driverless cars News

GM’s Autonomous Vehicle Unit Recalls Cars for Software Update After Dragging a Pedestrian

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors` Cruise autonomous vehicle unit is recalling all 950 of its cars to update software after it dragged a pedestrian to the side of a San Francisco street in early October. The company said in documents …

GM’s Robotaxi Service to Expand into Phoenix, Austin

General Motors’ self-driving car company on Monday announced plans to expand a robotaxi service that recently launched in California into new markets in Arizona and Texas before the end of this year. Cruise, a San Francisco startup that General Motors …

Britain’s Ambitions to Lead in Driverless Cars Faces Insurance Speed Bumps

Britain’s goal to be a leader in adopting self-driving cars could backfire unless automakers and government regulators spell out the current limitations of the technology, insurance companies warn. Insurers are key players in the shift to automated driving, with some …

Driverless Race Steps Up With Cruise Allowed to Drive Empty in San Francisco

OAKLAND, Calif. — The race for driverless autonomous vehicles is heating up and on Thursday Cruise became the first to receive a permit to test cars without anyone in them on the streets of San Francisco from California’s Department of …

Waymo Opens Driverless Robo-Taxi Service to the Public in Phoenix

DETROIT — Waymo on Thursday will relaunch and expand its fully automated, robo-taxi ride hailing service in Phoenix, rebooting its effort to transform years of autonomous vehicle research into a revenue-producing business. Waymo, the self-driving vehicle technology unit of Google …

Michigan Is Developing a 40-Mile+ Driverless Car Corridor

Michigan announced an initiative to explore development of a more than 40-mile stretch of road dedicated to connected and autonomous vehicles between the cities of Ann Arbor and Detroit. The project will be led by Cavnue, a subsidiary of Sidewalk …

Alphabet’s Waymo Raises $2.25 Billion For Driverless Cars

Waymo raised $2.25 billion from a slate of private equity investors, venture capitalists and automotive companies, the first time Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous vehicle unit has taken outside funds. Silver Lake Management LLC, a private equity firm, led the round, which …

Commentary: Rules of the Road Continue to Evade Driverless Cars

People have been imagining driverless cars since at least 1958, when Walt Disney Co. aired “Magic Highway U.S.A.” It’s been almost five decades, and we’re still talking about them. Initially, evolution in transport had been a product of necessity: As …

DOT: Better Metrics Needed to Prove Autonomous Car Safety

Autonomous vehicle manufacturers need a better yardstick to show that their products are safe, said Derek Kan, under secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation. The metrics that are most widely used by self-driving car developers – miles …

Impact of Driverless Cars on Insurance Not as Dire as Predicted

It turns out robots need insurance too. As driverless vehicles reduce car ownership in coming years, insurers may not face the Armageddon that had been predicted, new research shows. “We do not expect revenues for auto insurance companies to experience …