Self-Driving Vehicles
12-03-17, 08:50 AM
#526
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
coming soon... 
SAN FRANCISCO/DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co laid out its vision for self-driving vehicles on Thursday, telling investors it planned a commercial launch of fleets of fully autonomous robo-taxis in multiple dense urban environments in 2019, in a challenge to rivals such as Alphabet Inc’s Waymo.
Underscoring the potential opportunity ahead, GM President Dan Ammann told investors the lifetime revenue generation of one of its self-driving cars could eventually be in the “several hundred thousands of dollars.” That compares with the $30,000 on average that GM collects today for one of its vehicles, mostly derived from the initial sale.
The No. 1 U.S. automaker - which views electric and autonomous vehicles as the keystones of future transport - has been focused on rolling out self-driving cars since its estimated $1 billion acquisition of startup Cruise Automation in early 2016 that provided a toehold in the nascent industry.
Automakers and rivals such as Waymo and Uber Technologies Inc have poured billions into the competitive industry, with each player hoping to gain first-mover advantage. Robo-taxi services are seen as the main use for most self-driving vehicles, including GM’s Chevrolet Bolt.
“If we continue on our current rate of change we will be ready to deploy this technology, in large scale, in the most complex environments, in 2019,” Ammann said on a conference call.
Safety, Ammann said, will ultimately be the deciding factor on when to take the driver out of the car.
GM has enjoyed a recent surge in its share price, as investors bet on its plans for self-driving and electric cars, although the company’s profit is driven entirely by demand for trucks and SUVs in North America, and its growing sales in China.
GM shares were down 1.7 percent at $43.05 on Thursday afternoon.
Until now, GM has said autonomous vehicles were a big part of its future but did not give many details. Now, it has outlined more broadly its strategy, in which self-driving Bolts could be manufactured at scale at GM’s existing plants, driving down costs, and rapidly deployed in major metropolitan markets through a ride service to disrupt incumbents.
“We are the only company that has this under one roof,” Chief Executive Mary Barra said on the same call, distinguishing GM from its technology rivals in the autonomous sector. GM said last month it sees deployment of autonomous vehicles in “quarters, not years,” and this week it finally provided a peek at its prototype self-driving vehicles.
Self-driving cars and shared mobility will be accretive to GM’s core business, Barra said, with the biggest opportunities initially to come from the U.S. East and West coasts.
Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said a robo-taxi service could be “potentially bigger than our current core business, with better margins.”
“We have a path to take 40 percent of the cost out of ride services,” Stevens said on the same call. Lowering the cost to below $1 per mile by 2025 from about $2.50 today could result in margins of 20 to 30 percent, he said.
Using a vehicle for a robo-taxi service - rather than GM’s current business model of building cars for individual customers - could increase revenue generation exponentially because the vehicle could be continuously used by multiple users over its lifespan.
Underscoring the competitive landscape, Uber said last week it planned to buy up to 24,000 self-driving cars from Volvo, owned by China’s Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, in a nonexclusive deal from 2019 to 2021. No financial details were disclosed.
As one example of bringing down the cost of autonomous vehicles, GM said it expects to lower the cost of long-range Lidar sensors - a key element in self-driving technology - to $300 from $20,000, without providing a time frame. In October, GM bought Lidar company Strobe Inc, saying its technology could lower the cost of the sensor by 99 percent.
GM said it was too early to discuss possible branding of its self-driving cars, or whether the Cruise or Bolt name would be used. GM also operates an app-based car-sharing business called Maven, which some have speculated could be the new brand name.
On Tuesday, GM’s Cruise Automation gave reporters their first look at the autonomous Bolts that have been testing in San Francisco, Phoenix and Detroit. The cars conservatively navigated busy urban streets but encountered hiccups when it came to double-parked cars and traffic cones.
Earlier this month, GM announced plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles a year by 2026. The cars would be built on a platform that could accommodate multiple sizes and segments, lowering the cost of building them.
Waymo is often seen as the frontrunner in the emerging autonomous sector, although its business model is different than GM’s as it does not build cars itself. Earlier this month, Waymo announced a planned self-driving robo-taxi service in suburban Phoenix, to carry its first passengers in the next few months. It has not given a time frame for a wider roll-out.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g...-idUSKBN1DU2H0
GM plans large-scale launch of self-driving cars in U.S. cities in 2019
SAN FRANCISCO/DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co laid out its vision for self-driving vehicles on Thursday, telling investors it planned a commercial launch of fleets of fully autonomous robo-taxis in multiple dense urban environments in 2019, in a challenge to rivals such as Alphabet Inc’s Waymo.
