• Vay’s new rental cars are remotely delivered by teledrivers
• Drivers sit at stations with a steering wheel and live video feeds
• A trial is running in Las Vegas via an iOS app ahead of a European launch

Next time you rent a car, it could be delivered by a driver sitting miles away. Vay, a car rental service, operates a fleet in Las Vegas where its vehicles are ferried to customers by remote teledrivers. To date, the company users have taken over 5,000 rides; the tech could be coming to Europe soon, too.

Using the Vay app, you can summon a vehicle to rent by the minute. Drop a pin and your car will arrive driverless, ready for you to use for as long as you need. The system isn’t reliant on self-driving technology, though: Vay’s fleet is operated from afar by a team of professional teledrivers. When you’re done, they can even park for you.

These trained operators sit at stations similar to racing simulators. They drive the vehicle remotely using a steering wheel, pedals and other controls which, according to Vay, have been “developed to meet automotive industry standards.”

Teledrivers watch a live video feed of the road on a bank of monitors, fed in real-time from camera sensors installed in the vehicle. Microphones on the car also relay traffic sounds and warning signals to the teledriver’s headphones.

According to Vay, the system is reliant on “multiple cellular networks combined with proprietary hardware on both telestation and the vehicle.”

Before getting behind the wheel of a real remote-control car, Vay’s drivers are put through its Teledrive Academy. Vay describes this as, “a rigorous program that prepares our drivers for public streets.”

Vay is also bullish about its safety standards. It called in TÜV Süd, an independent testing and certification body, to confirm that its remote-driving technology is indeed safe. As robust as its data relays are, there are also safeguards built in: in an emergency, the vehicle automatically comes to a safe stop. According to Vay, the teledrive system is “as safe as having someone in the driver’s seat".

It isn't the only company working on teledriving tech. The Estonian startup Elmo was recently given approval in its home country for its AI-powered autonomous braking system, which lets cars driver at higher speeds without a human driver. But not all of Vay's rivals are ready to ditch the human driver just yet...

Ghost rider

Vay’s ambition is to roll out driverless mobility services which combine the best bits of humans and machines, with the net benefit of reducing the number of cars in cities.

Going forward, it intends to incorporate more autonomous functions into the system, once they are safe and legal. For now, its trial fleet is operating in Las Vegas. But momentum from recent fund-raising and new partnerships with the likes of Belgian car-sharing platform Poppy mean similar trials in Europe are now on the horizon.

Vay isn’t the only firm trialing variations on the robotaxi concept. Alphabet subsidiary Waymo has been running its driverless taxis in Los Angeles, while Hyundai has been operating a highly autonomous version of the Ioniq 5 in partnership with Uber – albeit with a human driver behind the wheel as a backup.

Elon Musk also finally unveiled Tesla’s long-promised “Cybercab” in October, although very few details were revealed about the technology powering the vehicle. A recent job listing for a remote teleoperator indicates that Tesla could be following Vay’s lead with its robot taxis.

According to the listing, “Tesla AI’s Teleoperation team is charged with providing remote access to our robotaxis and humanoid robots. Our cars and robots operate autonomously in challenging environments. As we iterate on the AI that powers them, we need the ability to access and control them remotely.”

Unlike Vay, the job description suggests that Tesla’s remote driving system will rely on VR rather than video screens. “Our remote operators are transported into the device’s world using a state-of-the-art VR rig that allows them to remotely perform complex and intricate tasks.”

Time will tell when, where and whether at all Tesla rolls out its tele-operated taxis. For the time being, if you want to have a rental car delivered by a remote driver you’ll need to hit up Vay in Las Vegas. The app is available for iOS now. If you’re an Android user, you can join the waitlist.

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• Self-driving cars: your complete guide to autonomous vehicles
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It's been a while since we've heard anything about the Apple Car, what with so many other Apple products jostling for attention – but according to one industry analyst, the long-rumored motor is still coming, and will be launched by the end of 2026.

Industry analyst Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities said that it's a question of "when, not if" when it comes to the Apple Car, speaking to CNBC on Friday (via AppleInsider). He used the same phrase back in 2021, so he's being consistent with his predictions at least.

Apple has never said anything formally about a car, and a previous tip from Ives that Apple would announce a partnership with an established vehicle manufacturer has so far failed to materialize – though he has been correct on some other Apple predictions.

It's possible that focusing on the launch of the Apple Vision Pro has meant plans for an Apple Car have been pushed back. Ives didn't share any other tidbits of information about what's coming with the car – only that it is still on the way.

"We'll see what Apple does"

While speculation around the Apple Car has cooled down in recent months, rumors have been circulating for years at this point. We know that Apple has been recruiting executives from other car makers, including Tesla, which is one clue that an Apple Car is planned.

We've also heard talk that Apple has been doing deals with other companies when it comes to supplying tech for the electric vehicle. What's more, Apple has been linked to the testing of autonomous cars in California.

However, we're still not convinced that an Apple Car is indeed on the way. It would be a hugely ambitious move into a new market for the company – and it's possible that the rumors we've heard actually relate to Apple's plans for it's CarPlay software.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has actually been asked directly about what his company's plans are in terms of self-driving vehicles, but he was as coy on the topic as you would expect him to be: "We'll see what Apple does," Cook told the New York Times.

Three years after the introduction of its first Sony Electic Car Vision-S prototype, Sony and development partner Honda returned with a rebranded, but not necessarily more attractive, self-driving EV prototype.

The newly branded 'Afeela' prototype rolled out onto the stage during Sony's CES 2023 press conference, where it was met by, if not excitement, then certainly curiosity.

The design is not much more traditional than the Vision-S, and less sporty, but it's no less intelligent.

Sony says more than 45 sensors are arrayed around the body and inside of the car, although it's not clear if Sony and Honda are building a self-driving car or a mobile PlayStation 5 – Sony partner Unreal is using game graphics to build realistic environment simulations that, one would assume, the car can eventually use to help it navigate the real world.

Sony, not surprisingly, is delivering movie, music, and gaming content to the dual, interior rear compartment screens. There's also another unusual screen: this sits on the front fender, and can be customized to deliver a message, or even show off your favorite Sony movie character.

It's also built on Qualcomm's Digital Chassis platform, a set of technology solutions for developing smart vehicles, which, among other things, enables the Afeela to have a 'digital twin' that can navigate roads in simulation before you do the real thing.

Put simply, this prototype has no shortage of next-gen technology; the looks, though, are far less conceptual than the Vision-S. Perhaps that's because Sony now has a timeline for delivering the first Afeela car: preorders open in 2025, with delivery of the first vehicles scheduled for 2026.

As for the name, well, it's the kind of thing you come up with if you've been isolated for two weeks in a room with other desperate executives. I'm sure it was the last thing suggested, and, in desperation, they seized on it. Sony seems quite pleased that it's managed to squeeze the word 'feel' into the brand name – although as you might have guessed, the reaction on social media was not kind.

At least Sony and Honda have a few years to change it.

Check out our CES 2023 hub for all the latest news from the show as it happens. We'll be covering everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, and smart home gadgets, so stick with us for the big stories.

Talking about whether or not the Apple Car is ever gonna happen generally makes me grumpy.

Do I want an Apple Car? Yes, probably. I can see myself driving (or being driven by) a sleek silver or all-white electric vehicle, featuring minimal seams, huge interior displays, Siri at my beck and call, and a life-long subscription to Apple Music.

But it’s never gonna happen.

Sure, Apple is apparently, at least according to Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, hiring  (or at least assembling) more Apple Car team members to refocus and maybe relaunch the project.

They’re not there to push the almost decade-old project to a road-ready conclusion.

I agree with long-time Apple analyst and Creative Strategies Chairman Tim Bajarin who told me via email that he thinks this is about narrowing the focus of what has been called Project Titan.

A narrowed car project would not mean Apple is done with cars. Far from it. Apple desperately wants to be in cars- every car, actually. That’s the point of CarPlay. “Apple's real motive is to turn an automobile into another vehicle (pun intended) for delivering services,” Bajarin told me.

He’s right and it still makes far more sense for Apple to build richer services and plugins for existing cars than to try and build its own. Also, as an ecosystem provider, Apple doesn’t want to miss one of the most important segments of your ecosystem - the car.

You might point to Apple's growing fleet of autonomous cars it's apparently testing in California. Surely, that's proof that Apple is busy putting the finishing touches on an Apple Car. But such a test bed is also critical for testing other products that will work in and around self-driving EVs. Apple doesn't want to build car tech for the past or present fleet of cars, it's testing and building for the future.

This latest refocusing might be a recognition of the somewhat unique issues revolving around the auto business. Supply chain struggles Apple grappled with in iPad and, to a lesser extent, iPhone manufacturing appeared far worse and more damaging in the auto industry, especially in the cutting-edge EV space (looking at you, now more expensive Tesla).

Apple will not surprise us in 2023 with an Apple or iCar and it won’t do it in 2024 or 2025, either.

There may be, next year, new CarPlay features and services and maybe even some sort of plug-in hardware to add Siri intelligence for drivers uninterested in CarPlay. Maybe Apple creates a head-up transparent display for cars. That’s possible but unlikely.

I think the car team will focus on finding new iOS, iPhone, and CarPlay integration points for a market that is rapidly shifting from fossil fuels to EV, and human driving to autonomy.

That’s the better, smarter way and it’s where Apple should be heading in the car space. If you were planning on buying an Apple Car whenever they did I arrive, I apologize for flattening your iCar tires.

The Apple Car is one of the longest-running rumors in technology, and we've got some new tidbits to report from people in the know: those sources say that the electric vehicle will be powered by a custom-made carOS not unlike the one used by Tesla.

This comes from DigiTimes (via Notebookcheck.net), and while the name carOS isn't specifically mentioned, the prediction is that Apple is developing a software platform that can control every aspect of a car's function – from starting the engine to playing tunes from an Apple Music library.

We're imagining that this software platform would also use a large, central dashboard screen like current Tesla cars. Dashboards on Tesla motors are dominated by the display, and don't offer anything in the way of physical buttons or dials.

Developing the DCU

The same report also mentions a Domain Control Unit (DCU) for the Apple Car, which apparently handles all of the necessary data processing during driving. An unnamed Korean company is said to be working on a DCU for Apple.

If what we're hearing is right, it sounds as though the DCU and carOS would handle more or less everything that happens in the car. In other words, we're talking about something that's way beyond what you might be used to with the existing CarPlay experience – maps, music, and other audio apps.

We've not heard much in recent months about the Apple Car – indeed, some executives are reported to have left the project – but this latest article suggests that Apple is still moving forward with its plans to bring out its own electric vehicle.

Analysis: will we ever see an Apple Car?

At this stage it would be a huge surprise if Apple wasn't working on its own automobile technology – but that's still no guarantee that an actual Apple Car is ever going to launch (see also the long-running rumors around an Apple television set).

Apple chief Tim Cook has been vague about the company's plans in terms of vehicle development, but he has hinted that Apple is looking at autonomous driving software, if not an actual physical motorcar that you can drive around.

We've seen Apple launch events come and go without any mention of an Apple Car – much as we would like to see such an announcement – and it would clearly be a major move by Apple, into an area that it doesn't have a whole lot of experience in.

Making cars isn't easy, as Tesla has found out, but if any company has the resources and the know-how to pull it off, it's going to be Apple. We're still not sure if an Apple Car will appear, but if it does, it could be just as significant as the launch of the first iPhone.

• Here's everything we know about the Apple Car so far

The Apple Car project may have lost another key team member as its head of software engineering departs for Silicon Valley rival Meta (formerly known as Facebook). 

As reported in Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter, Joe Bass, who had been the Lead Engineering Program Manager for Autonomous Systems at Apple since January 2015, recently changed the employment details on his LinkedIn profile. 

According to the update, Bass now works as the Director of Technical Program Management for Mixed Reality Technologies at Meta. 

The departure comes as the latest in a long line of engineers who exited Apple’s vehicular arm toward the end of 2021. Apple executive Doug Field, for instance, reportedly left the company for Ford back in September last year, while senior project director Michael Schwekutsch departed for electric plane startup Archer Aviation in December. 

But while it’s easy to draw a cynical conclusion from the high turnover of employees at Apple, this isn’t likely to be a case of rats abandoning a sinking ship. Instead, the movement more plausibly comes as a result of leadership changes surrounding the Apple Car project.

In 2021, the company appointed former Apple Watch chief Kevin Lynch as leader of its burgeoning automotive division, which was previously being overseen by Apple AI boss John Giannandrea, who himself had stepped in for Bob Mansfield after the latter's retirement in 2020. 

It follows, then, that regime changes would lead to a higher rate of departures within the company – a normal feature of any organization during periods of transition. 

What’s more, Apple has acquired several new, high-profile staff to work on the Apple Car project in recent months. Former Tesla Autopilot software director Christopher Moore, for instance, was recruited in November 2021 (per Bloomberg). He now reports to Stuart Bowers, another executive who made the switch from Tesla to Apple in 2020. 

Riding solo

The more pressing matter for Apple and its vehicular vision remains its struggle to pin down an automotive manufacturer to partner with on the project. 

With big names including Volkswagen, Hyundai, Kia and Nissan already condemned to the 'tried and failed' pile, the company continues to hunt for brands who may be willing to become a bit-part supplier – in the same way Foxconn is to Tesla – on a vehicle that would ultimately bear the Apple name.

Given its lack of success in sourcing a collaborator, though, more recent reports suggest Apple may be prepared to shoulder the entire Apple Car development process on its own – similar to the approach taken by Elon Musk's Tesla. 

This shift towards in-house development would corroborate other recent claims regarding Apple's re-tooled focus on creating a truly innovative autonomous technology base, the likes of which the auto industry has never seen before.

Whatever state the Apple Car project is in right now, though, the high turnover of employees surrounding it shouldn’t be cause for concern – if anything, it’s a sign that the wheels are finally moving on the company's long-awaited vehicular debut.  

• Here's a more detailed rundown of everything we know about the Apple Car

Tesla drivers have been crying out for Apple Music and CarPlay support, but they have yet to have their call answered – until one owner decided to take matters into his own hands, that is.

Polish developer Michał Gapiński decided to put his knowledge to use, grabbed himself a Raspberry Pi, and got to work.

Sharing his development progress on Twitter, Gapiński shows that by bypassing his Tesla’s wifi restrictions he was able to connect his car to the Raspberry Pi – which is set up to run a custom build of Android. 

This, in turn, is compatible with CarPlay, allowing Apple’s software to be viewed on the Tesla’s screen using the car’s browser. Music is separately connected to the vehicle via a BlueTooth connection, making it fully compatible with the car’s steering wheel controls for audio.

The results are already very impressive, but Gapiński is not yet done with his project.

He’s been fine-tuning the resolution and connection to ensure his workaround delivers the best possible experience – and he’s been looking for those with Tesla OBD knowledge to make his software perfect.

Even those without Apple devices should be paying attention to his work, as Gapiński has explained that his tool could also be used to bring other unsupported features to Tesla cars.

Unfortunately, if you’re looking to try this out for yourself you’ll have to wait a little longer. Gapiński is hoping to fine-tune the tool before it's released publicly – and given the progress so far it looks like it’s ready to ship out.

There’s no word so far on what Tesla thinks about Gapiński’s efforts – Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s cavalier Twitter account has so far ignored the workaround – though he's likely aware of the project, given the media attention it's already received. But without official CarPlay integration on the horizon, maybe this will be the push Tesla needs to get the feature in its immediate roadmap.

• Check out our Tesla Model 3 Long Range (2021) review

Mobile chip maker Qualcomm has lifted the lid on its plans to provide hardware and software for future Volvo, Honda and Renault models at CES 2022. 

The US-based company, which also confirmed it would be developing chips for BMW's self-driving cars towards the end of 2021, took to the trade show floor in Las Vegas to discuss the suite of infotainment and assistance tools now available to the above automakers.

Those tools, dubbed collectively as the Qualcomm Digital Chassis, include Snapdragon Ride, Snapdragon Cockpit, Snapdragon Auto Connectivity and Snapdragon Car-to-Cloud Services. 

Each covers a different technological area – be it driving assistance or multimedia – and the partnered car brands can choose to implement these features collectively or in isolation. 

Volvo, for instance, will implement Qualcomm's Snapdragon Cockpit – software for powering multiple displays and immersive audio systems – in its upcoming fleet of electric cars, including those under the Polestar banner. 

That means vehicles like the Polestar 3 SUV and the Swedish automaker's soon-to-be-released fully electric SUV will boast infotainment systems that are "twice as fast" as their predecessors, with their ability to generate graphics "up to 10 times faster."

Honda will likewise utilize Qualcomm's advanced infotainment technology in cars coming to the US in the second half of 2022, and globally in early 2023. Upcoming models will benefit from improved AI experiences and in-cabin capabilities like blind spot reduction aids, assisted braking notifications and signals for approaching emergency vehicles. 

The Renault Group, meanwhile, will work with Qualcomm to leverage a more inclusive adoption of all the tools available as part of the Snapdragon Digital Chassis.

The implementation of Snapdragon Auto Connectivity, for example, will mean upcoming Renault models are likely to feature market-leading LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi and GPS systems (read: top-of-the-range sat navs).

We already knew Qualcomm and Google have joined hands to supply a key computing chip for the digital dashboard of the next-generation Renault Megane E-TECH, with the in-development Renault 5 EV likely to benefit from the partnership, too.

The future is automated

Perhaps the most interesting tool in the Qualcomm Digital Chassis, though, is the Snapdragon Ride system. 

After Qualcomm's $4.5 billion purchase of automotive technology firm Veoneer last year, the Snapdragon Ride suite now includes a new chip for computer vision which, the company says, is capable of tapping into a car's set of cameras to vastly improve safety features like automatic lane control.

Models developed by automakers making use of this particular tool will also benefit from improved map crowd-sourcing, driver monitoring systems (DMS), parking systems and cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technologies.

There's every chance, then, that the first commercially-viable self-driving car could wear a Volvo, Honda, Renault or BMW badge. 

In any case, CES 2022 has proven to be a promising showcase for a number of emerging automotive technologies – did you know Sony is building an electric car? – and we're excited to see how the industry develops further in the years to come.

• Check out all of TechRadar's CES 2022 coverage. We're bringing you all the breaking tech news and launches, everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops and smart home gadgets. 

LG has never been a company to resist innovation. Whether through its rollable phones, market-leading TVs or indoor gardening fridges, the South Korean giant has often led from the front when it comes to developing consumer tech that's... out there.

That philosophy showed no signs of slowing at CES 2022, as LG lifted the lid on one of its most curious concepts yet – an autonomous home on wheels.

The aptly-named LG Omnipod is, according to the company, a “mobility concept solution that blurs the distinction between home and car,” and a rather dramatic expansion on LG’s Connected Car vision (which itself was unveiled at CES 2022).

The concept vehicle took center stage at LG's CES 2022 press conference - where CEO William (Joo Wan) Cho of LG Electronics entered his virtual press conference in a (we suspect) mock-up version of the car.

Better thought of as a miniaturized private jet cabin, the LG Omnipod is intended to be an “on-the-road extension of one's personal living space,” boasting in-vehicle appliances like fridges and retractable furniture alongside a sprawling “Meta Environment” display system – which we can only presume to mean a set of adaptive interior screens mimicking an outside environment of the occupant’s choice.

Then (of course?) there’s the AI Concierge Service, which LG envisions will see virtual humans (read: avatars) waiting on the whims of those inside the cabin (we're thinking light, temperature, noise and speed assistance, here).

Having said that, the menu screen visible in the image above suggests these AI companions will also be able to order food to your Omnipod, so we're sure they'll be capable of plenty more functions that we can't quite imagine just yet (maybe they can whip up the chicken teriyaki themselves, or slow down enough to let a delivery driver throw a meal through the window?).

The Omnipod was presented in the press conference in the form of a mobile office during the day, that could turn into cinema to relax, and then – inexplicably – transform once again into a place where a dress rises out of the side pod, allowing you to go and make a music video with Reah, the 'virtual influencer' LG has created.

Following that, the Omnipod was shown taking its occupants to a campsite, whereupon it was folded around a fire... at this point, we got a little lost as to what was happening. 

This is the future as imagined by LG, people.

