Autonomous Vehicles News & Discussions

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California governor vetoes bill banning robotrucks without safety drivers

Source: Reuters

California Governor Gavin Newsom late on Friday vetoed a bill to prevent heavy-duty driverless trucks from operating in the state, in a relief for companies developing autonomous technology to haul goods across the U.S.

The labor-backed Assembly Bill 316, which requires a trained human driver to be present in autonomous vehicles weighing over 10,001 pounds, was passed by a heavy majority in both houses of the state legislature.

"Considering... the existing regulatory framework that presently and sufficiently governs this particular technology, this bill is not needed at this time," Newsom said in a veto message on Friday.

A veto by the governor can still be overturned if the legislature chooses to vote in favor of the bill with a two-thirds majority in each house. This, however, is rare and has not happened in California since 1979.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos- ... erm=092323

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Two is better than one.

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Cruise opens robotaxi service in Houston
Source: TechCrunch

GM’s self-driving car subsidiary Cruise has opened its robotaxi service to users in Houston — an expansion that comes amid increasing criticism of the company’s operations in San Francisco, it’s first launch city.

Cruise said it will operate seven days a week from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. in about 11 square miles of sprawling Houston, including Downtown, Midtown, East Downtown, Montrose, Hyde Park and River Oaks neighborhoods. Cruise has about 400 vehicles spread across Austin, Houston, Phoenix and San Francisco. While the company doesn’t break down how many vehicles are in each city, it typically launches in a new city with a small fleet — around a dozen — and scales from there.

Cruise, which is headquartered in San Francisco, expanded into Texas late last year. The company started testing its self-driving Chevy Bolts in Austin, where it added its purpose-built Origin vehicles in spring 2023. In May, Cruise began testing its robotaxis — with a human safety driver behind the wheel — in Houston and Dallas. Cruise then expanded to so-called driverless testing, which means the human safety operator was no longer behind the wheel. The company said that in August it began offering driverless rides to Cruise employees and “select friends and family.”

Cruise said it has driven about 1 million miles in Texas. The announcement Thursday now gives customers the ability to order a driverless robotaxi via the Cruise app. In a bid to boost demand, Cruise is offering $5 flat fares for all trips for a limited time.

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Cruise suspends driverless robotaxi operations nationwide
Source: CBS News

Cruise has halted operations of its driverless cars across the country, the autonomous vehicle company announced Thursday evening.

The move comes after the California Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday suspended Cruise LLC's deployment of driverless cars in San Francisco.

The DMV said the vehicles were deemed "not safe for the public's operation" and that the manufacturer "misrepresented" information related to their safety.

In an announcement Thursday posted on X (formerly Twitter), the company said it wanted to rebuild public trust.

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Comma AI Self Driving Close Behind Tesla FSD
October 31, 2023 by Brian Wang

The comma 3X is custom hardware designed to live in your car, and purpose built to run openpilot. The comma 3X has three beautiful HDR cameras, two cameras to watch the road and one night-vision camera to see inside the car. Besides cameras, the comma 3X has a suite of connectivity and sensors including cellular LTE, Wi-Fi, an IMU, high-precision GPS, and microphones.

Comma 3X gives a comfortable highway self driving experience based upon early reviews.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/10/c ... um=twitter

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