2019 Hyundai Elantra GT N LineBrian Harper / Driving Hyundai is tapping Canada-based tech company and former cellphone giant BlackBerry to help develop its advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving software. Does this mean the next Elantra will be getting a trackball control for its center screen!? Doubtful. What it does mean is Hyundai Motor Group’s software research and development company, Hyundai Autron, will use BlackBerry’s QNX OS for Safety system, already embedded in over 150 million cars on roads today, to build “competitive automotive and mission-critical systems in a cost-effective and safe manner.” This could impact features like adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, lane departure, smartphone connection and more. “Hyundai Autron develops the Hyundai Motor standard software platform based on the international AUTOSAR standard,” said Dae-Heung Moon, CEO at Hyundai Autron, in a press release. “Powered by BlackBerry QNX technology, together we will deliver ADAS and autonomous driving software platforms that will set a new standard for the automotive industry.”BlackBerry was a major player in the cell phone market of the 2000s (RIP, BBM) but stopped making its popular keyboard and trackpad devices in 2016. Today the Waterloo, Ontario-based company focuses on software solutions and outsources production of phones to partner companies.BlackBerry will demonstrate what this new standard looks like when it showcases the QNX OS for Safety at CES in Las Vegas in January 2020.
Origin: Hyundai Autron’s next-gen autonomous car software to be powered by BlackBerry
autonomous
UK to develop ‘world-leading’ safety standard for autonomous cars
The UK Government is developing a new safety standard for self-driving vehicles on British roads, as part of a push to make the country a world leader in autonomous technology. The new regime, called CAV PASS, is being developed by “world-leading” experts in vehicle safety and cyber security from the Government, industry and the academic world. It’s intended to ensure that self-driving vehicles “are safe and secure by design and minimise any defects ahead of their testing, sale and wider deployment on UK roads.” The new standards will build on existing guidelines that were first established by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) in 2015. The scheme, which the Government hopes will become the basis for a global standard, was announced by George Freeman, the future of mobility minister, at the Cenex Low Carbon Vehicle conference. At that event, Freeman also opened the Autonomous Village, a new self-driving test facility at Millbrook Proving Ground that features 43 miles of test track. The facility is the first in a planned network of autonomous vehicle testing facilities that will also allow developers to test software, 5G connectivity and cyber security systems. “Self-driving vehicles can offer significant rewards for the UK’s economy, road safety and accessibility,” said Freeman. “We are determined to lead in the testing and development of safe autonomous transport. “This is new terrain, and with our national expertise, the UK is well placed to blaze the trail globally by developing a global benchmark for assuring the safety and security of this exciting
Origin: UK to develop ‘world-leading’ safety standard for autonomous cars
Mercedes-Benz reveals “world’s first” autonomous valet parking system
German authorities have granted approval for a fully automated valet parking system at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. The system, claimed to be the world’s first, will be in daily use at the facility’s parking garage. It collects and returns vehicles automatically, with no monitoring human behind the wheel. The system is operated via a smartphone app; drivers can exit their vehicle, activate the parking process on their phone and then leave the building while the vehicle parks itself in a designated space. Bosch-provided sensors throughout the car park communicate with the Daimler-developed receivers in the vehicle to guide it safely through the driving corridor. The vehicle will stop automatically if an obstacle is detected. The system uses Level 4 driverless technology, which is defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers as “driverless driving in a geographically discrete area”. Daimler says the function is “a comprehensive safety concept with appropriate testing and approval criteria that can be applied beyond this pilot project”. As there was no existing legal framework in place for the regulation of an automated valet system, the Stuttgart regional administrative authority and the local transportation authority were on-hand during development to assess the system’s operating safety. Dr Markus Heyn, member of the Bosch board of management, said: “Driverless driving and parking are important building blocks for tomorrow’s mobility. The automated parking system shows just how far we have already progressed along this development path.” This project is the latest in a series of collaborations between Bosch and Daimler. The supplier is currently developing artificial intelligence software for Daimler’s planned driverless taxis, and recent photos appeared to show a test rig for a new synthetic fuel being co-developed by the pair of German
Origin: Mercedes-Benz reveals “world’s first” autonomous valet parking system
Tires, headlights, seats — every part of the car is being reinvented to be autonomous