Further details about the LG Omnipod are, as you’d expect, thin on the ground at this stage. The mobility concept remains just that, and it’s unlikely we’ll get a more comprehensive look at the brand’s chrome-encased vision of the future for some time (if ever).

The most comparable project we’ve seen elsewhere is Heatherwick Studios’ Airo – a similarly-autonomous cabin currently in development for nascent Chinese EV manufacturer IM Motors – which is set to enter production in 2023.

LG’s Omnipod appears to have leapfrogged a few crucial steps, mind – we can't help but feel as though the virtual butler is a prime example of running before you can walk – but it’s pleasing to see a consumer tech heavyweight like LG giant engaging with an automotive industry set to change dramatically in more ways than one in the coming years. 

• Apple Car: everything we know so far

It looks like the wheels are finally moving on the Apple Car project. The company has decided to press ahead with development on a fully autonomous driving system and, despite previous forecasts, is now targeting a 2025 release.

As per a recent Bloomberg report, strategy chief Kevin Lynch has opted to shift away from plans to create a vehicle with limited self-driving capabilities to instead focus on an Apple Car that requires zero driver intervention.

Apple has reportedly set an internal target to release a road-worthy vehicle within the next four years, though insiders have suggested that window is subject to expansion should the company be unable to develop the desired autonomous technology before 2025.

As Apple Car news goes, this is the most significant we've heard for a while. Recent months have seen the company acquire several high-profile industry names to assist on the project – like Tesla's former Autopilot software director, Christopher Moore – but concrete developments have been few and far between.  

Could anyone spare a crumb of partnership?

We know that Apple still hasn't nailed down an automotive manufacturer to partner with on the project, though, and the question of which car brand to do business with has been the major subject of conversation – and controversy – around the Apple Car vision.

For instance, we've previously reported on ongoing negotiations between Apple and Hyundai, Kia and even LG Electronics, though no deal has yet to see the light of day – publicly, at least. 

Of course, there's every chance that the tech giant won't ever find a suitable collaborator on its Apple Car plans. 

It's no wonder, though, that the big car brands have seemed reluctant to become a bit-part supplier – in the same way Foxconn is to Tesla – on a vehicle that would ultimately bear the Apple name.

But Apple is well aware of that fact. As a consequence, we've seen more recent reports hinting that the company may be prepared to shoulder the entire development process on its own – similar to the approach taken by Elon Musk's Tesla. 

This shift towards in-house development would corroborate Bloomberg's claims regarding Apple's re-tooled focus on creating an innovative autonomous technology base, the likes of which the auto industry has never seen before.

In fact, Apple's new plans are so ambitious, that Bloomberg claims the company is now aiming to develop a car with no steering wheel or pedals, and an iPad-like infotainment system in the center of the cabin.

It's clear, then, that Apple's pivot away from convention may indeed prove the company's capacity for innovation beyond the computing and mobile industries – but a 2025 target is more than a little ambitious, in our opinion. 

• Here's a more detailed rundown of everything we know about the Apple Car

It looks like it's the end of the road for the so-called Apple Car, as Cupertino's self-driving car project is reportedly dead, according to Bloomberg reporter and accurate Apple tipster Mark Gurman. 

Rumored for years, and likely a genuine project, efforts to make the Apple Car have stalled and Apple is apparently shifting the efforts of the Apple Car team to focus on generative AI. 

With that in mind, consider the below to be more of a collection and rumors of tips around the Apple Car, rather than steadfast information. Gurman could be wrong, but his reports are generally accurate. And the idea of Apple entering a very challenging market where it would be a complete newcomer was perhaps always a bit hard to swallow. 

Cut to the chase

• What is it? Apple's long-rumored car, which could be partially self-driving. But the project is now reportedly dead.
• When is it out? Apple was targeting a 2026 release, but apparently no more. 
• What will it cost? Apple was reportedly aiming for a sub-$100,000 price point. 

Apple Car release date

Well the answer to the above is 'never' as the Apple Car project is reportedly dead. 

Back in 2020, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that the Apple Car might not be launched until 2028 and then two-years later reports emerged suggesting that Apple had since re-jigged its Apple Car release date target to 2026. 

After a while without any Apple Car rumors, analyst Daniel Ives went on record to say that he thought the arrival of the vehicle was a question of "when, not if" – we suspect that Ives may not stick to his guns on that one in light of Gurman's report. 

Apple Car development

Given the Apple Car project is reportedly over, take the blow as a recap rather than latest information. 

As far back as May 2018, Apple was reportedly in talks with German automotive giant Volkswagen to produce an autonomous employee shuttle van based on the T6 Transporter commercial vehicle – a program which was expected to lead to the development of an Apple car for the mass market. 

But after a series of high-profile test crashes and employee leaks, the partnership between the two companies stifled, and little more was disclosed on the matter.

At the start of 2021, we thought the tech giant was in promising talks with Hyundai regarding production of the autonomous electric vehicle. Then we reported on rumors which suggested Apple had in fact signed a manufacturing deal with Hyundai's subsidiary company, Kia, which would bring the Apple Car to market as early as 2024. 

Alas, in typical Apple style, another report then emerged which suggested Apple swiftly called off those talks with both Hyundai and Kia, with the company turning its attention to several Japanese automotive manufacturers in an effort to bring its ambitious EV (electric vehicle) plans to fruition. 

Rumors then began indicating that Apple approached Nissan as one of these potential Japanese manufacturing partners, but a report from the Financial Times suggested that "contact was brief and the discussions did not advance to senior management levels following divisions over branding."

It's no surprise, though, that automotive collaboration has been such a sticking point for Apple. Despite being widely-considered the most successful business in the world, Apple's expertise lies in tech development, not vehicle manufacturing.

Basically, that means it needs – or thought it needed – help from another organisation to bring its Apple Car vision to life, but the big car brands were seemingly unwilling to become a bit-part supplier – in the same way that Foxconn is to Tesla – on a vehicle that would ultimately bear the Apple name.

One unlikely rumored alliance was that of Apple and LG Electronics. According to a Korea Times report from April 2021, Apple was “very near” to landing a collaborative deal with the South Korean tech giant (alongside Canadian automotive supplier Magna International), which has recently departed from the smartphone industry to focus resources on growth areas where its brand is better positioned – like electric vehicle components.

LG isn’t a name traditionally associated with auto manufacturing, but neither is Apple, so we thought this common ground could have proven the clincher in Apple's ongoing hunt for a partnership on the project.

Talks didn't last long, though, and subsequent reports then emerged suggesting Apple was also in negotiations with Chinese battery supplier CATL – which, like Foxconn, already counts Tesla among its customers – to produce the power source for the Apple Car. By most accounts, however, a deal was dependent on the latter's willingness to build manufacturing facilities in the US, and enduring political tensions between Washington and Beijing proved a roadblock in this regard.

A Korea Times report suggested Apple bosses also sat down with Korean EV components manufacturers – CATL and LG among them – in August 2021, but official communications on the matter were non-existent. 

Moving on to 2022, none of those names – LG, CATL or Magna International – inked an official, public deal with Apple.

Another slightly left field name that emerged as a potential collaborator was Lucid Motors, an American automotive manufacturer that specialises in electric cars. On top of a like-minded design philosophy which places emphasis on developing luxury, disruptive products, both Lucid Motors and Apple are connected in another way – Jony Ive.

That question of what form those plans could've taken was answered, tentatively, by Apple CEO Tim Cook in an April 2021 interview. When pressed on whether the Apple Car would end up being a fully-fledged vehicle or software-based project, Cook said: “We love to integrate hardware, software and services, and find the intersection points of those because we think that’s where the magic occurs. That’s what we love to do. And we love to own the primary technology that’s around that.”

The integration of "hardware, software and services" sounded, to us, like Apple was committed to producing an entire vehicle. Ironically, though, the company's "love" of owning "primary technology", as Cook suggested, spoke to the central problem it faced when searching for a manufacturing partner on the project.

Still, flying solo would have taken Apple back to its original project roadmap, which saw the company handling all research, development and logistics on the Apple Car in-house. 

As for who was leading that development within the company itself, Kevin Lynch, well-known for overseeing the brand's Apple Watch division (as well as his role in creating Adobe Creative Cloud), was in the lead role. The project was being overseen by Apple's AI and machine learning chief, John Giannandrea, who stepped in for Bob Mansfield after the latter's retirement in 2020. 

That appointment seemed to lead to a high turnover of Apple Car executives leaving the company in 2021 – former software engineering manager Joe Bass was poached by Silicon Valley rival Meta, for example – but it's normal that regime changes would trigger a revolving door of new and departing employees. 

Now it looks like the Apple Car project has been shuttered completely, likely marking the end of speculation around Apple and driverless cars, at least for now. 

Tesla has issued a recall for many of its vehicles over a software update issued in late October to its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta program. 

Though it quickly withdrew the update and issued a fix, following the formal recall process helps ensure that necessary updates are performed to as many affected vehicles as possible.

The recall involves over 11,700 Tesla vehicles that include certain Model 3, Model S, and Model X vehicles manufactured between 2017 and 2021. The Model Y didn't escape the recall, either, as certain 2020 and 2021 models are included.

Unexpected braking

The recall comes just a week after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted news about the issue involving the latest beta rollout, which hadn't gone as planned. 

Some drivers reported problems with the operation of vehicle safety systems, noting that their cars braked unexpectedly and that certain safety features shut off completely.

The automaker rolled back the beta update and quickly reissued a fix, but the move to follow a formal recall process is a prudent one for Tesla. The NHTSA questioned Tesla over its decision to avoid recalls for previous issues, so the pressure to follow the rules is strong. 

The move helps Tesla avoid further scrutiny over its safety management practices, as the NHTSA already has open investigations into several incidents involving Tesla vehicles crashing into parked emergency vehicles.

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Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) feature has been in development for some time now, with a small group of beta testers running the software and Tesla hardware in real-world scenarios. 

The automaker has long promised a feature that allows drivers to request access to the beta program. 

However, there's good news for beta test hopefuls, as recent tweets from Elon Musk suggest the long-awaited "beta button" will become available soon.

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Musk said Tesla would release FSD beta 10.1 on September 24, and along with it, the new beta request button will become available. 

If a driver is interested in joining the program, they'll need to opt into a Tesla driver monitoring program for seven days. 

During that time, the automaker will access telemetry data and its driving behavior calculator to assess how the driver performs. If their behavior is deemed "good", beta access will be granted.

Widening the net

The beta program and button were set to be released earlier this year, but Tesla opted to keep the test group smaller for safety reasons. 

Recent beta releases have missed the mark, and Musk himself admitted that more work was needed to push the betas closer to where they should be. 

With the release of beta version 10, FSD has finally reached a point of accuracy and functionality that allows Tesla to bring more drivers into the program. 

The move also gives the automaker a much larger pool of data to improve future versions of the software.

Musk's tweets outline the process through which a Tesla driver can gain access to the beta program, but it's not exactly a strongly worded statement that shows a plan for revoking access if a driver misbehaves while using FSD. 

While certainly a step in the right direction, this move also misses the big issue of monitoring driver behavior while FSD or Autopilot are active.

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Race car drivers are a peculiar bunch. It’s fair to say that aggressively cornering at three-figure speeds is not most people’s idea of a good time, especially when the stakes involved can so quickly shift from winning and losing to a toss-up between life and death.

It’s a testament to the passion associated with motorsport, though, that even those who fall victim to the immense risks involved are often reluctant to walk away from the track – and no one better illustrates that sentiment than Sam Schmidt. 

A former driver in America's IndyCar motor racing series, Schmidt suffered a severe spinal cord injury during a practice lap at Florida’s Walt Disney World Speedway in 2000. He was diagnosed as a quadriplegic, and given just a few years to live. No longer able to drive a race car, Schmidt founded Schmidt Peterson Motorsport – now known as Arrow McLaren SP – which has since become the most successful team in the history of the Indy Lights series, the highest tier of IndyCar other than the premier IndyCar Series itself. 

But as you might expect from a man accustomed to the driving seat, watching from the paddock wasn’t enough. In 2013, Schmidt partnered with a team of engineers to get back behind the wheel. Together, he and American tech company Arrow Electronics developed the SAM Car, a semi-autonomous Chevrolet Corvette Stingray that's controlled, incredibly, using only head movements, voice commands and breath. In the years since, Schmidt has driven the car in amateur races, broken speed records, and cruised down public streets in several US cities – all despite being paralyzed from the chest down.

TechRadar had the opportunity to speak with Schmidt at the UK's Goodwood Festival of Speed, where we discussed his incredible journey, the future of assistive technologies and how he hopes his story inspires disabled individuals all around the world. 

“For me, it wasn’t baseball, basketball or football; it was racing every weekend,” Schmidt says, as he reflects on his decision to pursue a career in motorsports. “My dad raced, and you're poured into it when your parents are into it, so my [racing] life started when I was five.”

He wasn’t half bad, either. Schmidt made 27 career starts as an IndyCar driver, racing three consecutive years at the Indianapolis 500 and winning at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1999. “My career got really good,” he admits. “In ’99 we were competing for a lot of wins, everything was pretty rosy.” 

Then, in January 2000, Schmidt careered into the wall of the then-famous Walt Disney World Speedway at 200mph. “I blew apart my C3 and C4 vertebrae. They told my wife, ‘if he makes it this week, he has two to five years to live’ – that was 21 years ago.”

The journey that followed – from life-saving ventilator to 500-horsepower race car – was a predictably long road of rehabilitation, adaptation and mental fortitude, but it was Arrow Electronics that would provide Schmidt with a decidedly unexpected route back into racing. 

“There's a lot of serendipitous events throughout this whole story,” he says. “Here's this 80-year-old tech company nobody's ever heard of that wants to build a car for someone who can't use their arms or legs. So, they did it, and nicknamed it the Semi-Autonomous Mobility project – or SAM car – before they ever knew about me.” Schmidt quietly chuckles at this. 

“I’d done some work with a hospital in Denver, and Arrow happened to call them and ask if they had any patients who might want to drive again – and they said, ‘yeah, we know a former race car driver.’ So, we were introduced, and I agreed on one condition: we have to go 100mph. And the rest is history.”

At the most basic level – if a system of this complexity might ever be described as ‘basic’ – the SAM Car works via three main inputs: steering, throttle and brake. To steer, Schmidt wears sunglasses or a safety helmet studded with reflective sensors which interact with four infrared cameras mounted to the windshield. These cameras direct infrared beams toward his head, which reflect off the sensors and return to the camera, allowing the car’s computer to calculate the angle of reflection – directional information which is then sent to the wheels. Essentially, then, Schmidt steers the car by turning his head. The system is so responsive that he can drive on almost any street or race track configuration, including 180-degree hairpin turns. 

Throttle and brake functions are a little simpler. Sam keeps a tube in his mouth connected to a pressure sensor. He blows air into the tube to accelerate, and sucks on the tube to brake. To maintain a steady speed, Sam blows a desired amount of air into the tube and bites down to seal that pressure inside. So far, Arrow says, he’s maxxed out at 201mph – faster than the take-off speed of most commercial airliners.

At present, Sam needs a co-driver both for race track driving and street driving (because he’s steering with his head, he must look where he’s aiming the car). The co-driver therefore helps by looking ahead and calling out the next turn, advising him when to brake and when to accelerate. But as for the driving, it’s all Sam. 

The car itself is also relatively inconspicuous. Save for the company-branded decal plastered across the doors and bonnet, you’d never know this was a Corvette Stingray modified to accommodate a quadriplegic driver. And that, ultimately, encapsulates the essence of this project. Yes, Sam is a racing driver hell bent on burning rubber, but he and his car represent just one way in which technology can help disabled individuals pursue their passions and regain independence. 

“At first,” Sam says, “I did this selfishly because I wanted to drive again. But as it's evolved, and there’s been so many people motivated to do more things with their life, for me the main goal now is to send a message. I wouldn't wish a disability on anybody, but you can still do things in your life, you can still be productive, you can still have kids, you can still have a family – you’ve just got to put your mind to it.”

The conversation then shifts away from the race track to the practical applications of this sort of technology. “I'd like to see it used in industry to put people back to work,” he says. “You know, why not? Why not a harvester? Why not a train? There's so many people with disabilities out there that want to go back to work. They’ve still got their brains. Wi-Fi can enable somebody to use this technology from their business office or living room. I could drive this car completely remotely, so others could do the same in a domestic setting, for different applications.”

On the subject of Wi-Fi, Sam is keen to emphasize that even simple technologies like smart home devices have proven immeasurably beneficial to individuals in his position. “I mean, it’s amazing to see what the likes of Siri and Alexa can do for disabled people in an everyday environment. For somebody like me, who can’t do anything for himself, just the ability to command things can be life changing.”

Sam has also been the beneficiary of another mobility-extending Arrow project, the SAM Suit 1.0 – a semi-autonomous exoskeleton allowing him to stand and walk again for short periods. Although in its early stages, the suit represents a further avenue through which assistive technologies can change the lives of those without control of their limbs. Sam’s gratitude for the momentary mobility it granted him is clear to see. “They designed a custom exoskeleton for me to dance with my daughter at her wedding – which was by far the best day I’ve had in 21 years.”

Of course, the widespread development, domestication and distribution of products like the SAM Car and exo-suit remains, unsurprisingly, some years away. Like most forward-facing innovations, cost lies at the heart of their life and death. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that these projects give immense promise to the future of assistive technologies. 

On that front, Sam and Arrow Electronics are optimistic. The latter continues to develop practical solutions for improving mobility and accessibility, with several other projects already under its belt (and more under wraps) that prove technology’s capacity to change lives. 

For Sam, a dream he once thought impossible to realise is now his reality – and he only wants to go faster. “Obviously, I want to add some performance things to the car so we can be more competitive,” he says, “but the sky's the limit. Maybe we’ll go to the moon?”

Sam Schmidt: racing driver, activist... astronaut? Talk about ambition. 

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DJI has established itself as the biggest name in drone technology in recent years – but it could be about to lend its expertise to a very different industry.

As reported by Drone DJ, potentially leaked promotional material seems to imply the Chinese company has plans to supply sensors for self-driving cars.

The image was shared on Twitter by seasoned DJI leaker Kanzhaji, and corroborates previous reports published by Reuters which suggest DJI has already begun building an engineering team to work on autonomous driving technology. 

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While it’s worth taking any supposedly leaked marketing material with a generous pinch of salt, DJI’s years of experience in developing imaging technology for its drones make it a prime candidate to enter the world of self-driving cars. 

The image hints at some of the many areas where DJI could lend its expertise in the automotive industry, including in the development of technology for 360 degree vehicle-based cameras, blind-spot monitoring and LiDAR (or 'Light Detection and Ranging') scanners – the lasers used to judge depth and distance.

In fact, some of DJI’s drone products already utilise small-scale variations of these same technologies – the obstacle sensors on the DJI Mavic Air 2, for example – so it follows that the company might be looking to further stamp its authority in this area of tech.

Another Chinese tech blogger recently made reference to a ‘DJI Automotive’ brand name on their Geekpark forum – which could represent the off-shoot of the company directing its efforts towards self-driving cars – and also suggested we could hear more news on the company’s plans at the upcoming Shanghai Auto Show in April.

Right now, of course, this is all just speculation, but we’ve approached DJI for comment and will update this article when we hear back.

Made in China

If accurate, DJI’s decision to enter the autonomous vehicle industry comes at a time when the electric vehicle market in its country of origin, China, is growing rapidly (the Hongguang Mini EV, for example, is outselling Tesla two to one). 

Though electric vehicles are quite different to self-driving equivalents, the national shift towards embracing new automotive technologies suggests China could become one of the first countries to crack the code for fully-autonomous vehicles.

DJI isn’t alone, either, in its willingness to branch out into the automotive industry, despite being a manufacturer of domestic gadgets. Chinese mobile manufacturer Xiaomi recently announced its EV ambitions, while Huawei, too, is said to be developing its own automotive arm – also with a focus on self-driving sensors.

The point being, the landscape is changing for tech companies capable of juggling multiple industries – especially in China. DJI marks the latest name on a long list of brands that have identified the world of cars as a potentially profitable area of business, and it’s a company capable of making a genuine impact given its pre-existing familiarity with drone technology.

It’s worth noting that the aforementioned Reuters report does suggest that DJI sources spoke on condition of anonymity, suggesting an unwillingness on the part of the company to admit its bold new vision – at this point in time, at least. 

