Remember when a Blackberry was the cool phone to have? I'm sure Blackberry does and that was only eight or nine years ago. Well, once the entire world started its heated affair with the Apple iphone, Blackberry was left alone to lick its wounds. Even government employees get iphones instead of the Blackberry, but now the company is a player in the driverless business and it still has to deal with Apple.
Stealing away employees
Apple has a driverless software operation in Canada, near Ottawa, where Apple is poaching engineering and management talent from Blackberry subsidiary QNX. Lots of talent. Ouch and Apple is way far from its Silicon Valley home. What exactly does it even have going on in the frozen north? Supposedly Apple will be developing an operating system for driverless vehicles.
Model T taxibot?
While Apple is pissing off Blackberry, Ford is making a partner. The car company, I mean mobility company, will be expanding use of Blackberry's secure operating system for driverless cars. (Here's another article; this one has more of a smartphone focus.)
Ford is planning on rolling out driverless cars for sale and shared use taxibot services in 2021 and the company wasting no time in preparing. Ford just hired a vice president of autonomous vehicle solutions, Laura Merling, to serve under the company's smart mobility chairman.
Current count in the Golden State
Is the count now 19 or 20 for companies with California permits to do driverless testing? NextEV is being added to the list and opening an 85,000 square foot facility that will have 400 employees. Lots of investment. NextEV is based in China and is called the Chinese Tesla counterpart. There is tons of Chinese money coming to the US for driverless development, both in Silicon Valley and in Michigan.
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Monday, May 16, 2016
Even Slow Car Companies Making Driverless Boasts
Remember when the car companies were talking down the idea of driverless transportation? Remember when, maybe a year and a half ago, or two years ago, they were saying it is a few decades away? Well, Google, Tesla and others have changed the tune of almost every company.
Here's the recent evidence.
* GM finalizes contract for purchase of Cruise Automation, which will remain in San Francisco.
* BMW to have iNext, a fully autonomous car, on the road in 2021. There's also a new car in 2018, but I could not tell how advanced that vehicle will be.
* Audi is testing a driverless car, its A7, on the autobahn. It plays well with others and does not exhibit any road rage. The article reports that its driving style is very human like, actually like a nice human who does not drive too fast or weirdly.
* Renault is committed to introducing an affordable driverless car in 2020. The company is sponsoring a design competition at an arts college in London. The college, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, will have groups of students working on designs for the interiors of totally driverless cars.
And now, after years of speculation, the first solid evidence of Apple's driverless situation and plans. Seems that Apple's previous efforts in this direction were fruitless or showed that Apple was way too far behind in this race to catch up on its own. Now, taking advantage of the shared use model of transportation - sans drivers - Apple has bought up China's version of Uber, Didi Chuxing, commonly called Didi. Testing and operations in China have the benefit of a supportive government that is presently doing more to pave the way for driverless than the United States. That's the benefit of no democracy, though there are serious and depressing downsides.
Here's the recent evidence.
* GM finalizes contract for purchase of Cruise Automation, which will remain in San Francisco.
* BMW to have iNext, a fully autonomous car, on the road in 2021. There's also a new car in 2018, but I could not tell how advanced that vehicle will be.
* Audi is testing a driverless car, its A7, on the autobahn. It plays well with others and does not exhibit any road rage. The article reports that its driving style is very human like, actually like a nice human who does not drive too fast or weirdly.
* Renault is committed to introducing an affordable driverless car in 2020. The company is sponsoring a design competition at an arts college in London. The college, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, will have groups of students working on designs for the interiors of totally driverless cars.
And now, after years of speculation, the first solid evidence of Apple's driverless situation and plans. Seems that Apple's previous efforts in this direction were fruitless or showed that Apple was way too far behind in this race to catch up on its own. Now, taking advantage of the shared use model of transportation - sans drivers - Apple has bought up China's version of Uber, Didi Chuxing, commonly called Didi. Testing and operations in China have the benefit of a supportive government that is presently doing more to pave the way for driverless than the United States. That's the benefit of no democracy, though there are serious and depressing downsides.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Endless Corporate Plans on the Horizon
So many plans out there being boasted of that I'm going to leave out details. Hoping this is the bottom of the pile and that I will not have any driverless catching up to do for a while. Really, the news should wait for when I have time to read it. Some of this is current and some from the last few weeks. Funny though that the media takes much longer to catch up, so still timely.
