At the Paris Motor Show, Groupe Renault unveiled EZ-ULTIMO, its robo-vehicle concept, an autonomous, electric, connected, and shared mobility service solution offering a premium travel experience. EZ-ULTIMO concludes a concept-car trilogy illustrating Renault’s vision of the future of urban shared mobility, following on EZ-GO, with its vision of shared mobility,... Read more →

Continental and Knorr-Bremse AG have entered into a partnership to develop a complete system solution for highly automated driving (HAD) in commercial vehicles, initially focused on automated convoy driving (platooning). Later development work will deal with automated driving on the freeway (“Highway Pilot”). The cooperation includes all functions for driver... Read more →

Daimler held an opening ceremony for its new €200-million Immendingen Test and Technology Center in the municipality northwest of Lake Constance. A particular focus is placed on the four strategic future areas of connectivity (connected), autonomous driving (autonomous), flexible use (shared) and electric drive (electric). Daimler has summarized these under... Read more →

Daimler and Bosch announced the successful premiere of their joint Automated Valet Parking pilot in Beijing. The infrastructure-supported driverless parking technology, which made its debut in the parking garage at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart in 2017 (earlier post), marks the first pilot of its kind in China. Automated Valet... Read more →

Germans would increasingly feel safer with fully automated, driverless trucks on the road, according to a survey conducted by Bosch and Innofact AG in the lead-up to the IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hannover. While almost 40% of respondents would rather that trucks have a human driver at the wheel, already... Read more →

At GTC Japan, NVIDIA introduced the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Xavier Developer Kit, a platform for building autonomous driving systems. This open, scalable software and hardware solution enables companies to seamlessly develop and test customized autonomous driving technology, streamlining production. The devkit includes a DRIVE AGX Xavier car computer, along with... Read more →

Volvo Trucks unveiled Vera: an autonomous, electric vehicle that can operate with significantly less exhaust emissions and low noise levels. Vera is controlled and monitored via a cloud-based service, and has the potential to make transportation safer, cleaner and more efficient. The driveline and battery pack are of the same... Read more →

The US Department of Transportation has released a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to assess various aspects of in-service truck platoons that are delivering commercial goods by a fleet operator on their common delivery routes over an extended time. The objectives of this BAA are to develop an innovative and synergistic... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz Vans unveiled its Vision URBANETIC mobility concept. Vision URBANETIC eliminates the separation between people moving and goods transport. It enables on-demand, sustainable and efficient movement of people and goods and applies an innovative approach to fulfil the needs of cities, businesses from diverse sectors as well as city dwellers... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz Trucks unveiled the new Actros truck, featuring Active Drive Assist, with which Mercedes-Benz Trucks puts partially automated driving into series production. The new Active Drive Assist can brake, accelerate and steer independently. The new Actros can be ordered as of the IAA 2018 Commercial Vehicles Show and the first... Read more →

With car2go, moovel, mytaxi/Intelligent Apps (mytaxi, beat, Clever Taxi and Chauffeur Privé), the mobility portfolio in the segment of Daimler Financial Services counted 24.4 million customers as of July 30, 2018. This represents an increase of 64% (compared to the previous year). The number of transactions reached 95.3 million in... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber) have agreed to expand their collaboration with the aim of advancing and bringing to market autonomous ride-sharing as a mobility service at scale. To accomplish this, technology from each company will be integrated into purpose-built Toyota vehicles to be deployed on... Read more →

Aisin Seiki Co. and Denso Corporation have reached a basic agreement to establish a new joint venture company to develop and sell electrification driving modules. The company will be capitalized with the participation ratio of Aisin 50% and Denso 50%. The two companies also reached a basic agreement with JTEKT... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Company completed South Korea’s first domestic highway journey with an autonomously navigated semi-trailer truck. Hyundai’s Xcient truck drove approximately 40 km (25 miles) on the highway between Uiwang and Incheon, carrying a large semi-trailer simulating cargo transportation. This successful demonstration proves that innovative autonomous driving technology can be... Read more →

TomTom (TOM2) announced that, in a single month, it has made 1.5 billion changes to its digital maps which are delivered to TomTom customers on a weekly basis. The milestone is key to the company’s mission to shape the future of mobility in a world that increasingly relies on digital... Read more →

Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH (RBVC), the corporate venture capital company of the Bosch Group, has completed an investment in US-based startup DeepMap. DeepMap is a software company focused on solving the mapping and localization challenge for autonomous vehicles. (Earlier post.) Maps explicitly designed to be read by machines are... Read more →

The City of Candiac, Québec is hosting a long-term demonstration project for a 100% electric autonomous shuttle to be used on public roads for the first time in Canada. In addition to the municipality’s involvement, the project is made possible by transportation company Keolis Canada, manufacturer NAVYA, the financial support... Read more →