It doesn’t seem likely to be able to contain such rumors forever, though, so we could see an official statement of intent from DJI in the near future.

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Via Drone DJ 

Apple boss Tim Cook has dropped some hints as to the state of the company’s much-anticipated Apple Car project.

In an interview with the New York Times, Cook was expectedly evasive when probed about Apple’s autonomous vehicle plans, but nonetheless acknowledged the existence of in-development self-driving technology.

“In terms of the work that we’re doing [in that field], obviously, I’m going to be a little coy on that,” Cook said, before adding, “The autonomy itself is a core technology… If you step back, the car, in a lot of ways, is a robot. An autonomous car is a robot. And so there’s lots of things you can do with autonomy. And we’ll see what Apple does.”

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Cook was then pushed on the question of whether the Apple Car – officially known as Project Titan – would end up being a fully-fledged vehicle or software-based project. “We love to integrate hardware, software, and services, and find the intersection points of those because we think that’s where the magic occurs. And so that’s what we love to do. And we love to own the primary technology that’s around that.”

While Cook and Apple are evidently reluctant to share details surrounding their plans for autonomous technology, his failure to deny that the project will focus on a self-driving car suggests Apple is still entertaining the prospect of producing an on-the-road vehicle, rather than merely an in-car operating system to be distributed among existing auto manufacturers.

Tellingly, Cook also caveated his comments by saying: “We investigate so many things internally. Many of them never see the light of day. I’m not saying that one will not.” It’s clear, then, that something is going on over at Apple – we just don’t know exactly what yet. 

An unhappy marriage

Ironically, Cook’s suggestion that Apple “love[s] to own [its] primary technology” points to the central problem the company has faced in its failed efforts to partner with an auto manufacturer on its vehicle project.

Despite being widely-considered the most successful business in the world, Apple's expertise lies in tech development, not automotive manufacturing. That means it needs help from another organisation if it hopes to build a road vehicle, but it would seem that the big car brands have been unwilling to become a bit-part supplier – in the same way Foxconn is to Tesla – on a vehicle that would ultimately bear the Apple name.

This seems to be the reason why Apple’s partnership talks with the likes of Hyundai, Kia and Nissan came to an abrupt halt. As for the latter, a recent report from the Financial Times suggests "contact was brief and the discussions did not advance to senior management levels following divisions over branding" – which tells you everything you need to know about the point of contention between both Apple and the manufacturers it hopes to partner with. 

Tim Cook’s latest comments – while undoubtedly significant given the relative silence surrounding the project until now – still don’t suggest the Apple Car vision will become a reality any time soon. 

Company analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently claimed that the Apple Car might not be launched until 2028 or later, given the continued impasse in negotiations, so expect to be waiting a long while to see it on the road.

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Mobileye – the self-driving car company acquired by Intel for $15 billion in 2017 – has outlined its plans to bring autonomous vehicles (AVs) to the masses through new laser sensor technology intended to lower the cost of producing self-driving vehicles.

Speaking at CES 2021, the company announced it has integrated LiDAR technology – that's lasers that measure depth and distance – into an Intel silicon chip, meaning its ambitious plans to bring cheap, self-driving cars to retail buyers by 2025 could become a reality. 

Mobileye president and CEO Amnon Shashua detailed why the Intel subsidiary is so confident of achieving its lofty targets: "The backing of Intel and the trinity of our approach means that Mobileye can scale at an unprecedented manner," Shashua said. 

"From the beginning, every part of our plan aims for rapid geographic and economic scalability – and today's news shows how our innovations are enabling us to execute on that strategy."

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The Israeli company has about 80% of the global market for advanced driver-assistance vision systems, and currently focuses its efforts on car features that help drivers overcome blindspots or stay in their lanes.

Its partnership with Intel – and the recent LiDAR-on-a-chip breakthrough – means Mobileye can pivot development away from camera-based car technology and towards a full self-driving sensor suite to be built in-house, keeping production costs down and making autonomous vehicles as accessible as possible to the mass-market. 

"The ultimate holy grail is that everyone can go and purchase a car and have that car be autonomy enabled," Shashua said in an interview with Bloomberg. 

"That's a dream that can come true in the 2025 time frame. We are in serious discussions with several car manufacturers to start taking this kind of technology."

Intel has had a rough time of it recently. The chip giant has been accused of lagging behind rivals like AMD and Apple when it comes to processor innovation, and has been set back by numerous manufacturing delays even before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

But the announcement that its subsidiary, Mobileye, has made such a breakthrough in AV development will appease those excited by the company's important part to play in the future of self-driving vehicles. 

LiDAR love

The challenge of shrinking down LiDAR technology in both size and cost is one familiar to the major players in the AV industry. 

Companies like Aeva and Voyant Photonics, for example  – the former develops assistive technology for Porsche – are working on their own methods of condensing LiDAR to its smallest possible size to fit multiple sensors into a single car (currently, most LiDAR sensors are roughly the size of hand).

But Mobileye's partnership with Intel means the company has access to large-scale manufacturing resources that other developers don't, meaning it'll be able to produce its new LiDAR chips – which will allow cars to spot hazards on the road from 200 meters away, according to Shashua – en masse and (hopefully) on time. 

The news comes amid a period of rapid development for the AV industry. Foxconn, the major manufacturing supplier to Apple and Tesla, has partnered with Chinese startup Byton to help produce the company's first electric vehicle, the M-Byte, which looks set to integrate autonomous technology in an affordable package. 

Tesla, too, recently hinted at plans to offer its Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode to customers through a monthly subscription in 2021, meaning drivers won't have to fork out large lump sums to gain access to the innovative technology. 

Mobileye's breakthrough means Intel has gained a foothold in the automotive market, but more importantly marks an exciting development for drivers hoping to benefit from a technology that has long been trapped in the domain of science fiction and, more recently, the rich. 

By 2025, autonomous wheels may no longer be the subject of wishful thinking.

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Apple is reportedly talking with automakers about developing its self-driving car, and Hyundai Motor has confirmed it’s involved, according to CNBC.

There’s nothing to announce yet: “As the discussion is at its early stage, nothing has been decided,” a spokesperson for Hyundai Motor told CNBC. But they noted that Hyundai is among “a variety of global automakers” in talks with the tech giant.

The confirmation comes after a subdivision of Korea Economic Daily reported that Apple approached Hyundai to cooperate on both developing an electric car and working on the rechargeable batteries to conceivably use in them.

A separate Bloomberg report claimed the Apple car is still at least five years away. Sources told the news outlet that the vehicle is "nowhere near production stage" and, should development proceed with Apple’s small team working on the project, a car could be ready in five to seven years, assuming the pace isn’t accelerated.  

Rumors have reignited around Apple’s mission to build an autonomous vehicle, codenamed Project Titan, with a recent report suggesting Tim Cook could be introducing a new car concept as early as September 2021. But Reuters has suggested the Apple car would arrive by a later date: 2024.

Hyundai’s comment suggests Apple is still early in development, and aligns with the Bloomberg report’s timeline. 

Developing...

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Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode will be available to customers through a monthly subscription from 2021, according to CEO Elon Musk. 

In a tweet, the tech mogul revealed plans to introduce a subscription service "early next year" that will allow customers to access FSD on a month-to-month basis. Currently, drivers are having to fork out $10,000 (around £7,600) – a figure which increased by 25% in October – to add the driving mode to Autopilot, the Tesla advanced driving system. 

It's worth noting that the regulations for autonomous driving technology are still strict in many countries around the world – the FSD software can't legally be used in the UK, and only a few US states allow it, for example – so it's likely that next year's subscription rollout will only apply to customers in certain areas of the US.

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According to the company, the FSD computer – while still requiring active driver supervision – is capable of delivering "intelligent performance and control to enable a new level of safety and autonomy."

In its current state, this means Tesla vehicles are able to maneuver around other vehicles and objects, as well as make turns and navigate highway ramps without the need for driver intervention. 

An improving technology

Despite some early teething problems – a beta warning advised customers that the system "may do the wrong thing at the worst time" – Tesla's FSD mode is improving by the month thanks to regular software updates and crowd-sourced data. 

Most recently, a prominent Tesla vlogger captured the moment his vehicle managed to autonomously navigate San Francisco's notoriously-twisty Lombard street. 

It's clear the technology is improving, and while it may not roll out on the streets of the world as quickly as Elon Musk hopes – Europe is still yet to be convinced of its safety – plans to introduce a subscription service suggest a commitment to making the software as accessible to as many customers as possible. 

Not that accessible means cheap, mind. 

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Autonomous driving technology is set to transform the way we move with safer, more efficient transportation. However, current vehicle architecture is not capable of supporting the AI software necessary to make this technology a reality.

Today, a vehicle’s software functions are powered by dozens of electronic control units, known as ECUs, that are distributed throughout the car. Each is specialized — one unit controls windows and one the door locks, for example, and others control power steering and braking.

Centralizing and unifying the compute architecture in the car will make it easier to integrate and update advanced software features for automated and autonomous driving as they are developed. Just like a smartphone, which periodically gets software updates, these software-defined vehicles will be perpetually updateable machines.

Not only does this architecture accelerate technology development, but it’s also driving the single biggest business model transformation the industry has ever seen. By implementing a new vehicle computing architecture, one that’s upgradeable and built around high-performance computers, automakers can take full advantage of this new technology and develop a loyal installed base.

When entire vehicle fleets are supported by teams of AI experts and software engineers delivering advanced features to continuously improve the driving experience, the opportunities to delight customers is boundless. New features, new capabilities and new business models go hand-in-hand, benefitting the consumer and the industry.

Legendary global automaker Mercedes-Benz will be one of the first manufacturers to take advantage of this new architecture, implementing a software-defined, upgradeable fleet built on NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin starting production in 2024.

Updating expectations

Once a customer drives a new car off the dealership lot, they rarely continue to interact with the automaker, except for service and maintenance. With the average age of vehicles on the road around 11 years, opportunities to surprise and delight customers are few and far between.

Software-defined vehicles completely transform this relationship. With a software-defined architecture, cars can add capabilities and services over the air at any time for not just one customer, but across multiple customers through the life of the car.

These new services require increased support. Software, once built, lives forever, and companies who deliver software must be able to support it for as long as they live. This is what NVIDIA has been doing for decades, beginning with our gaming graphics cards, moving to the enterprise and mission critical business applications and will continue to do for vehicles of the future.

The software-defined architecture also opens up opportunities for developers. The NVIDIA DRIVE ecosystem already includes hundreds of automakers, suppliers, sensor companies, mapmakers and software startups. With the capability to provide new apps in the vehicle, more developers can contribute and expand this ecosystem into even more technologies.

Improving safety with software

The hallmark feature of software-defined vehicles is automated driving capabilities. With AI assisting, and later, driving the car, our roads will be safer and more efficient.

Already, some vehicles are capable of Level 2+ automated driving, handling steering and braking under human supervision. With regular software updates, these features can improve to Level 3 and beyond, for address-to-address autonomous driving, valet parking and more.

And by equipping every production vehicle with the sensors and compute necessary for self-driving, fleets can continuously collect driving data and regularly provide new and diverse scenarios for AI software training. This fleet learning ensures constant improvement of the system for a consistently safer and better performing experience.

While these cars will still have a human at the wheel, more people can take advantage of the benefits of autonomy without having to switch to an entirely new vehicle. These AI-based capabilities can reduce human error on the road, creating a safer driving environment for all road users.

Mercedes-Benz plans software-defined future fleet

Starting in 2024, every next-generation Mercedes-Benz vehicle will include this first-of-its-kind software-defined computing architecture that includes the most powerful computer, system software and applications for consumers, marking the turning point of traditional vehicles becoming high-performance, updateable computing devices.

This next generation fleet will be developed with AI from end to end, beginning in the data center.

Both Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA will work together to validate intelligent new autonomous driving experiences using NVIDIA DRIVE Infrastructure solutions. DRIVE Infrastructure encompasses the complete data center hardware, software and workflows needed to develop and validate autonomous driving technology, from raw data collection through validation.

It provides the building blocks required for DNN development and training as well as provides necessary validation, replay and testing in simulation to enable a safe autonomous driving experience.

NVIDIA’s complete DRIVE Software stack, including DriveWorks, Perception, Mapping and Planning, will run on Mercedes-Benz’ new, centralized compute architecture using the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin platform. This next-generation AI compute platform delivers 200 trillion operations per second (TOPS) for the entire Mercedes-Benz lineup, from entry level to high end.

By combining the high-performance, energy-efficient compute of NVIDIA DRIVE AGX with Mercedes’ century-plus of automotive engineering experience, this next-gen vehicle architecture will be more capable and cost effective.

And NVIDIA will continue to work with the rest of the industry, bringing AI and high-performance compute to every vehicle for a safer, more efficient and enjoyable driving experience.

• Katie Burke, Automotive Content Marketing Manager, NVIDIA.

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Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything, or C-V2X, continues to make strides as the preferred technology for vehicles to communicate with one another and with their surroundings. Through acceptance of standards by the industry, a string of successful trials, and initial commercialization, C-V2X shows growing promise for greater road safety, efficiency, and mobility. This is particularly important for future use of non-line-of-sight sensors for autonomous vehicles as it paves the way for the next generation of transport.

So, what is C-V2X?

C-V2X is a technology that allows vehicles to communicate with each other and virtually everything around them (V2X). It is designed to support safer, more autonomous vehicles of the future, while improving traffic flow and safety for vehicle occupants, pedestrians, and cyclists.

C-V2X helps vehicles to communicate wirelessly from vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and, may someday, via vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), which could greatly enhance collision avoidance systems. In addition to communicating with other road users, C-V2X facilitates the vehicle to communicate with the wider network, vehicle-to-network (V2N), to access real-time traffic or routing services via cloud services. Cars won’t just simply broadcast their location, speed and direction. 

Using vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology, cars may be able to coordinate with complex maneuvers. Additionally, by communicating with traffic signals, cars may be able to synchronize a journey with green lights to avoid delays and idle time. Vehicles may even talk to each other to create space for more cars on the road, improving fuel economy, congestion and emissions.

How 5G could shift C-V2X into high gear

Paired with 5G network capabilities, vehicles may be able to share rich, real-time data and support fully autonomous driving experiences, which could improve road safety and traffic efficiency.

Handling time-sensitive decision-making processes in the car requires low latency data exchange with external sources, such as surrounding objects, as well as access to edge compute capabilities. 5G offers such communication coupled with high throughput, allowing on board compute engines to access remote sources and exchange data efficiently and highly effectively. 360-degree C-V2X systems can be used to detect potential collision objects, and when combined with new data, exchange warning systems between vehicles ultra-reliable and safety-critical decisions such as automated braking can be made instantaneously by both vehicles.

A modern technology with superior radio performance, C-V2X is capable of providing enhanced range and reliability for low-latency direct communication. Unlike other communication technologies, C-V2X combines both direct and network-based technologies in a synergetic way. C-V2X does not need cellular networks to provide direct communication for safety and local mobility services.

In many regions of the world, regulators have ring-fenced network frequency bands for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), specifically the 5.9 GHz spectrum for road critical safety ITS communications between vehicles, infrastructure and people.

Co-existence within 3GPP technologies allows for integration into future technology advances. 5G V2X (3GPP R16 and beyond) devices offer additional ITS functionality to that of LTE-V2X (3GPP Rel-14/15) and are also built to seamlessly co-exist, so just like the smartphone, older generations and newer generations can be integrated into the same vehicle.

What’s next for C-V2X?

C-V2X is likely the only V2X technology with a clear, evolution path to 5G, and is expected to be ready for commercial deployment in vehicles within the year. The maturity of the technology has won over many auto manufacturers, including Ford in the US and the multiple auto OEMs in China. 

Road operators within each of these countries have also started to deploy C-V2X roadside units, and regions are aligning their connected vehicle efforts with the ETSI TC ITS TS 103 097 specification security services standard to ensure optimum safety and efficiency.

A vision that is emerging from the auto industry is not just about moving from point A to point B, 5G roads may take a different form with the advent of automation, as 5G is expected to fundamentally change the way that we think about transport networks. Data could be transmitted between points along smart roads, with speed and at great volumes. 

Network connectivity and reliable coverage is crucial when it comes to the future development of autonomous vehicles. Improved data capture and connectivity can help overcome one of the biggest hurdles when it comes to autonomous vehicle adoption: public trust. C-V2X technology could increase public confidence that remotely operated vehicles are designed to operate safety.

We’re excited about the adoption of C-V2X globally, leading the way in the next generation of transport and striving to make our roads safer and smarter.

• Enrico Salvatori, Senior Vice President and President of Qualcomm Europe.

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As the advent of autonomous driving inches forward year by year, there’s an incredible opportunity to cede control over to the machines. AI can help look for dangers on the road and adjust our speed long before problems occur. It’s an exciting time because machine learning in cars is almost magical.

The first time, a car like the Subaru Legacy Outback tells you not to look down at your phone, or a Ford Explorer applies the brakes suddenly when you fail to notice the semi-truck that just pulled out in front of you is when you realize how far we’ve come.

Curiously, these new advancements could also present an opportunity for hackers. While the AI tech in cars never needs to sleep and is always vigilant, it is not that hard to trick the machine learning routines, even with a piece of tape.

Over the limit

Recently, researchers at McAfee announced an 18-month project where they attempted to alter the cruise control abilities in two 2016 Tesla Model S cars. They applied tape to a speed limit sign and then drove the Model S, watching as the vehicle jumped up in speed by 80 miles-per-hour. It only took one extension of the number three on a speed limit sign that said 35, changing it to read 85 instead.

The companies that developed some of the autonomous driving tech in the Tesla S refuted the claims by saying a human driver would also read the speed limit sign inaccurately, and that’s exactly when I started wondering what this all means.

I agree that human drivers are likely not that perceptive. On a highway recently, I noticed how a departure lane I took off the main highway was posted at only 35 miles-per-hour (coincidentally enough).

I slowed down to 35, but I wondered why the city lowered the speed so quickly from 75 miles per hour. It was accurate, but it didn’t make sense to me. The road was nowhere near a residential area.

However, the fact that I was wondering is the important factor.

Autonomous tech in cars might not do this. Experts who responded to Mcafee did say the Model S also uses crowd-sourced data and likely also uses GPS data, which is much harder to spoof. That said, it made me wonder.

Autonomous cars will need to do more than read speed limit signs. They will also need to interpret the conditions and the setting — it would not make sense to suddenly go from 35 MPH to 85 MPH. If it is a simple calculation from one number to another, it won’t work.

New tricks

In the future, I wondered how hackers might trick cars in other ways. We’re on the verge of cars connecting to the roadway and to other cars. Recently, an artist demonstrated how hauling a wagon full of smartphones could trick Google Maps into thinking there was traffic congestion. What else could they do?

I can envision someone creating a stir by sending out fake signals about other cars on the road, sending notices about road closures, or even worse — tapping into car systems from the side of the road and telling them to brake suddenly.

At the same time, it is a lot of fuss over something minor. Fewer and fewer cars are reading roadway signs and are determining speed based on GPS data instead. No research has ever shown that hackers could cause cars to brake suddenly, and when there are examples they are usually in controlled environments. 

I think it is mostly a curiosity. We like to be able to fool the machines, and that’s a good thing. As long as they don’t ever start fooling with us.

On The Road is TechRadar's regular look at the futuristic tech in today's hottest cars. John Brandon, a journalist who's been writing about cars for 12 years, puts a new car and its cutting-edge tech through the paces every week. One goal: To find out which new technologies will lead us to fully self-driving cars.

Being able to see what a car is doing in real time is a goldmine in the age of automation. It’s one thing to know there's intelligent behavior and AI helping us drive, but it’s even more valuable to see how the technology is working and what it’s actually doing.

One example of this is the 4x4 display that appears in the 2020 Nissan Rogue (a sporty crossover). It’s not fancy in terms of innovative technology, but it reveals the magic behind the curtain. As you drive, the vehicle monitors each tire in real-time and can apply more power as needed as the vehicle senses any problems, such as careening on a slick road.

The science of slippage

I tested the AWD tech in the Rogue on a snowy day and drove through a few snowbanks to see how the computer-controlled tire slippage monitors actually work. It’s interesting to see what is actually happening in terms of deploying more power to the front and rear tires as you drive. I haven't seen that in other cars.

