest Iandola. His goal is to reduce both the cost of the processors required and the time it takes to “train” to neural nets that run on those processors to get affordable and safe driverless vehicles to market quickly.

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D20 Gains Again, Beating Dow, S&P 500

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Eleven price gainers and nine price losers drove the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) to a modest gain this week. It beat the Dow and the S&P 500, which both lost value, by inching up 0.67 points or 0.4 percent to close the week at 183.48.

For the second consecutive week, Renesas Electronics (TSE:6723) was the D20’s percentage price leader. Renesas continues to bask in the glow of completing its acquisition of Intersil. Its share price on the Tokyo Exchange jumped ¥63 to ¥1087 for a gain of 6.2 percent.

General Motors (GM) was the D20’s leading percentage price loser this week, falling $1.40 to close at $36.83 a share.

GM fell even though its Cadillac division announced that its 2017 Cadillac CTS will start to ship with V2V technology as standard equipment. The V2V technology uses DSRC radios to broadcast directly from vehicle to vehicle simple messages that include location, speed, and heading 10 times a second up to 1000 meters.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

Waymo, the driverless technology division of Alphabet (GOOG), has continued to pursue its legal options against Otto, the driverless truck division of Uber and Anthony Levandowski, Otto’s founder. Waymo has filed for an injunction that would prohibit Otto and Uber utilizing certain trade secret technologies that it accuses Anthonly Levandowski of taking when he left Waymo to found Otto. A hearing in Federal Court is scheduled for April 27, 2017.

Renesas Leads Pack of Five Losers for Big Drop in D20 Stock Index

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Led by Renesas, five Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) constituent stocks lost more than 5 percent last week, prompting the D20 to take a nose dive for 3.63 points this week, closing at 181.87.

The D20’s 2-percent loss allowed the Dow, which jumped 1 percent, and the S&P 500, which gained 0.7 percent, to outperform the D20 for the third consecutive week.

Although the D20 had 10 price gainers and 10 price losers, the not-so-fabulous five of Blackberry (BBRY), Magna (MGA), NVIDIA (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), and Renesas (TYO:6723) drove the D20 to a significant loss.

There seemed to be no central theme for the five losing stocks. Blackberry lost 5.5 percent after announcing its new KeyOne smartphone. Magma missed earnings expectations and dropped 5.4 percent, and profit-taking continued to eat away at NVIDIA’s stock price as it also lost 5.4 percent this week.

Tesla dropped 5.6 percent even though its earnings announcement showed double the revenue from a year ago and a narrowed earning-per-share loss. Renesas lost a whopping 9.5 percent on news that it was close to completing an acquisition of Intersil.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

Waymo, Alphabet’s (GOOG) driverless car division, is suing Uber and Otto for theft of trade secrets. Otto, which is owned by Uber and founded by Anthony Levandowski, stands accused of stealing Waymo’s trade secrets surrounding the LiDAR technology that Waymo pioneered. Levandowski, who led Google’s driverless efforts before it was named Waymo and left in 2015, started Otto in early 2016.

News Roundup: Daimler to Build Driverless Cars for Uber, France Gets More Autonomous Metro Lines, 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-vehicle industries this week:

Daimler to manufacture self-driving cars for Uber

This week, German auto manufacturer Daimler and ride-hailing giant Uber announced a new partnership in which Daimler will manufacture a self-driving car for Uber. Uber spokespersons said they expect their new driverless cars to be added to their ride-hailing fleets in the next few years. The partnership is not exclusive, however-Uber remains free to work with other auto manufacturers, and Daimler reportedly remains free to build self-driving cars for other companies as well. Read more from the New York Times.

 

French transport authority signs contract to make two metro lines driverless

The city of Lyon, France is ready to embrace driverless technology. Lyon transport authority Sytral has awarded the firm Alstom a contract worth 91 million Euros to upgrade signalling for driverless operation on two lines of the Lyon metro. At the same time, Sytral will also equip the already driverless Line D with the new signalling, which is due to go live in 2023. The upgrade is part of Sytral’s Future Metro 2020 program, which aims to increase rider capacity on metro lines A, B and D in response to a predicted 30-percent increase in ridership. Read more from Metro-Report International.

 

EasyMile EZ10 shuttle bus takes mayor, passengers for test ride in New Orleans

On the second stop of its U.S. tour, after wowing passengers in Atlanta, the EasyMile EZ10 driverless shuttle took the mayor of New Orleans along with a number of members of the public for a ride down Convention Center Boulevard. The shuttle bus can transport up to 12 passengers at a time and can go at speeds of up to 40 km per hour. The free rides were presented by Easy Mile, the startup company that engineered the shuttles, and Transdev, the private company that runs the operations of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority. Read more and see a video from The New Orleans Advocate.

 

Photo: Autonomous metro trains in Lyon, France/Credit: Wikipedia

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.