OMG-Kind of Tech and Business Developments

Google is reportedly finalizing talks with Fiat Chrysler to manufacture Google driverless cars. This would make available everyday kind of cars as well as luxury models for driverless transport, although none of these are accessible for many people with mobility disabilities. This puts Fiat Chrysler in the driverless game, where they have not yet staked a claim.

Update: The Google/Fiat Chrysler deal has been signed. My fantasy in the paragraph above is a bit beyond the first step that the two companies have planned. The agreement signed paves the way for Google to: 

develop about 100 self-driving prototypes based on the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid-powered minivan ... The partners’ engineering teams will work together on the project at a facility in southeastern Michigan.

Nvidia doesn't need lines to draw inside of 

What is being called a technological breakthrough may place Nvidia ahead of everyone in the driverless transportation quest. Nvidia's system essentially teaches itself, in a way that sounds similar to Hotz's Comma.ai system, but is able to navigate beyond highways on unpaved and unmarked roads. It learns by figuring out humans drive. (I can't help a snarky remark: I hope that means someone responsible and not a 16 year old who is taking a first spin after getting his or her license.)

This article, by Steven Max Patterson, is well worth reading because it cogently explains the Nvidia technology.

Here's a video. The driving seems so ordinary that the video is boring, except that this driverless car is filmed on a range of different types of roads and in all kinds of weather, even snow.

With developments like this, the driverless revolution might hit the roads sooner than many expect.