It turns out most of the power is always in the front, but during those tests, I watched as the Rogue applied more power to the rear and tried to evenly distribute the power when I would get stuck slightly in the snow.

A word to the wise if you ever try this: I wasn’t testing a huge snowbank or deep snow. AWD vehicles are meant to handle the precarious conditions of normal winter driving, but they are not actual 4x4 vehicles that can power through a huge snow pile with ease. I prefer the AWD tech myself – I mainly want to arrive at my destination and not get stuck or slip on the road.

In one case, I noticed the car started to fishtail slightly, and the rear wheels kicked in a bit more than expected. It was cool to watch this all in real-time because I’ve tested many other AWD cars, including those that use computer-controlled slip detection, and felt the effect as I was driving, but I’ve never seen an interface that showed me what was happening.

Spectator sport

This is the future of driving because we all want to know more about what an AI is doing and how an autonomous car is making adjustments.

These days it may seem like magic, but of course, it is really just algorithms and programming code doing the thinking for us. A developer is always behind the logic when it comes to braking or swerving, but when you experience it in the car, it feels like someone has taken over – someone that seems like a robot.

My sense is that drivers will want to know more and see feedback like the 4x4 display in the Rogue because they won’t be driving as much. They will want to see an interface that shows real-time adjustments, suggestions, and maneuvers as they occur.

The 4x4 mode is a step in the right direction – now we just need even more tools that allow us to monitor what the bots and automations in cars are doing.

On The Road is TechRadar's regular look at the futuristic tech in today's hottest cars. John Brandon, a journalist who's been writing about cars for 12 years, puts a new car and its cutting-edge tech through the paces every week. One goal: To find out which new technologies will lead us to fully self-driving cars.

Fully autonomous cars aren't quite ready to roam the streets unsupervised yet, but at CES 2020 automakers from around the globe gathered to show just how close they're getting to delivering on years of promise.

Here's our complete guide to the current state of self-driving tech, direct from the show floor...

Safety first

One of the biggest surprises of CES 2020 was the Sony Vision-S – a concept car built with a little help from the likes of Bosch, Blackberry, Nvidia and Qualcomm, and fitted with 33 sensors to not only spot hazards, but also detect driver fatigue. If it spots you nodding off, the car could issue a warning, correct your course, or even go autonomous to keep you safe.

It’s similar to a system Volvo demonstrated last year, which uses a small camera fitted to the car’s rear-view mirror to detect signs of fatigue or intoxication. If you’re not concentrating at the wheel, the car can give you a spoken warning, put you through to Volvo on-call assistance, or even pull over somewhere safe.

Meanwhile, Yandex (a company that’s essentially the Russian Google) came to CES with an automated Toyota Prius that whisked visitors around the city streets without a backup driver keeping their hands on the wheel.

According to Wired, the company arrived in Las Vegas two weeks early to map out the streets and annotate obstacles by hand, and had a safety driver on hand with an emergency brake button just in case, but it was still an impressive display of trust. 

Are you not entertained?

BMW used CES 2020 to demonstrate how full autonomy can make travel a more lazy and luxurious experience. Rather than an entire car, it brought a mock-up of a cabin it calls BMW i Interaction Ease.

Visitors were encouraged to lie back in Zero G loungers, which can recline up to 60 degrees while still keeping you safe in an accident. Gaze recognition allows the in-car virtual assistant to respond appropriately depending on where you’re looking (at a restaurant outside, at the window, or at the sunroof for example) without you lifting a finger.

It’s a lovely experience, but we can’t help being reminded of the tech shows of old that promised us how by 2020 we’d all be living a life of leisure, with machines handling the daily grind while we looked for pleasant ways to fill out free hours. We’re more inclined to expect autonomous cars equipped with desks and espresso machines, serving as mobile offices to ensure that not a second of potentially productive time is wasted.

That doesn’t mean we won’t appreciate some good music though, and the Sony Vision-S concept’s 360-degree audio seems like an excellent fit for a car in which everyone’s a passenger.

Finding the right path

Navigation has long been one of the biggest challenges for autonomous cars, with companies developing their own mapping systems and often duplicating one another’s work, with no consistency between platforms.

Now, however, we’re starting to see the introduction of software-as-a-service systems, which any automaker can integrate into their products without developing a tool of their own.

At CES 2020, HERE Technologies announced that HERE Navigation on Demand is now available for manufacturers to integrate into infotainment systems. Manufacturers will be able to monitor the software after it’s installed, and send updates over the air.

Navigation on Demand also offers Alexa pre-installed, so we should see Amazon-powered controls arriving in a lot more cars in the near future

HERE Navigation says its technology is already embedded in over 100 million vehicles around the world, but the launch of Navigation on Demand software as a service (SaaS) means there's now a one-stop mapping solution available that will work right off the shelf.

This should reduce the costs and complexity of building self-driving cars, and ultimately give customers more choice when shopping for their next vehicle.

Hardware under the hood

Qualcomm (the company that probably made your phone’s processor) is moving into the self-driving market with a new hardware platform called Snapdragon Ride. It’s designed to power all levels of autonomous driving, from active safety tools like autonomous braking and road sign recognition, all the way through to fully self-driving taxis.

The platform comprises Snapdragon Ride Safety system-on-chips (SoCs), Snapdragon Ride Safety Accelerator, and Snapdragon Ride Autonomous Stack, and could lead to a dramatic drop in the price of autonomous vehicles.

Having a platform available off-the-shelf should help cut development costs, but there are also other savings to be had. For example, Snapdragon Ride’s impressive heat efficiency enables designs that can use passive air cooling, which is both simpler and less expensive than water cooling – hopefully this will result in a saving that will be passed down to customers.

Real-world driving (sort of)

Another major challenge for autonomous cars is testing; it's important to trial them in unpredictable environments, but in a safe and controlled way.

To help solve this issue, Toyota announced a plan to build an entire ‘city of the future’ at the base of Mount Fuji in its home country of Japan. Woven City will be situated on the site of an old Toyota factory, and will be a ‘living laboratory', where researchers will be able to test robotics, autonomous cars, AI and other technologies in a controlled environment, and see how they interact with humans.

This won’t be the first purpose-built town of its kind – Google is planning to build a high-tech ‘city within a city’ on a 12-acre patch of Toronto’s waterfront. If all goes according to plan, Google Sidewalk Toronto will feature public Wi-Fi, streets designed to minimize car use, and systems to collect ‘urban data’ such as traffic figures.

However, not everyone is happy with the idea of Google gathering so much information about the public, and the company has already had to make several concessions, including stepping back and allowing Waterside Toronto to take the lead in designing and implementing infrastructure.

Hopefully, Toyota’s experience of developing its Higashi-Fuji research facility in Shizuoka means its plans will be more warmly received, and construction robots will be able to start assembling Woven City’s all-wooden buildings next year.

• Check out all of TechRadar's CES 2020 coverage. We're live in Las Vegas to bring you all the breaking tech news and launches, plus hands-on reviews of everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops and smart home gadgets.

I’ve been testing a 2019 Golf GTI 2.0T Autobahn and... what a rush! This turbo-charged hot-hatch has some serious punch, the cornering is awesome, and even the sound of the exhaust made me want to drive it longer and faster on a variety of roads.

In fact, that’s exactly what I did on a road trip for about 650 miles, mostly to try some curvy terrain and to merge into traffic like a spring chicken.

However, since I’m all about testing the technology in cars on the road related to autonomous operation, I was mostly interested in how the Golf GTI handled some typical highway traffic conditions using Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). ACC has been around a while in luxury cars but it is fairly new to low to mid-priced cars like the Golf GTI (which starts at $36,890 – about £29,000 or AU$54,000).

Also, this car is called the Autobahn for a reason – it’s fun to drive over long distances. My goal was to find out how the ACC performed but also think about how all automakers can work to improve the tech over time, leading us to a fully autonomous future.

The caveat here: I'm not picking on the Golf GTI. The ACC worked exactly as intended, and exactly how it works in most makes and models. My general findings testing ACC in the Golf is that it is a major safety perk because none of us can pay attention to the road at all times.

I was impressed with how easily it spotted other cars, safely kept me at a good distance (this is something you can easily adjust by pressing one button), and even slowed me down to low speeds during a traffic jam. It’s a great example of tech flowing down from high-end cars like the Audi A3 Hatch (a big brother to the Golf) to other cars many of us can afford.

During my test, I also realized how all cars that use ACC could improve in the future. Just three of my findings on this road trip are described below.

1. Sense cars entering the highway

One of the most interesting discoveries on this trip and again this is the way all cars use adaptive cruise these days: When a car was about to enter the highway and merge into traffic from the far right of the car, ACC wouldn't notice until the vehicle had fully merged. The Golf adjusted its speed correctly and slowed down. However, this means there’s less of a gradual slow down.

What I’d prefer is that the car notices there’s a car about to enter the highway and slows down way before the ACC adjusts the speed. This is what human drivers do because we know the car is going to merge. Many of us also tend to move into the left lane if this happens, so a secondary feature could be to automatically move into the left lane.

2. Not slow quickly when someone cuts you off

Robots don’t think like humans – yet. Adaptive cruise control has been around for about a decade but it still thinks like a machine. In all of the cars I’ve tested with ACC, when someone suddenly pulls in front of you (but not in a way that is actually dangerous), your speed will suddenly change. The car slows down too fast, reacting to the sudden appearance of another car.

That’s a good thing, and the Golf did what it was supposed to do. However, in future versions of ACC (call it ACC 2.0), I’d rather my car could identify the other car long before it swerves in front of me at highway speeds. It should predict the route of that car – that there’s a slower car in the right lane, so obviously, the other car will move ahead of me and merge. It’s predictable to human drivers, not to the ACC.

For this one to work, the sensors would have to identify and track the car about to merge and also know about the traffic conditions (e.g., that cars are likely to move into the left lane and merge suddenly).

3. Remind you to speed up

Here’s an interesting finding and one that would be easy to address. On a few occasions, I was lulled into driving slower in the right lane. The car or truck in front of me was driving too slow, but I didn’t notice because the Golf slowed down to match that speed (and rightly so, since that’s how it is designed to work). My wife would sometimes wonder why we were driving so slow. I’d prefer a notice in the dash, something to inform me that I’m now driving much slower and to change lanes.

Again, for this one to work the car would need to understand traffic flows and what other cars are doing -- that the left lane drivers are moving faster, that the right lane is moving slower and has been for some time. This might even require car-to-car communication which is currently in development and hopefully fairly imminent.

On The Road is TechRadar's regular look at the futuristic tech in today's hottest cars. John Brandon, a journalist who's been writing about cars for 12 years, puts a new car and its cutting-edge tech through the paces every week. One goal: To find out which new technologies will lead us to fully self-driving cars.

Artificial intelligence in cars works perfectly when the road is straight, the traffic is light, and the lane markings are bright yellow or bright white. In a recent test of the 2020 Nissan Altima, I decided to go way outside of the lines (in a theoretical sense) and test a curvy road where the traffic was fairly intense and the lane markings weren’t always perfect.

In my area, there are brand new roadways with freshly painted markings, but that’s not the norm. In most cases, the roads are well-used and the markings are slightly faded. As we say in journalism, that’s a good test scenario. I drove the Altima several times on newer roads and older, in both rain and snow and on bright sunny days.

The most interesting discovery is that all of the beeps and blips the vehicle makes are pretty helpful. The Altima will chime at you if the car ventures outside of the lane, thanks to what Nissan calls ProPilot Assist. There’s a small icon on the steering wheel you use to activate the safety shield that looks a bit like a Bluetooth badge.

Interestingly, the Altima will also beep as it adjusts its own speed for the car in front of you. Say you are driving at 55mph but you have the cruise control set at 60mph. You’ll hear a beep when you resume normal cruising speed.

The Altima also adjusts its speed around corners. I noticed how my speed would decrease automatically when the curve was more intense, and then when the car resumed normal speed it would beep yet again. It used to be that only luxury cars from Mercedes-Benz or BMW would adjust cruise control around corners but the Altima does this with ease.

A smart guiding hand

As for the lane-keeping, it works quite well on good roads and bad. As time goes on, automakers like Nissan will keep tweaking their algorithms for a variety of roadway conditions. There’s some question about how much beeping we can handle, or how much we want the vehicle to assume control. I noticed the Altima would remind me to hold on to the steering wheel occasionally.

I’ve tested lane-keeping in many recent makes and models, but I liked how authoritatively it works in the Altima – it’s not going to take over but it’s also going to keep things nicely centered for you, a bit like a parent who's assisting a teenager (but not overly so).

By the way, there’s a handy video that shows you how all of this works. It explains how the Altima is constantly watching lane markings and I experienced that several times – the soft nudges back into the lane, the micro-adjustments we’re supposed to make as a driver but are too busy talking to a friend to notice. Technology is at its best when we barely notice it is doing anything and yet it is working harder so we don’t have to focus so much.

Without obvious lane markings, the Altima still performed quite admirably and maintained a consistent center position. Ironically, it was when I tried to do the nudging myself that the vehicle would sometimes seem to say 'not on my watch' and compensate for my errors.

The fact that lane-keeping is available at all on a mid-sized sedan that costs $24,100 (about £18,700, AU$35,000) for the base price model is quite impressive indeed.

On The Road is TechRadar's regular look at the futuristic tech in today's hottest cars. John Brandon, a journalist who's been writing about cars for 12 years, puts a new car and its cutting-edge tech through the paces every week. One goal: To find out which new technologies will lead us to fully self-driving cars.

Jaguar Land Rover is creating in-car technology that will project 3D images in your line of sight.

The technology would be used to project augmented reality directions and warnings into your field of view, avoiding the need to take your eyes off the road to check the next turn while giving you early notice of oncoming obstacles.

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When vehicles become fully autonomous, JLR says the system could transform a car into a mobile cinema, projecting 3D movies to keep you occupied while it whisks you to your destination.

Details of the technology itself are scarce so far, but the company claims the system will work without the need for glasses (definitely a benefit for driving), and will track head and eye movements to ensure visuals remain in your line of sight.

Are you not entertained?

JLR isn't the only company conceiving ways to keep us entertained once cars are able to roam the streets on their own. Tesla is busy adding games and apps that will keep drivers busy while their cars are charging, and will eventually provide entertainment on the move as well.

Audi, meanwhile, is developing an in-car 3D platform called Holoride, which allows passengers to enjoy a gaming experience that factors in the car's movements. This should help combat motion sickness, which could be a serious problem for in-car entertainment.

JLR doesn't make any specific references to motion sickness, but seems confident that it's cracked in-car VR. "In a fully autonomous future, the 3D displays would offer users a personalised experience and allow ride-sharers to independently select their own infotainment," the company said in a press release. 

"Several passengers sharing a journey would be able to enjoy their own choice of media – including journey details, points of interest or movies – and optimized for where they are sat."

• Self-driving cars: your complete guide

We might need to get used to pervasive video recordings of cars. If you live in the UK, you already know how this works from a surveillance standpoint, and in Russia people record constantly with dashcams.

Yet, in the near future, cars everywhere will record every commute and every family vacation and store the footage in the cloud; cities will record every traffic incident and use the video evidence for more than just handing out traffic tickets. Cameras will be mounted along the road as they are now, but also inside the car pointed in all directions, including one that records whether you were actually paying attention. How nice.

The reason is that over the next 20-30 years, cars will start driving on their own, sometimes without anyone in the vehicle. You might decide to send that 2035 Audi A3 to pick up the kids across town, and someone will want to know whether it actually does the job correctly (by 'someone' I mean the insurance company). We’ll need constant video recordings.

Fortunately, there’s a taste of how that might work in the 2019 Chevy Corvette GS I tested recently. It isn't cloud-based, and the 'performance data recorder' has been around a while. Yet, I used the video recorder for an entire week, capturing mundane trips to my local grocery store, curvy roads where the suspension had to work overtime, and of course the typical burn-out to see how quickly this Corvette can launch itself up to an acceptable posted speed.

Ready for your close-up?

Before using the video recorder, I had to insert an SD card in a slot tucked away in the glove box. The interface for the recorder is simple and intuitive. You press one button to start recording. You can use an overlay on your recording that shows stats like your speed, RPM, and G-force; a more limited overlay that shows speed and not much else, or select an option not to use an overlay at all.

The recording quality isn't fantastic, but it’s cool to see the finished product. There were times when I anticipated a curvy road or an opportunity to speed up to a new posted speed (say, going from only 30mph up to 60mph) and hit 'Record'.

At my computer, I pulled up the videos and started posting a few on Facebook. I could see someone could spend a day at the track comparing the results from the video recorder. However, I kept thinking of how this technology could expand.

One idea is to automate the recordings. When the conditions are perfect for a quick start at a stop sign to highway speeds, the data recorder could start recording no matter what. (This is similar to what some dashcams can do today.)

I like how the camera is mounted in the front grill of the Corvette and all settings are in the main center console display, though. Of course, the videos should be saved to the cloud, but in the future I’d even like to see some AI that analyzes your best time and posts the video to your social media feeds.

Beyond that, video recorders in the front, sides, and back of the vehicle could help you monitor and record your surroundings at all times. That’s good peace of mind for a car that costs $65,900 (about £54,500, AU$97,300), especially if you can record an incident and use the results for an insurance claim.

I like the entertainment aspects, and I’m leery of the 'overlord' scenario where cities know what we’re doing at all times, but I can also see the advantage of video proof triggered automatically without much intervention from the driver. When there is no driver, it will be required.

On The Road is TechRadar's regular look at the futuristic tech in today's hottest cars. John Brandon, a journalist who's been writing about cars for 12 years, puts a new car and its cutting-edge tech through the paces every week. One goal: To find out which new technologies will lead us to fully self-driving cars.

With more data in our cars – easily accessible and well-designed – we can all become slightly better drivers. While some cars use a small monochrome display with barely enough information about the trip distance (say, an older Toyota Corolla), the 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt puts a wealth of data right in front of your eyes.

I was surprised by how customizable this display is, right down to the primary and secondary color scheme. It’s a sign that actual data analytics is coming to cars, especially once we don’t need to do all of the driving.

By 'actual data analytics', I mean something more akin to a business dashboard. I’ve used dashboards like Qlik and Geckoboard before, and they remind me of what you can see and do in the 12-inch dashboard display on the Mustang Bullitt. (That spelling is intentional, by the way–the performance and track-ready muscle car has a powerful V8 engine and is a throwback to the Steve McQueen movie of the same name from 1968.)

Choose your own look

One of the first customizations I noticed is you can change the layout, known as the Cluster Appearance. In a track mode, you can see a large RPM indicator which helps with shifting and acceleration. In 'normal' mode you can see navigation and the current audio tracks. The adjustments are quite detailed. I was able to change one setting to show the actual RPM level instead of the shift indicator. The display can also show tachometers for engine and oil temp.

It’s all bright and colorful, so as you drive the muscle car you can focus on driving instead of squinting at a small display. Another customization that was surprising to me, even after testing dozens and dozens of Ford vehicles over the years, is that you can select both a primary and a secondary color for the display, such as ice blue or green, and then further customize that color. It’s a bit like a palette in Adobe Photoshop, honestly. I picked a strange green hue that matches the Mustang’s exterior color, which is basically a black forest green. 

It ended up feeling like the dashboard adjustments are endless, especially once I started playing around with the track apps, the sound level for the exhaust, and configuring launch mode.

A different driving experience

My biggest surprise was how this changed my driving experience. On many, many new cars, most of the 'fun' settings are in the main display in the middle of the dashboard. It seems every car company – from Audi to BMW, to Tesla and Dodge – they all tend to put the 'computer' oriented settings for the car in this middle display. It makes sense in terms of sitting in a parked car and tweaking vehicle settings or for configuring how the navigation looks, but it doesn’t make the dashboard any 'cleaner'.

I get that it also makes sense to do this while parked, but most of the 'real time' settings on the Bullitt are much easier to use when they are right in your field of view. And, that meant I used them more. I tended to enable some of the track apps more often for helping me see the 0-60 acceleration time, which is something you’ll normally find in the middle console display.

I also adjusted the exhaust mode quite often, mostly to impress passengers. (The track mode setting is quite loud and obnoxious in a good way.) It seemed like this massive display will help drivers even when we're not driving, and when we enable autonomous mode. It will seem like we are working at a desktop or a laptop, pulling up a business dashboard.

