Tag: self-driving cars

September 4, 2018

THE TRAVELING WILBURYS were a short-lived phenomenon. From 1988 to 1991, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty—each a star in their own right and with a robust catalog to their name—combined their talents and experiences […]

August 20, 2018

SELF-DRIVING CARS ARE like snowbird retirees. Given the freedom to live, or operate, anywhere in the country, they turn their backs on wintry states and flock to the sun. There’s a reason Waymo, Uber, and even grocery story giant, Kroger, […]

August 8, 2018

THESE DAYS, MODERN cars come with sophisticated driver assistance tools, like adaptive cruise control, which maintains a set distance from the car in front, and active steering, which keeps a vehicle in its lane. They can also brake automatically if […]

August 7, 2018

FOR THE DEVELOPERS of self-driving vehicles, semi-trucks are a potential low-hanging fruit. Although big rigs are imposingly, intimidatingly huge, they also predominantly run on freeways and other fixed routes that are simpler to automate. Fleet managers are easier to convince […]

July 19, 2018

IN THE EARLY hours of January 11, 2000, US Coast Guard helicopter pilot Mark Ward responded to a distress call from a ship taking on water, caught in a Nor’easter off the North Carolina coast. Battling 70-mph winds and 30-foot […]

July 13, 2018

AT THE BLOCKBUSTER plenary sessions, the chairs stretched so far back that even the most youthful Silicon Valley college dropouts-turned VC hoovers had to squint to see the action up in front. A handful of large projection screens hung between […]

July 12, 2018

IF A TREE falls in a forest and there’s nobody around, does the truck that comes in to pick it up make a noise? Not much of one, if it’s the latest offering from Swedish startup Einride, an all-electric autonomous […]

June 5, 2018

WHAT DO YOU look like when you’re excited? How about a little nervous? Bored? Full-on freaked out? If you happen to hop on one of the two very special shuttles that are now running one-mile loops around the University of […]

June 1, 2018

A tidal wave of change is barreling toward the auto industry—and as with any wicked swell, some of the surfers in the water will ride to glory, others will wipe out. The difference between them isn’t necessarily who has the […]

May 7, 2018

Indeed, if you live along the millions of miles of U.S. roads that are unpaved, unlit or unreliably marked, you’re out of luck. Such streets are often much more complicated to map, and get a lot less traffic, so companies […]

April 30, 2018

IF YOU’RE THE guy in charge of leading Daimler—you know, the world’s largest luxury carmaker, one of Europe’s most important tech companies, and the inventor of the automobile—into a threatening future, it can’t hurt to have a name that sounds […]

April 26, 2018

BUILDING A SELF-DRIVING car, it turns out, is a bit like planning a wedding. No matter how much time you give yourself, you risk being overwhelmed by the sheer number of things that need doing. Find a venue. Design the […]

April 13, 2018

THIS WEEK, WE learned the future of the car is not owning one—at least not if Uber gets its way. The ride-hailing giant came out with twin announcements: On Monday, it said it would acquire the bike-share company Jump, in […]

March 13, 2018

NEARLY A DECADE after beginning life as Google’s self-driving car project—and helping make the idea of driverless cars real—Waymo is now the smallest of steps from launching a commercial service: It has members of the public riding in its retrofitted […]

March 5, 2018

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to spend $2.8 billion to make sure its system for writing the software for self-driving cars will be just as efficient as the factories that build them. The company needs faster and more reliable methods for […]

February 27, 2018

IF YOU WORK on self-driving cars, the cocktail party question people always ask is probably: When will I get to interact with one? For two years now, Ford Motor Company has had an answer—in 2021. That year, Ford wants to […]

February 23, 2018

ONCE UPON A time, car companies were in charge of, you know, building cars. They put that widget against that gizmo and bolted and screwed until the whole thing hanged together—a thing you could buy and own and drive. No […]

February 2, 2018

Every January, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) releases data from companies that operated highly automated vehicles on the state’s public roads the previous year. By law, each company must report how many times a safety driver took control […]

February 1, 2018

“Usually we don’t do this during rush hour,” says Ben Shukman. He’s driving a Lincoln MKZ sedan, trying to exit a gas station driveway and cross four lanes of traffic so he can make a left at the light 20 […]

January 26, 2018

COMING OFF THE excessive pomp, ambition, and fun of CES and the Detroit Auto Show, maybe it’s not surprising this past week has been something of a wreck. To start off, two California drivers got into serious dustups because they […]