Nuro’s delivery autonomous vehicles (AVs) don’t have a human driver on board. The company’s founders Dave Ferguson (president) and Jiajun Zhu’s (CEO) vision of a driverless delivery vehicle sought to do away with a lot of the stuff that is essential for a normal car to have, like doors and airbags and even a steering… Read More »
In early 2021, a Nuro autonomous delivery vehicle pulled to a halt at a four-way stop in its hometown of Mountain View, California to let a user cross. This seemingly humdrum moment quickly looked like a decidedly science fiction storyline — the user was a small sidewalk robot from another startup on its own mission.… Read More »
• Investigators to review 765,000 vehicles made since 2014 • NHTSA identifies 11 crashes involving first responder vehicles The US government has opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s driver-assistance system known as Autopilot after a series of collisions with parked emergency vehicles. The investigation covers 765,000 vehicles, almost everything that Tesla has sold in the… Read More »
U.S. auto regulators have opened a preliminary investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot advanced driver assistance system, citing 11 incidents in which vehicles crashed into parked first responder vehicles while the system was engaged. The Tesla vehicles involved in the collisions were confirmed to have either have had Autopilot or a feature called Traffic Aware Cruise Control… Read More »
May Mobility announced that it is advancing its transit program in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to an on-demand phase. Customers will be able to hail May Mobility SUVs at “more than 20” pick-up points in a 1.36 square mile area of downtown. I have mostly associated May with low-speed shuttles services for public transit. Covid-19 has… Read More »
How Far Should LiDAR “See”? Recently, the race to present a long detection range system in the automotive LiDAR industry has heated up. Velodyne boasted the detection ranges of a 10% reflective target from 50m achieved by the veteran HDL-64E to 265m by the recent Alpha Prime. At the same time, Luminar is promising to detect 10%… Read More »
Cepton Technologies, Inc., an Innovator in Automotive ADAS Lidar, and Growth Capital Acquisition Corp., Enter into Business Combination Agreement Cepton Technologies, Inc. (“Cepton”), an innovator in light detection and ranging (lidar) for automotive Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and vehicle autonomy, to combine with Growth Capital Acquisition Corp. (“Growth Capital”, Nasdaq: GCAC) Business combination follows… Read More »
Innoviz Technologies, a top provider of high-performance, solid-state LiDAR sensors and perception software, and EDOM Technology, a prominent electronics distributor based in Taiwan, announced a partnership to drive sales and enhance support initiatives for Innoviz’s LiDAR solutions in the Greater China region. EDOM Technology will influence its relationships with major manufacturers as well as its large staff of sales… Read More »
Walter Isaacson, the biographer who chronicled the lives of Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin and Leonardo da Vinci, is turning his attention to the life and career of Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO announced the project in a tweet Wednesday. If you’re curious about Tesla, SpaceX & my general goings on, @WalterIsaacson is writing a biography… Read More »
In the world of robotic startups, acquisition is often as good an outcome as any. And when it comes to robotic tractor startups, you could do worse than being acquired by John Deere. The agricultural technology giant announced today that it’s set to acquire Bear Flag Robotics for $250 million. The Bay Area-based firm, which… Read More »