Underscoring the potential opportunity ahead, GM President Dan Ammann told investors the lifetime revenue generation of one of its self-driving cars could eventually be in the “several hundred thousands of dollars.” That compares with the $30,000 on average that GM collects today for one of its vehicles, mostly derived from the initial sale.
The No. 1 U.S. automaker - which views electric and autonomous vehicles as the keystones of future transport - has been focused on rolling out self-driving cars since its estimated $1 billion acquisition of startup Cruise Automation in early 2016 that provided a toehold in the nascent industry.
Automakers and rivals such as Waymo and Uber Technologies Inc have poured billions into the competitive industry, with each player hoping to gain first-mover advantage. Robo-taxi services are seen as the main use for most self-driving vehicles, including GM’s Chevrolet Bolt.
“If we continue on our current rate of change we will be ready to deploy this technology, in large scale, in the most complex environments, in 2019,” Ammann said on a conference call.
Safety, Ammann said, will ultimately be the deciding factor on when to take the driver out of the car.
GM has enjoyed a recent surge in its share price, as investors bet on its plans for self-driving and electric cars, although the company’s profit is driven entirely by demand for trucks and SUVs in North America, and its growing sales in China.
GM shares were down 1.7 percent at $43.05 on Thursday afternoon.
Until now, GM has said autonomous vehicles were a big part of its future but did not give many details. Now, it has outlined more broadly its strategy, in which self-driving Bolts could be manufactured at scale at GM’s existing plants, driving down costs, and rapidly deployed in major metropolitan markets through a ride service to disrupt incumbents.
“We are the only company that has this under one roof,” Chief Executive Mary Barra said on the same call, distinguishing GM from its technology rivals in the autonomous sector. GM said last month it sees deployment of autonomous vehicles in “quarters, not years,” and this week it finally provided a peek at its prototype self-driving vehicles.
Self-driving cars and shared mobility will be accretive to GM’s core business, Barra said, with the biggest opportunities initially to come from the U.S. East and West coasts.
Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said a robo-taxi service could be “potentially bigger than our current core business, with better margins.”
“We have a path to take 40 percent of the cost out of ride services,” Stevens said on the same call. Lowering the cost to below $1 per mile by 2025 from about $2.50 today could result in margins of 20 to 30 percent, he said.
Using a vehicle for a robo-taxi service - rather than GM’s current business model of building cars for individual customers - could increase revenue generation exponentially because the vehicle could be continuously used by multiple users over its lifespan.
Underscoring the competitive landscape, Uber said last week it planned to buy up to 24,000 self-driving cars from Volvo, owned by China’s Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, in a nonexclusive deal from 2019 to 2021. No financial details were disclosed.
As one example of bringing down the cost of autonomous vehicles, GM said it expects to lower the cost of long-range Lidar sensors - a key element in self-driving technology - to $300 from $20,000, without providing a time frame. In October, GM bought Lidar company Strobe Inc, saying its technology could lower the cost of the sensor by 99 percent.
GM said it was too early to discuss possible branding of its self-driving cars, or whether the Cruise or Bolt name would be used. GM also operates an app-based car-sharing business called Maven, which some have speculated could be the new brand name.
On Tuesday, GM’s Cruise Automation gave reporters their first look at the autonomous Bolts that have been testing in San Francisco, Phoenix and Detroit. The cars conservatively navigated busy urban streets but encountered hiccups when it came to double-parked cars and traffic cones.
Earlier this month, GM announced plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles a year by 2026. The cars would be built on a platform that could accommodate multiple sizes and segments, lowering the cost of building them.
Waymo is often seen as the frontrunner in the emerging autonomous sector, although its business model is different than GM’s as it does not build cars itself. Earlier this month, Waymo announced a planned self-driving robo-taxi service in suburban Phoenix, to carry its first passengers in the next few months. It has not given a time frame for a wider roll-out.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g...-idUSKBN1DU2H0
12-04-17, 05:19 PM
#527
Lexus Fanatic
Remember, it'll never happen 
12-05-17, 08:31 PM
#528
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
with uber committed to 24k self-driving volves, gm committed to 2019, tesla making all new cars with h/w for self-driving, tesla making self-driving trucks, google and apple are still working on self-driving vehicles... it's going to happen. i wonder if apple has already trademarked iCar. 
