Asimo Creator Talks to Waymo

Asimo Creator Talks to Waymo
by Roger C. Lanctot on 12-25-2016 at 12:00 pm

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It’s been 16 years since the debut of Honda’s Asimo robot. By now, millions of people around the world have seen Asimo and its offspring at trade shows and on television. The robot is still capable of drawing a crowd wherever it is found especially since it is not only capable of walking and running but also of recognizing… Read More


The transport systems of Science Fiction will be here sooner than you think

The transport systems of Science Fiction will be here sooner than you think
by Vivek Wadhwa on 12-22-2016 at 4:00 pm

Picture the commute of the future: You live in Palo Alto, Calif., but work 350 miles away in Los Angeles. After your morning latte, you click on a smartphone app to summon your digital chauffeur. An autonomous car shows up at your front door three minutes later to drive you to a Hyperloop station in downtown Mountain View, where a pod… Read More


Nvidia Drives into New Market with Deep Learning and the Drive PX 2

Nvidia Drives into New Market with Deep Learning and the Drive PX 2
by Tom Simon on 12-03-2016 at 7:00 am

Nvidia has found that video games are the perfect metaphor for autonomous driving. To understand why this is so relevant you have to realize that the way self-driving cars see the world is through a virtual world created in real time inside the processors used for autonomous driving – very much like a video game. It’s a little bit like… Read More


Car Companies Should Steer Clear of Uber’s Red Ocean

Car Companies Should Steer Clear of Uber’s Red Ocean
by Roger C. Lanctot on 11-30-2016 at 7:00 am

It is no secret that Uber drivers struggle to make a living driving for Uber. The most popular guidance for Uber drivers is to use the service to supplement existing income, not as a full-time job. But Uber is transforming transportation with billions of dollars of investment, billions of dollars in fares and billions of dollars … Read More


Ford Seeks Own Path to Car Sharing and IoT

Ford Seeks Own Path to Car Sharing and IoT
by Roger C. Lanctot on 11-10-2016 at 4:00 pm

It’s hard to be a thought leader around the future of transportation when the entire market seems to be moving in one of three directions simultaneously: either ride hailing (Uber, Lyft), car sharing (Zipcar, Car2go) or automated driving (Google, Tesla). If you’re Ford Motor Company and you care about whether you are adding to … Read More


How Rapidly the Robots Will Rise

How Rapidly the Robots Will Rise
by Roger C. Lanctot on 09-11-2016 at 12:00 pm

“For car buyers, an end to the days of dickering?” reads the headline across the center of the front page of the Washington Post this morning. No, it’s not an article about new tools to make car buying easier. It’s a story about electric vehicle maker, Tesla Motor’s impact on car retailing.

The article… Read More


I already live in the future and so should you

I already live in the future and so should you
by Vivek Wadhwa on 08-12-2016 at 12:00 pm

I live in the future. I drive a Tesla electric vehicle, which controls the steering wheel on highways. My house in Menlo Park, Calif., is a “passive” home that expends minimal energy on heating or cooling. With the solar panels on my roof, my energy bills are close to zero — and that includes charging the car. My iPhone is encased in a … Read More


Car Sharing Contradictions

Car Sharing Contradictions
by Roger C. Lanctot on 08-07-2016 at 8:00 pm

  • Automotive News tells us that GM’s Julia Steyn, head of Maven, is thrilled with the early performance of this captive car sharing initiative, in comments yesterday in Traverse City, Mich.
  • Tesla Motor’s Elon Musk anticipates limitless demand resulting from car sharing and automated driving, speaking on the company’s Q2 earnings
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After the fatal Tesla crash, I still feel safe in my self-driving car

After the fatal Tesla crash, I still feel safe in my self-driving car
by Vivek Wadhwa on 07-24-2016 at 12:00 pm

At first, the thought of letting my car drive itself seemed rather frightening. But the highway was almost empty and the lanes were clearly marked, so I took the risk and engaged the autopilot function in my new Tesla Model X. Yet I couldn’t let go of the steering wheel. I didn’t want to put my life in the hands of software. This was two … Read More