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| The challenges of developing autonomous vehicles during a pandemic | Venture Beat |
| In the months since the coronavirus prompted shelter-in-place orders around the world, entire companies, industries, and economies have been decimated. One market that appeared poised to escape the impact was autonomous vehicles, particularly in the case of companies whose cars can be used to transport supplies to health care workers. But it seems even they aren’t immune. | |
| Autonomous cars: The cybersecurity issues facing the industry | Verdict |
| With new technology constantly emerging and becoming one of the latest trends or must-haves, people can be forgiven for forgetting the real-life applications of the technology. Autonomous cars have long been a staple in science fiction but in the last decade, they have moved closer to general availability as more and more companies start developing their own offerings. Tesla, Google’s Waymo and GM Cruise are some of the leaders in this industry, driving the advancement in self-driving vehicles. | |
| Car tech to guard against distracted driving | Edmunds |
| Distracted driving puts not only drivers on the road at risk but also passengers, cyclists and pedestrians. In 2018, it led to the deaths of 2,841 people, according to the most current data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. | |
| Analyst: Ford needs to consider merger after $2B loss | Detroit Free Press |
| Ford Motor Co. posted a $2 billion first-quarter net loss, blaming nearly all of it on the negative effects of the coronavirus. The automaker said Tuesday that its revenue from January through March fell nearly 15% to $34.3 billion as most of its factories were shut down for the final week of the quarter. | |
| Velodyne takes wild ride in uncharted industry | Automotive News ($) |
| Velodyne is a pioneer in lidar, which helps self-driving vehicles detect obstacles ahead. | |
| Ford Delays Commercial Automated Vehicle Launch To 2022 | Forbes |
| Over the past month as much of the world has hunkered down trying to limit the spread of the coronavirus, one of the most frequent questions that comes up is the fate of the all the big ticket product plans that automakers had committed to. Top of the list are all the electric and automated vehicles (AV) that were supposed to start rolling out imminently. During its first quarter earnings call, where it reported a net loss of $2 billion, Ford chief operating officer Jim Farley provided some insight into his company’s thinking with the revelation that the commercial launch of its AVs would be pushed back into 2022. | |
| SoftBank’s Super-Fast 5G Network Isn’t Very Useful Just Yet | Bloomberg |
| SoftBank Corp.’s fifth-generation wireless service in Japan is living up to the hype in at least one respect — internet speeds that are blazingly fast even by the standards of one of the most connected countries in the world. | |
| Auto industry post Covid-19: Stewardship of cash and capital | The Hindu Business Line |
| Over the past five years, the auto industry has been busy transforming its tired image into that of a tech-oriented sector, engaged with smart, connected and electrified vehicles and mobility services. Mid-stride through this capital intensive transition, Covid-19 has dealt a blow, leading to a simultaneous collapse of both supply and demand. | |
| Tesla’s ‘full self-driving’ feature is coming in subscription form | Engadget |
| During the Q1 2020 earnings call on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system will become available as a monthly subscription later this year. | |
| Chinese self-driving truck startup Inceptio raises $100 million: Sources | Reuters |
| China’s Inceptio Technology, a startup developing self-driving trucks, has raised $100 million in its latest funding round from logistics firm GLP, its key strategic investor G7 and other investors, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. | |
| Tesla Achieved The Accuracy Of Lidar With Its Advanced Computer Vision Tech | Clean Technica |
| Tesla’s progress with artificial intelligence and neural nets has propelled its Autopilot and Full Self Driving solutions to the front of the pack. This is the result of the brilliant work of a large team of Autopilot directors and staff, including Tesla’s Senior Director of AI, Andrej Karpathy. Karpathy presented Tesla’s methods for training its AI at the Scaled ML Conference in February. Along the way, he shared specific insights into Tesla’s methods for achieving the accuracy of traditional laser-based lidar with just a handful of cameras. | |
