Tesla appears to be testing a car with lidar sensors, a technology used to help automakers develop self-driving vehicles.
Elon Musk famously said “lidar is a fool’s errand,” at Tesla’s “Autonomy Day” in April 2019. “Anyone relying on lidar is doomed.” Musk has maintained his company can build full self-driving (FSD) vehicles without resorting to lidar.
Despite those statements, pictures have been circulating on Twitter showing a Model Y with lidar sensors on the roof.
According to Bloomberg, Tesla purchased the lidar sensors from Luminar, whose stock rose as a result. What’s not clear, however, is what the company is working on. While the obvious conclusion is that Tesla is doing an about-face, experts are not convinced.
“The more likely scenario is they are using the Luminar lidars to validate their camera-based FSD system,” Guidehouse analyst Sam Abuelsamid told Bloomberg. “If they made that change, it would effectively deprecate their entire fleet of vehicles. They are not going to retrofit one million vehicles.”
One strong possibility is that Tesla is simply testing their vehicles to see how they compare with lidar-equipped competitors.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra is has expressed her desire to have personal autonomous vehicles by 2030.
Autonomous and self-driving vehicles are the next major evolution of the automotive industry. Early studies have shown autonomous vehicles can significantly reduce accidents and fatalities. Autonomous vehicles also promise to revolutionize the entire driving experience, freeing individuals from the tedium of actually driving. Instead, the daily commute could eventually be used to relax, watch TV or engage in any number of other activities.
Many companies are focusing their self-driving efforts primarily on fleet vehicles, ride-sharing and other commercial applications. GM CEO Mary Barra, however, wants to see autonomous personal vehicles from GM by 2030.
“There’s a lot to still unfold, but I believe we’ll have personal autonomous vehicles and then that will leverage the capability we have at Cruise with the capability that we have at the car company to really be well positioned to delight the customers from that perspective,” Barra said, according to TechCrunch. “So both paths are very important because the technology we put on vehicles today I think makes them safer and delights the customers and is going to give us an opportunity for subscription revenue, and then the ultimate work that we’re doing at Cruise, that is full autonomous, really opens up, you know, more possibilities then I think we can outline today.”
GM has taken a measured approach to autonomous driving. Given that, Barra’s statement will likely put pressure on any slower-moving companies to pick up the pace.
Lyft has announced Toyota subsidiary Woven Planet is acquiring its self-driving division, Level 5.
Autonomous driving is widely considered to be the next major evolution of the auto industry. Unfortunately, autonomous driving has been a difficult technology to crack for companies of all sizes. Tesla recently was called out by Consumer Reports for self-driving tech that’s easily fooled.
Meanwhile, Level 5 was launched in 2017, with the goal being to have a majority of rides happen in self-driving vehicles by 2021. Instead, Lyft is now selling off its self-driving division after failing to meet those goals. Woven Planet, Toyota’s autonomous driving division, is buying Level 5 for $550 million.
“Today’s announcement launches Lyft into the next phase of an incredible journey to bring our mission to life,” Lyft Co-Founder and CEO Logan Green said. “Lyft has spent nine years building a transportation network that is uniquely capable of scaling AVs. This partnership between Woven Planet and Lyft represents a major step forward for autonomous vehicle technology.”
“This acquisition assembles a dream team of world-class engineers and scientists to deliver safe mobility technology for the world,” James Kuffner, CEO of Woven Planet said. “The Woven Planet team, alongside the team of researchers at Toyota Research Institute, have already established a center of excellence for software development, automated driving, and advanced safety technology within the Toyota Group. I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Level 5’s world-class engineers and experts into our company, which will greatly strengthen our efforts.”
Ford is laying down the gauntlet in the self-driving arena, declaring its BlueCruise software has completed the “Mother of All Road Trips.”
Self-driving vehicles are the next great frontier for the automotive industry. Virtually all of the major players are working on self-driving and autonomous driving systems. Ford is working on its self-driving software, BlueCruise, and has even gone so far as to call Tesla’s competing system vaporware.
BlueCruise is a Level 2 technology. Autonomous driving is rated on a scale of 0 to 5, with 0 being fully manual and 5 requiring no human control whatsoever.
BlueCruise is an SAE Level 2 driver-assist technology, similar to Tesla Autopilot but with the advantage of offering a true hands-free driving experience while in Hands-Free Mode that does not require a driver’s hands to stay in contact with the steering wheel, unless prompted by vehicle alerts.
And unlike other approaches – such as GM’s Super Cruise, which uses red and green lighting, or Tesla’s Autopilot, which requires a driver keep their hands on the steering wheel – BlueCruise communicates with drivers in different ways. The instrument cluster transitions to communicate that the feature is in Hands-Free mode through text and blue lighting cues, effective even for those with color blindness.