Great minds and herds - thinking alike
Uber to launch driverless taxi/publicly-available transport in Arizona. No backup driver necessary from the report, though we will see if that changes. At this point, an Arizona executive order (which can be quickly yanked or changed), not legislation, permits driverless bots to roam without a backup driver.
Mercedes is considering following the same path as Uber. The swanky car company is planning a driverless limousine/taxi service, perhaps fancier than the more taxi-like bot service than Uber envisions. Mercedes does not want to be left behind when the Google and Uber driverless bots hit the road. Corporately related to Car2Go, by way of Daimler, Mercedes has a built-in advantage due to the on-demand experience of its corporate cousin.
BMW is considering the same, but it has no actual plans. However, the company is seeing ridehailing a la Uber as the future, with three-minute wait times.
Hire one person and speculation runs amok
What is Google going to do? The tea leaf readers are having fun after the recent Google hire of an automobile executive to lead its driverless car project. The new guy, John Krafcik, was at Ford and Hyundai before going to a now-failing online car dealership. Google is also ramping up driverless car production, so speculation continues about whether the company is preparing to mass produce its driverless pods. (Randomly, interchangeably using the terms bots and pods. Terminology is fluid at this early stage of the driverless revolution.)
Apple speculation heats up with meeting between executives and California DMV. Are they or aren't they? And what exactly is Apple building? Where will they test it?
Yes, if you are up on driverless news, that week-or-so old update is old.
And I have not even gotten to today's driverless news. Other work keeps getting in the way.
Great minds and herds - thinking alike
Uber to launch driverless taxi/publicly-available transport in Arizona. No backup driver necessary from the report, though we will see if that changes. At this point, an Arizona executive order (which can be quickly yanked or changed), not legislation, permits driverless bots to roam without a backup driver.
Mercedes is considering following the same path as Uber. The swanky car company is planning a driverless limousine/taxi service, perhaps fancier than the more taxi-like bot service than Uber envisions. Mercedes does not want to be left behind when the Google and Uber driverless bots hit the road. Corporately related to Car2Go, by way of Daimler, Mercedes has a built-in advantage due to the on-demand experience of its corporate cousin.
BMW is considering the same, but it has no actual plans. However, the company is seeing ridehailing a la Uber as the future, with three-minute wait times.
Hire one person and speculation runs amok
What is Google going to do? The tea leaf readers are having fun after the recent Google hire of an automobile executive to lead its driverless car project. The new guy, John Krafcik, was at Ford and Hyundai before going to a now-failing online car dealership. Google is also ramping up driverless car production, so speculation continues about whether the company is preparing to mass produce its driverless pods. (Randomly, interchangeably using the terms bots and pods. Terminology is fluid at this early stage of the driverless revolution.)
Apple speculation heats up with meeting between executives and California DMV. Are they or aren't they? And what exactly is Apple building? Where will they test it?
Yes, if you are up on driverless news, that week-or-so old update is old.
And I have not even gotten to today's driverless news. Other work keeps getting in the way.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Florida Driverless Trucks Coming Soon
Trucks
Driverless trucks will be coming soon to Florida roads. State contractors will be using them in construction zones.
Lockheed Martin is entering the driverless universe, or rather dipping a toe in the waters, as it were, by investing in a connected vehicle company. The company Peloton Technology, a truck-related autonomous technology company and a Mountain View startup, has serious money behind it from other companies as well. Those connected vehicles are not synonymous with driverless, this type of technology is likely to be an important part of driverless highway travel.
