Government rejects claims driverless safety rules are “too weak and too vague”
The Government has responded to a Commons Transport Committee report into driverless cars, by insisting “safety is a priority” for its rules around the technology. In the report, the Committee had commented: “While it is widely assumed that self-driving vehicles will prove safer than human drivers, this is not a given. Optimistic predictions are often […]
Cruise planning staged driverless relaunch
General Motors’ driverless subsidiary, Cruise, is reported to be planning to relaunch in an as-yet unspecified American city. The company has ceased all operations, both fully driverless and those with a safety driver, after a crash involving a pedestrian who had already been hit by another, human-driven, vehicle in San Francisco which led to California’s […]
Nick Reed wins research prize at Self-Driving Industry Awards
Leading UK expert on driverless vehicles, Prof Nick Reed has won the hashtag#Research category at the inaugural Self-Driving Industry Awards, organised by Cars Of The Future. This recognition of his Rees Jeffreys Road Fund-supported project through his company Reed Mobility, entitled “Self-Driving But Guided By People: How to make automated vehicles ethical”. The report highlights […]
EasyMile introduces driverless port lorry
The autonomous vehicle technology company EasyMile has partnered with terminal tractor maker Terberg Special Vehicles to deliver an autonomous vehicle for ports, which is being deployed in roll-on/roll-off operations at the DFDS terminal in Rotterdam. The autonomous terminal tractor successfully completed a series of complex tasks including driverless trailer transfer, shunting from point A to […]
CAV Forth bus wins self-driving industry Vehicle of the Year Award
The driverless bus project near Edinburgh, CAV Forth, has won headline Vehicle of the Year prize at the inaugural Self-driving Industry Awards. The fleet of five single-decker, low-emission Stagecoach buses which have been taking fares in Scotland daily since May, has given passengers their first taste of self-driving public transport. Presented at the Turner Contemporary […]
Cruise pauses all driverless rides in the US
General Motors’ driverless subsidiary, Cruise, has suspended all supervised and manual autonomous vehicle operations in the US. This follows suspension of rides in San Francisco following a collision with a pedestrian in the city last month. The person had been hit by a human-driven vehicle who then drove away before the collision with the driverless […]
BMW offering semi-autonomous driving
Level 3 highly automated driving, which allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel and temporarily divert their attention away from the road, will soon be available in the new BMW 7 Series. The car company’s Personal Pilot L3 is the name of the new function that relieves the person at the wheel […]
Cruise pauses all driverless operations
General Motors’ driverless vehicle division Cruise is stopping all of its driverless services for the moment, after it had its licence to operate suspended in San Francisco. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles suspended the company’s driverless permits following a collision with a pedestrian in San Francisco earlier this month, after the person had been hit […]
Waymo advances AI research with new multifunctional simulator
Google’s driverless vehicle sister company Waymo has announced a new autonomous driving research tool called Waymax, which promises to help developers address complex Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning challenges in autonomous driving, robotics and computer vision. It says it has contributed to the research community through our Waymo Open Dataset initiative and through our academic publications in […]
Self-driving vehicles “could save NHS up to £2.3bn every year”
The insurer AXA UK is calling on the Government to prioritise self-driving legislation in the forthcoming King’s Speech after its new analysis suggested it has the potential to save the UK billions of pounds in costs relating to road crashes. Government data has shown road collisions cost the UK £43.2bn in 2022. Of this, £2.3bn […]