The Michelin Vision concept tire uses 3-D printing to create a honeycomb texture, with the tread printed onto the edge. The car industry is reinventing the wheel to prepare for autonomous vehicles.Japans Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd., whose roots stretch back to when Henry Ford was building his Model T, is developing a smart tire that can monitor its own air pressure and temperature, and eventually respond by itself to changes in road conditions.Yet its more than just tires that are being changed. Koito Manufacturing Co., AGC Inc. and Lear Corp. are putting semiconductors and sensors inside headlights, glass and seats to make them as intelligent as the cars driving themselves.Alphabet Inc.s Waymo LLC, Intel Corp.s Mobileye NV and Baidu Inc. dominate the core technology for autonomous driving, yet suppliers still count on finding their own space in the business. Parts for advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomous driving are expected to become a US$57-billion market within a decade, according to BIS Research, and old-school companies born during the early days of the automobile know they must either adapt or risk extinction.Though the deployment of highly autonomous commercial fleets isnt expected to begin until at least 2022, the looming threat is that the increasingly sophisticated designs of those cars will render some ordinary parts and their suppliers unnecessary.For example, why would a self-driving vehicle that uses cameras, lasers and sensors to get around need headlights or mirrors? An artist’s rendering of a “smart headlight” Koito Manufacturing The response from century-old Koito Manufacturing is to reinvent the headlight. The Tokyo-based company, which traces its roots to making lenses for railway signal lamps in 1912, is adding sensors and artificial-intelligence chips to lamps it plans to introduce by about 2025.Positioned on the four edges of the vehicle, the lamps will be able to process information and react, such as by illuminating poorly lit crossings, signaling pedestrians that its safe to cross and raising an alarm to surrounding drivers by flashing a specific color.The companys current customers include Toyota, Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Autonomous driving will change the role of lamps, said Yuji Yokoya, who recently retired as executive vice president of the Tokyo-based company. We see them not just as lamps, but more as corner modules.An overarching challenge is to convince carmakers that the smarter and more expensive components make economic sense. Not all parts manufacturers need a radical transformation to keep up with autonomous and electric vehicles since theyve been evolving gradually as the industry takes shape, said Deepesh Rathore, an independent automobile analyst based in Bengaluru.A car is a car, and the shape of the tire doesnt change, Rathore said. I can imagine some of those companies having to reinvent everything especially those working with engines and gearbox technologies. Even components that arent facing an immediate existential threat are evolving. Sumitomo Rubber is researching tires that can transmit data about road conditions to the car as well as to other vehicles.The next step will be a tire that automatically adapts to road conditions. When the tire detects water, it will change the structure of its surface into one that is optimal for wet roads, said Kozaburo Nakaseko, an official in the research and development division of Sumitomo.Tires need to become smarter, Nakaseko said. We cannot move into an autonomous car society without information about the roads we drive on.The innovations arent just limited to Japan. In the U.S., Lear Corp. is equipping its car seats with biometric sensors to detect stress, drowsiness and changes in heart rate, and then activate treatments in response. The seats also can transmit data to a doctor or family member if necessary, the company said.Other functions include controls that let users create individual micro-climates where they are sitting, and noise-canceling features in the headrests, the Southfield, Michigan-based company said.All the mechanical stuff will just slowly go away, and there is a lot of electronics coming in instead, said Egil Juliussen, principal auto analyst with IHS Markit. You have to change in order to
Origin: Tires, headlights, seats — every part of the car is being reinvented to be autonomous
Ford and VW reveal electric and autonomous plans
Ford and VW reveal electric and autonomous plans Ford will use the VW MEB platform for a new EV Volkswagen and Ford have announced that the two firms will expand their collaboration efforts to include new electric models and advance autonomous driving development. Perhaps the most significant news is that Ford will use the VW Group’s Modular Electric Toolkit (MEB) platform to build a mass-market, high-volume pure-electric model in Europe, starting in 2023. VW has previously said that it is open to working with other comapnies with its MEB architecture, and the announcment will be a real bonus for Ford which, although having EV plans of its own, is a long way behind many rivals in the electric marketplace – the VW Group included. Ford expects to build and deliver more than 600,000 vehicles in Europe, built on the MEB platform over six years, and a second all-new Ford model for the European market is under discussion. The two companies will work with Argo AI’s self-driving system, which will see each manufacturer integrate the platform independently into its purpose-built vehicles to support driverless systems for people and goods from both companies. Argo AI’s focus is on delivering Level 4 self-drive systems, for ride sharing and delivery service in urban areas. Ford and Volkswagen will have an equal stake in Argo AI, combined owning a substantial majority.