Ford is putting its money where its mouth is, however, having recently put its BlueCruise through rigorous testing. According to the company, it sent a fleet of 10 test vehicles — five Mustang Mach-E SUVs and five F-150s — on the “Mother of All Road Trips.” The trip was more than 110,000 miles through 37 states and five Canadian provinces.
“There are highway intricacies and driving conditions that you simply cannot replicate in a lab,” said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford chief product platform and operations officer. “Sending these vehicles out for real-world driving experience is just one of many ways we ensured that BlueCruise technology offers confidence and convenience for drivers all across the continent.”
The company is planning on providing BlueCruise via over-the-air software updates later this year on 2021 F-150 and Mustang Mach-E models equipped with Ford Co-Pilot 360 Active 2.0 Prep Package.
Consumer Reports has raised concerns about Tesla’s in-vehicle cameras, saying they represent a privacy concern.
Vehicles are increasingly moving toward automation, and a big part of that is cameras that monitor the driver. In many cases, these are to measure the driver’s response and ensure they are paying attention to the road.
While several automakers include monitoring cameras, Tesla’s approach is much different than its competitors. According to Consumer Reports, BMW, Ford, GM and Subaru’s cameras are all close-circuit systems. The cameras are used exclusively in-vehicle, and do not record or transmit their footage.
In contrast, Tesla has admitted that its cameras both record and transmit video to the company, which it then studies and analyzes to improve its self-driving technology.
If drivers enable the cabin camera, Tesla says it will capture and share a video clip of the moments before a crash or automatic emergency braking (AEB) activation to help the automaker “develop future safety features and software enhancements,” according to Tesla’s website. Tesla did not respond to CR’s emailed request for additional information about its in-car monitoring systems.
Tesla’s actions raise concerns about who benefits most from its monitoring systems, especially since the company has a habit of quickly blaming the driver when an accident occurs while the vehicle’s Autopilot is engaged.
“We have already seen Tesla blaming the driver for not paying attention immediately after news reports of a crash while a driver is using Autopilot,” said Kelly Funkhouser, CR’s program manager for vehicle interface testing. “Now, Tesla can use video footage to prove that a driver is distracted rather than addressing the reasons why the driver wasn’t paying attention in the first place.”
There’s also concern that Tesla’s system could be used in the future for some yet-to-be-disclosed purpose.
Ultimately, the questions about Tesla’s in-vehicle monitoring system make a case for greater consumer protection — and buying a competitor’s offering.
“Advanced features in cars can bring consumers enormous benefits, but it’s important for our laws to make sure that automakers put people ahead of their bottom line. Automotive innovation must come hand-in-hand with strong and sensible consumer protections,” says William Wallace, manager of safety policy at CR.
A Ford executive has upped the rivalry with Tesla, calling Tesla’s self-driving software “vaporware.”
Ford is widely seen as Tesla’s biggest competition, with the company’s Mustang Mach-E eating into Tesla sales. Edmunds recently did a head-to-head comparison of the Mach-E and the Model Y, giving a slight edge to the newcomer.
There are a lot of great things about the Tesla Model Y including vast amounts of interior space, exciting driving performance and access to Tesla’s Supercharger network. These two EVs are closely matched, but the Ford Mustang Mach-E wins this comparison thanks to its superior comfort and user-friendly technology.
Tesla has helped pioneer self-driving vehicles, but a Ford executive is calling out the company’s software.
Between Tesla pitting the Cybertruck against the F-150, and now Ford dissing Tesla’s software, it appears the rivalry between the two automakers is just getting started. That’s probably a good thing for consumers.
Waymo has released a detailed report of its autonomous driving test scenarios, providing evidence of the technology’s ability to prevent fatalities.
Waymo is an Alphabet company focused on autonomous driving. In fact, the company recently announced it would only use the term “autonomous driving,” as opposed to “self-driving.” Autonomous driving is widely seen as the next major evolution for the automotive industry, with the promise of safer driving.
Quantifying just how much safer autonomous driving is can be difficult, as few companies have been willing to release their testing numbers. Waymo has now taken that step, and the results are very encouraging. Waymo’s simulated driving data provides a decade-long look at how its platform performs.
In total, the simulated Waymo Driver completely avoided or mitigated 100% of crashes aside from the crashes in which it was struck from behind, including every instance that involved a pedestrian or cyclist (20 simulations in total). This is the first time an autonomous technology company has shared its evaluation for how the system might perform in real-world fatal crash scenarios.
Significantly, drivers were 1.3 to 1.5x less likely to be injured in accidents that Waymo’s vehicles mitigated.
Waymo specifically tested 72 scenarios from public records of accidents that had involved a fatality. When the Waymo Driver was in primary control of the vehicle, those accidents were avoided 100% of the time.