The next step? Figuring out a better interface than a simple arrow keypad. Most likely it will involve voice input with bots like Siri and Alexa. Whatever it is, I’m curious to see how new technology takes the Mustang’s interface to the next level.

On The Road is TechRadar's regular look at the futuristic tech in today's hottest cars. John Brandon, a journalist who's been writing about cars for 12 years, puts a new car and its cutting-edge tech through the paces every week. One goal: To find out which new technologies will lead us to fully self-driving cars.

Tesla cars will become a lot more expensive when fully self-driving models are available, says the company's CEO Elon Musk.

Musk has long insisted that a Tesla represents an investment that will appreciate in value over time, which led one Twitter follower to enquire whether customers had a limited time to snap one up.

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In typically reactionary style, Musk replied simply "Yes", but later backpedalled a little and explained that the company would still sell cars, but at much higher prices than it charges currently.

This, he said, is because a fully autonomous Tesla would be able to generate an income by serving as an autonomous taxi when not carrying its owner, thereby making it much more valuable than an ordinary car.

On the up

This isn't the first time Musk has warned that Teslas will become more expensive in future, and the company has already begin cranking up prices. The first hike happened in May this year, when the price of a car with Tesla's Full Self-Driving package rose by several thousand dollars. 

Owners of cars with the Full Self-Driving option will be offered hardware and software upgrades as true autonomy becomes closer to reality. Musk says that each retrofit increases the car's value, so it should be treated as an investment rather than a typical car that begins losing value as soon as it rolls off the forecourt.

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Via Electrek

Someday, a truck will be more like a rolling, portable workshop than something you actually drive. In many ways, trucks are already heading in that direction, and one early sign of progress is the new power outlet in the truck bed of the 2019 Chevy Silverado.

Granted, it’s a fairly minor addition. However, I decided to try quite a few tests with the outlet to see how it all worked, and what life with a truck in the future might be like.

If you don’t know, truck beds have evolved quite a bit since the days when trucks only provided a flat area to store your stuff and move a pile of rocks. Lockable storage compartments were just the beginning. The Honda Ridgeline has a large tub you can use for holding water and ice. Electronic tailgates are common, as are steps that fold out so you can climb aboard easier.

Truck owners – at least the serious ones who do construction work or other jobs – spend as much time in the back of a truck organizing and using their gear as actually driving.

In the future, once a truck drives on its own and we can even summon one to a work site, the storage and organizational features in the truck bed will become even more important.

Power up and roll out

That’s why I decided to load up the Silverado with a few corded power tools, including a drill and a circular saw, plus a few items I figured would likely not work, including a hair dryer and a Dyson Hot fan (because of the high power draw). I also tested a phone and a tablet.

The good news: The Silverado worked great for powering those tools, and made it easy to do some simple projects on a dirt road by my house. There’s one outlet in the truck bed, but you can also use the outlet by the driver or in the cab. I never had any voltage issues.

The Silverado actually has two modes of operation for this work. You can leave the engine running and use the outlets – there’s a switch by the driver to activate them. You can also hold down the truck’s start button for a few seconds to use the accessory mode. This means the outlets and everything else in the truck works, but the engine stays off.

With the engine running, the hairdryer worked fine. In accessory mode, the hairdryer tripped a circuit and shut off – likely due to the high power draw. With the Dyson fan, the outlet didn’t work at normal speed with the engine on or off. That’s not too surprising – I’ve tested the same fan with portable battery generators from companies like Goal Zero and they haven’t worked, either – and the hairdryer also caused a break in a circuit. The Samsung phone charged up normally, and just about everything else I tried worked. I doubt anyone would actually want to power a hairdryer or a fan anyway, so it was mostly to test the power draw.

That said, I loved using the power tools. I had no trouble sawing through a piece of wood and drilling a hole, so the power draw must be sufficient for those tools.

All work and little play?

What could come next? I envision something similar to a utility van but designed even more like a portable workshop.

So, more outlets, gadgets customized to the job of the worker, and sensors that keep track of what is back there (similar to what Ford tried a few years ago with professional trucks). Also, more storage, more options for charging tools (possibly with wireless charge pads instead of outlets), and more ways to customize the truck bed.

At that point, the 'utility' of a truck might be more about the job you do than actually, you know, driving the truck. Although, that will still be an option.

On The Road is TechRadar's regular look at the futuristic tech in today's hottest cars. John Brandon, a journalist who's been writing about cars for 12 years, puts a new car and its cutting-edge tech through the paces every week. One goal: To find out which new technologies will lead us to fully self-driving cars.

Police in Southern California are looking for a Tesla driver who was filmed apparently getting some beauty sleep on a busy highway.

Tesla's offers two self-driving options to take over mundane tasks: Autopilot and Full Self Driving. With Autopilot, the car can steer, accelerate and brake for other vehicles and pedestrians without changing lanes.

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With the upgrade to Full Self Driving, the car can drive itself on highways (overtaking slower cars and handling interchanges), park automatically (parallel or in bays) and come and find you within a parking lot.

These are very impressive, but still require a human driver to be at the wheel and be able to take control in an emergency if something unexpected happens.

"Current Autopilot features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous," the company says.

Forty winks at 65mph

Driver Shawn Miladinovich spotted the apparently napping motorist on the 405 Freeway – a road heavily used by commuters and freight trucks. 

"I’d seen it on the news before, I just couldn’t believe I was actually seeing it," he said.  "I realized he was fully sleeping. Eyes shut, hands nowhere near the steering wheel."

Miladinovich called the police, who say the dozy driver could receive a citation if identified and found.

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Via NBC

Volvo and Uber have whipped the wraps off their first production car capable of full self-driving. The Volvo XC90 SUV base vehicle is kitted out with Uber's self-driving tech, meaning it'll be ready to take to the streets by itself in the future as part of Uber's ride-hailing service.

Volvo – creator of the three-point seatbelt – has tightened its focus on safety over fun in recent months. Earlier this year, for example, it announced that all its new cars will be capped at 180kph from 2020 onwards.

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It's therefore no surprise that, in addition to the base SUV, its contributions to the autonomous XC90 include a raft of features to protect drivers and passengers. 

The car is equipped with various backup braking and steering systems, plus a backup battery, all of which should bring the car to a safe stop if any of its primary systems fail during autonomous driving.

“We believe autonomous-drive technology will allow us to further improve safety, the foundation of our company,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo. “By the middle of the next decade, we expect one-third of all cars we sell to be fully autonomous."

Lessons from the past

However, backup systems don't guarantee the safety of self-driving cars, as was made clear last year a pre-production XC90 in autonomous mode was involved in a fatal accident with a pedestrian in Arizona.

The SUV was equipped with Volvo's collision avoidance system, including emergency braking, but a subsequent report into the accident stated that the auto braking system was disabled while the car was in 'computer mode' to avoid erratic driving.

The safety driver was supposed to be alert enough to take control and hit the brakes themselves in such a situation, and it was subsequently decided that Uber wouldn't be charged with a crime.

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Traditional driving may soon be viewed as archaic. There is a disruptive evolution taking place from human-steered vehicles to autonomous vehicles requiring a holistic ecosystem to spur development and create a monumental, structural transformation of a high percentage of the global economy. Still, safety remains a paramount hurdle for this ecosystem to clear before the driverless existence becomes true reality. 

More than 3,000 road crash deaths occur worldwide daily. Removing humans from the equation is one way to address this, and as a result, technology providers, Tier-1 suppliers, original equipment manufacturers (OEM), and automakers are embracing new business models and making big bets to accelerate the maturation of key autonomous driving technologies. The aim is to achieve Vision Zero, the goal of no loss of life caused by vehicles, for autonomous deployment hopes to reach their fullest potential.

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Core sensor technologies help attain higher-level vehicle autonomy 

Vehicle intelligence is typically expressed as Autonomy Levels. Levels 1 and 2 are largely warning systems, where at Level 3 and above, the vehicle can act to avoid accidents. As the vehicle advances to Level 5, the steering wheel is removed, and the car operates fully on its own. In these first few system generations, as vehicles start to take on Level 2 functionality, sensor systems operate independently. To reach fully cognitive autonomous vehicles, the number of sensors rise significantly. Their performance and response times also need to vastly improve. 

Vehicles with more external sensors can become more fully aware of their surroundings and prove safer as a result. Technologies critical in AI systems capable of navigating an autonomous vehicle include cameras, LiDAR, RADAR, microelectromechanical systems (Inertial MEMS), ultrasound and GPS. Along with supporting an autonomous vehicle’s perception and navigation systems, these sensors can better monitor mechanical conditions (i.e. tire pressure, change in weight), in addition to other maintenance factors that might affect motor functions like braking and handling.

While such sensors and sensor fusion algorithms may help achieve Vision Zero, several factors must be considered, the first of which is object classification. Current systems cannot achieve proper resolution required for object classification, but RADAR – given its micro-Doppler capabilities – is more capable in this area. Although currently a premium feature in autonomous vehicles, RADAR will become more common as the AEM (automatic emergency braking) mandate becomes a reality in the early 2020s.

LiDAR meanwhile is not a standard feature in cars today as it is not currently at the right cost or performance point to warrant broader adoption. Yet LiDAR will provide 10 times more image resolution than RADAR, which is needed to discern even more nuanced scenes. Getting to a high-quality solution –high-sensitivity with low dark current and low capacitance –is the key technology to enable the 1,500 nm LiDAR market, which may lead to its increased adoption. A key capability here is solid-state beam steering, as a high sensitivity, lower cost photodetector technology is needed to push the market to 1,500 nm. 

Camera systems – common in new vehicles today – are a cornerstone to Level 2 autonomy. However, these systems do not work well under all use-cases (i.e. night and inclement weather). Ultimately, these perception technologies are needed to provide the most comprehensive data set to the systems that are designed to keep the vehicle occupant safe.

Though often overlooked, IMUs depend upon gravity, which is constant, regardless of environmental conditions. As such, they are very useful for dead-reckoning. In the temporary absence of a GPS signal, dead-reckoning uses data from sources such as the speedometer and IMUs to detect distance traveled and direction and overlays this data onto high-definition maps. This keeps a cognitive vehicle on the right trajectory until a GPS signal can be recovered. 

Sensor fusion can supplement the shortcomings of perception sensing systems. Required here is an intelligent balance between central and edge processing to drive data to the fusion engine. Cameras and LiDAR sensors provide excellent lateral resolution, but even the best machine learning algorithms require ~300 ms to make a lateral movement detection with sufficiently low false alarm rates. In today’s systems, ~10+ successive frames are needed for reliable detection with low-enough false alarm rates. This needs to be lowered to 1-2 successive frames to provide more time for the vehicle to take necessary evasive action.

New technology needs to be developed and brought forth—enabling advanced perception capabilities at high speeds—to support fully autonomous driving in both highway and city conditions. However, the more this is worked on, the more complex use cases will be identified that need to be addressed. Furthermore, inertial navigation will be a critical aspect of autonomous vehicles for the future, as these systems are impervious to environmental conditions and are needed to complement perception sensors, which can be impaired in certain situations.

The role of ADAS and full autonomy

Another major, non-technical factor one must consider in the goal of achieving Vision Zero is finding a balance between what technology can do and what legislation will allow.

Currently, industry leaders follow two tracks: advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and fully-autonomous vehicles. While the automotive industry feels more assured about ADAS than fully-autonomous vehicles, ADAS technology is still not perfect. 

OEMs and Tier 1 automotive suppliers are currently focused on Level 2 or Level 3 autonomy, as they view these as good business opportunities. Legislation associated with highly-autonomous vehicles isn’t firm yet, and other areas such as insurance and regulations need to be further explored to put a proper framework in place. Robo-taxis, for example, are poised for debut in several US cities. These vehicles will likely be on top of broader Level 2 or Level 3 applications already in place.

Much more work is also needed to improve the performance of specific sensing technologies like radar and LiDAR, and various algorithms that actuate automobiles and conditions. When we get to 2020 and beyond, where AEB becomes more of a standard feature in cars, is where we formally start shifting to Level 3 autonomy. However, further improvements are required to get from where automakers are today to where they would need to be to achieve this.

OEMs really embrace the two-track dynamic. For example, with robo-taxis, they are considering that the economics of this business is entirely different from mass market automotive, as it embodies ride-sharing services. One of the other dynamics within that specific market enables OEMs to place advanced technology in these vehicles to mature hardware, software, and the sensor fusion framework. Even though OEMs have more faith in ADAS, seen more often are instances where they have created separate companies to take greater levels of vehicle autonomy into account. However, there are also OEMs that do not have research and development capital to follow this course, instead partnering with other companies that specialize in autonomous driving technologies.

In the middle of this two-track system lies Level 3+ autonomy. Though not fully autonomous, Level 3+ is more advanced than existing ADAS systems and combines premium performance features with practical functions. Although much higher performance sensors are needed to support Level 3+ applications, such as full speed highway autopilot and AEB+, when the vehicle not only brakes, but also swerves to avoid an accident. Level 3+ features highly autonomous technologies, including a critical sensor framework that lays the foundation for future fully autonomous vehicles. 

Although we are not at the point of full autonomy, Level 3+ automation gets us closer towards achieving the goal of Vision Zero as it balances practicality and performance, combining developments from the two tracks to develop a safe transportation ecosystem. This is the inflection point where autonomous technology becomes much more capable and available to the public.

Journey to Vision Zero

Regardless of industry leaders’ different approaches toward reaching Vision Zero, a diversity of high-performance perception and navigation sensors help get us there. Additionally, high-quality data generated from these sensors helps ensure decision-making software makes the correct decision – every time. The journey to Vision Zero and full autonomy follow the same road. Any player in the ecosystem must keep that top of mind in the coming years given the goal of autonomous vehicle development is to usher in a new technological and business model era, as well as save lives.

Chris Jacobs, Vice President of Autonomous Transportation and Automotive Safety at Analog Devices 

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Google, Ford, Uber, Tesla – private companies are racing to develop self-driving cars, using whatever maps and sensor data is available. The fierce competition pushes technology ahead, but it could pose a risk to society if companies are working in siloes.

We spoke with Miranda Sharp, innovation director at Ordnance Survey – the UK’s national mapping agency, which is working with the government to build a national infrastructure and testing regime for connected and autonomous vehicles.

She explains that as things stand, there’s no consistent, secure way for cars to share safety-critical information, which means a worse experience for everyone – potentially defeating the point of self-driving cars.

“At the moment, it seems that vehicle autonomy is being pursued by vehicle providers, and you can have a dystopian or a utopian view of this,” she says. “In a dystopian view, we all have all the mobility we need. So any time I want to press a button on my phone and a little taxi comes along, picks me up and whizzes me to wherever I want to go.

“But you can imagine, if we all had that, we’d all just spend our whole time in traffic. There would just be lots and lots of pods [...] circling around outside the shops or wherever people are, waiting for them to come out and need to go to the next place, and traffic would just grind to a halt.”

Do self-driving cars even need maps?

Ordnance Survey’s journey into the world of autonomous driving started a couple of years ago. The agency was involved in some research into the way people interact with self-driving vehicles, and realized there was a lot of debate about whether or not autonomous cars actually need maps at all.

In Sharp’s view, the answer is definitely yes. “The technology simply isn't there yet to do it all by sensors,” she explains, “and so they need some degree of knowing where they are.

“And that in itself begs the question of where a driverless car thinks it is, and where are you going to measure the position of that car? Are you going to measure it from where the phone is, in the vehicle? Are you going to measure the very front, or are you going to measure where the steering wheel is, or somewhere in between.

“When you’re talking about autonomous driving, that distance can make quite a significant difference – particularly if you risk being bounced across the bonnet.”

Even with maps, there’s the question of how to share data collected from vehicles’ sensors in a secure, reliable and consistent way – pulling out only the safety-critical data and gathering information on journeys rather than people.

“What’s going to be the output of that data?” Sharp asks. “How might it be usefully used? How do you find the needle in the haystack?

“If you imagine that you’ve got however many cameras around each connected vehicle taking pictures and consuming data, you need enormous processing power just to process it, and then compare it with what you thought you were going to see, find the thing that you weren’t expecting to see, and work out how material that is.”

Handling sensor data

After those early conversations, Ordnance Survey got involved in further research with PETRAS – a multi-national research study on privacy, ethics, trust, reliability, authenticity and security.

As Sharp observes, the UK (like every other nation) doesn’t have a mature way of handling data. It doesn’t appear on any company’s balance sheet, and is often thought of as free – but data transactions will be critical to autonomous driving.

“You want to be able to track journeys so that you can put necessary infrastructure in place, but you don’t necessarily want to track people, so what techniques are you going to put in place to support that sort of transaction, or transaction journey or activity?” she says.

This doesn’t just apply to autonomous cars, but to connected cars as well – which are already mainstream. As Sharp notes, automation is something that’s happening by degrees.

“And then you get into a debate quite quickly as well, about what you do if not all places are connected,” she says. “What about the roads in between connected places – do they have to be connected? Because the telephone companies would say that isn’t worth their while in terms of investment.” 

Sharing for safety

Ordnance Survey wants to a test a neutral, company-agnostic way to compare connected driverless and connected cars, so they can share safety-critical data to make traveling better – and safer – for everyone.

“The important thing there [is] safety-critical,” says Sharp. “So if you’re driving a Porsche, you might consider sitting in a traffic jam unacceptable, and you might like a service that helicopters you to the next port, or whatever. That’s not safety-critical information. There will be services on top of a safety-critical infrastructure, but how do you know if a sink-hole opens up, for example, that all the vehicles [will] avoid it? Not just the ones on the Google System or the Apple system – all of them avoid it, and all the traffic lights support the decisions so that nobody goes down the sink-hole.

“For that you need the position of vehicles, so the position of those that are autonomous and those that are not, and you need all the vehicles to have a common view and a common language so they can share the information, and act upon it quickly.”

Although Ordnance Survey is focused on the UK, it’s working to international standards and protocols, so any resulting system should be possible to export internationally.

“The advantage that the UK has in this market is that we don’t have a dominant player, Sharp says. “So we’ve talked to the automotive council about this, and if one was to do it in Sweden, for example, you’d start from a Volvo perspective, whereas if one was starting in Southern California, you might start from quite a different perspective.

“The advantage of starting it from a quasi-government position is that you’ve got the opportunity to be neutral. Because we’re doing the research, we’re not going to enter the market of the car provider or mobility service provider. We are there, and always have been, to help people understand where they are, the context of where they are, and the safety of doing what they’re doing.”

Breaking siloes

Autonomous cars don’t have to result in dystopian gridlock – provided carmakers are willing to break out of their siloes.                                                 

“[You can] have a system that enables the exchange of data – that enables public authorities to say ‘this road is closed because the air quality is bad’, or ‘this road is closed because accidents have happened’, or ‘this road is closed because it’s school kicking-out time and we don’t consider it safe to have traffic on this road during this time, therefore no vehicles are allowed here’,” says Sharp.

“Unless there is some check on the market-drivers associated with driver replacement, we risk that dystopian future. And so we will have missed out on the goal of autonomy.

“If the goal of autonomy or a connected vehicle is travelling becomes a joy, we won’t have got it – it won’t be a joy; it will be a great chore.”

• Driverless cars explained: everything you need to know

Self-driving car technology is advancing every day, and it's only a matter of time before fully driverless vehicles appear on public streets.

Almost daily, there's a new development in the driverless car space, and nearly every major car manufacturer, ride-sharing service and tech company from Apple to Google has bought into the driverless car industry. 

And, if you take all the driverless car chatter at face value, we’re only a couple years away from a utopian society where cars will navigate and park by themselves, and accidents become a rarity. 

In fact, Google wants to have a self-driving ride-hailing service on the road by the end of this year. Apple self-driving cars, meanwhile, are spotted regularly, driving down the road with rigs housing everything that's needed to run a self-driving experience. 

While the driverless car industry continues to grow, one unfortunate turn in the journey of self-driving cars is a number of accidents, some of them fatal, which show the technology that cars use to spot pedestrians and other obstacles and avoid collisions still has a long way to go.

With more companies applying for permits to test driverless cars on public roads, and more public scrutiny on the tech than ever before, we thought it best to break down how companies like Apple, Google, Uber, Tesla and others train artificial intelligence to see the road—and which AIs might have a blind spot. 