Origin: Ford and VW reveal electric and autonomous plans
Waymo gets permission to pick up California passengers with autonomous cars
Autonomous tech company Waymo has been given the go-ahead to begin picking up actual human passengers in California with its self-driving cars. But before you go booking a flight to L.A. to try the next big thing, know that there’s a caveat: the state’s Autonomous Vehicle Passenger Service pilot program only permits Waymo employees and guests to use the self-driving taxis. TechCrunch confirmed the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) gavethe permit to the Alphabet-powered company, granting its employees and their lucky friends and fam to try out the vehicles (limited to the Chrysler Pacifica at the moment, but soon to include the Jaguar I-PACE) within a predetermined area of South Bay near L.A., including the neighbourhoods of Palo Alto, Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, Mountain View and Sunnyvale. “The CPUC allows us to participate in their pilot program, giving Waymo employees the ability to hail our vehicles and bring guests on rides within our South Bay territory,” a Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch. “This is the next step in our path to eventually expand and offer more Californians opportunities to access our self-driving technology, just as we have gradually done with Waymo One in Metro Phoenix.”Quick refresher: Waymo One was a similar pilot project that launched late last year, offering free autonomous rides to a couple hundred project participants in a one-hundred-mile radius around Phoenix.Waymo is also contractually obligated to keep a human safety driver behind the wheel, both in Phoenix and California, and to offer the service for free. Sweet deal for Waymo staff. Incidentally, does anybody who works there want to be my friend? I’ve been told I make a great
Origin: Waymo gets permission to pick up California passengers with autonomous cars
Domino’s and Nuro bring autonomous pizza delivery to Houston
Planet Earth may be experiencing an accelerated environmental decline while our most powerful politicians inudate us with scandal after scandal, but at least part of the future looks bright. Bright and cheesy! International pizza chain Domino’s and California-based robotics company Nuro have announced a partnership that will see autonomous vehicles deliver pizza to customers in Houston, Texas this year. We are always looking for new ways to innovate and evolve the delivery experience for our customers, said Kevin Vasconi, Domino’s executive vice-president and chief information officer in a press release announcing the partnership. Nuro’s vehicles are specially designed to optimize the food delivery experience, which makes them a valuable partner in our autonomous vehicle journey. The opportunity to bring our customers the choice of an unmanned delivery experience, and our operators an additional delivery solution during a busy store rush, is an important part of our autonomous vehicle testing. Toyota and Pizza Hut collaborated on a similar project last year, but their pizza-cooking-and-delivering Tundra PIE Pro pickup was just a concept, which will probably never actually deliver cheesy satisfaction. This unmanned rolling kitchen called the R2, however, is actually going to be cruising around the roads of Houston dropping off hot pies. Seems futuristic, but Nuro’s autonomous vehicles have already been delivering other items in the Houston metro area since March, 2019, and in Scottsdale, Arizona, before that. But what about the rest of us who want to stuff slices of pepperoni ‘za into our pie holes without having to make eye contact with a delivery person? If it goes well in Housto – and the city’s notorious reputation as one of the most overweight in America bodes well for it – it probably won’t be too
Origin: Domino’s and Nuro bring autonomous pizza delivery to Houston
GM’s first public autonomous cars will probably have manual controls
In this Jan. 16, 2019, file photo, Cruise AV, General Motors autonomous electric Bolt EV is displayed in Detroit.Paul Sancya / AP If GM has its way, it will be setting loose onto the roads of North America up to 2,500 driverless taxis a year. The vehicles would be requested by users with smartphones, and then commanded with touch screens inside once it arrives. What they wouldn’t be able to do, however, is be driven by a human in the traditional manner. But despite requests to put out its first fleet of publicly available self-drivers sans manual controls this year, a GM executive in charge of the autonomous division says the upcoming fourth-gen Cruise AV will “most likely” feature manual controls, meaning a human could grab the literal wheel, step on the pedals and pilot the vehicle using traditional methods if need be. The comments first highlighted by Automotive News suggest that, due to the U.S. government’s hesitation to hand out exemptions for vehicles that don’t meet the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards’ idea of a safe vehicle, GM’s upcoming initial wave of public-serving, self-driving cars will include such manual controls. Until we have exemptions, which we filed a petition for, and/or law changes, we probably wouldn’t go forward with Gen 4, Doug Parks, GM vice president of autonomous and electric vehicle programs, said during a recent conference in California. But we think it’s really something we’ve got to talk about, we’ve got to work on. The third-generation Cruise AV, which is currently being tested in San Francisco, includes manual controls as well as “safety driver” there to take over for the autonomous system should an issue arise. Would you feel comfortable in a self-driving car with no steering wheel or pedals? Or would you prefer to know that an actual foot on an actual brake could still bring the vehicle to a halt?
