SoftBank Expects Mass Production of Driverless Cars in Two Years

SoftBank Group Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said on Friday he expects mass production of self-driving vehicles to start in two years. From a report: While in the first year the production of units won’t be in millions, in the next several years the cost per mile in fully autonomous cars will become very cheap, Son said, speaking at a virtual meeting…

China Built the First Electric Car Designed Exclusively For Ride-Hailing

Two of China’s top companies have joined forces to design, develop, and build an electric car for the express purpose of ride-hailing. The Verge reports: The vehicle is an adorable green hatchback called the D1, and it was developed by Didi Chuxing, the top ride-hailing company in China that notoriously defeated Uber in 2016, and BYD, one of the leading electric…

Didi To Deliver First BYD Electric Cars to Drivers Within Months

Didi Chuxing will begin rolling out an electric vehicle developed with BYD to its drivers in coming months, aiming to reduce costs throughout the world’s largest ride-hailing network. From a report: The D1, the first model to have been built with ride-hailing in mind, will ship to the startup’s leasing partners across several Chinese cities, according to Didi. Made by BYD,…

SpaceX Now Valued at $46 Billion, Making It America’s Top ‘Unicorn’

“SpaceX, the Elon Musk-led company that recently became the first business in history to send astronauts into Earth’s orbit, is parlaying its successes into big money,” reports CNN Business: The company recently finished a $1.9 billion funding round, one of the largest single fundraising pushes by any privately held company, according to public filings and data aggregated by venture capital data…