driverless vehicles News

GM’s Cruise Wins First California Permit To Carry Paying Riders In Driverless Cars

General Motors Co.’s GM.N Cruise on Thursday became the first company to secure a permit to charge for self-driving car rides in San Francisco, after it overcame objections by city officials. Self-driving test cars with human safety drivers have become …

Fertilizer-Maker Yara to Debut World’s 1st Autonomous Electric Container Ship

OSLO – The world’s first fully electric and self-steering container ship, owned by fertilizer maker Yara, is preparing to navigate Norway’s southern coast and play its part in the country’s plans to clean-up its industry. The Yara Birkeland, an 80-meter-long …

Toyota to Restart Paralympic Village Driverless Vehicles Following Accident

Toyota Motor said on Monday it would resume operations of its self-driving e-Palette pods at the Tokyo Paralympic Games village with greater operator control and more safety staff to ensure they did not hit any more people. The e-Palettes were …

It Turns Out That Humans Are Secret Weapon for Autonomous Vehicle Startups

Self-driving startups like Cruise and Pony.ai have begun testing their driverless cars in some parts of California in the past year, with an additional feature: Human operators. While there is no driver behind the wheel, the passenger seat is occupied …

U.S. Tech Firm Operates 100% Autonomous Semi Truck on China Highway

A semi truck with driverless technology successfully completed a demonstration in busy traffic on a highway in an economic center in China, according to the California firm, Plus, that provided the driverless technology. The driverless semi truck was operated using …

How Transportation Could Be Safer, Cleaner and Cost Efficient by 2050

A Cornell University-led research team has calculated that by the year 2050, vehicle electrification, driverless cars and ride sharing could prevent 5,500 premature deaths and save $58 billion annually, while simultaneously slashing U.S. petroleum consumption by 50% and carbon dioxide …

Insurers Warn that Drivers May Not Understand Limits of ‘Automated’ Car Technology

LONDON – Britain’s goal to be a leader in adopting self-driving cars could backfire unless automakers and government regulators spell out the current limitations of the technology, insurance companies warn. Insurers are key players in the shift to automated driving, …

There’s Still Work to Do Addressing Ethics in Autonomous Vehicles

There’s a fairly large flaw in the way that programmers are currently addressing ethical concerns related to artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous vehicles (AVs). Namely, existing approaches don’t account for the fact that people might try to use the AVs …

Putting Autonomous Driving Back on the Road: Roundtable

The self-driving car was a dream deferred even before the Covid-19 outbreak brought the U.S. economy to a standstill. By early 2020, plans to launch robotaxi services had been pushed back or scaled down as excitement over driverless cars gave …

The State of Autonomous Driving: Shuttles vs. Moonshots in Big Stakes Race

May Mobility Inc.’s boxy white-and-green self-driving shuttle pulls up to a damp corner in downtown Detroit. Its big doors swing out revealing a safety driver and six seats that face each other. It’s more comfortable than a subway car or …