Two reports in the past few days about creative driverless developments out of the University of Washington Bothell, a campus I had never heard of before (probably because I have lived my entire life on the East Coast).
1. Driverless tricycle - so I'm not sure why anyone would need this and does this machine pedal for you? Transport packages? Right now, this is an incredibly early prototype that goes in circles and thrills only the students working on it. But you never know where it will go. I wrote about this tricycle yesterday, very briefly, at the end of a pretty unrelated post.
2. The ELF, a tricycle that looks like a mini-car, is driverless and being developed with funding from Amazon. It is solar powered and can hold up to 550 pounds of persons and/or merchandise. That's a lot of books. The startup working with UW-Bothell is called Organic Transit. You can already buy a non-driverless ELF from Organic Transit. They come in cute colors and cost $7000 and above. I'm not sure you can bring it up to the office; might need conventional parking, though it is considered a bicycle and can travel at the speed of a heavy bike. This is definitely a vehicle that can go to the supermarket, but it might be really slow on steep hills on the way home.
Elon Musk is pushing up his timeline, now saying that a completely driverless Tesla will be available in two years. Apparently, Musk does not want to be outdone by Google or Uber. Maybe Musk was alarmed by the early rumors of the Ford/Google coupling.
The Ford/Google rumored marriage will be an immediate powerhouse coupling of technology and automobile manufacturing. Ford has been making quite progressive statements and moves of late. The company is applying for patents right and left, particularly relating to driverless technology and connected vehicles. What better spouse could Google desire as it readies itself to progress from testing to sales, taxi pods, and other strategies for selling the driverless dream?
A menage a trois?
Ford has announced that it will work with Amazon to use the delivery/warehouse/online-retailer's personal assistant software in Ford's driverless vehicles. The software will enable a person to remotely control or monitor the vehicle. Call the car, check it's oil, crash a KGB agent - oh wait, I'm too immersed in watching The Americans.
Yes, yes, I've been busy with other stuff, what with baking and actual office work and real life. But driverless developments literally never sleep.
And another entrant into the race
Everyone - and I mean every auto company - is at least attempting to compete in this race. Here's a rundown of recent activity. It is not complete. For example, I've left out anyone currently saying they are aiming for a 2030 rollout of a completely driverless vehicle.
GM and Lyft's partnership has gotten lots of buzz. Here's two articles.
1. GM/Lyft partnership looks like a giant "We're out to beat Uber" quest - and GM happens to include in its plans a driverless component as part of it's Michigan campus activities.
2. A different view perceives the GM/Lyft partnership as the first step into a networked foray into the driverless-shared-vehicle-universe.
A European/Asian alliance and more
Renault/Nissan partnership to sell driverless cars by 2020.
Mercedes procures driverless license in Nevada, but the car is only partially autonomous.
Volvo banking on AI software and will be testing it in the carmaker's hometown.
Watch the movie on the way to school
Volvo is also working on media streaming for driverless cars. Apparently, the Swedish car company believes we are all screen addicts. Let's face it, many people are.
And late to the party
Nashville's mayor and Tennessee's legislature are making noises about encouraging driverless testing and travel. Nothing happening yet.