Waymo then ran test scenarios where Waymo Driver was in responder mode, only taking action once the human driver had made a mistake. In those scenarios, 82% of accidents were avoided, while another 10% were mitigated. This gives Waymo a 92% success rate at avoiding or mitigating fatal accidents, even when the human driver has done something that would have caused an accident.
In other words, even when a human driver did something to initiate a crash, such as running a red light, the simulated Waymo Driver avoided or mitigated the vast majority of these fatal crashes.
This is good news for the auto industry and drivers alike, and will hopefully help remove barriers to autonomous driving adoption.
Baidu is the latest company to receive permission to test self-driving cars in California.
Self-driving and autonomous vehicles are considered one of the next big steps in the automotive industry. Virtually every manufacturer is working on some kind of autonomous software, with varying degrees of success.
Baidu is the latest to company ready to test its self-driving tech, and California has granted it a permit to test three autonomous cars, without a driver behind the wheel, according to Reuters. Baidu is the sixth company to receive a permit to test without a driver, with a total of 58 companies cleared to test self-driving cars with a backup driver.
As Reuters points out, Baidu is currently testing some 500 self-driving vehicles, although most are in China. The company has also mostly tested vehicles with a backup driver, and has yet to announce when it will start testing vehicles with no driver.
The rumored Apple Car has been making headlines again, although recent reports are placing its debut several years away.
The Apple Car seems to be Apple’s on-again, off-again project, with it taking different forms throughout the years. Dubbed “Project Titan” it was alternately believed to be a full car, an OEM AI system for manufacturers to adopt and integrate into their vehicles, or an aftermarket system that could be integrated into a range of vehicles. It now seems as though Apple is once again aiming for a full automobile.
The most recent rumors placed a possible Apple Car debut in 2021, while some reports place it in 2024. According to the latest reports from Bloomberg, however, it seems the Apple Car is still several years away, with production slated to begin in 2024.
At the same time, Bloomberg says Apple is continuing to work on a third-party system for integration with other manufacturers, and could still switch its plans to back that effort instead.
Either way, it appears Tesla has nothing to fear from Apple for at least the next few years.
Waymo has announced it will no longer use the term “self-driving,” embracing “fully autonomous driving technology” instead.
One of Alphabet’s subsidiary companies, Waymo is a company focused on autonomous driving in what is quickly becoming a crowded industry. Waymo says it is making the distinction in an effort to save lives, highlighting that its software is far different than “self-driving” software that still requires human interaction.
It may seem like a small change, but it’s an important one, because precision in language matters and could save lives. We’re hopeful that consistency will help differentiate the fully autonomous technology Waymo is developing from driver-assist technologies (sometimes erroneously referred to as “self-driving” technologies) that require oversight from licensed human drivers for safe operation. Regardless of who or what is at the helm, safely operating a vehicle on public roads requires careful execution of all the elements of the driving task. Today, the Waymo Driver makes billions of decisions each day as it safely moves people and goods to their destination in fully autonomous mode.
The fact that Waymo is taking the time make a distinction between “self-driving” and “fully autonomous” is evidence of what’s at stake in the automotive industry.
The autonomous driving industry is estimated to reach a staggering $556.67 billion by 2026. As a result, companies like Waymo will be doing everything possible to set themselves apart and gain as big a piece of that market as possible.
“The ultimate solution for Uber and Lyft is autonomy,” says Loup Ventures Managing Partner Gene Munster. “If this employee model simply doesn’t work you are going to see these companies push even harder into autonomous systems simply eliminating the drivers. However, this will attract more competition. I think the two best companies positioned within that would be Google and their Waymo initiatives and also Tesla and how they are going to vector into the ridesharing market.”
Gene Munster, Managing Partner at Loup Ventures, discusses how California in forcing drivers to be employees may ultimately speed up the efforts of Uber and Lyft to go fully self-driving and thereby simply eliminate all human drivers:
What Would The Drivers Want?
Both Uber and Lyft are in a tight spot. There was reprieve today. But this topic is not over with this vote coming November 3rd and California’s influence that they can have with other states. If you put all of this together and think about if these changes to employees across the country, it could be a 15 percent increase (in costs). This is effectively their profit margins.
I do want to caution the voters of California and also some of the lawmakers on one aspect. What would the drivers want? Most of these drivers use both apps, both Lyft and Uber. If they are employees they likely will be restricted from jumping from app to app. That would cut down some of their rides and cut down what they will be paid on an hourly basis. I don’t think that the right path here is as clear for the drivers in simply becoming an employee.