We've also gathered the latest details on which countries allow public driverless car testing, which companies are developing the smartest self-driving artificial intelligence (AI) models, and what the future of the driverless car industry could bring in the next few years. 

What is a self-driving car?

Simply put, a truly driverless car must be capable of navigating to a destination, avoiding obstacles, and parking without any human intervention.

To accomplish this, a driverless car must have an artificial intelligence system that senses its surroundings, processes the visual data to determine how to avoid collisions, operates car machinery like the steering and brake, and uses GPS to track the car's current location and destination. 

Without an AI, cars cannot be truly driverless. 

Companies like Google’s Waymo put have put AI inside virtual cars and have the vehicles 'drive' billions of virtual miles, throwing every perceivable obstacle and situation at the cars to see how they respond. 

The AI learns what actions lead to crashes, and slowly learns how it should drive on real roads.

To perceive visual surroundings, most self-driving cars have some combination of three visual systems: video cameras, radar and lidar. 

The AI synthesizes the data from these different systems to fully map out its surroundings and watch out for unexpected obstacles. 

Most driverless cars require all three: AIs require visual cameras and deep learning software to interpret objects like street lights and stop signs, and while radar catches most obstacles instantly, it’s not as good as spotting smaller obstacles as lidar. 

Still, some vehicles with autonomous capabilities like Tesla's Model 3 don’t use lidar; Elon Musk famously called lidar an overly-expensive “crutch”, and that cameras and radar should suffice. 

One thing to consider: the Model 3, along with pretty much every other “self-driving car” currently out there, aren’t truly “driverless”. 

Most people tend to use terms like “driverless”, “autonomous” and “self-driving” as interchangeable. 

But, there are significant differences in the tech required for an “autonomous” AI that can only handle highways and a truly “driverless” or “self-driving” car that doesn’t even need a steering wheel or human operator to park or navigate. 

Some car companies tend to fog the issue by claiming cruise control tech for driving straight and avoiding obstacles is “self-driving”. 

Mercedes-Benz actually had to pull ads that claimed its 2017 E-Class was a “vehicle that could drive itself.” 

But, until AI tech is sophisticated enough to drive somewhere like a school crossing without any danger to pedestrians, most, though not all, governments won’t allow cars to drive without a human seated behind the wheel.

Why should this matter to you? Because some drivers are feeling safe enough to leave the driver's seat while their car is in motion, putting pedestrians (and themselves) at risk. It's vitally important that the autonomous vs driverless distinction become more clear to the public. 

So, while we’re covering autonomous cars in this piece, don’t mistake them for being driverless; most of them have at least a few years before their AIs can properly navigate the world without a human crutch. 

Why do we need self-driving cars?

For commuters, the answer is obvious: a chance to catch some extra shut-eye, get work done or watch Netflix instead of spending hours navigating through traffic. 

But why have companies invested an estimated $80 billion and years of work into this technology?

For starters, it could simply be a case of jumping on the bandwagon. Pretty much every major car company has developed or implemented some kind of autopilot technology into their cars. Not having that tech available could make a brand look out of date.

But, at least some companies have bold business plans for self-driving tech beyond just fitting in with everyone else.

Most car brands are very concerned with their crash safety ratings. If driverless car tech will truly reduce the rate of accidents, car companies will want to push this tech forward. AI safety ratings could even become a future metric for prospective car buyers to look at.

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Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, meanwhile, plan to make their taxis driverless, which would mean not having to pay human drivers. 

In January, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he wanted to have self-driving taxis picking up passengers by 2019, and that 20% or more of Uber's fleet could be driverless. 

However, Uber's self-driving car ambitions have hit a major roadblock, which we'll detail further on Pages 2 and 3.

Other companies like Ford hope to incorporate their cars into city-wide networks that will track traffic conditions and available parking, so the company's self-driving cars will reach destinations faster than other cars. 

Then, of course, Ford will sell its self-driving cars as a service to delivery or ride-sharing companies; Ford has already partnered with Domino's and Postmates to deliver packages and pizza in a car that's not actually self-driving, but pretends to be in order to gauge the public's reaction.

Most of these companies don’t want consumers actually buying their self-driving cars. 

But, at least one car industry expert claimed that car companies want their driverless tech to be a “regularly recurring subscription model”, where customers, even used-car buyers, have to keep paying for the right not to drive. 

Whatever the reasons, these companies have invested too much money in driverless car AIs to stop now, despite the fact that many countries haven’t fully approved the use of self-driving cars yet. 

Businesses clearly seem to think it’s only a matter of time before driverless cars are on the road.

Where are self-driving cars being trialled?

While self-driving car companies have convinced many state and national governments to let them test their AIs on public roads, nearly all governments strictly limit the cars from driving outside of testing tracks, with a few notable exceptions.

In the United States, 33 states have enacted legislation to allow for limited self-driving tests, but only a few states and cities let AIs be in control on public roads—and even then almost always with strict human oversight at all times. 

The exception to this rule is Phoenix, Arizona, where Waymo has been testing self-driving cars without safety drivers on the city's streets. 

Uber was also testing self-driving cars in Arizona until a high-profile fatal accident led to the state’s governor to suspend Uber's testing privileges indefinitely. 

Uber eventually announced the closure of its self-driving car program in Arizona on May 23. Its program remains suspended elsewhere in the country.

California is another hot spot for self-driving cars, both because Silicon Valley hosts so many tech companies and because California no longer requires a human behind the wheel if companies can prove their AI is up to the task. 

Cities in the US where you’re most likely to spot driverless cars include Mountain View and San Francisco, California; Phoenix, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Miami, Austin, Detroit and New York City.

Europe, home to several huge car manufacturers, has many receptive countries that allow for limited driverless testing. 

Germany recently approved Volkswagen to begin testing self-parking cars at the Hamburg airport. 

For its part, Volvo is testing driverless cars and buses in Stockholm, Sweden. In the Netherlands, Amber Mobility plans to launch a Zipcar-like service of electric driverless cars in several Dutch cities in mid-2018. 

In the United Kingdom, however, the government recently initiated the UK Autodrive initiative to push autonomous innovation, but, at the same time, the government is also conducting a three-year review of self-driving technology’s safety implications, and hasn’t approved testing on public roads yet. 

Australia, by contrast, has begun some public testing, but some reports say the country is lagging behind other countries in scale. 

In Asia, countries like China, Japan and Singapore have enabled companies to begin testing self-driving taxis, but always with a human behind the wheel. Uber rival Didi Chuxing is one company leading China’s push for self-driving tech. 

As for self-driving tech found in cars like Tesla's? You can find that in pretty much every nation, although most road laws dictate that drivers keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road at all times. 

So, who's making driverless cars? The answer: Everyone!

OK, that's not entirely true, and you probably want more details than that. 

Major tech companies, from Apple to Google to Uber, have been working in the self-driving car space. Apple's self-driving car was recently spotted by TechRadar, and we've got a full breakdown of everything having to do with the Apple Car in our in-depth guide.

Almost all of the top-selling car brands in the US— Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Nissan, Volvo, BMW and more—have been working on driverless cars for years, often in collaboration with components providers like Nvidia and Intel.

We’ve got the breakdown on the biggest players in the driverless car space today, plus give insight into which of them look most likely to achieve truly driverless cars in the near future. 

Apple self-driving cars

The Apple Car is a long-standing Silicon Valley rumor, and while initial reports indicated the tech giant would build its own driverless electric vehicle, the story has changed drastically in the last several years.

For its part, Apple has admitted that it's interested in creating the autonomous systems that run self-driving cars, and not an actual car itself. 

Still, Apple is actively testing its self-driving car tech, evidenced by several car sightings in the last few years. Though the vehicles lack proprietary markings, the cars are bedecked in all the gear needed to run self-driving systems and are often seen driving around Apple office buildings and into Apple complex parking lots. 

TechRadar spotted one Apple Car in May 2018 as it was driving on a public road and going into the parking lot of a cluster of Apple office buildings in Sunnyvale, California. The car was sporting a different-looking rig than we've seen on the vehicles previously.

Here's exclusive video of the Apple self-driving car we saw in May 2018

Apple's self-driving cars are coming out of the shadows and onto public roads, but that's not all that's circulating about Apple's automotive project.

In May 2018, it was revealed by the California DMV that Apple's autonomous car permit now covers 55 cars and 83 drivers, giving it the second biggest autonomous car fleet in California, behind GM Cruise's fleet of 104 and ahead of Waymo's 51.

A recent patent also showed Apple's plans to install VR devices into its driverless cars to entertain passengers, another sign that Apple is working on systems for self-driving cars and not necessarily vehicles themselves. A second newly discovered patent describes "intent signals" as a method passengers would use to indicate where they want the car to go.

The patent suggests a joystick, a phone's accelerometer, or voice commands could be used to suggest alterations to a route, choose an open parking space, or instruct the car to park close to a certain part of a store, like near a specific entrance. 

All of this points to Apple's interest and active development in the driverless car space. We wouldn't be surprised to see Apple's self-driving project come to light in the next one to three years.

Google's driverless cars

Waymo, the self-driving car division of Google's parent company, Alphabet, was formally launched in late 2016, but its self-driving tech has been in development since 2009. 

And that near-decade of work has paid off in arguably the most reliable driverless car we’ve seen to date. 

Disengagement—when a human driver has to take control of a self-driving car—is the primary metric by which automakers gauge their self-driving AI's technical skill. And Waymo’s cars lead the pack: Waymo self-driving cars disengage 0.18 times every one thousand miles. 

For context, if a Waymo car drove across the United States and back, a human would on average have to intervene one time. Only GM’s self-driving cars come close to that level of disengagement, averaging about 1,000 fewer miles per disengagement.  

How has Waymo’s team achieve this level of reliability? With a powerful system of six lidar sensors that instantly detect any potential hazards, and a deep learning system sophisticated enough to respond instantly to obstacles and weather hazards. 

Waymo collects its lidar, radar and camera feed information into an aggregate map of the surrounding road, which the company calls x-view. 

The video above shows a stylized version of how x-view can detect people and avoid accidents. 

Waymo’s cars have driven six million miles on public roads thus far, along with 2.7 billion virtual miles inside of traffic simulators. 

Sometimes the car's ability to drive itself can't keep it out of every accident though, as was seen in Arizona in 2018 when an oncoming car swerved across the road and crashed into a Waymo van, injuring the test driver inside.

Still, Waymo hopes to add to its fleet's mileage on public roads in the next couple of years, as it rigs 20,000 new all-electric Jaguar I-Pace cars and an immense 62,000 Fiat Chrysler minivans with Waymo AI tech built in. 

Waymo's partnership with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) could eventually mean self-driving FCA-built vehicles becoming available directly to consumers.

Waymo's bold goal is to launch a “driverless ride-hailing service” in Phoenix in 2018, and eventually expand nationwide. 

Waymo has recently been eyeing Europe as another area for expansion, but it may need to rely on strategic partnerships to be competitive there. Waymo's parent company Alphabet has a shaky relationship with the EU, and it lacks the brand recognition and loyalty that its European competitors have.

We’ll have to wait and see if Uber’s fatal self-driving car crash in Arizona or Waymo's own collision stall any of the company's plans, however. 

Uber's driverless cars

Uber’s relatively late start to the self-driving game hasn’t stopped the ride-sharing company from zealously testing its AI tech on public roads, hoping to beat Waymo to the punch and start its own driverless taxi service. 

After purchasing Otto, a self-driving truck company in 2015, Uber’s ATP developed its own system of cameras, radar and lidar to track obstacles, using a Nvidia GPU to power its AI tech. 

ATP reportedly settled on just one lidar sensor, compared to Waymo’s six, to install on its 24,000 Volvo XC90 SUVs. 

Uber's self-drivings car have driven over one million miles on public roads, though its disengagement statistics don't stack up to Waymo’s: Uber reportedly only makes it 13 miles on average before a human must intervene. 

Though it began with gusto, Uber's self-driving car program is currently in limbo. After a fatal accident in Arizona in March 2018, the state's governor suspended Uber's ability to test self-driving cars in the state. Uber had already shut down tests nationwide following the accident. 

Then, in May, Uber announced it was shutting down its self-driving car program in Arizona completely. It will continue tests in San Francisco, Toronto and Pittsburgh, whenever tests resume. 

When Uber's tests begin again, they will be in a much more limited fashion than before. As far as when they start again, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi hopes to see his autonomous fleet driving in the next couple months.

Uber plans to take findings from the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) investigation into the fatal accident to make changes to its program. The company is also undergoing an internal safety review. 

The preliminary NTSB report reveals that while the vehicle had an automatic emergency braking feature, this was disabled because the car was in "computer mode." Citing Uber, the report says the feature is disabled to prevent erratic driving behavior.

Though the car detected it needed to make an emergency braking maneuver 1.3 seconds before it struck the pedestrian who later died of her injuries, the system doesn't alert the driver to take control of the vehicle. 

You can read more on what is in the initial NTSB report into the fatal Uber self-driving car crash here. 

In light of the accident and subsequent fall-out, Uber’s contributions to the driverless car industry have been overshadowed. 

Work that Uber had done included patenting a way to prevent motion sickness in passengers with a “Sensory Simulation System” that would adjust seats, air flow and in-car lighting to make riders more comfortable. 

In another patent, Uber outlined how its cars could signal pedestrians or cyclists with flashing lights or a bumper text display—”intention outlets” that would help cars feel less inscrutable and difficult to predict. 

What's more, Uber has developed an autonomous truck service that will make freighting goods across the country much easier for truck drivers. 

Despite the work that it's done in the self-driving car space, Uber has a big uphill battle before the public trusts its autonomous vehicles again.

One way Uber is eyeing as a means for getting autonomous vehicles on the road without as great of safety concerns is by partnering with Waymo. Uber's CEO has said the companies are in talks, trying to bring some of Waymo's vehicles to Uber's driverless car fleet. However, given Uber and Waymo's past legal battle over trade secret theft, the grounds for a new partnership seem shaky.

Tesla's driverless cars

Tesla Model X, Model X and Model 3 cars all feature the latest version of Autopilot, a sensor system of cameras, sonar and radar built for autonomous driving on highways. 

Tesla's AI can perform tasks like preemptively shift lanes before an exit or to avoid slower traffic, and can autosteer around more windy highways. 

Once you leave the freeway, your car will warn you to take control of steering. 

As of early 2016, Tesla owners had allegedly driven hundred of millions of miles in Autopilot mode. And, because Tesla scrapes data from all of its cars, it's able to gather information on apparent errors to improve Autopilot over time. That dwarfs the mere millions of public road miles that most self-driving cars have achieved. 

Of course, Tesla’s miles are autonomous, not driverless. 

Tesla does sell models with “full self-driving capability” on its website, but these models apparently have only double the cameras as a regular Tesla and no other major changes. 

Moreover, Tesla admits that enabling this mode would require “extensive software validation and regulatory approval” that isn’t yet available. 

Still, many drivers tend to treat Autopilot like a self-driving mode rather than as a driver assistance systems, which has led to serious accidents, including in recent months.

One recent crash killed a Tesla Model X driver when his car crashed on a freeway in California. The driver had ignored Autopilot’s warnings to assume control of the vehicle. The NTSB is still investigating the crash. 

Aside from some other high-profile crashes, Tesla insists that its Autopilot and Autosteer tech generally lead to a 40-50% reduction in accidents. The below tweet shows how its tech can pick up on potential hazards most humans might miss. 

For now, Tesla hasn’t announced any recent news on true driverless tech, and no one has spotted any self-driving patents by the company, either. 

It’s unclear if Tesla is playing things close to the chest, or if it's content sticking with what it's done so far while other companies duke it out over more challenging AI goals. 

The other major players

Outside of these three major players, many other companies are maneuvering to accelerate public testing, or even launch for-profit driverless car services, in the next few years. 

General Motors, the runner-up to Waymo in AI reliability, plans to start testing its cars in Manhattan this year. 

New York is something of an Everest for self-driving companies to climb: building an AI capable of navigating the city's traffic and hoards of pedestrians is no easy task.

GM's fully automated Chevy Volts each have a $5 million insurance policy for any potential crashes, and can’t enter any school or construction zones. 

If the cars can pass this gauntlet, GM's AI could be powerful enough for the Chevy Cruise AV, a truly driverless car without a steering wheel or gas pedal. 

But, GM isn't going to tackle this challenge alone. Japanese company SoftBank is offering $2.2 billion in backing to GM for a 20% stake in GM's self-driving department. Of that money, $1.35 billion is withheld until GM's autonomous vehicles are commercially ready.

Volkswagen, conversely, is braving the chaotic battleground known as parking garages for its testing. 

At the Hamburg Airport in Germany, VW car owners can simply drop off their cars in front of the garage and activate a smartphone app; the car then self-drives to a free parking space, using its GPS and cameras to navigate.

Eventually, VW has designs to make your driverless car maintain itself, and even do your chores. The company stated how its cars will be able to speak with city systems to find free parking, or drive themselves to gas stations or car washes for service.

Other big name car companies haven’t made their plans public for driverless cars, but do have dates in mind for when their AI tech will be ready. 

Hyundai hopes to have its cars fully driverless on the road by 2021, and Ford also aims to have its driverless AI and traffic-tracking technology up and running in the same year. 

Meanwhile, Google’s rivals in the smartphone industry also have aspirations to take the search giant on in the self-driving industry. 

Samsung recently got permission from the California DMV to test autonomous vehicles. 

And even Huawei has jumped into the game, showing off a self-driving car earlier this year that ran entirely off of camera data from a smartphone.

Finally, Lyft hopes to beat Uber at its own game. Lyft launched its own self-driving division last year, and have since teamed up with Ford and acquired the help of an automotive parts supplier, Magna, for its self-driving car machinery. 

With so many companies hoping to launch self-driving services and ramp up testing in the next couple of years, driverless car tech must be up to the challenge to avoid a rise in accidents as a result. 

Both Uber and Tesla have recently been embroiled in scandals surrounding their self-driving AI after two fatal accidents this year. 

Below, we’ve laid out the most high-profile accidents to take place in the driverless car industry so far. 

After this, you'll find our predictions how the industry could grow in the next few years—if accidents don’t derail it entirely. 

Self-driving car accidents

In 2016, when Autopilot was still newly implemented technology, a Tesla enthusiast fatally crashed into a trailer while Autopilot was engaged. 

At the time, there was awareness that Autopilot had trouble picking up trailers on its cameras, but nothing had been done to fix the issue before the crash. 

The incident was investigated by the US's NTSB, which initially said Tesla’s AI wasn’t at fault but eventually stated in 2017 that Autopilot’s “operational limitations” played a role in the accident.

The agency warned that drivers using the system became too complacent to respond to any potential threats. 

That pattern would somewhat repeat itself in a fatal 2018 accident, when a Tesla Model X driver crashed into a concrete barrier while using Autopilot. 

According to Tesla, "The driver had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning earlier in the drive and the driver's hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds prior to the collision”. 

The NTSB is also investigating this incident, and expressed displeasure that Tesla released its own results of the crash before the NTSB could publicly make its own statement. Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed he had a duty to tell his customers the truth for safety reasons.

Prior to this accident, an Uber car with driverless technology struck a pedestrian as she walked outside of a crosswalk at night. This fatal collision led to Uber suspending all of its self-driving operations indefinitely. 

As with Tesla, the NTSB investigation of the crash is still ongoing, though the agency's preliminary report into the accident has been issued.

As for Google's most high-profile incident, it happened in March 2016 when a self-driving Lexus SUV attempted to make a turn in front of a bus, with the car's AI assuming the bus would slow down to allow it to do so. 

However, the bus didn’t stop, and the Google self-driving car struck the bus’s side at 2 mph. 

In its monthly DMV report, Google detailed the crash, and said it had adjusted its AI’s parameters to recognize that bus drivers are less likely to give right-of-way. 

Most recently, a self-driving Waymo minivan was involved in an accident in May 2018, in Chandler, Arizona. But in this case, Waymo’s AI was not to be blamed for the incident. 

According to the Chandler Police department, a Honda sedan ran a red light, then drove into oncoming traffic to avoid another car in an intersection, swerving directly into the Waymo minivan’s path. The human driver behind the wheel suffered minor injuries.

Waymo released footage of the incident, which makes it clear that neither the AI nor the human operator could have reasonably anticipated the crash. 