Origin: GM’s first public autonomous cars will probably have manual controls
VW’s working on tech to keep you from getting sick in autonomous cars
Motion sickness sucks. For the percentage of the population who are susceptible to this rotten affliction, simply going for a drive with someone else at the wheel is cause enough to turn greener than a twenty-dollar bill, money soon to be spent on a bottle of Febreze to get rid of the smell. The crew at Volkswagen, mindful that bouts of sick can come on even faster in a self-driving car, are working on ways to quell the queasy. At its root, the confusion between the motion your eyes see and the motion your body feels. This is why your author cannot read for an extended time as a passenger. According to VW, about a third of all people are susceptible to it – women more than men, children more than adults – but under the right conditions, anyone can suffer. At the VW research labs in Wolfsburg, scientists are studying what can trigger car sickness and potential ways to help prevent it from happening in a future where the car can mostly drive itself. In one test, researchers are exploring whether changes to the vehicles themselves might help prevent motion sickness, such as via special movable seats that can react to driving changes; and an LED light strip on the door panel that illuminates in green or red. The latter is intended to provide a visual cue for the passenger of braking or acceleration. Out on the test track, volunteers don various sensors and cameras designed to measure pulse, skin temperature, and changes in skin tone. On a 20-minute drive, the sedan will use Automatic Cruise Control to follow a semi-autonomous Passat. During this particular test, a tablet plays video of swimming fish for the volunteer to watch. As the car drives, the volunteer rates their state of health on a tablet. For most, it doesn’t take long to feel ill. VW’s boffins are hoping their inventions can help remove that feeling, though they haven’t released that data quite yet. Autonomous cars are coming – not today, not tomorrow, but eventually – and it’s research like this that’ll help deal with problems most of us haven’t thought of yet. Until then, the rest of us can just keep a bottle of Febreze
Origin: VW’s working on tech to keep you from getting sick in autonomous cars
Autonomous cars could worsen traffic on Canadian roads, experts warn
TomTom’s 2013 congestion index ranks Vancouver the most congested among North American cities, ahead of L.A., ahead of Chicago, and even New York. Toronto ranked 7th on the list.Christina Ryan When you picture the future of autonomous transportation, you’re probably not picturing gridlock traffic. The robots are supposed to be smarter and more efficient than us humans, right? Some transport researchers and experts are warning traffic may get worse before it gets better as society moves toward automation in transportation. We may see increases in total vehicle traffic in Canada as significant as 30 per cent, says Todd Litman, the executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute in British Columbia, in a recent interview with Global News. “Cities need to start looking into regulations,” he said, warning the issue is approaching quicker than many realize. Today, for example, the average Toronto commuter spends 34 minutes in their vehicle. If Litman’s prediction proves accurate, that number could increase to as high as 45 minutes. Michal Antkiewicz is a research associate at the University of Waterloo who has been studying the potential future impacts of autonomous vehicles (AV). He told Global that though the problem is “at least five years away” in Canada, some U.S. centres are already feeling the strain. The issue, he explains, is the vehicles’ unwillingness to bend or break the rules, combined with mankind’s drive to do just that. “(AVs) will never break any traffic rules,” he said. “If there is a speed of 50 km/h, (AVs) will go 50 km/h. (AVs) will wait for an efficient gap to merge into traffic. Where a human would bend the rules to make progress, autonomous vehicles will be more cautious.” So, while having an AV that’s able to circle the block while you pop into the corner store for some eggs is undeniably convenient, being stuck on an on-ramp behind a robotic car that’s unable to merge into traffic that’s moving 5 km/h over the speed limit is anything but.
Origin: Autonomous cars could worsen traffic on Canadian roads, experts warn
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