An app-based ride-hailing company Lyft, announced of creating its new division, based in Palo Alto, California, and dealing with autonomous driving technology.…
Welcome to the first news website devoted to self-driving cars!
Here we regularly publish news, reviews, facts, and research on self-driving cars. You can observe the technical progress of any brand working in this industry, stay current on the technology development level, and discover what they will look like in the future.
The topic of self-driving cars gets more and more popular every day. Dozens of companies spend billions of dollars to get successful in the market. But not only automobile giants work on improving this sphere – brands that have never dealt with cars are getting more and more involved as well. They are leaders in electronics and software development. And self-driving cars improvement, first of all, implies the development of dedicated software necessary to drive them.
Most people do not even realize yet that the great future belongs to autonomous cars. And this future is not so far away.
Texas enacts new law to allow self-driving cars on the roads
Greg Abbott, the Texas Governor, signed a law, giving permission to automakers and companies like Uber and Google to test autonomous vehicles…
A new technology could cut off 99.9% of the road tests for driverless cars
It is all about safety. Driverless vehicles are about increased safety on roads comparing to human drivers. Researchers say that self-driving vehicles…
Velodyne announced the focus on mass production of a new model of technical support for vehicles with autonomous control. The reason for…
The sensor of Sony will allow cars to orient in the dark
Uber ATG’s upgraded trucks
Volvo Group made the self-driving garbage truck
Cruise – travel around San Francisco at night.
The GATEway Project: UK
New Research Car Displayed by Toyota
Latest News
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A number of carmakers have invested into autonomous driving startup Nauto
by Provizor-071 July 21, 2017$159 million has been raised by Nauto, an autonomous driving software developer and technological startup in the automotive industry, dealing with AI,…
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U.S. Congress drew autonomous cars one step nearer to fully-fledged deployment on the roads after a House panel took a unanimous decision…
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Uber’s new Russian deal has potential to become future strategic development plan
by Provizor-071 July 17, 2017Prior to his resignation, Travis Kalanick, Uber CEO at that time, negotiated a deal with Yandex, a Russian multinational technology company. Many…
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Autonomous cars developers are preparing their vehicles to handle all sorts of traffic situations like snow, animals on the road, bridges, the…
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Lots of companies will lose billions during the next decade, investing in self-driving cars
by Provizor-071 July 13, 2017According to AlixPartners LLP, an American consulting company, over 50 major competing companies are now trying to win the race to put…
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Google’s Alphabet and Avis deal to cooperate in self-driving car fleet management
by Provizor-071 June 27, 2017After announcing cooperation with Google’s autonomous driving branch Alphabet, Avis, a worldwide car rental service, experienced a substantial 17% uptick in the…
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Nissan Leaf – a new semi-autonomous vehicle will drive itself on the highways later this year
by Provizor-071 June 25, 2017Nissan Motor Company Ltd says that its new, next-generation electric car Leaf will be equipped with ProPilot driver-assist technology allowing single-lane self-driving.…
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PSA Group is presenting semi-autonomous cars and envisions fully autonomous systems in 2020
by Provizor-071 June 23, 2017Level 2 autonomous driving systems will be installed on the DS 7 Crossback SUV offered by the PSA Group early next year.…
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Bosch to spend $1.1 billion to build chip plant
by Provizor-071 June 19, 2017Robert Bosch GmbH, a known automaker, is building a $1.1 billion wafer fab in Dresden, Germany. This way the manufacturing giant is…
Key Advantages of Self-Driving Cars
1. Enhancement of traffic safety level
Around 40,000 people were killed on the US roads in 2016. This is about the same, if a plane full of people crashed every day. 90% of all road accidents were caused by a human factor. The main of them are concentration loss when using mobile devices while driving, over speeding, drunk or careless driving, failure to follow driving regulations, and driving after dark.
That’s why autonomous cars safety is one of their key advantages. At the same time, self-driving vehicles safety is also a very important and challenging objective, achieving which will let driverless cars on the road.
2. No necessity in a driver with a corresponding license and driving skills
Driverless vehicles allow physically and mentally disabled people, children, or persons without driving licenses to travel by car without a driver. There is also an opportunity to spend time efficiently while traveling or, what is even better, to have some rest from driving. This way you get a chance to travel and enjoy beautiful landscapes, have important meetings on the go, work on your PC, not to waste your time on walking from a parking lot/garage to your destination point and back, save your expenditures on a driver, as well as a whole lot of other advantages related to driving.
3. The decrease of traffic jams
Mass transition to self-driving cars will give us an opportunity to use roads more effectively eliminating traffic jams and decreasing our traveling times. Unlike a human driver, self-driving vehicles won’t waste time on taking numerous decisions. Thus, driving crossroads, for example, will be far more effective. Driverless cars will be connected to each other and it will give an opportunity to have higher traffic with higher speeds on roads. Moreover, your travel time will also decrease thanks to choosing the most convenient route.
But here we see the other side of the coin. Transition to self-driving cars will lead to greater demand for vehicles as a whole, and this can also cause traffic jams. So, in fact, this issue is still open for discussion.
Nevertheless, the transition to self-driving vehicles will get a number of other advantages – for example, to name just a few, a great motivation to live far away from big cities, as now you’ll have a number of options how to spend your time while your car is self-driving, and it can be a reason for the city outgrowth, or it can be a great incentive for creating big truck campers providing you with an opportunity to live and travel with comfort in different places.
What are the key tasks/problems on our way to self-driving cars?
1. To make an autonomous car “smart” enough and safe for traffic
The most serious and long-term task is to improve the dedicated software that will drive an autonomous car. To enhance this software, various traffic scenarios have to be worked out where it is taught to behave correctly. But to make a car always respond correctly to different road situations, the software needs to experience them, even if they are the rarest and most challenging ones. An example of such situations can be driving through the construction area, or over a ball, or over a skateboard on the road. That’s why a self-driving car needs to drive hundreds of millions or even hundreds of billions of miles to become really safe – and the main condition is to be tested in real city conditions and situations.
Another serious challenge for this technology is that a human behavior can be really unpredictable. So, the software has to be extremely sophisticated to be capable of both recognizing and classifying objects and predict object’s behavior.
2. Risks of hacking attacks on driverless cars
Since the very moment when various computing devices appeared, the humanity has witnessed numerous cyber attacks. One can barely imagine the consequences if any hacking attacks on an autonomous vehicle take place. One such an occurrence will be quite enough to draw the attention of all customers and policy makers in the state. Financially motivated criminals are the greatest hazard. Cyber terrorists are the same dangerous. So, cyber security of this technology has to be one of the most important issues on our agenda.
3. Snow and rain
Another serious problem of autonomous cars which has to be solved is self-driving at night and in heavy rain or snow – LIDARs, cameras, and sensors, used by driverless cars, are still not capable of working correctly in these conditions. But the technology is constantly improving and such weather and light conditions appear to be just a temporary obstacle.
Nevertheless, the autonomous driving technology will contribute much to the mankind development, and we’ve got no doubt this technology will change our world for the better. The technology of the future has appeared on the horizon!