Local police initially claimed that Waymo’s car had been in autonomous mode at the time of the crash, but later affirmed Waymo’s assertion that the car had been in manual mode, and they stressed from the start that neither Waymo nor the SUV driver was considered at fault for the incident. 

Speaking with Forbes following Uber's fatal accident, Waymo CEO John Krafcik said that, “We're very confident that our car could have handled that situation." 

Waymo will probably face significant backlash if it does face a serious accident of its own after Krafcik's bold claim.

Of course, we'll have to wait until authorities conclude their investigations into the recent self-driving car accidents before we can fully assess how safe the tech is and what steps need to be taken to avoid future accidents. 

What does the future hold?

The history of the driverless car industry has been one of bold promises, high-profile fiascos, and general uncertainty about the future. 

It’s truly unclear whether governments will ever let self-driving cars operate without a human operator on a national level, though it seems we are steadily moving in that direction.

A research team found that deep learning networks in self-driving cars are prone to make thousands of incorrect choices when faced with tricky scenarios. 

The researchers are hoping to develop a more complete test for self-driving car companies to check whether their AIs can navigate these problems. But, in the meantime, more accidents could be in store.  

However, while accidents will play a big role in the industry’s prospects, perhaps the most important issue will be whether self-driving cars prove to be safe not just from AI malfunctions, but also malicious AI attacks. 

A recent report called The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence, written by academic researchers and Elon Musk’s OpenAI watchdog group, detailed how hackers could infiltrate the AI of a self-driving network and cause cars to ignore safety laws. 

Without protections in place, driverless cars could even become weaponized for potential attacks. The researchers recommended that companies work with one another and with lawmakers to preempt potential hacking vulnerabilities. 

Will rivals like Waymo and Uber be willing to share such data, or will they hoard it? One can hope that companies will see the benefits of working together for the well-being of all. 

If self-driving cars do take off, though, we can expect a future where companies rely more frequently on autonomous tech, potentially at the expense of jobs. Amazon, for example, hopes to lower shipping costs by employing driverless delivery vehicles. 

If anything is uncertain, it’s whether you or I will own self-driving cars of our own. A collection of ride-sharing companies—ZipCar, Uber, Citymapper, Lyft and BlaBlaCar—all released a policy document recommending that “autonomous vehicles (AVS) in dense urban areas should be operated only in shared fleets.”

It’s possible that self-driving car companies will continue to lobby governments for “shared fleet” exclusivity, so that you can only subscribe to their self-driving services instead of owning your own vehicle. 

Of course, car manufacturers like GM and Ford will likely want to sell their self-driving cars to consumers directly, so they might lobby against such proposals.

Ultimately, with billions of dollars invested, we believe these companies will likely make driverless cars a commonplace reality within the next decade—though the road there might be littered with legislative speed bumps and public distrust. 

Regardless, get ready for future generations to roll their eyes when you talk about how, back in your day, you had to drive to work yourself.

• Everything you need to know about electric vehicles

It’s a weird vision: I’m speeding down the street, sitting backwards in the front passenger seat of an electric Renault Zoe Cab and nobody's driving the car. However, this isn't some weird early hours cheese-induced dream, but reality. It’s my welcome to the world of the French robo-taxi during a deep dive into future transportation options on show at the Paris-Saclay Autonomous Lab project.

The aim of the initiative has been to come up with a selection of possible options that will allow people to use a variety of different autonomous travel systems in the Paris-Saclay area. And, while it could work well enough here, it’s also easy to see why the idea could easily be rolled out to other metropolitan areas, not just in France, but around the world.

The scalability of the transport solution doesn’t seem to be the main issue. Dig a bit deeper though and it’s people that seem to be the main obstacle in how far the project will get.

The team involved in the Paris-Saclay Autonomous Lab venture is compromised of experts from Renault Group, transport and infrastructure provider Transdev along with IRT System X who have helped with their model-based systems engineering, VEDECOM Institute for Energy Transition and the University of Paris-Saclay itself. The latter is the location where the testing has been taking place.

It’s an ideal place as there’s a healthy collection of assorted traffic types, cyclists and students distracted by their smartphones. Lots for autonomous vehicle scientists to crunch data over in other words.

Joining the dots

The vision does seem like a good one. The group collaboration has essentially been working on a way of joining up those annoyingly inconsistent dots of everyday travel. Here, reckon the experts, is a potentially cohesive plan for getting you from A to B using a combination of train, autonomous bus, a robo-taxi and a prototype-for-now mini vehicle called the EZ-Pod.

The latter was a curious little two-seat machine that resembled something a small child would draw as a representation of a car. It was lime green and looked quite cool, but was more for show than anything else.

So while it was still early days for the EZ-Pod, the other vehicles on show were the real deal albeit still at the development stage. Currently, in the case of the i-Cristal autonomous shuttle bus, the idea has so far only been trialled using staff involved with the programme and invited volunteers. And it's only available at night, presumably because there are less people about, which makes testing that little bit easier.

Ringing alarm bells

The objective of the exercise on the day TechRadar visited the campus was to illustrate how someone would start their journey by train and then arrive at a key destination, in this test case at the Massy regional station.

From there they would walk outside and board the autonomous Transdev-Lohr i-Cristal. This is a funky little machine that looks like a regular bus that has shrunk in the wash. There’s no driver and no supervisor, as the bus is comprehensively monitored by a control center located outside the train station. Between 12.30am and 3:00am, the autonomous bus, which can hold up to 16 passengers, serves four stops; Massy Palaiseau, Palaiseau Ville, La Vallée, Camille Claudel.

Admittedly, this is only a distance of just under 6km, but it’s far enough to be useful, particularly late at night. And while the bus does exist, and we saw it for ourselves, we didn't get to ride on it, which was disappointing. More importantly, perhaps, for anyone wary of public transport, including solo female travellers, the whole scenario immediately rang alarm bells. 

What, we wondered, would a passenger do if they were in the bus on their own at night and a stranger got on at a stop? After all, the vehicle is unmanned and only has a control center operative keeping an eye on things from a remote location.

These concerns were highlighted while we were at the bus stop looking at the stationary i-Crystal. A slightly dubious individual of the kind who tend to frequent bus stations wanted to get on the bus, even though it wasn’t going anywhere. A spokeswoman from Transdev, while obviously enthusiastic about the idea, agreed that there could be some who would be slightly nervous about boarding a bus without a driver. 

We weren't reassured when it was explained that the autonomous fun-sized bus couldn't be stopped randomly. While it does have an emergency button, it is also programmed not to stop at, say, a traffic intersection. Sensible in one respect, but therein lay the problem. A random attacker won't wait, so a passenger needs to be able to react in an instant. On paper, the plan sounded like a good one, but add people into the equation and currently this part of the A-to-B transport puzzle seemed flawed.

Ride sharing, but with whom?

Faring rather better during the next demonstration was an autonomous daytime on-demand car service, which made use of several Renault Zoe Cab prototype vehicles. The thinking is that people on campus can use the compact cars to get around, either by hailing one of the little blue saloons or by booking a ride using an app called Marcel. Again though, this is another ride-sharing initiative, so there is every chance that the car might stop en route to pick up another traveller.

However, we did at least get to try this service. Annoyingly, the law, plus nervous people in suits from the companies involved, insist there is a real person in the driving seat at all times. So we got into the Renault Zoe cab with a man sitting behind the wheel and also a tech expert involved with the project perched in the back.

Being a prototype, the vehicle was festooned with all sorts of tech, but the interior had been reworked to illustrate the possibilities of sitting in a car without the need to face forwards.

Which is where we started this piece – backwards. With us in the front seat, but looking out of the back window, the car took us on a circuit of the campus. The man in the driving seat just sat there, while the car did its own thing and was impressively responsive. Steering, gears, turn indicators: it did the lot unaided.

There were lots of potential hazards too. We witnessed people cycling along very randomly, unsuspecting joggers and distracted pedestrians, which meant the system had to be on the ball. It actually seemed very impressive.

So the technology is in place and the plan seems like a good one. The only potential issue is down to the people who might use it. Most individuals are fine, but the biggest challenge for an idea like this is if travellers will be happy to share their journey with strangers in a car or bus that doesn’t have anyone at the wheel.

• Self-driving cars: everything you need to know

Thanks to advances on mobile connectivity, we are now able to connect to most devices through our mobile phones. Moving forwards, the opportunities to expand beyond simple connections to mobile phones will be what drives connectivity. With Internet of Things (IoT) technology and the inevitable introduction of 5G, the pace of technology is rapidly developing and we must begin planning for this future. 

Technology has the potential to enable a standard of living in ways previously unthought-of. By using self-driving vehicles as a case study, we can begin to understand how businesses can work towards having a more ethical future with connected technology and the introduction of 5G.

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• How to bend technology toward the positive
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The future of connected technology and infrastructure 

Businesses continually reevaluate their strategies and must work to adapt to new technologies as our world becomes more connected. When we reflect on the devices we use, what we currently have are basic, device-to-device connections. In the years to come, everything is going to be connected - with the implementation of 5G, our connections will be multiplied. Individual’s day-to-day lives are linked with apps which sync to their home devices, but across sectors such as manufacturing, and healthcare, organisations will also become more connected.

When the Internet was first designed, nobody was able to predict the vast quantities of data that would be created and the potential business uses this data could provide. We have been retro-fitting security and regulation ever since. Now we are in a position to better predict the future of technological development. Most IoT technologies are now being designed with data in mind, resulting in better design and implementation. Therefore, we can now build connected devices with the user in mind.

The case of self-driving vehicles

The connected technology which is discussed most often in regards to ethics is self-driving vehicles. This year business leaders and governments are all calling for a responsible approach to self-driving cars. It seems making sure connected technology is handled ethically is already on the top of the agenda in this sector, yet much can be done to make the standards consistent globally. 

Since self-driving cars are undergoing strenuous testing with intense media scrutiny, the global community has made a commitment to creating a process of advanced trials which not only strengthens the guidelines on trial safety for all manufacturers to follow but also ensures transparency so that the public is aware of the standards being met. These kind of standards should go beyond self-driving vehicles and permeate the ethical guidelines of connected technology. 

Governments across the globe must work together to agree and set standards so that the technology industry can move in one agreed direction that also protects individual data privacy as much as it makes the technology safe. Technology is not a barrier and as with all digital technologies, self-driving cars will improve our lives in ways we were not previously able to comprehend. 

The potential benefits in terms of personal safety, environmental impact, and more efficient transportation systems are worth the considerable investment and we should look at the challenges not as hurdles, but as opportunities to drive some of the most innovative ideas the industry has ever seen.

Planning for a connected future with 5G

In recent years, connectivity has improved dramatically. According to the National Infrastructure Commission, “5G means seamless connectivity. Ultra-fast and ultra-reliable, transmitting massive amounts of data at super low latency. It will support the ever increasing requirements of the existing network and new applications as unknowable today as the 4G services we take for granted would have been a decade ago.” To put the UK at the forefront of this emerging technology will be critical for the growth of the economy. 

To build this 5G future with the user in mind, we also must consider how to protect users. The debate is no longer about an individual versus the great community; it is about equal protection for all in the connected world we live in. The cumulative use of technologies such as big data, 5G, artificial intelligence and machine learning can facilitate more reliable, evidence-based and precise findings or decisions, often more rapidly and efficiently.

Securing connected technologies

The market has driven many advances since the creation of connected technology. Now Governments must play a role in securing these technologies. From healthcare innovations to face recognition software, new technologies require us learn them, adapt them into businesses and demand measures are put in place to make sure they are developed and utilised ethically.

It is time for technology companies to rethink their strategies while adapting to the increasing levels of complex regulation globally. Technology firms must acclimate to regulatory expectations as they offer protection to society and social issues. Technology has opened, and will continue to open, the realm of possibilities for businesses. It affects the environment, people and the society as a whole. The way we choose to regulate technology will ultimately exemplify its positive force in our world.

Anshuman Singh, Associate Vice President of Digital Business at Mindtree Europe

• This is everything you need to know about 5G

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) just published its preliminary report on a fatal Tesla Model 3 crash in March, finding that Autopilot was enabled at the time of the incident – and that the crash bears several similarities to another tragedy in 2016.

"The driver engaged the Autopilot about 10 seconds before the collision," reads the NTSB report. "From less than 8 seconds before the crash to the time of impact, the vehicle did not detect the driver's hands on the steering wheel."

The roof of the Tesla was sheared off as it collided with a truck-tractor towing a semitrailer, killing the 50-year old man who was driving. The driver of the truck was uninjured. Neither driver "executed evasive maneuvers" according to the report.

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Based on gathered data, the Tesla was traveling at 68 miles per hour (13 mph above the speed limit) when the collusion happened, and carried on for about 1,600 feet before coming to a complete stop.

Similarities to 2016

The crash is very similar to another fatal accident, this time involving a Model S, that happened in 2016. Again, the Tesla struck a semitrailer truck, and again Autopilot was engaged at the time of the collision.

However, as the Verge reports, today's Tesla's use a revamped, redesigned version of Autopilot that's significantly different from the one in use in 2016. The latest Autopilot has been developed in-house at Tesla.

After the 2016 crash, investigators determined that the Tesla didn't see the white truck trailer against a bright sky. It remains to be seen whether the same problem is to blame in this latest case.

Tesla rates Autopilot as a Level 2 driving assistance feature, and says drivers must be ready to take the wheel at all times while Autopilot is engaged – when that's the case, fewer accidents happen, Tesla says.

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Via Wired

A seemingly low-tech feature on a RAM pick-up truck is actually a sign of things to come for those waiting patiently for the autonomous car revolution.

I recently tested the 2019 RAM Trucks 2500 Big Horn Mega Cab 4x4 – a monolithic beast that looks comically taller and bigger than most pickups on the road. When you use the navigation system, a feature called the Highway Panel appears on the right side of the display.

As you might guess, this isn't meant to be a cutting-edge feature, like something you’d find in an Audi or a BMW. Trip computers, as they’ve been called for decades, are not new. Yet, the panel hints at things to come in the near future.

As you drive, the Highway Panel shows real-time information about points of interest. For example, it shows the miles and minutes left to drive before you reach the next exit. If there is a gas station coming up, you’ll see an icon appear. The panel also shows icons for points of interest like a repair shop and a restaurant.

What I liked about the feature is that it didn’t require any clicking or swiping. The panel appears automatically as part of the main nav window. I used it to plan for my next stop on the highway for gas, and for finding a place to eat. Again, it’s not even meant as overly innovative, and I’ve seen variations of this type of trip computer in many cars over the years.

What’s different is that you don’t have to wade through any menus, the icons are subtle and not confusing, and it’s useful because it is just a side panel on the main nav map.

A virtual family friend

As we inch forward with self-driving car tech, the Highway Panel is more prescient than you might think. It knows which points of interest are coming up, but more importantly it presents this info in a way that is not obnoxious or distracting. In the future, cars will know more about our interests and preferences, but will hopefully stay smart and subtle in how this info is presented.

Here’s an example. Say you are on a long road trip. If the vehicle had access to your credit card activity (securely, of course) it would be easy to know which restaurants you like, which gas stations you usually go to, and even when you last stopped to eat. A gentle reminder about a Five Guys coming up at the next exit would be much safer, helpful, and efficient than making multiple suggestions for places you would never like anyway. With autonomous driving, I envision a future where the car knows us better than say, a co-worker or even a family friend.

The car will have to think for us in more ways than just staying in a lane and braking on cue. Instead, it will need to know what we like and what we normally do. We might be asleep at the time or working on a laptop. Cars will become much more aware of how we normally drive, where we normally go, and what we normally do.

In my case, a car would know I prefer the Kwik Trip gas station, so why bother providing information about any other options?

Our cars will know our work schedules, too. A 'trip computer' would figure out that we should stop for gas at a certain time and a specific location to avoid traffic or stress. 

The Highway Panel in the RAM Truck will evolve into a brain that directs and guides us with more than just a note about miles and time estimates, but would advise us about routes, places to eat, things to do, traffic to avoid, and countless other variables, all without bombarding us with too much information. It will stay in the background, examining what we do in real-time.

I’m looking forward to that future scenario. As long as this brain isn’t too intrusive, if it helps me find gas and a Five Guys faster, I’ll be happy for the help.

On The Road is TechRadar's regular look at the futuristic tech in today's hottest cars. John Brandon, a journalist who's been writing about cars for 12 years, puts a new car and its cutting-edge tech through the paces every week. One goal: To find out which new technologies will lead us to fully self-driving cars. 

Researchers in China have developed a lidar-based system that can capture images of humans at huge distances, even through thick pollution.

A team from the University of Science and Technology in Shanghai created a system that can capture subjects at a distance of 28 miles using sensors capable of detecting a single photon, together with an algorithm that 'knits' together sparse data points to create a high resolution image.

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The system works in a similar way to lidar, sending out a pulse of laser light and then mapping the light that bounces back. This technique means it's able to record images even through the smog that's a huge problem in densely populated cities.

Looking to the future

The system could be hugely important for autonomous cars, which rely on cameras to detect and predict the movements of vehicles and pedestrians, but would be rendered useless by severe pollution.

This will be particularly important for cities like Shanghai, where vehicle automation could lead to a huge improvement in air quality. Automakers around the world are planning fleets of autonomous taxis, which would reduce the need for privately owned cars, and therefore cut pollution on city streets.

Via Technology Review

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Tesla has laid out an ambitious vision for the future of self-driving cars, with plans for a fully-autonomous Tesla model and a fleet of robo-taxis on the road by 2020.

The claims came at a Tesla event hosted in Palo Alto, where ElonMusk waxed lyrical about the technology being developed at Tesla.

Tesla has made no secret of its plans for self-driving cars, with Musk suggesting that Tesla vehicles could one day ship without a steering wheel or pedals, and that automated driving would advance to the point that human driving became outlawed.

While Tesla has a reputation for missing its own deadlines, rapid development in the sector is making fully autonomy vehicles look like a very real possibility in the coming years. We're holding our breath on 2020, but Musk's prediction of "over a million robo-taxis on the road" still doesn't look too far off.

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Look ma, no hands

The event showed off a new microchip, designed to vastly improve the company's fledgling self-driving software, Autopilot.

The chip, which Musk described as "objectively [...] the best chip in the world", was designed in-house and marked a shift away from using Nvidia's microchips inside Tesla vehicles. 

As reported by Bloomberg, Nvidia contested some of the claims made in the presentation, saying that a system made of multiple Nvidia chips would be more powerful – but conceded that Tesla has "raised the bar for self-driving computers".

Musk notably claimed that the hardware installed in Tesla vehicles was already sufficient for full self-driving capability (known as 'level 5 autonomy', which requires no interference from a human driver), and that the company only needed to iterate the software to get to a truly hands-free future.

Via Engadget

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The cost of a Tesla with full self-driving car capabilities is set to rise by several thousand dollars in the coming months.

According to a tweet by the company's CEO Elon Musk, the price of cars with the company's the Full Self-Driving option will rise "substantially over time", with the first hike happening on May 1.

When asked by one follower whether the price rise would be "a few thousand dollars", Musk replied that yes, it would be in that ballpark.

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Tesla's Full Self-Driving package currently costs $5,000 (about £3,800, AU$7,000) if you request it when ordering a new car, or $7,000 (about £5,300, AU$9,900) if you want to add it later, so that's a hefty extra outlay.

Upgrades down the road

The price hike comes as Tesla prepares to launch its new self-driving computer, which will be offered as a retrofit to customers who have already bought a car with the Full Self-Driving option.

Musk says those retrofits will begin in the next few months, and will make the cars "appreciating assets" (a claim he first made during a podcast last week).

Via Engadget

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Someday, cars will drive in a way that is much more planet-friendly. They won’t speed up suddenly for no reason, won’t stay in a gear too long which consumes extra fuel, and definitely won’t brake too fast, sensing problems on the road long before they occur. (Over-braking is also a problem for ‘driving green’ because it means accelerating even more.)

Autonomous cars will also know which routes to use to save fuel, will monitor traffic flows in a way that consumes less fuel, and won’t ever do jack-rabbit starts. Maybe this future scenario doesn’t sound as fun or entertaining, but computer technology in cars is reaching the point where you’ll sit back and relax, possibly reading a book and checking email. 

It makes sense then that the robotic tech will also know how to drive in a way that’s far greener and saves you money at the pump.

