Self-driving cars employ a whole host of sensors and technology that helps them navigate by themselves, detect obstacles, and so on. One of those technologies used is LiDAR, which is a laser system used to help measure distances. These lasers are rated to be safe to the human eye, but unfortunately it might not be safe for cameras.
Walmart has announced that it will now be experimenting with autonomous grocery deliveries in Arizona. It’s doing this in partnership with Udelv, an autonomous vehicle company. The pilot program is going to take place in Surprise, Arizona. Self-driving vans that are custom-made for delivering fresh groceries will be used in this pilot.
The problem with human delivery drivers is that usually it’s one person doing everything. For example in the day of an average delivery driver, they will drive along their routes in a truck, make all their stops, and call it a day. This isn’t particularly efficient as some places take longer to get to, and like we said, it’s basically one person doing everything.
Self-driving cars are widely believed to be the future of transportation due to the advantages that they offer, such as being potentially safer due to the fact that there will not be any human errors involved. However we are still quite a ways away from seeing self-driving cars become commercially available, which is why a lot of work still needs to be done on the research front.
General Motors’ self-driving division Cruise Automation is partnering with DoorDash to test an autonomous food delivery service in San Francisco. The service will offer meal and grocery deliveries and it’s expected to begin in early 2019. It will initially operate in the San Francisco area, particularly in the section of the city where Cruise has been testing its autonomous vehicles.
Zoox, a startup working on self-driving cars, has become the first company to receive approval from California to run an autonomous ride service for public passengers in the state. The California Public Utilities Commission has confirmed that Zoox is the first company to join a state pilot program in which members of the public will be transported by self-driving cars.
An Uber self-driving car was involved in a fatal accident earlier this year in Arizona. The company grounded its entire fleet following the accident as it conducted an investigation and also cooperated with the police investigation. It was never going to completely stop testing self-driving cars and has recently indicated that it may restart tests, albeit on a limited scale. It has now been granted approval to do that in […]
Unity is the video game engine that many gamers might have seen and played, even if they might not necessarily know its name. It is the engine that powers games such as Cuphead, Monument Valley 2, and Hearthstone, just to name a few, and now it looks like Baidu has taken the engine and is using it to test their self-driving cars.
Self-driving cars is one of the popular areas in technology that is currently being looked at. We’re seeing all kinds of companies getting involved in the tech, not just limited to carmakers. This includes the likes of Apple, Baidu, and Google, just to name a few, but now a report out of Korea is suggesting Samsung could be getting involved as well.
So far Tesla’s autopilot feature seems to do pretty well handling itself on the road. However we suppose improvements can always be made, and the good news is that Tesla owners can look forward to new autopilot features and improvements in the future, according to a recent tweet by Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk.
The self-driving concern of Google’s parent company today announced the launch of its self-driving taxi service. It was reported that Waymo was looking to launch the service before the end of this year. That’s precisely what the company has done today with the launch of Waymo One. The commercial service will initially be available in the Phoenix area.
The future of mobility revolves around electric and self-driving cars. This is something that all of the major car manufacturers have accepted. They are now making substantial investments to stay ahead of the curve as the automotive industry heads for a revolution in a few short years. German auto giant Audi doesn’t want to get left behind so it’s going to spend $16 billion for this purpose.
Ford’s heavily invested in self-driving cars and it’s working with multiple partners to create solutions that will rely on cars that can drive themselves. The company has teamed up with Walmart to explore how self-driving cars can delivery everyday goods such as groceries and supplies. Postmates is a partner in this project as well.