Latest Autonomous Vehicles Headlines

All the headlines from our Autonomous Vehicles Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Uber Hires Ex-Regulator for Safety Advice; Website Says Software Flaw Caused Accident

May 9 2018 // Uber Technologies Inc. on Monday said it has retained a former top U.S. transportation official to advise it on safety after a fatal self-driving crash in March, but it declined to comment on a technology website’s...

Car That Collided With Waymo Vehicle in Arizona Ran Red Light

May 8 2018 // A driver whose sedan collided with a self-driving vehicle owned by Waymo has been cited for running a red light, police in a Phoenix suburb said. Chandler Police Department spokesman Seth Tyler said that the Waymo-owned...

U.S. Safety Chief Contradicts Tesla Safety Claims on Autopilot

May 3 2018 // A U.S. traffic safety regulator on Wednesday contradicted Tesla Inc.’s claim that the agency had found that its Autopilot technology significantly reduced crashes, saying that regulators “did not assess”...

Drive to Autonomous Vehicles Slows After Series of Accidents

May 2 2018 // A series of high-profile accidents involving self-driving cars are slowing the mad rush into the autonomous vehicles business, according to a report issued Wednesday. The accidents, some of them fatal, have ignited a...

Safety Advocates Accuse Tesla of Inflating Crash Reduction Data

Apr 19 2018 // Tesla Inc.’s ardent defense of its Autopilot system is getting heat from safety advocates who question a key data point the company has been citing to plead its case. Several times since an Autopilot-linked fatality...

Car Makers Urged to Relay Limitations, Downplay Hype in Marketing Autonomous Systems

Apr 16 2018 // Deadly crashes involving Tesla Inc. and Uber Technologies vehicles operating entirely or in part under automated systems have made a once-abstract problem very real for auto industry lawyers gathered at a recent...

Tesla Insists Driver to Blame for Fatal Crash; Family Hires Lawyer

Apr 12 2018 // Tesla Inc. again placed blame for a fatal crash involving a Model X last month on the driver as the man’s family hires a firm to explore legal options. The March 23 death of Walter Huang happened on a clear day, with...

Safety Worry: Keeping Humans In and Around Autonomous Vehicles Engaged

Apr 11 2018 // After partially faulting Tesla Inc.’s automation system for a 2016 fatal crash, U.S. safety investigators last year called on carmakers to do more to ensure drivers stay engaged as next-generation cars start to steer...

4 Reasons Autonomous Vehicles Won’t Control the Roads for Some Time

Apr 11 2018 // Monday was the first day of the AAIS Main Event. The focus was about a focus on the future and all of the speakers that we heard talked about the future of insurance. We heard from folks at Insuretech companies and from a...

Ethics and Incentives Behind Driverless Car, Insurance, Other Algorithms: Viewpoint

Apr 10 2018 // Self-driving cars keep killing people. Just in the past few weeks, one crashed into a highway barrier and another ran over a pedestrian. This will inevitably lead to much hand-wringing about the ethics of the algorithms...

California Mulling New Rules for Autonomous Cars to Pick Up Passengers

Apr 9 2018 // California’s public utility regulator signaled it would allow self-driving car companies to transport passengers without a backup driver in the vehicle, a step forward for autonomous car developers just as the...

Safety Experts Weigh In on Autonomous Car Standards After Uber, Tesla Fatal Crashes

Apr 4 2018 // Autonomous cars should be required to meet standards on their ability to detect potential hazards and better ways are needed to keep their human drivers ready to assume control, U.S. auto safety and technology experts said...

U.S. Safety Board ‘Unhappy’ Tesla Released Crash Information

Apr 2 2018 // The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday it was “unhappy” that electric car maker Tesla Inc made public information about the crash of its Model X vehicle on Autopilot that killed the driver...

More Relatives of Victim of Uber Driverless Car Crash Hire Lawyer

Apr 1 2018 // More family members of a woman killed by an Uber Technologies Inc. self-driving vehicle have hired legal counsel, indicating the ride services firm’s legal problems may not be over in the first fatality caused by an...

Uber Settles with Family of Victim of Driverless Accident

Mar 29 2018 // The family of the woman killed by an Uber Technologies Inc. self-driving vehicle in Arizona has reached a settlement with the ride services company, ending a potential legal battle over the first fatality caused by an...

Human Influence Makes Autonomous Vehicle Programming Unsafe: Professor

Mar 29 2018 // The way autonomous vehicles are currently being programmed may not be safe because the programs are copying humans, according to a computer professor in the state where the first pedestrian fatality occurred n a collision...

Uber Won’t Renew Autonomous-Vehicle License for California

Mar 28 2018 // Uber Technologies Inc. won’t renew a license to operate self-driving cars in California while the company evaluates how one of its vehicles killed a pedestrian in Arizona last week. The San Francisco-based company...

U.S. Launches Investigation into Fatal Tesla Crash in California

Mar 28 2018 // A fatal crash and vehicle fire of a Tesla Inc Model X near Mountain View, Calif., last week has prompted a federal field investigation, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said, sparking a big selloff in Tesla...

A Look at Risk. Are New Risks Really New?

Mar 28 2018 // “The more it changes, the more it’s the same thing.” Alphonse Kerr “It’s like deja-vu, all over again.” Yogi Berra The world is undergoing a pace of change unlike anything that...

Uber Cut Back on Safety Sensors on Volvo Involved in Fatal Accidents: Reuters

Mar 27 2018 // When Uber decided in 2016 to retire its fleet of self-driving Ford Fusion cars in favor of Volvo sport utility vehicles, it also chose to scale back on one notable piece of technology: the safety sensors used to detect...