Kia Motors corporation unveiled its next-generation Separated Sound Zone (SSZ) technology that allows each passenger of a vehicle to experience an audio stream tailored to their individual needs, including music, hands-free phone calls, and vehicle alerts, while maintaining a headphone-free social space where passengers can converse freely. SSZ technology has... Read more →

A new report by ABI research forecasts that a proportionately higher uptake of EVs in car-sharing fleets, and the higher utilization rates of those EVs, will result in global electric mileage share to exceed 20% by 2030. While consumer adoption of EVs continues to disappoint with only 2% of all... Read more →

LeddarTech has delivered the first A-samples of its LeddarCore LCA2 system-on-chip (SoC) (earlier post) to select automotive partners which will be publicly disclosed at a later date this year. The LCA2 is the autonomous vehicle industry’s first 3D solid-state LiDAR (SSL) SoC and is available now to Tier-1 automotive manufacturers... Read more →

 An open ecosystem of best-in-class technologies working seamlessly together will be at the heart of the automated transportation systems of the future. That is the shared vision of Renovo, a mobility software technology company, and mapping and location services company HERE Technologies have entered into a partnership to deploy open... Read more →

Considering electrification, autonomy and sharing (the “Three Revolutions”), a team from Boston University and the University of California, Berkeley projects that electricity use from light duty vehicle (LDV) transport will likely be in the 570–1140 TWh range—13–26%—respectively, of total electricity demand in 2050. Their open-access study appears in the journal Energy... Read more →

Tier-1 supplier Hyundai Mobis has developed an electric power steering system which uses the redundant control mode that takes advantage of two electronic circuits during autonomous driving to maintain normal steering capabilities under any circumstances. The system is an advanced technology with no case of mass-production as of yet. The... Read more →

Ford Motor Company has created Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC, a new organization charged with accelerating Ford’s autonomous vehicles (AV) business to capitalize on market opportunities. Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC will include Ford’s self-driving systems integration, autonomous vehicle research and advanced engineering, AV transportation-as-a-service network development, user experience, business strategy and... Read more →

With collaboration between German and Chinese companies accelerating in the areas of automated driving and intelligent connected vehicles, Daimler and Baidu recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance their Sino-German cooperation in these strategic fields. The two companies have agreed to deepen their partnership through joint automated driving... Read more →

IHS Markit forecasts that global revenue for the automotive magnetic sensors market will expand to $2.3 billion in 2030, more than double the $1.1 billion collected by the industry last year. The magnetic sensors space will benefit from a discernible acceleration in market demand as the effects of car electrification... Read more →

By Haden Kirkpatrick. Over the last two decades, fully electric cars have had, let’s say, a slow start. In 1997, the Toyota Prius was released as the world’s first mass-produced hybrid. And while hybrid technology has taken off, drivers have been hesitant to accept fully battery-powered tech for a variety... Read more →

INRIX launched a new platform that provides the foundation for cities and road authorities to communicate with operators for safe and effective deployment of highly automated vehicles (HAVs) on public roads. INRIX AV Road Rules provides a platform for cities to digitize, validate and manage the traffic rules and restrictions... Read more →

ZF & Faurecia have developed an operating and display concept for fully automated vehicles (level 4 AVs) without a steering wheel and pedals. The Trendsetting Cockpit concept interactive display currently is a static demonstration unit. The concept allows drivers—even when driving manually—to decide between the left and right front seat... Read more →

Daimler and Chinese partner Tsinghua University signed an agreement further to deepen their research cooperation in the fields of automated driving and intelligent mobility. Through the Tsinghua Daimler Joint Research Center for Sustainable Transportation, the cooperation has been extended for an additional three years. With an annual multi-million RMB (1... Read more →

Bosch and Daimler have selected and signed an agreement with NVIDIA as a supplier for the artificial intelligence (AI) platform needed to implement automated driving in cities. AI is an important building block in for a fully automated and driverless vehicle network of several individual ECUs (Electronic control units). Under... Read more →

Daimler became the first international automaker to receive a road test license for highly automated driving research vehicles (level 4) in Beijing, marking a major new milestone in the company’s local research and development efforts in China. Urban traffic is one of the biggest challenges on the road to autonomous... Read more →

Hyundai Motor made a strategic, direct investment in Israel-based fabless semiconductor company Autotalks (earlier post), a technology company specialized in the manufacturing of Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communication chipsets. Through the partnership, Hyundai intends to accelerate the development and deployment of the next generation chipset for connected cars. V2X technology... Read more →

The Kroger Co. and startup Nuro are parterning to pilot an on-road, fully autonomous delivery experience. Through this partnership, customers will be able to place same-day delivery orders through Kroger’s ClickList ordering system and Nuro’s app. During the test, orders will be delivered by Nuro’s fleet of autonomous vehicles. This... Read more →

The Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is contributing $75,000 to the American Center for Mobility (ACM) analysis of automated vehicles’ impact on driving-related jobs. ACM’s study, titled “Preparing the Workforce for Automated Vehicles,” is being conducted by Michigan State University in collaboration with Texas A&M Transportation Institute. TRI joins other companies... Read more →

Volvo Trucks North America announced today the successful on-highway demonstration of its truck platooning technology. The company has been working closely with FedEx and the North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA) to expand on-highway operations of Volvo’s Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) (earlier post) in the United States on N.C. 540,... Read more →

Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA), Aquantia, Bosch, Continental and NVIDIA have formed the Networking for Autonomous Vehicles (NAV) Alliance to drive the ecosystem development required for the next generation of Multi-Gig Ethernet networking in vehicles. The development of autonomous driving is creating a need for a new breed of in-vehicle... Read more →

UK software specialist rFpro is developing a highly accurate virtual model of Applus+ IDIADA’s proving ground to be used for the development of vehicles in simulation. The Digital Twin of the proving ground enables vehicle manufacturers to accelerate the development of ADAS and CAVs (Connected Autonomous Vehicles) by testing them... Read more →

DARPA’s Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) program (earlier post) aims to improve mobility, survivability, safety, and effectiveness of future combat vehicles without piling on armor. Several Phase 2 contract awardees recently demonstrated advances on a variety of potentially groundbreaking technologies to meet the program’s goals. We’re looking at how to enhance... Read more →

A self-driving vehicle has to detect objects, track them over time, and predict where they will be in the future in order to plan a safe maneuver. These tasks are typically trained independently from one another, which could result in disasters should any one task fail. Researchers at the University... Read more →

Voyage, a startup in the autonomous taxi space, entered into a long-term strategic partnership with Renovo, a mobility technology company, to license Renovo’s AWare OS for use across its global fleet of automated vehicles. Initial AWare deployments will take place this year in Voyage’s existing commercial community deployments in The... Read more →

BMW has selected TTTech Auto, a high-tech company specializing in leading safety software and hardware platforms for automated driving, as its development partner for level 3 and 4 automated driving functions. TTTech Auto will contribute its extensive cross-industry software and functional safety experience to this project. As we develop a... Read more →

Fisker Inc.’s Orbit autonomous electric shuttle, will feature Protean Electric’s in-wheel eDrive technology, specifically, the Pd18 system with peak torque of 1,250 N·m and peak power of 80 kW (60 kW continuous). ProteanDrive motors use patented technologies, digital control, and are packaged with a friction brake. Designed to withstand 300,000... Read more →

The National Transportation Safety Bo​ard issued its preliminary report in the investigation of the fatal crash of a Tesla on US Highway 101 in Mountain View, California on 23 March 2018. According to performance data downloaded from the crash vehicle, a 2017 Tesla Model X P100D, the driver was using... Read more →

Volvo Cars said that by the middle of the next decade, it expects to generate half of all sales annually from fully electric cars; one third of all cars sold to be autonomous driving cars and half of all cars it offers to customers from its subscription service. Volvo Cars... Read more →

Swedish electric vehicle manufacturer NEVS is using Phantom Auto’s teleoperation safety technology to ensure safe deployment of electric autonomous vehicles. NEVS (formerly Saab Automobile) and Phantom Auto, the leading provider of teleoperation safety technology for autonomous vehicles (AVs), are collaborating to ensure the optimally safe and efficient deployment of NEVS’... Read more →

The growing demand for ride-sharing services worldwide is spawning a new category of vehicles with a flexible interior that can be individually tailored to the needs of their users. In a new report, consultancy Roland Berger forecasts that one million of these specially designed vehicles, many of them electric, are... Read more →

SoftBank Vision Fund will invest $2.25 billion in GM Cruise Holdings LLC (GM Cruise), further strengthening the company’s plans to commercialize autonomous vehicle (AV) technology at large scale. GM will also invest $1.1 billion in GM Cruise upon closing of the transaction. The investments value GM Cruise at $11.5 billion.... Read more →

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, and Yara have entered into an agreement in which Kalmar will deliver fully autonomous equipment, software and services for a unique, fully digitalized container handling solution at Yara’s Porsgrunn facility in Norway. This means that all the necessary operations related to the world's first autonomous and... Read more →

Civil Maps, creator of the world’s first edge-based HD mapping and localization platform for self-driving cars (earlier post), has teamed up with Renovo, the software technology company behind AWare (earlier post), to provide highly automated vehicle makers and technology providers with seamless access to Civil Maps’ vehicular cognition stack. Through... Read more →