GM announces it’s ready to mass produce self-driving cars
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Building a few prototype self-driving cars is one thing, but mass producing them is another ball game entirely, and now GM say they’ve cracked it. As the race to create the world’s first viable self-driving car fleets hots up with companies like Ford promising...
Tesla’s self-driving cars will drive coast to coast in 2018
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Auto manufacturers are relentlessly pursuing a future without drivers and Elon Musk and Tesla want to be at the forefront of the revolution. Elon Musk has let of another Twitter storm, this time concerning the future of Tesla’s autonomous cars and software updates, and...
Nvidia has found a way to let people peer into the brain of its AI
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As AI’s that rely on neural networks become more integrated into our global economy, and the digital fabric of our world, people are concerned that noone can explain how they do what they do, but Nvidia thinks it might have an answer… A Deep...
Uber suspends entire self-driving car program after Arizona crash
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Getting technology ready for the mass market often involves years of rigorous testing, but again it looks like humans could be to blame for this latest self-driving fender bender Uber has suspended its entire driverless car program, which affects its trials in Arizona , after the...
Uber’s self-driving car crashes and flips in Arizona
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Technology takes time to perfect, but in an age where sci-fi keeps becoming sci-fact it’s easy to forget it has flaws A self-driving car operated by Uber was involved in a crash earlier this morning in Tempe, Arizona, in what is just one of a series...
Toyota’s latest third space concept car wants to be your friend
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Cars are evolving, they’re no longer modes of transportation, they’re lounges and homes on wheels, and Toyota’s Yui wants to be your friend. Toyota recently revealed a new concept vehicle with a virtual companion named Yui built in and while, in the past a...
Uber’s self-driving cars, not their drivers, ran red lights in San Francisco
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The race to stay ahead can sometimes lead companies to do strange things but technology still has its limits Last December, a self-driving Uber was caught on camera running a red light in San Francisco, shortly after the vehicles began testing on the roads –...
Musk: Telsa’s first fully autonomous car to appear within six months
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many analysts used to believe that driverless cars were a decade away, but company after company, including Tesla, wants to prove them wrong The majority of people, well, when I say the majority of people what I actually mean, looking at the surveys, is...
Nissan’s self-driving cars are coming to London
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The UK and Europe lag behind the US and other countries in trialling autonomous vehicles, but now the UK Government looks like it’s starting to thaw and let manufacturers loose in the cities In the first test of its kind in Europe, next month...
Velodyne’s new miniature LiDAR means many more autonomous things
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Most of the new smart things that we are creating rely on sensors to map, move around and interact with our world, and LiDAR is a key sensing technology that helps things see, Velodyne’s new product will accelerate the creation of smart, autonomous things...
Ubers self-driving car fleet quits California and heads to Arizona
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Regulators often get in the way – sometimes rightly – of the testing and adoption of new technologies but companies often find a way round them Silicon Valley is known as the home of tech innovation so it’s no surprise Uber chose San Francisco...
Two self driving Ubers ran red lights in San Francisco
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF While this incident has been put down to human error, allegedly, cyber attacks on fleets of driverless cars could make these sorts of scenes common place unless companies come together to develop new security standards. Ubers self-driving fleet has already run into trouble after...
Fords latest self-driving car looks surprisingly normal
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Most of us can spot a self-driving car from a mile off because of the huge, bulky sensor arrays strapped to their rooves, but as s Ford has pulled the wraps off of its second-generation driverless Fusion Hybrid just one week before the company...
Self-driving Ubers hit the streets of San Francisco
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF while many questions remain about the safety of self-driving cars companies like Uber continue to push the boundaries of both technology and regulations, this is their second self-driving car pilot and their technology has already come on leaps and bounds. Already being trialled in...
Michigan greens lights the use of autonomous vehicles on all its roads
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF While many people question if autonomous vehicles are ready for the prime time without the right regulatory and legal frameworks in place to support them they will never make it out of the showrooms The Governor of Michigan has signed into law a series of bills...
Uber pulls the covers off of its new AI lab
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the capability of new artificial intelligence systems improve more organisations are leveraging AI products and tools to help them maintain and extend their competitive edge Uber have announced that they’ve launched an artificial intelligence (AI) lab and acquired Geometric Intelligence, an AI startup,...
See the world through the eyes of a driverless Tesla Model S
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF With over sixty percent of the American public either against, or nervous about getting into a self driving car more manufacturers are trying to demystify them by showing them what’s going on under the hood Tesla recently released a video that demonstrates, in real time, what...
Watch two Pittsburgh Steelers and one autonomous Uber take a ride round town
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF With over sixty percent of Americans feeling either downright nervous about, or just plain anti self-driving cars, Uber and other car companies are hoping these kinds of videos will encourage the general public to embrace the technology when it finally rolls out Uber’s self...
Tesla’s first fully autonomous car makes its first appearance
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It’s arrived. Elon Musk and Tesla have been dropping hints about their fully autonomous self-driving cars for some time now, and yesterday they made an appearance. In the video they released we can see the car driving around town, complete with the...