In April 2023, NYC Mayor Adams unveiled new 400-lb robo-cops, intended to revamp NYPD’s police force. San Francisco and other cities are following suit. The race to introduce robocops could be because real cops have had several issues dealing with self-driving cars. For example, in April 2022, SFO police had to pull over GM’s self-driving …
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Ford Lightning vs. Tesla Cybertruck
To celebrate this year’s solstice, Ford CEO James Farley said, “Ford makes trucks for real people who do real work.” Farley expects that Ford’s EV pickup Ford Lightning F-150 will be more popular than Tesla’s EV pickup Cybertruck, which is expected to be popular only among “Silicon Valley people.” It is interesting that both trucks …
Electric Pickups: The Old is New
One hundred years ago the most popular vehicle was a pickup. Many people lived and worked on farms, and needed vehicles for hauling farming equipment and materials. Carrying people was secondary. Today there are a considerable number of electric pickup brands: Ford F-150 Lightning Chevrolet Silverado EV GMC Sierra EV GMC Hummer EV Tesla Cybertruck …
Upcoming UK Regulations for Autonomous Vehicles
Stagecoach and Starship Technologies today lobbied the UK Parliament’s Transport Committee to introduce regulations to make autonomous vehicles safer. Stagecoach is working on autonomous buses, and Starship is introducing autonomous delivery robots. Warwick University’s Manufacturing Group, a leading university in engineering and manufacturing design, joined the companies. The companies advocate that safety measures will help …
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AI-Image Processing Helps Autonomous Cars
Autonomous cars will benefit from high dynamic range (HDR) cameras because these cameras use AI-based chips that process data better in low and high-field vision. This image from Silicon Valley’s Ambarella AI chip maker shows how HDR chips help autonomous cars better detect objects at tunnel entrances and exits. The Norwegian company Zivid is one …
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Germany’s Continental Autoparts will use US Ambarella AI Chips
Silicon Valley’s Ambarella chips will be used to power the vision and intelligence of German cars. Germany’s Conti (who create the future in motion and whose parts are widely used in Bentley and other major car brands) signed an agreement in January 2023 with Ambarella to use its AI-based chips to create hardware for autonomous …
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Autonomous Car Chips
The autonomous vehicle chip market is forecast to reach $29 Billion by 2030. Chips for autonomous vehicles fall into four categories: traditional automotive microcontrollers (emission control, antilock brakes); wireless chips that connect the cars to the Internet; vision sensors that “see” the road; processor chips that use AI and include the autonomous vehicle’s “brain.” Some …
Apollo Go Autonomous Taxis
Baidu, known as China’s Google (NASDAQ: BIDU), developed Apollo Go Robotaxi, the first autonomous taxi to get permits in China. The service is based on 5G technology, which companies say ensures the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicles. Apollo Go has operated without a safety driver since 2021 in 10 Chinese cities, including Bejing and …
Cowboys & Self-Driving Trucks
With the rise of self-driving vehicles, it’s only a matter of time until there’s a country where the guy’s truck leaves him. Uber bought self-driving San Francisco startup Otto in 2015; in 2016 Otto made the first-ever autonomous beer delivery.
BMW Introduces Color-Changing Car @CES2023
BMW’s CEO Oliver Zipse introduced their new “BMW i Vision Dee” EV sports sedan, a car that transitions colors between 32 colors including white, green, blue, pink, yellow, and purple. The car uses an E-ink which is used in the e-readers of Kindle; the body of the car is divided into microcapsules that contain the …
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