12-06-17, 01:23 PM
#529
Lexus Fanatic
No doubt its going to happen
12-25-17, 09:29 PM
#532
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
12-25-17, 10:39 PM
#533
Lexus Fanatic
12-26-17, 04:33 AM
#534
Super Moderator
To be fair, this was the episode immediately following the one where they compared "past, present, and future" supercars, and Hammond was nearly killed while driving the "future" Rimac Concept One.
12-26-17, 02:42 PM
#535
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
12-26-17, 03:48 PM
#536
Lexus Fanatic
03-04-18, 05:04 AM
#537
Toyota Forms $2.8 Billion Company Focused on Autonomous-Driving Tech
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news...cid=spartandhp
" Toyota wants to get self-driving cars on the road sooner rather than later, so it's forming a new company that will focus specifically on development. The Japanese automaker is teaming up with Aisin Seiki Co. and Denso Corporation to form Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development, or TRI-AD ....... "
" Toyota wants to get self-driving cars on the road sooner rather than later, so it's forming a new company that will focus specifically on development. The Japanese automaker is teaming up with Aisin Seiki Co. and Denso Corporation to form Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development, or TRI-AD ....... "
03-06-18, 01:16 PM
#538
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/...ers/397123002/
SAN FRANCISCO — Uber has been sending self-driving trucks on delivery runs across Arizona since November, the first step in what promises to be a freight transportation revolution that could radically reshape the jobs of long-haul truckers.
After testing its technology earlier in 2017, Uber began contracting with trucking companies to use its own autonomous Volvo big rigs to take over loads as they traverse the state, it disclosed.
In Uber‘s current program, human truckers meet the self-driving truck at the Arizona border, which then takes their load across the state and hands it off to another human trucker. An Uber employee rides in the driver seat during the autonomous trip.
If one day both the technology and regulations play out in favor of self-driving trucks, two scenarios emerge.
The first would find self-driving trucks handling long-haul highway legs with no one at the wheel as they meet up with human truckers who then handle deliveries into city centers. The other possibility is Uber selling its technology to trucking owner-operators who then leverage it to sleep while the truck handles the bulk of long-distance driving.
Truckers make their money only when their rigs are on the road. They are also limited by law in terms of how much time they can spend behind the wheel, something a self-driving truck could impact positively.
"The big step for us recently is that we can plan to haul goods in both directions, using Uber Freight to coordinate load pickups and dropoffs with local truckers," said Alden Woodrow, who leads Uber's self- driving truck effort. "Keeping trucking local allows these drivers to make money while staying closer to home."
More: Why Uber and Lyft want to take you to the hospital
More: Uber, Lyft drivers actually earn less than minimum wage, MIT survey suggests
Uber Freight, which launched last May, is an app that matches shippers with loads using technology drawn from Uber's ride-hailing app. Typically such trucking logistics have been coordinated through phone calls and emails.
Uber isn't alone in its pursuit of self-driving truck technology, with startups such as Embark joining companies such as Tesla and its new Tesla Semi to carve out a slice of a $700 billion industry that moves 70% of all domestic freight, according to the American Trucking Association.
Despite the push, the technology behind self-driving trucks remains in its infancy, with hurdles that include government regulations and trucker buy-in.
Given that truckers only make money only when their rigs are on the road, the business model gives them incentive to drive as long as possible. A truck that makes the long hauls between exits, allowing a driver to sleep in the cab, could increase their profit. But they'd have to trust the technology, as well as fork over what promises to be a considerable investment to make their cabs autonomous.
Woodrow says Uber's trucking plans remain in development, but he does not see the company running a fleet of self-driving trucks — which would imply that its technology would be available for purchase from large established shipping companies.
Uber Freight, an app that connects drivers with loads, is expanding nationally. (Photo: Uber Freight)
"Today we're operating our own trucks, but in the future it remains to be seen what happens," he says. "Trucking is a very large and sophisticated business with a lot of companies in the value chain who are good at what they do. So our desire is to partner."
