Cruise is ‘days away’ from Origin robotaxi mass production

General Motors' Factory Zero in Detroit and Hamtramck are on the cusp of mass-producing the Cruise Origin, a driverless vehicle designed to transport up to six passengers.

Cruise is GM's self-driving subsidiary headquartered in San Francisco, which already operates in several cities across the US.

The Cruise Origin is devoid of manual steering controls or pedals and is designed to operate entirely through autonomous technology. However, that’s presented a significant...

8 September 2023 | Connected Vehicles

San Francisco robotaxis get the green light to operate 24/7

Google's Waymo and General Motors' Cruise have both received the green light from California's regulatory body to implement 24/7 fare-based services for fully driverless rides in San Francisco.

The pivotal decision was made by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which voted 3 to 1 in favour of granting the expansion of driverless services for the two tech giants. The CPUC says it meticulously evaluated the companies' adherence to licensing requisites and considered...

11 August 2023 | Connected Vehicles

Waymo announces Austin as its fourth major city

Waymo, the self-driving technology company under Google’s parent company Alphabet, has officially announced Austin as its fourth major ride-hail city.

Austin will be joining the ranks of Metro Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles as Waymo continues to expand and accelerate its business.

Over the past few months, Waymo's team has been conducting extensive testing in and around downtown Austin, utilising their all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles.

The goal of...

4 August 2023 | Connected Vehicles

DoJ charges former Apple engineer with stealing autonomous car secrets

A former Apple engineer has been charged by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for stealing trade secrets relating to autonomous cars.

The indictment was unsealed by a federal court in California, revealing the case as part of a broader crackdown on efforts by hostile nation-states to illicitly acquire sensitive US technology for their own purposes.

The accused individual, Weibao Wang, was hired by Apple in 2016 as a software engineer for their autonomous driving project...

17 May 2023 | Connected Vehicles

Cruise robotaxis now run 24/7 in San Francisco

Cruise has announced that it’s now operating 24/7 in San Francisco, marking a significant milestone in its journey.

However, the wider public is currently only able to use the service in around one-third of the city between 10pm and 5:30am. Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt has promised that this will soon change as Cruise moves closer to launching a fully-fledged robotaxi service open to the public around the clock.

Vogt said the systems that power the robotaxi network in San...

27 April 2023 | Connected Vehicles

DiDi is di-veloping its own robotaxis

Chinese ride-hailing company DiDi Global is collaborating with Chinese carmakers to develop robotaxis.

DiDi is developing the robotaxis with multiple car manufacturers, including electric vehicle makers, and is aiming to begin putting them into service by 2025.

The company plans for the new vehicles to be domestically produced, with controllable supply chains and key components that are produced nationally.

A robotaxi concept was showcased by DiDi called Neuron...

14 April 2023 | Connected Vehicles

Apple has over 200 people testing self-driving cars

Apple appears to be gradually accelerating its self-driving car program and now has over 200 people testing its vehicles.

Data from the California DMV (via macReports) indicates that Apple has 201 people testing autonomous driving features on public roads. Apple currently has a fleet of 67 vehicles.

The overall size of Apple’s self-driving fleet hasn’t changed much since 2021 but its number of testers is gradually increasing. Apple added 51 testers in 2022 and an...

23 March 2023 | AI

Cruise is expanding its robotaxi trials to Arizona and Texas

California-based autonomous driving firm Cruise has announced that it’s expanding pilots of its robotaxis to Arizona and Texas.

https://twitter.com/kvogt/status/1569419156063408128

Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, launched driverless rides in San Francisco back in February. The announcement this week marks the first expansion of Cruise’s service.

Our team is going from zero footprint in Austin (no test vehicles or maps) to driverless...

13 September 2022 | Connected Vehicles

Ru Roberts, Waze: On improving journeys using real-time data

IoT News caught up with Ru Roberts, UK Country Manager for Waze, to discuss how the popular navigation app uses real-time data from vehicles to improve journeys.

As a long-term user of Waze, I’ve seen first-hand the advancements the app has made over the years. Long gone are the days of directions to go the wrong way down one-way streets, across concrete barriers, or a large number of roads being unmapped.

While some improvements to Waze are down to enhancements to its...

17 February 2022 | Connected Vehicles

Vodafone Connected Consumer 2030: How smart tech will transform our world

Vodafone held an event to celebrate the launch of a new report exploring how “smart technology will fundamentally transform our experience of the world in the next decade.”

The report, Connected Consumer 2030, was conducted by The FutureLaboratory on behalf of Vodafone.

An opening video at the start of the event highlighted the challenges we face—geopolitical tensions, climate change, strained healthcare systems, depleting resources, and more. It’s a pretty bleak...

26 January 2022 | Applications