Chicago Wants to Be Second City for Technology and the Fourth, Fifth? City for Driverless
Chicago is lining itself up to be the Second City in yet another way. All of you tech, startup companies, out there, Chicago wants your first expansion to be the Windy City. As for driverless vehicles, Chicago will not be the second testing ground, but it would like to be next.
Meanwhile in California ...
It's fun reading about the speculation around Apple's recent acquisition of possibly driverless-project staff. These are people with experience at Tesla, Chrysler, and other car manufacturers, as well as Texas Instruments and technology companies. No one from the driverless Google or Uber teams seems included.
Driverless trucks will be coming soon to Florida roads. State contractors will be using them in construction zones.
Lockheed Martin is entering the driverless universe, or rather dipping a toe in the waters, as it were, by investing in a connected vehicle company. The company Peloton Technology, a truck-related autonomous technology company and a Mountain View startup, has serious money behind it from other companies as well. Those connected vehicles are not synonymous with driverless, this type of technology is likely to be an important part of driverless highway travel.
Chicago Wants to Be Second City for Technology and the Fourth, Fifth? City for Driverless
Chicago is lining itself up to be the Second City in yet another way. All of you tech, startup companies, out there, Chicago wants your first expansion to be the Windy City. As for driverless vehicles, Chicago will not be the second testing ground, but it would like to be next.
Meanwhile in California ...
It's fun reading about the speculation around Apple's recent acquisition of possibly driverless-project staff. These are people with experience at Tesla, Chrysler, and other car manufacturers, as well as Texas Instruments and technology companies. No one from the driverless Google or Uber teams seems included.
Friday, August 21, 2015
Apple Speculation and Hacking Worries
After weeks of travel and lots of work - okay, mainly incredible numbers of emails - I am finally returning to writing about driverless developments. Even in just weeks, the pace of these developments is speeding up. It is not hyerbole to say that more countries, more universities, more municipalities, and more companies are joining this competition every day.
We are at the point that there is quite a bit one can ignore, for example the patent for Ford's interior of a driverless car, which looks so similar to the Mercedes-Benz design that I wonder if Ford did not have a twelve year old trace it. Or Audi's almost-but-not-quite autonomous luxury sedan. I don't want an almost driverless vehicle, personally.
What's new the last few weeks is mostly speculation - huge speculation - about Apple and worries about hacking driverless vehicles so that they stop, start zigzagging, or go straight off cliffs.
No cute photos, just news.
Everyone speculating about Apple
Almost all of the speculation about Apple's foray into the driverless world is based on the Guardian article that reported on hard evidence of Apple's secret - or perhaps secretive is a better word - development of driverless vehicles.
Here's articles with educated speculation based on the Guardian article as well as tea leaves.
Christian Science Monitor
NextGov
University News
University of Texas is getting to work on hacking/security issues with driverless technology. I'm seeing more and more articles about how easy it is to hack into any connected device, which includes driverless technology. For some reason, this and the you-ll-be-nauseous in a driverless vehicle have caught the media's attention.
And in Canada, the University of Waterloo is getting the country's first driverless vehicle transit service. Varden Labs will operate a driverless shuttle at the university. The university president hitched a ride with a second-year engineering student.
Catching a Ride on Campus
Speaking of campus driverless shuttles, a driverless pod effort is being aimed at universities, amusement parks, and retirement communities. Seems that Auro Robotics is planning to push driverless, but avoid government regulations that control our roads. TechCrunch reports that Auro is already in agreement with Santa Clara University.
Update 9/3/15: Driverless shuttle vehicles are already at the Santa Clara campus and will be giving driverless rides this semester during a three-month pilot program.
One big plus of the Auro Robotics plan is that it will emphasize driverless vehicle safety in heavily pedestrian environments. Would be great to see that driverless networks will be safer for walking than the past century of human-controlled vehicles.
