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Robotics has its first unicorn – small SF startup Cruise Automation
Andra Keay
18 Mar 2016
Forget about Google and Boston Dynamics. This week the real news is that GM acquired small San Francisco based startup Cruise Automation for the rumored sum of more than $1B US, according to Fortune....
Replacing public transit at night for Uber and Lyft
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
12 Mar 2016
I have a big article forthcoming on the future of public transit. I believe that with the robocar (and van) it moves from being scheduled, route-based mass transit to on-demand, ad-hoc route medium an...
Why Google’s crash is a good thing
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
04 Mar 2016
Reports released reveal that one of Google’s Gen-2 vehicles (the Lexus) has a fender-bender (with a bus) with some responsibility assigned to the system. This is the first crash of this type — all...
NHTSA redefines “driver” of self-driving car
Frank Tobe
13 Feb 2016
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) took an important step towards interpreting safety standards in ways that could make self-driving cars a reality for the public: it said that...
First look at 2015 statistics on industrial robots from the IFR report
Frank Tobe
13 Feb 2016
A first look at numbers from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) report on industrial robots shows that worldwide robot sales grew again in 2015, and were 15% more than 2014. Explosive grow...
Could shallow underpasses be express tunnels for small robocars?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
09 Feb 2016
I recently read a report of a plan for a new type of intersection being developed in Malaysia and I felt it had some interesting applications for robocars....
The inevitability of the global march toward self-driving vehicles
Frank Tobe
22 Jan 2016
Perhaps the biggest upcoming robotics-driven economic and social change will be the arrival of fully autonomous (self-driving) vehicles. Imagine a world full of self driving cars, planes and boats ...
Could robotaxis be the answer to electric car depreciation?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
21 Jan 2016
I’ve been electric car shopping, but one thing has stood out as a big concern. Many electric cars are depreciating fast, and it may get even faster. I think part of this is due to the fact that elec...
Toyota Research gets Kuffner, and Google gets Brondmo
Frank Tobe
18 Jan 2016
At a press conference last week at CES, Toyota, led by Gill Pratt of DARPA fame and now CEO of Toyota Research Institute (TRI), informed the world what Toyota intended to do with it's billion dollar...
US feds propose $4B investment in robocars, seek unified regulatory policy
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
18 Jan 2016
NHTSA, the federal car safety agency, has been talking about getting into the robocar game for a while, and now declares it wants more involvement with two important details:
Unlike California, th...
Google’s detailed intervention rates reveal the real unsolved problem of robocars
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
15 Jan 2016
Hot on the heels of my CES Report is the release of the latest article from Chris Urmson on The View from the Front Seat of the Google Car. Chris heads engineering on the project (and until recently l...
Robocar news from CES 2016
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
13 Jan 2016
I’m back from CES 2016 with a raft of robocar news, some of which was reported before the show. Almost everybody in the robocar space had something to say — even if it was only to have something...
Two New Year’s resolutions for developers of automated vehicles
Bryant Walker Smith
12 Jan 2016
In the spirit of the New Year, and especially in the wake of California's draft rules for the (theoretical) operation of automated motor vehicles, I offer two resolutions for any serious developer of ...
Robocar news roundup: Lyft and GM, Sidecar, the nature of competition, and CES
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
04 Jan 2016
Lyft announced a $500M investment from GM with $500M more, pushing them to a $5.4B valuation, which huge but also just a tenth of Uber's. This was combined with talk of a push to robocars: GM will p...
The ethical dilemma of self-driving cars
CIS Blog
30 Dec 2015
Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets today. And while these cars will ultimately be safer and cleaner than their manual counterparts, they can’t completely avoid accidents altogether. ...
California’s new DMV regulations may kill the state’s robocar lead
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
18 Dec 2015
Be careful what you wish for. Google had previously requested that state regulations on robocars be clarified, to help ensure that their cars were legal. When California's DMV finally released its pr...
No, a Google car was not ticketed for going too slow (and other robocar stories)
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
23 Nov 2015
Almost every newspaper in the world reported the story of how a motorcycle cop pulled over one of Google’s 3rd generation test cars, the 2-seaters, and many incorrectly reported that the car was gi...
Why Tesla’s Autopilot and Google’s car are entirely different animals
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
28 Oct 2015
In the buzz over the Tesla autopilot update, a lot of commentary has appeared comparing this Autopilot with Google’s car effort and other efforts and what I would call a “real” robocar — one t...
