Five years ago Uber nearly singlehandedly wiped out the prospect of a self-driving car industry with the inept management of its autonomous vehicle testing in Phoenix which led to a fatal crash. The massive misstep instantly vaporized tens of billions of dollars of Uber’s market cap and sent the company’s robotaxi development… Read More
Tag: robotaxi
Regulators Wrestle with ‘Explainability’
The letter from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shines a bright spotlight on a major weakness of current automated vehicle technology – explainability. The letter is in reply to a request for comment from interested parties by NHTSA… Read More
Wireless Carrier Moment of Truth
When Cruise Automation’s cars recently began coming to a stop jamming up San Francisco streets senior wireless and automotive executives worldwide began shifting uneasily in their suites. In spite of demanding that General Motors build them an expensive telematics control unit (TCU) with four-carrier (at the time) connectivity,… Read More
OnStar: Getting Connectivity Wrong
One of my pet beefs with the car industry is that car makers, on the whole, have failed to agree among themselves as to what basic vehicle connectivity ought to consist of. From car maker to car maker prices vary, bundles vary, free periods of service access vary and the variations get worse between model years as offers change and … Read More
IAA Mobility: The Un-Car Show
IAA Mobility held in Munich last month was the first post-pandemic international auto show to take place outside of China. The organizers positioned automotive displays in city-center plazas while car companies rubbed shoulders with large suppliers and tiny startups on the show floor at the conference center.
Attendees would… Read More
Can/Will NHTSA Rein in AVs Bad Boys?
There’s a new sheriff in town at the U.S. Department of Transportation in the form of Department Secretary Pete Buttigieg with an acting deputy in Acting Administrator Dr. Steve Cliff at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA has served notice on bad boy Tesla CEO Elon Musk that it is investigating
Mobileye’s Uncut Gem
Last week, Mobileye released a 40-minute long unedited video of the company’s camera-only Supervision automated driving system in action on the chaotic streets of New York City. The video release was part of an announcement of an expansion of Mobileye’s testing of autonomous vehicle technology including New York City (as the… Read More
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to 5G Cars
Prior to the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic car makers were inching toward putting their 5G connectivity plans into action. There was a growing recognition, at the time, that no one wanted to miss the 5G car boat – and no car maker would want to be stuck selling 4G cars in a 5G world.
The onset of the pandemic was a shock to the system.
Cruise Controlling Its Destiny
The Information tells us that General Motors’ Cruise Automation self-driving car unit has acquired automotive radar maker Astyx. The move can be seen as a simple defensive move to preserve access to valuable radar technology along the path to realizing Cruise’s vision of a robotaxi infused future.
There are a variety
Nvidia’s Pegasus Putsch!
There hasn’t been this much excitement in Munich since the 1920’s. Nvidia’s great pivot was on display at the GPU Technology Conference Munich 2017. Digital dashboards are out and robotaxis are in as Nvidia narrows its focus on the tip of the automotive industry disruption spear.
To be clear, Nvidia is triangulating on the automotive… Read More