Hacking Fears Abound
From the same philosophy that brought you Murphy's law - updated for the 21st century - a common refrain, this time reiterated by National Defense Magazine: Anything that can be hacked (and that's anything) will be hacked. The attention in the last week or so has been on the easy hacking of driverless vehicles. You can add baby monitors, GPS devices, and a hundred other common devices that enable us to stay connected to personal information. It is remarkably easy to hack all of these devices and no one wants to be in a vehicle suddenly speeding, darting in and out of traffic, or careening off a cliff (that's all of the California coastline, by the way). No question that software developers involved with driverless technology must address this one; the insurance industry will make sure of that. Possibly legislators as well, but they are generally behind the eight ball, not being a class of tech-savvy, up-to-the-minute individuals.
Independence Day
Meanwhile an Indian startup has created a semi, but mainly, autonomous car for people who are blind or have serious visual impairments. The driver is the navigator and the car is designed to mimic a driving experience for the visually-impaired navigator. Now that we're on the verge of driverless and we're all going to give up the steering wheel, I'm not sure this invention will go anywhere, except, perhaps, to incrementally contribute to driverless technological development.
And - why driverless for everyone?
We humans are terrible drivers. It's an informative game.
We are at the point that there is quite a bit one can ignore, for example the patent for Ford's interior of a driverless car, which looks so similar to the Mercedes-Benz design that I wonder if Ford did not have a twelve year old trace it. Or Audi's almost-but-not-quite autonomous luxury sedan. I don't want an almost driverless vehicle, personally.
What's new the last few weeks is mostly speculation - huge speculation - about Apple and worries about hacking driverless vehicles so that they stop, start zigzagging, or go straight off cliffs.
No cute photos, just news.
Everyone speculating about Apple
Almost all of the speculation about Apple's foray into the driverless world is based on the Guardian article that reported on hard evidence of Apple's secret - or perhaps secretive is a better word - development of driverless vehicles.
Here's articles with educated speculation based on the Guardian article as well as tea leaves.
Christian Science Monitor
NextGov
University News
University of Texas is getting to work on hacking/security issues with driverless technology. I'm seeing more and more articles about how easy it is to hack into any connected device, which includes driverless technology. For some reason, this and the you-ll-be-nauseous in a driverless vehicle have caught the media's attention.
And in Canada, the University of Waterloo is getting the country's first driverless vehicle transit service. Varden Labs will operate a driverless shuttle at the university. The university president hitched a ride with a second-year engineering student.
Catching a Ride on Campus
Speaking of campus driverless shuttles, a driverless pod effort is being aimed at universities, amusement parks, and retirement communities. Seems that Auro Robotics is planning to push driverless, but avoid government regulations that control our roads. TechCrunch reports that Auro is already in agreement with Santa Clara University.
Update 9/3/15: Driverless shuttle vehicles are already at the Santa Clara campus and will be giving driverless rides this semester during a three-month pilot program.
One big plus of the Auro Robotics plan is that it will emphasize driverless vehicle safety in heavily pedestrian environments. Would be great to see that driverless networks will be safer for walking than the past century of human-controlled vehicles.
Hacking Fears Abound
From the same philosophy that brought you Murphy's law - updated for the 21st century - a common refrain, this time reiterated by National Defense Magazine: Anything that can be hacked (and that's anything) will be hacked. The attention in the last week or so has been on the easy hacking of driverless vehicles. You can add baby monitors, GPS devices, and a hundred other common devices that enable us to stay connected to personal information. It is remarkably easy to hack all of these devices and no one wants to be in a vehicle suddenly speeding, darting in and out of traffic, or careening off a cliff (that's all of the California coastline, by the way). No question that software developers involved with driverless technology must address this one; the insurance industry will make sure of that. Possibly legislators as well, but they are generally behind the eight ball, not being a class of tech-savvy, up-to-the-minute individuals.
Independence Day
Meanwhile an Indian startup has created a semi, but mainly, autonomous car for people who are blind or have serious visual impairments. The driver is the navigator and the car is designed to mimic a driving experience for the visually-impaired navigator. Now that we're on the verge of driverless and we're all going to give up the steering wheel, I'm not sure this invention will go anywhere, except, perhaps, to incrementally contribute to driverless technological development.
And - why driverless for everyone?
We humans are terrible drivers. It's an informative game.
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