Until then, the 2019 VW Golf SE includes an interesting feature called Think Blue that helps you drive more economically. It’s a sign of how robotic tech might perform some of these actions for you in the near future. As you drive, the panel shows a score for how you are driving in real time. There’s also an indicator for when you should shift (since the Golf SE has a manual transmission) from one gear to the next, and your current MPG.

If you tap on the left gauge for your score, you can see a graph for how you’ve been driving recently in the last 30 minutes. You can compare the results from that time you drove like a maniac to work and when you were in more of a leisurely driving mood. On the gauge to the far right, you can also see a graph for MPG level over recent drives.

Gamified driving

Other than the fact that the name might be confusing (the name Think Blue is a reference to the VW logo, but the name Think Green would have made more sense), I liked how the system worked because I was able to pull up the screen for every drive, and there’s a sense of challenging yourself as you drive and thinking about whether you are burning through fuel faster.

My top score of 92 was only possible when I gingerly shifted into gear as prompted, drove slow and steady, and didn’t over-brake. There’s a long list of other tips in the car, including turning off the fog lights to save energy and turning off the AC. Some of those settings would have a marginal impact, so it’s more for peace of mind. In an electric car, disabling some of the climate settings and turning off all lights can help you extend the range and, in theory, also help save the planet because you won’t have to charge up the car as often.

That said, my typical score was more like 65 because, since autonomous cars are not quite ready for full deployment, I’m still in charge and the Golf SE has a turbocharged engine. It’s possible I drove a little more sensibly though, aware of my sporty inclinations.

I kept thinking about how future cars will do all of these things on their own and how we can focus on other things. With a tap of a button, we could instruct a future VW Golf to drive on its own and save as much fuel as possible. That means we won’t have to think about fog lights, and the car will deal with any traffic issues all on its own.

Overall, Think Blue is a helpful aid. It’s easy to use and a good reminder about driving with more awareness about how much fuel you are using and how you are driving.

On The Road is TechRadar's regular look at the futuristic tech in today's hottest cars. John Brandon, a journalist who's been writing about cars for 12 years, puts a new car and its cutting-edge tech through the paces every week. One goal: To find out which new technologies will lead us to fully self-driving cars. 

Volvo is introducing a new in-car system that will watch you for signs of intoxication or distraction, and take action if it can't get your attention back on the road ahead.

Cameras and sensors in the car will monitor for signs that something's amiss, such as slumping in your seat, looking away for a long time or keeping your eyes closed, or not giving any steering input.

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If you aren't driving responsibly, the car could start by slowing down and trying to alert your attention. If that doesn't help, it could then put you through to Volvo on-call assistance, who will speak to you and find out what's going on. As a last resort, the car could find a safe place and park itself automatically.

Stay sharp

That might sound pretty drastic, but Volvo is keen to point out that the system is only for cases where there's clearly a major problem; the car won't pull over or phone home if you glance away briefly or adjust your posture.

“When it comes to safety, our aim is to avoid accidents altogether rather than limit the impact when an accident is imminent and unavoidable,” says Henrik Green, senior vice president of research and development at Volvo Cars. “In this case, cameras will monitor for behaviour that may lead to serious injury or death.” 

Volvo plans to begin introducing the cameras in the early 2020s, and is capping the maximum speed of new cars at 180kph to further encourage safer driving.

"We want to attract responsible drivers and make the Volvo community a safer community," says Håkan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars.

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Nissan has unveiled a brand new concept vehicle, the IMQ, at the high-profile Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland. The Japanese car manufacturer is using the vehicle to showcase the latest innovations that fall under its Nissan Intelligent Mobility umbrella. The wild design underlines what Nissan thinks is going to be the future of automotive transportation, which centres on a crossover arrangement that could feature an all-wheel-drive e-Power system.

The company says that the vehicle would boast a 100% electric motor – though apparently supplemented by a 1.5-liter petrol engine that charges the battery - with a drive system that would be able to provide plenty of instant and silky smooth acceleration. In essence, the Japanese innovator sees it has a natural progression from the e-Power technology that has been used to great effect in the likes of Nissan’s popular Note and Serena models back in Japan. 

Total output for this model, however, would be 250kW and 700Nm of torque, so those beefy looks could be backed up by performance to match. The IMQ will feature an all-wheel-drive setup and a multi-motor system that would be able to deliver a perfectly linear supply of energy to each wheel.

And, while the crossover would doubtless be popular with people pootling and posing around town, it’s going to have a cocktail of power-meets-grip that’ll make it ideal for challenging conditions in locations like Switzerland when it’s snowy.

Invisible-to-Visible

The IMQ also promises to keep tech fans happy too, and it’ll boast an advanced prototype version of Nissan’s already familiar ProPilot in-car innovation. The system provides comprehensive driving assistance, along with autonomous options too. Adding a touch more excitement to proceedings is the additional inclusion of Nissan’s Invisible-to-Visible (I2V) technology, which we got to take a look at and try out at CES earlier in the year. 

Meanwhile, the exterior styling of the IMQ shows plenty of quirkiness, from its V-motion grille at the front, on past some radical body curves through to the boomerang light cluster at the tail end.

There are also chunky 22-inch alloy wheels that feature ‘smart’ tires from Bridgestone. The Connect rubber supposedly informs the driver of tire load, pressure temperature and the amount of grip being provided. All in all, you get an ongoing health check on how you’re making contact with the road surface.

There are other typically concept features too, with one of the highlights being those doors. The IMQ has access via doors that are hinged at their outer edges. That means you get a huge access opening that highlights just how accommodating the futuristic interior is. At the front there’s a ‘gliding wing’ instrument panel followed by a centre console and, around it, four deliciously sculpted seats.

Meanwhile, a screen within the instrument panel displays information relating to the e-Power system, while this is augmented by another screen above the centre console. This is home to the IMQ’s virtual personal assistant, which aids you on journeys with satellite navigation and so on.

The futuristic look is topped off with a quirky steering wheel and ‘soft-touch’ paddle shifting functionality. Nissan wants to do much more with its aforementioned Invisible-to-Visible technology in the future, so the car could be the ideal platform for that. The thinking behind the technology is that it will allow people to get information dynamically about anything and everything, both inside the vehicle and outside it too, and all as you drive along.

Solving inner-city snarls

On a practical note, the system could be used to help drivers manage their route more efficiently, with Invisible-to-Visible helping you find available parking spaces, dodge traffic snarl ups and even, suggests Nissan, see around blind corners. While the idea is clearly a work in progress, we liked what we saw of it at CES and, if it can be suitably tweaked and fine-tuned then I2V could prove to be a really useful addition to everyday motoring. Anything that pinpoints the ever-elusive parking space in a multi-story car park has got to be good news, right?

“The IMQ’s design combines traditional and modern Japanese influences and shows what’s possible when future crossovers are powered by Nissan Intelligent Mobility,” said Alfonso Albaisa, senior vice president for design at Nissan. “With the IMQ, the interior and exterior are seamlessly blended together, signalling what our design direction may be for Nissan’s third generation of crossovers in Europe.” 

Nissan also used the Geneva show to unveil a brace of new model variants of its popular electric Leaf saloon. The company is adding two new range options, the 40kW and e+ 62kW and has boosted its dedicated EV app to help owners squeeze that little bit more out of the top-selling electric car.

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When it comes to safety, we hold machines and humans to very different standards. In 2016, there were 34,439 fatal road crashes in the US, but we regard driving alongside other humans as ‘safe enough’. Accidents are tragic, but they happen.

However, if roads were fully automated and there were 30,000 fatal accidents, would we be so understanding? Would we still call them ‘safe enough’ – and what does that mean?

To get a better understanding, we spoke to Chris Bessette, program manager for autonomous driving at Draper, and one of the world’s foremost experts on autonomy and LIDAR.

Draper is an engineering research laboratory that was originally part of MIT, but span off in the 1970s. It’s best known for its work in aerospace and undersea vehicles, but in the last few years it’s also begun working on safety for self-driving cars.

Autonomous cars might seem like a strange move for Draper, but as Bessette explains, it does make sense when you consider the lab’s heritage. 

“We’ve been working in lots of different areas where you have to build smarts into the platforms,” he says. “You can’t have a remote operator for a lot of the different projects that we work on, so we’ve been building the autonomic capability for decades. We’re able to leverage that in-depth knowledge that we have to help develop an autonomous, self-driving car.

“The other piece of it [is that] Draper understands what it’s like to develop a system that’s safety-critical,” Bessette adds. “Whether it be a missile, for example, or an underwater drone, the application spaces we work in demand perfection. So those thoughts really translate directly to self-driving cars.”

Safety issues

Bessette says the main safety issue for autonomous cars is perception. He splits this into two pieces: the sensors themselves, and the software. You can have the best algorithms in the world, but if the imagery from the car’s sensors is poor quality, there’s no point.

“One thing I think a lot of us take for granted is that the human eye is fantastic,” he says. “It’s so much better than any automotive-grade sensors that we have today. So the first challenge is actually getting the sensors – the cameras, the lidar, the radar etc – getting those sensors so they are closer to being on par, if not totally on par with the quality of the human eye.”

Then, once you have that high quality imagery, you need to use it to make decisions – identifying cars, people and other constraints. “That’s the other major challenge,” says Bessette, “and I think there’s a lot more work that needs to go into that.”

For example, neural networks can be trained to recognize certain patterns, but those patterns can be fooled. 

“So there was an experiment where someone took a standard fire hydrant that we see all over the roads today, and they painted it to look like the Nintendo character Mario. They painted it to look like that, and it tricked all of the nets. They didn’t know that was a fire hydrant anymore.”

That’s a pretty extreme example, but it highlights how brittle the current state of the art really is. It works well enough under optimal conditions, but real world driving conditions can be downright hostile.

Defining 'safe enough'

Bessette says the question of ‘safe enough’ isn’t being discussed enough, but it’s something that Draper is giving a lot of thought. At the moment, Bessette says, the industry is too fragmented. To establish a standard, we need better co-ordination between local, state and federal governments (or their equivalents in other countries) and car designers.

“We have a lot of OEMs, for example, that are doing what they think is the right approach, but all the OEMs are designing to different requirements for what is ‘good enough’,” he says. “So I think that we need to put more co-ordination there.”

He draws a comparison with the Federal Airline Administration (FAA) – the body that regulates aviation in the US: “If the FAA wanted a new safety measure to be built into the airlines, the airlines pretty much have to fall in line in being compliant with that requirement. And there’s not really an analog that has similar regulatory authority for self-driving cars.

“I think until those authorities start to form and start to work with the car manufacturers to work out how you define ‘safe enough’, we have to figure out what that common definition is. And I think it’s going to be difficult because everyone’s designing to something a little bit different.” 

Building trust

Automakers including Ford and Jaguar Land Rover are working on various ways to help human road users feel comfortable sharing the streets with autonomous vehicles. JLR has conducted experiments on simulated roads with cars that make eye contact and beam their planned routes onto the road, while Ford is testing pedestrians’ reactions to a mock autonomous car fitted with an extensive system of light indicators.

In both cases, the carmakers are trying to make the vehicles’ behaviour predictable – something Bessette agrees is essential for people to feel comfortable living and working alongside machines. He cites an example from Draper’s work with another client, where humans worked in ‘teams’ with robots – each playing to their own strengths.

When the robot’s behaviour was predictable, the human-robot team was stronger than the sum of its parts. However, doing something unexpected rapidly eroded the human teammate’s trust. 

“I think predictability is absolutely key,” Bessette says. “If people see self-driving cars that are driving more how humans would, and they can say ‘Oh, that car's taking a right-hand turn like I would,” that helps them almost forget that that's a computer driving the car as opposed to a human.”

Preparing for the future

Autonomous cars are already being trialled in parts of the US (including Boston, where Draper is based), and the UK government has announced plans to begin testing driverless vehicles in Britain this year. However, we’re still a long way from trusting them outside tightly controlled conditions. 

“For example, if a car manufacturer wants to do testing here in Boston, they have to come and explain what their plan is why they want to test there,” says Bessette. “They have to effectively apply for a license. Then, if that license is granted, there are some restrictions on when they can and cannot operate for some amount of time. If results show that they're operating safely and they meet certain criteria, they can then test in a broader set of environments, whether it’s in less-than-ideal environmental conditions like rain or snow. So the reins are relaxed a little bit.”

Self-driving cars on public streets also have safety drivers, who scan the environment for dangers as they would if they were operating the car themselves, but also have a display (often a laptop) that lets them see what the vehicle is planning next. If its course of action looks dangerous, they can intervene and take manual control.

There are companies planning to roll out fleets of totally autonomous taxis. Bessette says this transition period will be one of the biggest challenges for self-driving cars, when we have a mixture of human-driven and autonomous cars sharing the same roads. He doesn’t advocate banning human drivers from the roads when this begins, but hypothesizes that it would make things easier.

“In this transition period we're going to have a period of lots of human-driven cars on the road and some self-driving cars, and then over time the self-driving car population will increase the human-driven car population will decrease,” he says. 

“Interaction between self-driving cars and human-driven cars is going to be interesting because self-driving cars are actually programmed to be to be predictable – this comes back to trust – but they're also programmed to be very conservative probably much more conservative than your typical human driver so how this whole thing plays out will be an interesting dynamic.”

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Researchers at Ford are experimenting with 'driverless' cars that use a simple light-based language to win the trust of pedestrians.

A modified Transit Connect van was fitted with a roof-mounted light bar that flashed white, purple and turquoise to indicate whether it was driving, about to pull away, or giving way – messages that would normally be communicated by body language, eye-contact and hand signals.

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The tests found a high level of trust in the vehicle's signals, and that turquoise was the most effective color, given it's easily seen and less easily confused with the red usually used for emergency vehicles.

More than meets the eye

Jaguar Land Rover has conducted similar experiments, adding googly eyes to self-driving cars, and equipping them with projectors that beam their planned route onto the road.

However, while Jaguar Land Rover's trials used real self-driving cars on a simulated street, Ford's tests took place in the real world, with a human driver disguised as a car seat. The drivers were specially trained, and an assistant in the back of the van served as a backup.

“Fundamentally, people need to trust autonomous vehicles and developing one universal visual means of communication is a key to that," said Thorsten Warwel, Ford of Europe core lighting manager.

"Turning someone into a ‘human car seat’ was one of those ideas when there was a bit of a pause and then the realization that this was absolutely the best and most effective way of finding out what we needed to know."

The company is already testing real autonomous cars on the streets of Washington DC, following tests in Pittsburgh, Detroit and Miami, and will soon begin trials in Beijing and other Chinese cities.

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Jaguar Land Rover is experimenting with a new way to help pedestrians trust self-driving cars: projecting the planned direction of travel onto the road, so humans can see whether the vehicle is planning to pull away, turn or stop.

The company is testing the system on self-driving pods developed by British automaker Aurrigo, as part of an ongoing experiment to help pedestrians feel more comfortable sharing space with autonomous vehicles.

To indicate their intentions, each pod beams a series of bars onto the road ahead. The bars move closer together as the pod slows down, and compress completely as it stops. When the pod is about to turn, the bars fan out to the left or right.

Eyes ahead

Jaguar Land Rover's Future Mobility division is working to build trust after research revealed that 41% of drivers and pedestrians don't feel safe sharing the streets with autonomous cars.

Last year, the company tried attaching googly eyes to its autonomous pods, enabling them to make eye contact with pedestrians to acknowledge that they've been seen.

”The trials are about understanding how much information a self-driving vehicle should share with a pedestrian to gain their trust,” said Pete Bennett, Future Mobility research manager at Jaguar Land Rover.

”Just like any new technology, humans have to learn to trust it, and when it comes to autonomous vehicles, pedestrians must have confidence they can cross the road safely. This pioneering research is forming the basis of ongoing development into how self-driving cars will interact with people in the future.” 

• Will self-driving cars ever be safe enough?

The most frustrating thing about getting a demo in one of the autonomous Aptiv BMWs at CES 2019 was having the driver present. Yep, although these cars are able to drive themselves, and have been doing just that over the course of the last three years around the streets of Las Vegas, rules and regulations state that there still has to be a human behind the wheel.

So, while Aptiv provided the perfect antidote for CES-weary feet, it certainly didn’t offer any thrills – which is actually what the company appears to want. An autonomous taxi ride should be uneventful, thrill-free and, crucially, safe, it says.

That’s not to say the latest incarnation of the Aptiv system isn’t exciting. It’s impressive to watch, with steering, braking, acceleration and indicators all being handled without anyone touching the controls. And, unlike some autonomous vehicles we’ve experienced, the revisions to the way the journey unfolds are subtle but they make for a smarter, more well-rounded trip. In fact, it’s pretty easy to forget that the guy sitting in the driving seat doesn’t have his hands on the wheel and is basically a passenger just like the rest of us.

More data means better driving

The company first got members of the public into the autonomous cars back in 2018 with a fleet of 30 autonomous vehicles using the Lyft network. That number has now grown to 75 test cars, which operate in and around the central Las Vegas area. As you’d expect, this has allowed Aptiv to get all-important feedback from real people, which it has combined with its vast mountains of data in order to tweak and fine-tune the operating system. 

In short, Aptiv has beefed up its what it calls its operational design domain (ODD), which is allowing the company to increase its square mile coverage and also factor in more driving scenarios.

The city of Las Vegas hosts a staggering 21,000 conventions a year and while that means Aptiv/Lyft have lots of potential customers at their disposal, it also means there are an incredible array of different driving scenarios to ingest. In other words, the city of Las Vegas is a dream test bed location for the growing business.

The result (although it’s not really the end, as this is an evolutionary process) is a much better service. The company explains that one of the main areas of feedback that allowed them to make improvements has come from aspects of the ride quality that would tend to make members of the public feel a little bit uneasy in the past.

The engineers listened and if you take a spin in one of the new Aptiv vehicles you’ll find it’s a much more fluid, dynamic experience. The self-driving BMWs take a calmer, more measured approach to unforeseen obstacles and that’s a very good thing.

Interpreting human behavior

Jumping into the back of one of the BMWs in a car park across the road from the Las Vegas Convention Center, we are greeted with a predictable, mundane saloon interior. There isn't much visible evidence that this is an autonomous vehicle, save for the central screen on the dashboard that displayed multi-layered data diagrams of the road ahead.

The outside of the car is also low-key when it comes to showing off its autonomous credentials. There are sensors, most visibly in the grille and on both of the front wings, but nothing prominent.

As we move off, Lee Bauer, vice president of Aptiv Mobility Architecture Group, is in the front passenger seat to offer his thoughts on just how much progress is being made.

“Pedestrians are a real problem here,” he says, "so we've had to do a lot of work in that area. I guess in a lot of ways Vegas is the perfect workspace scenario because you’ve got a lot of unpredictable people and a lot of unusual behavior.

“People also drive very poorly in Vegas too,” he notes, “so what stands out the most with the revised system is that more dynamic kind of flow to deal with these factors. It's a lot smoother. The psychology of going from being a driver to a passenger is a very complex thing and people have a completely different expectation when they're passengers. And, if they're going to try to use that passenger time being productive they want the car to be smooth and the drive to be uneventful.”

Continuing support from the city that has been vital in getting the project to progress however. “We work very closely with the government across all facets of it,” adds Bauer. “Having the Regional Transport Commission (RTC) is a big advantage of Vegas. The RTC controls the entire region via their command center, so you get a one-stop shop in terms of joining up the dots.”

Moving beyond LA

And, reckons Lee, that ever-growing mountain of data is helping Aptiv progress things nicely to the next level. “I guess the interesting point about this car is that it's almost sort of just a regular looking vehicle,” he notes. “And, again, that was always the objective. We wanted to make it seem like a regular experience. What people don’t realise is that cars are probably 90% capable of doing more than you're aware of. At the same time, increasingly, a lot of younger people don’t care about cars. The only time I ever opened the bonnet of my car was to get a leaf out.”

Everyone still needs transportation, so the ability to have autonomous people-moving services seems like a very good area to be investing time and money. However, it’s complex on many different levels.

“Every country is different and in different ways,” Lee says. “But cities like Las Vegas are helping and we’ve also been working with people in other locations, such as Singapore where they’re progressive and open-minded too.”

So while it might not happen overnight, the gradual proliferation of autonomous people-moving machines isn’t as far off in the future as you might think.

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