Regulators scrutinise the death of another Tesla S driver in the Netherlands
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF While the cause of the crash hasn’t been determined yet investigators are turning their attentions to the cars safety systems. Driverless cars have gone from the realms of science fiction to the streets of major US states and cities – from Pittsburg to Singapore – within just...
Autonomous tractors are coming to a field near you
Eat my dust, these self-driving tractors could hit a field near you soon Last week CNH Industrial brought along a few of it’s newest Batman inspired self-driving tractors to the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa to give the attendees a taste of the future. And it’s highly likely that these beasts...
Baidu gets the green light to test self-driving cars on Google’s back yard
China’s largest search engine just got permission to test their self-driving cars on Google’s back yard Baidu announced this Thursday that it has received an autonomous vehicle testing permit from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles, bringing the Chinese search giant one step closer to testing its self-driving cars on Google’s home turf. The...
Michigan set to green light self-driving cars without drivers
Irrespective of the maturity of any technology it only goes public when the regulators green light it, now Michigan look set to green light self-driving cars Michigan may soon become the first US state to allow self-driving cars on the road without a human driver sitting behind the steering wheel....
Singapore becomes the first country to deploy self-driving taxis
More and more places are trialling self-driving taxis, now it’s just a matter of time until the regulators approve the technology Singapore just became the first country to actually implement self-driving taxis on the road for public use. So far, nuTonomy – the company behind the cars and the app that...
Mercedes unveils the world’s first electric semi-truck
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Not to be out done by cars trucks are getting a green makeover too. European car companies are finally starting to invest more heavily in green technology and even greener vehicles. Audi unveiled three more electric cars last week and Porsche added 400 jobs to...
US regulator green lights self-driving car research with $4Bn cheque
With the US Government and NHTSA agree to speed up the roll out of self-driving cars With automakers and technology companies rushing to develop self-driving cars, the Obama administration has pledged to expedite regulatory guidelines for autonomous vehicles and invest in research to help bring them to market. Until now, the federal government...
Uber puts 100 autonomous cars and 1 million drivers out onto the streets
Uber is putting 100 autonomous cars on the streets of Pittsburg this month to beat its emerging competitors to the punch but it’s also the first sign that Uber’s workforce is also about to be put out on the street Near the end of 2014, Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick...
Goodyear unveils smart levitating wheels for autonomous cars
Goodyear brings the humble tyre into the 21st Century with magnetic levitation and new smarts When an industry, such as the motor industry goes through a paradigm shift – to a fully autonomous future – it’s not uncommon for their ecosystem of partners and suppliers to rethink their own place in...
Ford to mass market self driving cars by 2021
Ford, fearing being left behind by GM, goes all in on autonomous vehicles Ford says it will build a totally self driving car by 2021 as it seeks to take the lead in the global race to produce the world’s first high volume driverless vehicle. The car, which will have...
Dubai Ports jumps on the Hyperloop train
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Dubai Ports are exploring the use of the ultra fast Hyperloop rapid transport system to increase capacity at their ports. Hyperloop One, which so far has raised over $100 million in funding, is slowly solidifying its role as the global Hyperloop leader with the...
Meet Olli the self driving bus, perfectly disruptive, perfectly purposeful
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Local Motors represents a new breed of company, one that competitors would be wise to watch out for. Local Motors, an Arizona based automaker that crowd sources vehicle design, has introduced a 3D printed, autonomous, partly recyclable, electric shuttle bus called Olli. Local Motors...
Inside the Hyperloop, the world’s first Mach 1.0 train
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF What doesn’t sound fun about being sealed in a tube travelling at Mach 1.0!? Just under a year ago PayPal, Solar City, SpaceX and Tesla serial entrepreneur Elon Musk open sourced the design for a new supersonic train system dubbed “Hyperloop” that could reduce commuting...
Rolls Royce plans to deploy fully autonomous cargo ships by 2020
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Just like many other forms of transportation cargo ships aren’t immune from the march of technological progress, as such in time they too will become increasingly autonomous and electric. Rolls Royce and the led Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA) believe the future of...
Drivers death highlights the risks of new technology
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF With new technologies come new risks but the rate at which they’re being developed and deployed leaves culture and training struggling to keep up. The first reported death involving Tesla’s Autopilot feature raises troubling questions about how much more progress proponents of self-driving cars must achieve before they can...
JLR turns UK motorways into a test track for autonomous cars
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF V2x will revolutionise the worlds transportation systems. Jaguar Land Rover has announced the launch of a 40 mile “living lab” on public roads in the UK to support the development of its Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technology and to hasten and support the transition from...
