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Category Archives: autonomous vehicles
Covid – Drastic Changes to Commuting Have Slight Effect on Feelings about EVs and Self-Driving Technologies?
While the ongoing Covid plague has drastically changed American lives, what’s not new is that Inexperience and Lack of Knowledge Remain Barriers for Acceptance of EVs and Self-Driving Technologies. Nonetheless, automakers are investing heavily in electrification and self-driving technology despite an absence of substantive consumer interest in either. Continue reading
Mercedes-Benz 2021 Model Year Sees SUV Expansion
The all-new GLA now joins the range “as the attractive and sporty gateway” (translation – small and less expensive) to the Mercedes-Benz SUV line. SUV segments have never been more competitive with M-B facing stiff competition from BMW, Porsche, Lexus, Infiniti, Alfa Romeo and Cadillac, among others. Continue reading
Toyota and Amazon Web Services Working on Connected Cars, Ridesharing, Driving Behavior-Based Insurance…
It’s the latest example of an emerging trend among automakers to offer owners and lessees thus far unclear advantages of processing and analyzing data from vehicle use from Toyota’s growing worldwide fleet of connected vehicles. Nowhere in the announcement was an acknowledgement that the use of such customer data raises vast unaddressed privacy, security and law enforcement concerns. Continue reading
Milestones: Intelligent Traffic Management Now Deployed at Center for Applied Research in Reno Nevada
One reason the lidar sensors have been placed at crossing signs and intersections is because lidar used today does not allow for facial recognition. In theory smart by anonymous city applications can preserve trust among the public. However, the US is far from even thinking about privacy, let alone articulating a policy about private data use as evidenced by Google and Twitter and Facebook among many other rich and powerful corporations that own politicians. Continue reading
Michigan and Cavnue to Create Autonomous Vehicle Lanes Linking Ann Arbor and Detroit
The project will draw on an advisory committee of automotive and autonomous mobility companies, including Ford, GM, Argo AI, Arrival, BMW, Honda, Toyota, TuSimple, & Waymo. Notably absent is Fiat Chrysler. (See AutoInformed.com on “Bye Bye FCA and PSA. Hello Stellantis”) Continue reading
Posted in autonomous vehicles, economy, milestones, news analysis
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed, autoinformed.com, Ken Zino
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MIT Research: Widespread Autonomous Driving is at Least One Decade Away. Maybe More.
The longer rollout time for Level 4 autonomy provides time for sustained investments in workforce training that can help drivers and other mobility workers transition into new careers that support mobility systems and technologies. Continue reading
Bye Bye FCA and PSA. Hello Stellantis
The Stellantis name will be used exclusively at the Group level, as a Corporate brand. The next step in the process will be the unveiling of a logo that with the name will become the corporate brand identity. The names and the logos of the Stellantis Group’s basic brands will remain unchanged. What actually happens to the brands is an entirely different matter. Continue reading
Chinese CATL and Honda Alliance to Make EV Batteries, Technology and Maybe Autonomous Vehicles
The companies said the agreement will enable them to begin discussions on a broad range of areas including joint development, stable supply, and the recycling and reuse of batteries. Honda is spreading the risk and costs and hedging its bets on battery electric vehicles, the development of which is threatened by the ongoing Covid crisis that has already cost automotive companies billions of dollars. A key byproduct of EVS is autonomous vehicles – which may not justify the investment required for a decade or more. Continue reading
First Look – 2021 Ford F-150 Pickup
The launch will be closely watched by industry observers – the number of build combinations seems needlessly large, and Ford needs to prove it can launch the best selling pickup in the US without the problems it experienced on the Explorer.
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Ford Motor in Corktown and Newlab Working on – What Else – Vehicle Connectivity, Autonomy and Electrification
Two years ago, pre-Covid, but nevertheless financially challenged Ford bought 1.2 million square feet in Corktown, Detroit’s oldest neighborhood, including the historic Michigan Central Station, with plans to establish a new mobility innovation district dubbed Michigan Central. Mostly press releases have followed since then. Continue reading
BMW and Mercedes-Benz Stop Automated Driving JV
In what appears to be the automotive equivalent of marriage counseling or an analysis of the financial aspects of a pre-nup, the companies said: Following extensive review, the two companies have arrived at a mutual and amicable agreement to concentrate on their existing development paths – which may also include working with current or new partners. Continue reading
Milestones: Volkswagen Completes Promised Argo AI Funding
The numerous problems confronting Ford Motor and Volkswagen AG revolve around a central issue: Whether the two global giants and hundreds of thousands of workers can work together or consume shareholder capital at astonishing, company threatening rates without producing the promise efficiencies – on time and on budget. Continue reading
Consumer Feelings on Future Mobility Technologies Declines
The quarterly study claims to be “the pulse of market readiness and acceptance for self-driving and battery-electric vehicles, as seen through the eyes of consumers and industry experts.” Continue reading
Multi-Seasonal Self-Driving Data Issued by Ford
Leaving aside for the moment giant unresolved privacy issues and how companies can sell your personal information their benefit not yours, data is needed to help engineers and researchers create software that can teach self-driving vehicles how to analyze their environments. This software used to be called the driver. Continue reading
FAW J7+ Autonomous Truck Passes Chinese Certification
China with its own vast market and a Communist central government that can quickly decree and implement policy – think Covid response or Trump’s defeat in the trade war he started – would seem to have an advantage here. It is lucky for western automakers that Chinese industrial policy allowed them to operate there but only with local partners. How the pie is sliced outside of China when and if the exports become voluminous will be subject to much behind the scenes maneuvering and uncomfortable board meetings Continue reading →