Instead, Uber's Volvo trucks are given loads at border weigh stations. These trucks are equipped with hardware, software and an array of sensors developed by Uber's Advanced Technologies Group that help the truck make what amounts to a glorified cruise-control run across the state. Uber ATG also is behind ongoing self-driving car testing in Arizona, Pennsylvania and San Francisco.
Uber did not disclose what items it is transporting for which companies.
Uber deployed prototype self-driving Volvos in San Francisco in late 2016. (Photo: Volvo Cars)
Once the Uber trucks exit at the next highway hub near the Arizona border, they are met by a different set of truckers who hitch the trailer to own their cab to finish the delivery.
The idea is that truckers get to go home to their families instead of being on the road. In a video Uber created to tout the program, the company showcases a California trucker who, once at the Arizona border, hands his trailer over to an Uber self-driving truck for its trip east, while picking up a different load that needs to head back to California.
Autonomous vehicles are being pursued by dozens of companies ranging from large automakers to technology startups. Slowly, states are adapting their rules to try and be on the front lines of a potential transportation shift.
Michigan, California and Arizona, for example, have been constantly updating their autonomous car testing laws in order to court companies working on such tech. California recently joined Arizona in announcing that it would allow self-driving cars to be tested without a driver at the wheel.
Skeptics of the self-driving gold rush include the Consumer Watchdog Group's John Simpson, who in a recent letter to lawmakers said “any autonomous vehicle legislation should require a human driver behind a steering wheel capable of taking control."
Waymo's suit argued that Uber was building light detection and ranging sensors — roof-top lasers that help vehicles interpret their surroundings — based on trade secrets stolen by Anthony Levandowski, who left Waymo to start a self-driving truck company called Otto. Months after its creation in early 2016, Uber bought Otto for around $680 million.
Uber's trucks only complete highway runs, meeting local truck drivers at hubs by exits in order to transfer their goods for local delivery. (Photo: Gregory Murphy)
Last year, Travis Kalanick, the Uber CEO who negotiated the deal with Levandowski, was ousted from the company he co-founded after a rash of bad publicity surrounding charges that Uber ran a sexist operation that often skirted the law. Levandowski was fired by Uber after he repeatedly declined to answer questions from Waymo's lawyers.
In settling the suit, Uber had to give Waymo $245 million in equity but it did not admit guilt. Uber has long maintained that its LiDAR was built with its own engineering know-how.
"Our trucks do not run on the same self-driving (technology) as Otto trucks did," says Woodrow. "It's Uber tech, and we're improving on it all the time."
Follow USA TODAY transportation tech writer Marco della Cava on Twitter.
Uber trucks start shuttling goods across Arizona — by themselves
SAN FRANCISCO — Uber has been sending self-driving trucks on delivery runs across Arizona since November, the first step in what promises to be a freight transportation revolution that could radically reshape the jobs of long-haul truckers.
After testing its technology earlier in 2017, Uber began contracting with trucking companies to use its own autonomous Volvo big rigs to take over loads as they traverse the state, it disclosed.
In Uber‘s current program, human truckers meet the self-driving truck at the Arizona border, which then takes their load across the state and hands it off to another human trucker. An Uber employee rides in the driver seat during the autonomous trip.
If one day both the technology and regulations play out in favor of self-driving trucks, two scenarios emerge.
The first would find self-driving trucks handling long-haul highway legs with no one at the wheel as they meet up with human truckers who then handle deliveries into city centers. The other possibility is Uber selling its technology to trucking owner-operators who then leverage it to sleep while the truck handles the bulk of long-distance driving.
Truckers make their money only when their rigs are on the road. They are also limited by law in terms of how much time they can spend behind the wheel, something a self-driving truck could impact positively.
"The big step for us recently is that we can plan to haul goods in both directions, using Uber Freight to coordinate load pickups and dropoffs with local truckers," said Alden Woodrow, who leads Uber's self- driving truck effort. "Keeping trucking local allows these drivers to make money while staying closer to home."
More: Why Uber and Lyft want to take you to the hospital
More: Uber, Lyft drivers actually earn less than minimum wage, MIT survey suggests
Uber Freight, which launched last May, is an app that matches shippers with loads using technology drawn from Uber's ride-hailing app. Typically such trucking logistics have been coordinated through phone calls and emails.
Uber isn't alone in its pursuit of self-driving truck technology, with startups such as Embark joining companies such as Tesla and its new Tesla Semi to carve out a slice of a $700 billion industry that moves 70% of all domestic freight, according to the American Trucking Association.