Ultimate Solution For Uber and Lyft Is Autonomy
The ultimate solution for Uber and Lyft is autonomy. If this employee model simply doesn’t work you are going to see these companies push even harder into autonomous systems simply eliminating the drivers. One of the unique things about Lyft and Uber is it is a two-sided marketplace. They have drivers and riders. In an autonomous world you don’t need drivers. Essentially, that would leave Lyft and Uber with their key asset, their brands around movement. I think that is an asset but I don’t know if it is worth $55 billion.
What I really take away from this is that over the next few years there are going to be ups and downs related to this regulation. Longer term, we know where this is going. Cars should be autonomous for safety reasons and productivity reasons. Ultimately, ridesharing with Uber and Lyft is going to be fully self-driving. This topic we are discussing today is going to be largely irrelevant.
Lyft is already testing self-driving rides in Las Vegas
Google and Tesla Will Compete With Uber and Lyft
There are some key nuances to an autonomous ridesharing business model. As I mentioned, there is a two-sided marketplace. That’s really what makes Lyft and Uber special today. One of the sides of the marketplace, the drivers side of this, is under some pressure right now. But if we eliminate the drivers side then you don’t even have a marketplace. You are just trying to get consumers to ride. That opens up new competitors. There are about six of them that are trying to get there.
The autonomy option is a better option for Lyft and Uber than what they currently have with humans driving. For an investor it’s a more profitable option. However, ultimately it will attract more competition. I think the two best companies positioned within that would be Google and their Waymo initiatives and also Tesla and how they are going to vector into the ridesharing market.
I Would Put My Money On Lyft
Assuming their ballot initiative wins in November, I’m in the Lyft camp. This is partly because I like their focus just on the US and on ridesharing. I think that the Uber Eats business, while its had a tremendous tailwind, it will get progressively more competitive and it’s tougher to make money in that business.
Ultimately, if I had my choice I would put my money on Lyft. There is another X factor here. There is something subtle about Lyft’s culture. It is a more investor friendly culture and that influences my view.
Ultimate Solution For Uber and Lyft Is Autonomy, Says Loup Ventures Managing Partner Gene Munster
Volvo plans on using LiDAR in its next generation of self-driving cars, scheduled to begin production in 2022.
LiDAR is a technology that uses lasers to scan the environment, creating a highly accurate, 3D map of the surroundings. Best of all, LiDAR enables devices to map the environment without an internet connection. In 2018, Volvo invested in Luminar, a Florida-based firm specializing in LiDAR technology, and now the company plans to put it to use in self-driving cars.
“Soon, your Volvo will be able to drive autonomously on highways when the car determines it is safe to do so,” said Henrik Green, chief technology officer at Volvo Cars. “At that point, your Volvo takes responsibility for the driving and you can relax, take your eyes off the road and your hands off the wheel. Over time, updates over the air will expand the areas in which the car can drive itself. For us, a safe introduction of autonomy is a gradual introduction.”
“Volvo is recognized as the pioneer of automotive safety, having driven standardization across the industry for the most advanced life-saving technologies,” said Austin Russell, founder and CEO of Luminar. “The next era of safety lies within autonomous driving and once again, Volvo has taken the lead with a major industry milestone. We’ve solved the key cost, performance, and auto-grade challenges to make series production possible, and alongside Volvo are making the technology available to the world.”
One of the biggest challenges automakers have is convincing people to trust self-driving technology. With Volvo’s track record for safety, however, the company will likely have customers lined up to purchase their LiDAR-equipped vehicles.
VentureBeat is reporting that U.K.-based startup Wayve has raised $20 million in Series A funding to improve AI for autonomous vehicles.
Wayve takes a different approach to autonomous vehicles than many other companies. Rather than hand-coded rules, or throwing more sensors at the problem, Wayve is trying to improve the AI behind autonomous vehicles to better emulate human-style adaptability and decision-making.
“The company said that it trains its autonomous driving system using simulated environments and then transfers that knowledge into the real world, where it emulates how humans adapt to conditions in real time. Wayve’s systems learn from each safety driver intervention to understand why the driver had to intervene, bypassing HD maps, lidar, and other sensors that have become synonymous with the burgeoning autonomous vehicle movement.”
Wayve’s machine learning algorithms are hardware and sensor-agnostic, meaning they can be used with any hardware or sensors, provided the manufacturer wants to. However, the real strength of Wayve’s approach is that their algorithms can learn and adapt to new situations.
Alex Kendall, Wayve confounder and CTO told VentureBeat: “Our algorithms are learning to become super-human drivers. We learn from attentive human driving, which already eliminates the 98.3% of human road errors due to inattention / ineffective driving. We then further improve beyond what humans are capable of with reinforcement learning, by providing feedback to our system.”
If Wayve can deliver on its premise, it’s a safe bet their tech will soon make its way into self-driving vehicles.