Stanford’s self-driving Delorean goes drifting for Back to the Future Day
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
21 Oct 2015
Last night, I attended Stanford’s unveiling of their newest research vehicle for self-driving. An old Delorean has been heavily modified in order to perform drifting experiments - where you let the ...
Tesla sends highway cruise update to recent Model S owners
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
16 Oct 2015
Though it's been anticipated for a few months now, Tesla announced yesterday the release of their highway cruise update for Model S cars from the last year....
Should cars be fully driverless? No, says MIT engineer and historian David Mindell
MIT News
15 Oct 2015
by Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office
If you follow technology news — or even if you don’t — you have probably heard that numerous companies have been trying to develop driverless cars for a de...
Robocar news roundup: Google’s hire, BMW/Mercedes carsharing, Apple clues, and more
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
14 Oct 2015
View image | gettyimages.com
During a very busy September of travel, I let a number of important stories fall through the cracks. The volume of mainstream press articles on Robocars is immense. Mos...
Volvo says it will accept “full liability” when its cars are operating autonomously
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
08 Oct 2015
In a statement released yesterday, Volvo said it would accept full liability whenever one of its cars is in autonomous mode....
Robocars don’t need fancy dashboards and streets
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
07 Oct 2015
Yesterday I attended the “Silicon Valley reinvents the wheel” conference by the Western Automotive Journalists, which had a variety of talks and demonstrations of new car technology. Now that rob...
What does the VW scandal mean for robocars?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
05 Oct 2015
Most of you will have heard about the revelations that Volkswagen put software in their cars to deliberately cheat on emissions tests in the USA and possibly other places. It’s very bad for VW, but ...
IEEE driverless car roundtable
CIS Blog
30 Sep 2015
[focus07]
Hear about the current state of the driverless vehicle industry from experts including IEEE Member Jeffrey Miller, IEEE Fellow Wei-Bin Zhang, Bernard Soriano, and Bryant Walker Smith. In ...
Tricking LIDAR and robocars
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
14 Sep 2015
Security researcher Jonathan Petit claims to be able to hack the multi-thousand-dollar laser ranging - LIDAR - systems that self-driving cars rely on. How does he do it and is it as dangerous as it so...
Former DARPA Program Manager Gill Pratt to direct Toyota’s new $50M robotics investment
Ioannis K. Erripis
04 Sep 2015
In a surprise move today, Toyota held a press conference (see video below) announcing a substantial investment in robotics and AI research to develop "advanced driving support" technology, with forme...
Peloton Technology gets $17M for truck platooning tech
Frank Tobe
01 Sep 2015
Peloton Technology, a Silicon Valley startup providing truck platooning technology, got $17 million from strategic investors after receiving $16M this April. Denso Intl. was the lead investor in both...
New book by John Markoff explores common ground between humans and robots
Frank Tobe
24 Aug 2015
NY Times tech writer John Markoff traces the origins of the AI embedded in today’s virtual and physical assistants and suggests a humane way to proceed....
194 Chinese robot companies
Frank Tobe
18 Aug 2015
In China, the robotics industry is booming. Companies are deploying thousands of robots in all types of factories, particularly in the auto industry. Chinese companies that manufacture robots and the...
Google Alphabet: Is it good for robocars?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
14 Aug 2015
Everybody has heard about Google’s restructuring. In the new setup, Google X, which includes the self-driving car division, will be a subsidiary of the new Alphabet holding company, and no longer pa...
Automated Vehicles Symposium recap (Part 2)
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
27 Jul 2015
From small beginnings, over 800 people are here at the Ann Arbor AUVSI/TRB Automated Vehicles symposium. Let’s summarize some of the news....
When do robocars become cheaper than standard cars? Automated Vehicle Symposium recap (Part 1)
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
24 Jul 2015
I’m in the Detroit area for the annual TRB/AUVSI Automated Vehicle Symposium. Those in Ann Arbor attended the opening of the new test track at the University of Michigan, but I was at a small event ...
Will robocars vastly increase battery life?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
21 Jul 2015
We know electric cars are getting better and likely to get popular even when driven by humans. Tesla, at its core, is a battery technology company as much as it’s a car company, and it is sometimes ...
Video: Robocar Q&A
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
20 Jul 2015
At Singularity U, we’re releasing a new video series answering questions about our future technology topics that come from Twitter. My segment is one of the first, and while regular readers of my bl...