| Tesla Escalates Battle Over Alleged Theft of Robocar Secrets | Bloomberg |
| More than a year after the billionaire chairman of Xpeng Motors labeled as “questionable” Tesla Inc.’s allegations that an engineer stole Autopilot secrets before bolting to the Chinese startup, the questions from Elon Musk’s company keep coming. | |
| Lyft will cut almost a thousand jobs due to plummeting rideshare demand | Input Mag |
| Uber is also considering big cuts to keep profit margins in order. It’s going to be a long time before these companies fully recover (if ever). | |
| Tesla updated its autopilot feature. Here’s why drivers aren’t happy about it | Deseret News |
| Newer Tesla vehicles recently received an autopilot update allowing them to recognize and respond to stop signs and traffic lights, TechCrunch reports. | |
| Tesla Semi first deliveries gets pushed back | Teslarati |
| The updated timing follows a communication to Tesla Semi customers from early January, outlining the company’s plans for limited production of the Semi in the second half of 2020. “We are on track to produce limited volumes of the Tesla Semi in the second half of 2020,” the email from Tesla’s Truck Team said. | |
| Chinese EV startup accuses Tesla of ‘bullying’ over IP lawsuit | Nikkei |
| Chinese electric vehicle startup Xpeng Motors accused Tesla Inc. of being a bully, firing the latest legal salvo in the companies’ ongoing battle over alleged intellectual property theft. | |
| Self-driving car testing goes all virtual, just like everything else | Mashable |
| Waymo, the self-driving car company spun off from Google, shut down its robo-taxi service in Arizona and stopped testing its vehicles on public roads because of the coronavirus pandemic. But that doesn’t mean driverless car testing isn’t still happening. | |
| Google’s Driverless Toyota Secretly Covered 1,000 Fully-Autonomous Miles In California In 2009 | CarScoops |
| In early 2009, the Google Self-Driving Car Project was born, evolving over the years into what we now know as Waymo. | |
| Velodyne Lidar signs agreement with TLD for TractEasy tractor fleet | Geospatial World |
| The US-based lidar technology company Velodyne Lidar, Inc. has announced a three-year agreement with TLD, a global leader in ground support equipment. TLD uses Velodyne lidar sensors in production of its TractEasy autonomous electric baggage tractor that enables a significant increase in productivity, efficiency and labor savings in airport and industrial operations. | |
| Cruise redeploys some of its self-driving cars to make food deliveries in San Francisco | The Verge |
| Cruise, the self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, has brought some of its autonomous vehicles out of their coronavirus-imposed dormancy to make deliveries for a pair of food banks in San Francisco, the company announced today. | |
| VW admits Tesla’s lead in software and self-driving in internal leak | Electrek |
| Volkswagen CEO Hebert Diess has admitted that Tesla has a significant lead when it comes to software and its use in its self-driving program, according to leaked internal communications. | |
| Tesla vehicles recognize and respond to traffic lights, stop signs with latest software update | TechCrunch |
| Properly equipped Tesla vehicles can now recognize and respond to traffic lights and stop signs thanks to a software update the company started pushing out to owners over the weekend. | |
| Self-Driving Startups Work Through Health Crisis | Transport Topics |
| Investor-funded startups competing hard to commercialize highly automated heavy-duty trucks found themselves having to deal with unfamiliar territory in late March given the uncertainties and disruptions from the spread of the novel coronavirus — just like the rest of the trucking industry. | |
| Can Electric Cars on the Highway Emulate Plane-to-Plane Refueling? | IEEE Spectrum |
| Jet fighters can’t carry a huge tank of fuel because it would slow them down. Instead they have recourse to air-to-air refueling, using massive tanker planes as their gas stations. | |
| Russia’s Yandex.Taxi targets continued profitability even as rides plummet | Reuters |
| MOSCOW – Yandex.Taxi, the ride-hailing arm of Russian internet giant Yandex (YNDX.O), is hoping to remain profitable in the second half of this year despite a sharp drop in sales as coronavirus restrictions keep people across the country at home. | |
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