Monday, July 13, 2015

You Might Not Have to Buy a New Vehicle

A college dropout from MIT is selling hardware to attach to any normal car. The hardware and software will - for only $7-10,000 - turn your car into a an automated vehicle. Now the article does not offer much in the way of detail, so this does not seem to be a total transformation to completely driverless operation, but it's pretty nifty nonetheless. 

Or, you can buy a 3D-printed car, but the price tag will be a bit steeper.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Driverless Everywhere in Three Years

This clip from Bloomberg News has a transportation industry commentator making a prediction that in three-years, there will be driverless passenger vehicleson the roads. Not as a test, but for us to use. He also has interesting things to say about the sharing economy and vehicle utilization.


Google goes weird
Austin's first TV coverage of the arrival of the Google car. Deregulated state + a liberal city = good place to test innovative technology. Really, nothing you have not seen already if you follow driverless car news.

And here is video coverage of the study this week from Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory about the tremendous emission reductions and efficiencies that driverless shared-use vehicles, called here robo-cabs, will bring. 

Thursday, July 9, 2015

All About Partnerships

Who is dancing with whom?
University of Michigan to open driverless 32-acre testing grounds - fake city and suburban streets - this month, by late July. Consortium of car companies and technology companies involved. Not Google, not Uber.

By the way, at least one of the driverless cars heading to Michigan will be a 3D-printed vehicle from Local Motors. The company is also pairing up with other universities and companies.

General Motors and the University of North Carolina are teaming up to reduce the cost and improve the performance of driverless computer technology. The National Science Foundation will also be contributing. 

Predictions abound
I do not waste my time on the numerous predictions about the changes that driverless vehicles will bring or how many people will ride in them. This study caught my eye for its prediction that electric driverless taxis will result in a 90 percent reduction in automotive emissions.

And where are those Google cars? Not only in Mountain View, CA, and its environs. Google announced this week that its driverless cars are hitting the streets of Austin, TX. Perhaps a liberal, tech-friendly city in the de-regulated environment of the Lonestar state and is what attracted Google.