Autonomous Vehicles News & Discussions

When will self-driving vehicles become common?

By 2025
1
3%
By 2030
9
25%
By 2035
13
36%
By 2040
8
22%
Only after the arrival of AGI
5
14%
Never
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 36

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caltrek
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Mercedes First to Sell Vehicles in California with Hands-free, Eyes-off Automated Driving
by Kirsten Korosec
June 8, 2023

Introduction:
(TechCrunch) Mercedes-Benz received a permit from California regulators that will allow the German automaker to sell or lease vehicles in the state equipped with a conditional automated driving system that allows for hands off, eyes-off driving on certain highways.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles said Thursday it issued an autonomous vehicle deployment permit to Mercedes-Benz for its branded Drive Pilot system. The hands-off, eyes-off system can be used on designated California highways, including Interstate 15, under certain conditions without the active control of a human driver. This means drivers can watch videos, text or talk to a passenger (or even mess around with any number of third-party apps coming to new Mercedes models) without watching the road ahead or having their hands on the wheel.

Mercedes-Benz is the fourth company to receive an autonomous vehicle deployment permit in California and the first authorized to sell or lease vehicles with an automated driving system to the public, according to the DMV, which regulates autonomous vehicles in the state. The deployment permit allows Drive Pilot to be used on highways in the Bay area, central valley, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego.

Drive Pilot is not the same as the fully autonomous systems developed by Waymo, Cruise, Motional and Zoox. Although some of the same principles apply. The Drive Pilot system uses a combination of sensors such as lidar, radar and camera coupled with software to handle driving tasks in certain conditions without the active control of a human driver. Mercedes’ system is only available at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour, during daylight hours on certain highways. The system will not engage on city or county roads, in construction zones, during heavy rain or heavy fog, on flooded roads and during weather conditions that are determined to impact performance of the system, according to the DMV.

Read more here: https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/08/merc ... -driving/
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weatheriscool
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spryfusion
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weatheriscool
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Elon Musk: Tesla Full Self-Driving Will Arrive ‘Later This Year’
By now, most of us know to take Musk’s FSD predictions with a grain of salt.
By Adrianna Nine July 6, 2023

One of Tesla’s most notable projects is Full Self-Driving (FSD), which aims to make vehicles completely autonomous. After having worked on the technology for several years—and hit several of what can generously be called roadblocks—CEO Elon Musk thinks FSD will finally hit the streets sometime in 2023.

The prediction came during a virtual keynote for the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. Via a video link on Thursday, Musk mentioned he believes Tesla is “very close to achieving full self-driving without human supervision.” The company is so close to realizing its goal that Musk predicts the technology will make its way into production vehicles before the year’s end.

"This is only speculation, but I think we'll achieve full self-driving, maybe what you would call four or five, I think later this year," Musk said, adding that Tesla was closer to FSD than ever before. Although Level 4 would allow drivers to take their eyes off the road in certain conditions, they must remain prepared to intervene in unpermitted areas or bad weather. This wouldn’t be the case with Level 5.
https://www.extremetech.com/cars/elon-m ... -this-year
spryfusion
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Waymo puts the brakes on self-driving trucks program
Waymo is tapping the brakes on self-driving trucks and shifting most of its capital, resources and talent to one commercial bet: ride-hailing.

The move, which was announced Wednesday in a company blog post, comes six years after Waymo first tested its autonomous vehicle system in Class 8 trucks. The company emphasized the decision was driven by the commercial opportunities in applying its autonomous vehicle technology to ride-hailing.

Robotaxis (or ride-hailing using driverless vehicles) have always been a centerpiece of Waymo’s plans. However, many AV developers pivoted to logistics and delivery because it was viewed as the better nearer-term economic bet. Even Waymo got into the action and ramped up its delivery and trucking development.

Now the company is doubling down on ride-hailing.

“Given the tremendous momentum and substantial commercial opportunity we’re seeing on the ride-hailing front, we’ve made the decision to focus our efforts and investment on ride-hailing. We’re iterating more quickly than ever on our technology by pushing forward state of the art AI/ML, and seeing significant business growth and rider demand in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles,” the blog from co-CEOs Dmitri Dolgov and Tekedra Mawakana reads.

As a result, Waymo will “push back the timeline” on its commercial and operational efforts on trucking, as well as most of the technical development on that business unit, Dolgov and Mawakana wrote. While Waymo insists it still intends to apply its autonomous vehicle system to trucking, it didn’t provide further details on when it might renew the program or launch a commercial business.

The vast majority of employees on Waymo’s trucking team have taken other roles within the company. A few number of individuals will be affected by the change but will be helping with the wind down of the program. Waymo did not provide further details on exactly how many people may be impacted.

Despite this shift, Waymo says its partnership with Daimler Truck North America to develop an autonomous truck platform will remain intact, albeit at a slower pace. Waymo said it will follow through with the investments it’s made into its partnership with Daimler Truck North America, specifically the development of a redundant chassis needed to safely deploy autonomous trucking. Waymo will also continue limited testing of trucks.
Read more here: https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/26/waymo ... s-program/
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Waymo One heads to Austin

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