Despite the push, the technology behind self-driving trucks remains in its infancy, with hurdles that include government regulations and trucker buy-in.
Given that truckers only make money only when their rigs are on the road, the business model gives them incentive to drive as long as possible. A truck that makes the long hauls between exits, allowing a driver to sleep in the cab, could increase their profit. But they'd have to trust the technology, as well as fork over what promises to be a considerable investment to make their cabs autonomous.
Woodrow says Uber's trucking plans remain in development, but he does not see the company running a fleet of self-driving trucks — which would imply that its technology would be available for purchase from large established shipping companies.
Uber Freight, an app that connects drivers with loads, is expanding nationally. (Photo: Uber Freight)"Today we're operating our own trucks, but in the future it remains to be seen what happens," he says. "Trucking is a very large and sophisticated business with a lot of companies in the value chain who are good at what they do. So our desire is to partner."
Uber's trucks stick to the highway
Uber's current Arizona pilot program does not feature trucks making end-to-end runs from pick-up to delivery because it’s tough to make huge trucks navigate urban traffic on their own.Instead, Uber's Volvo trucks are given loads at border weigh stations. These trucks are equipped with hardware, software and an array of sensors developed by Uber's Advanced Technologies Group that help the truck make what amounts to a glorified cruise-control run across the state. Uber ATG also is behind ongoing self-driving car testing in Arizona, Pennsylvania and San Francisco.
Uber did not disclose what items it is transporting for which companies.
Uber deployed prototype self-driving Volvos in San Francisco in late 2016. (Photo: Volvo Cars)Once the Uber trucks exit at the next highway hub near the Arizona border, they are met by a different set of truckers who hitch the trailer to own their cab to finish the delivery.
The idea is that truckers get to go home to their families instead of being on the road. In a video Uber created to tout the program, the company showcases a California trucker who, once at the Arizona border, hands his trailer over to an Uber self-driving truck for its trip east, while picking up a different load that needs to head back to California.
Autonomous vehicles are being pursued by dozens of companies ranging from large automakers to technology startups. Slowly, states are adapting their rules to try and be on the front lines of a potential transportation shift.
Michigan, California and Arizona, for example, have been constantly updating their autonomous car testing laws in order to court companies working on such tech. California recently joined Arizona in announcing that it would allow self-driving cars to be tested without a driver at the wheel.
Skeptics of the self-driving gold rush include the Consumer Watchdog Group's John Simpson, who in a recent letter to lawmakers said “any autonomous vehicle legislation should require a human driver behind a steering wheel capable of taking control."
Uber refocuses after lawsuit
Uber's announcement aims to cast a positive light on the company's trucking efforts, and comes a few weeks after it settled a contentious year-old lawsuit brought by Waymo, the name of Google's self-driving car program.Waymo's suit argued that Uber was building light detection and ranging sensors — roof-top lasers that help vehicles interpret their surroundings — based on trade secrets stolen by Anthony Levandowski, who left Waymo to start a self-driving truck company called Otto. Months after its creation in early 2016, Uber bought Otto for around $680 million.
Uber's trucks only complete highway runs, meeting local truck drivers at hubs by exits in order to transfer their goods for local delivery. (Photo: Gregory Murphy)Last year, Travis Kalanick, the Uber CEO who negotiated the deal with Levandowski, was ousted from the company he co-founded after a rash of bad publicity surrounding charges that Uber ran a sexist operation that often skirted the law. Levandowski was fired by Uber after he repeatedly declined to answer questions from Waymo's lawyers.
In settling the suit, Uber had to give Waymo $245 million in equity but it did not admit guilt. Uber has long maintained that its LiDAR was built with its own engineering know-how.
"Our trucks do not run on the same self-driving (technology) as Otto trucks did," says Woodrow. "It's Uber tech, and we're improving on it all the time."
Follow USA TODAY transportation tech writer Marco della Cava on Twitter.
03-07-18, 11:52 PM
#539
Moderator
Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers – TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/06/ub...customers/amp/
Here's a video how the Uber self driving trucks will work. Seems like the self driving trucks drive the long monotonous drives and the actual drivers do the short distances.
Here's a video how the Uber self driving trucks will work. Seems like the self driving trucks drive the long monotonous drives and the actual drivers do the short distances.
03-08-18, 08:54 AM
#540
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)