With everyone from Google to Ford trying to get into the self-driving vehicle business, federal regulators say it may be time to ease up on some restrictions that the industry claims are slowing innovation in the relatively new field. [More]
self-driving cars
Tesla Announces Software Upgrade That Allows A Car To Park Itself
By 1.11.16
As carmakers continue to push for fully autonomous vehicles that will take the hassle out of driving, Tesla Motors is taking another step in that direction with a software upgrade that will allow Model S owners to park them in a garage or perpendicular spaces without anyone behind the wheel. [More]
Ford Plans To Triple Its Autonomous Vehicle Fleet
By 1.5.16
Less than a month after Ford said it would take an autonomous, driverless vehicle prototype for a few spins on the West Coast, the carmaker revealed plans to accelerate its foray into cars of the future by tripling its fleet of self-driving cars. [More]
GM Investing $500M In Lyft, Hopes You Will Eventually Get Rides From Self-Driving Fleet
By 1.4.16
The world of business partnerships is kicking off 2016 with a bang, bringing together the old world of cars with the new. GM, the occasionally troubled behemoth carmaker founded in 1908, and Lyft, the once-mustachioed ride-hailing service (that isn’t Uber) founded in 2012, are embarking together on a half-billion dollar plan to bring the future to a street near you. [More]
California DMV: Self-Driving Cars Must Have A Licensed Driver Behind The Wheel
By 12.17.15
While California’s highways and byways are filling up with self-driving prototypes right now, the state Department of Motor Vehicles is laying down some rules of the road that, if finalized, will mean it could take longer for the public to get their hands on driverless cars. [More]
Google Self-Driving Car Pulled Over For Going Too Slow
By 11.13.15
You probably know the feeling: you’re driving along happily at the speed limit, on your way to work or school or that new mud-wrestling pit that just opened up, when suddenly, you’re forced to slow down to a veritable crawl, stuck puttering onward below the speed limit because one driver is moving at a snail’s pace. Who could be such a sadist? It could be a self-driving car, like the Google vehicle police pulled over yesterday. [More]
Uber Hires Security Researchers Who Hacked A Jeep To Protect Its Self-Driving Cars From Cyber Attacks
By 8.31.15
As technology advances and our cars become more and more autonomous, they are also opened up more and more to a new danger that didn’t used to exist on the roads — hack attacks. To protect that new technology and reassure future customers that riding in self-driving cars can be safe, Uber has hired the same two vehicle security researchers who managed to remotely hack a Jeep earlier this summer. [More]
Google Takes Self-Driving Prototypes To Texas For More Testing
By 7.7.15
Google is taking its driverless car technology on the road: after unleashing a new generation self-driving prototypes on the streets near its California home recently, the company says there’s a new driverless vehicles that will be tooling around Austin, TX. [More]
Self-Driving Cars From Rival Companies Have A Close Call In California Traffic
By 6.26.15
UPDATE: A spokeswoman for Delphi who was also in the car at the time of the previously reported “near miss” between her company’s car and a Google prototype says things didn’t go down quite like the story made it seem. [More]
Google Issues First Monthly Report On Traffic Incidents Involving Its Self-Driving Cars
By 6.5.15
Before Google’s self-driving cars become an everyday reality for consumers, the company not only needs to test the vehicles extensively, but it also has to make sure the public isn’t put off over concerns that the technology is unsafe. Amid recent reports that they’ve already been in minor accidents, Google has now started releasing public reports detailing traffic incidents involving its driverless cars. [More]
Self-Driving Cars: Fewer Accidents, But More Motion Sickness
By 5.29.15
Cars increasingly drive themselves. If tech companies have their way, then entirely autonomous vehicles will be the future as soon as possible. But that future isn’t exactly primed to be glorious for everyone. For those of us at all prone to motion sickness, that future — despite being lower on accidents and higher on energy efficiency — is not going to be fun. [More]
Google’s Newest Self-Driving Cars Set To Hit Public Roads This Summer
By 5.15.15
While drivers in Mountain View, CA may already be familiar with the sight of Google’s self-driving Lexus SUVs tooling around without being steered by a person, a new set of driverless prototypes will soon be joining them on public roads come this summer. [More]
Google’s Self-Driving Cars Involved In Minor Accidents
By 5.11.15
Google, one of a handful of companies with permits to test self-driving vehicles in California, has 23 such cars roaming the streets there. But in just the few months since obtaining those permits, three of those Google vehicles have been involved in traffic accidents. [More]
Tesla CEO Says Summer Software Update Could Make The Model S Self-Driving
By 3.20.15
Could Tesla’s zero-emission Model S soon require zero-effort from drivers when it comes to traveling down the highway? That’s the plan, according to CEO Elon Musk. [More]
Google Says Its First Complete Self-Driving Car Prototype Is Ready For Road Tests
By 12.23.14
In a move that will bring relief to cramped hands and lazy feet everywhere, Google says its first complete prototype for a self-driving car is ready to hit the road for testing. By next year, it could be tooling around the roads of California and freaking out people who believe in ghosts and not technology. [More]
Elon Musk Predicts Tesla Cars Will Be Able To Drive Themselves 90% Of The Time In 2015
By 10.3.14
Do you see that, off in the distance? Where flying cars are zooming around without a human hand to guide them? It’s what I call “The Jetsons Horizon” and if Elon Musk has anything to say about it, we’ll be getting closer to that line as soon as 2015. [More]
Audi Snags First Automaker Permit To Test Self-Driving Cars On Public Roads In California
By 9.17.14
While Google has been tootling around California with its driverless cars, causing gawkers to stop and gawk and generally make traffic disturbances, there hasn’t yet been an automaker prepared to dip its toes into the world of driverless cars. Audi just snagged the bragging rights to being the first car maker to get a permit from California to test its own self-driving cars on the public highways and byways of the state. [More]
Nobody Wants To Sleep In A Driverless Car
By 8.1.14
Driverless cars are either a strange folly on Google’s part, or everyone’s inevitable future. While Google continues testing, researchers at the University of Michigan surveyed the public to find out how we feel about the prospect of self-driving cars. The sort of surprising result is that while people generally have a positive opinion of the technology, the prospect of riding in a self-driving car makes most people nervous. [More]
