On his final night in office, President Trump granted clemency to a total of 143 people, ranging from former adviser Stephen K. Bannon to rapper Lil Wayne. One name in particular that stands out in the tech community is none other than Anthony Levandowski, the former Google engineer that was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing trade secrets from…
Tag: autonomous vehicle
Nuro Becomes First Company To Receive Commercial Autonomous Vehicle Permit From California DMV
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Hours after announcing that it acquired self-driving truck startup Ike, Nuro revealed it’s the first company to receive permission from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to charge a fee and receive compensation for its driverless delivery service. Unlike the autonomous testing licenses the California DMV previously granted to Nuro and others,…
See how Yvonne became an entrepreneur and found her dream job
We’d like to introduce you to Yvonne. Today, she’s a successful entrepreneur and a Motion Planning Operation Specialist. Her journey has been an incredible one, and while she’s always made the most of every opportunity, she’s also faced some daunting challenges along the way. These challenges include undergoing 23 surgeries and a permanent tracheostomy, all […]
The post See how Yvonne became…
Cruise Begins Driverless Testing In San Francisco
Cruise Automation, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of GM that also has backing from SoftBank Vision Fund, Honda and T. Rowe Price & Associates, has started testing what it describes as fully driverless vehicles on public roads in San Francisco, the first milestone required to secure a permit to launch a shared, commercial service that can charge for rides. TechCrunch reports: The…
Hyundai To Acquire Boston Dynamics For Nearly $1 Billion
According to The Robot Report, citing The Korea Economic Daily, Hyndai will finalize its acquisition of Boston Dynamics on December 10th. A source familiar with the deal said the acquisition is for about $1 billion. From the report: Robotics has become a bigger focus for Hyundai since Chung Euisun was named chairman in October. The company has since said robotics will…
Uber In Talks To Sell ATG Self-Driving Unit To Aurora
Uber is reportedly in talks to sell its $7.25 billion self-driving car unit, Uber Advanced Technologies Group, to competing autonomous vehicle technology startup Aurora Innovation. TechCrunch reports: Aurora Innovation, the startup founded by three veterans of the autonomous vehicle industry who led programs at Google, Tesla and Uber, is in negotiations to buy Uber ATG. Terms of the deal are still…
Waymo Pulls Back the Curtain On 6.1 Million Miles of Self-Driving Car Data
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: In its first report on its autonomous vehicle operations in Phoenix, Arizona, Waymo said that it was involved in 18 crashes and 29 near-miss collisions during 2019 and the first nine months of 2020. These crashes included rear-enders, vehicle swipes, and even one incident when a Waymo vehicle was T-boned at an…
Safety Driver in Fatal Arizona Uber Self-Driving Car Crash Charged With Homicide
The back-up safety driver behind the wheel of a self-driving Uber test vehicle that struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona, in 2018 was charged with negligent homicide, prosecutors said. From a report: Rafael Vasquez, age 46, who is also known as Rafaela, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday after being charged in the death of Elaine Herzberg on Aug. 27,…
Cory Doctorow: ‘Self-Driving Cars are Bullshit’
“Self-driving cars are bullshit,” writes Cory Doctorow:
I’m a science fiction writer, so I quite enjoy thinking about self-driving cars. They make for really interesting analogies about data, liability, self-determination, information security and openness… But I’m a science fiction writer and that means I can tell the difference between “thought experiments” and “real things.” Alas, the same cannot be said of corporate…
Waymo’s Self-Driving Minivans Return to Phoenix, Detroit, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area
Digital Trends reports:
Waymo is planning to relaunch its fleet of self-driving minivans into Bay Area streets on June 8, according to an email acquired by The Verge. However, instead of transporting passengers, the vehicles will instead focus on delivering packages for non-profit organizations #DrawTogether, which gives art kits to children, and Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired… The pending return…