Autonomous Vehicles
Autonomous Vehicles
Japan's All Nippon Airways testing autonomous bus at Tokyo's Haneda Airport
Japan's largest airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) has begun the second stage of testing for an autonomous, driverless bus at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.
In collaboration with several companies, ANA began testing the autonomous bus on Tuesday, Jan. 15, in a series of trials scheduled to run through Jan 25.
During the trials, the bus will operate autonomously, but a human driver will be present to take over if necessary (Level 3 automation). The vehicle will be limited to the restricted area of Haneda Airport where aircraft and cargo vehicles are located.
ANA says that if the trials are successful, it will seek to implement the driverless bus technology into the airport by next year.
Driverless shuttle project expected to launch in Utah next month
According to KSL.com, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and the Utah Transit Authority have partnered to launch a driverless shuttle pilot project. The shuttle is expected to make its debut the first week of February at the Utah State Capitol.
The project will utilize an EasyMile electric shuttle to transport people from a variety of locations.
The locations have not been released by UDOT as of yet, but UDOT notes that the shuttle will most likely be tested on closed campuses as opposed to busy roads.
Sea Machines Robotics establishes new dealer program to further reach of its autonomous vessel control technology
Sea Machines Robotics has established a new dealer program that will be used to support the global sales of the company’s autonomous vessel control technology across key commercial marine markets.
The program includes several strategic partners who are authorized to sell, install and service Sea Machines’ line of intelligent command and control systems for workboats.
The Sea Machines dealer network includes several initial builders and specialists such as Marine Group Boat Works in San Diego, California, Pinpoint Electronics in Plymouth, United Kingdom, and Technology Ventures in the United Arab Emirates.
Walmart and Udelv to deliver fresh groceries via autonomous vehicles in Arizona
Walmart has announced a new pilot project with Udelv to test autonomous vehicle technology in Surprise, Arizona.
During the pilot, fresh groceries hand-picked by Walmart’s personal shoppers will be delivered to customers by Udelv, using a cargo van custom-made to deliver the items.
“We’re still learning – it’s a pilot – but, we want to make sure we stay on the cutting edge of grocery delivery by exploring what’s new and next,” Walmart says.
In addition to its pilot with Walmart, Udelv also debuted the latest model of its self-driving delivery vans—featuring new state of-the-art technology—this week during CES 2019.
TuSimple making three to five fully-autonomous trips per day in Arizona
In response to growing commercial demand from 12 contracted customers, TuSimple has announced that it currently has 11 trucks operating fully autonomously in the U.S., with plans for that number to reach 40 by June.
TuSimple has also announced that right now, it makes three to five fully-autonomous trips per day for customers on three different routes in Arizona, with another route from Arizona to Texas expected to launch early next year.
According to TuSimple, it is the only self-driving truck company running daily fully-autonomous commercial routes from depot-to-depot, which requires highway driving, as well as local street driving.
Transdev and Torc Robotics partner to work on fully autonomous shuttle platform
During CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Transdev and Torc Robotics announced that they will work together on a fully autonomous shuttle platform, as the companies believe that shuttles and smaller vehicles will provide complementary mobility to existing public transportation networks across the globe.
Transdev and Torc will integrate Torc’s L4 Asimov self-driving software into the embedded intelligence system of the i-Cristal autonomous shuttle, which was unveiled in September 2018 by Transdev and French industrial company Lohr.
Xilinx and ZF Friedrichshafen partner to enable automated driving applications
With enabling automated driving applications in mind, Xilinx Inc., which specializes in adaptive and intelligent computing, has announced a new strategic collaboration with German car parts maker ZF Friedrichshafen that will result in Xilinx’s technology powering ZF's highly-advanced artificial intelligence (AI)-based automotive control unit known as ZF ProAI.
Xilinx’s Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC platform is being used by ZF to handle real-time data aggregation, pre-processing, and distribution. The platform is also being used to provide compute acceleration for the AI processing in ZF's new AI-based electronic control unit.
Tech startup Spare believes its on-demand technology can be applied to driverless transportation systems
According to the Vancouver Sun, a Vancouver-based tech startup called Spare is part of a Norwegian/Canadian consortium that was selected as one of five competitors in an experiment to test fleets of automated buses in six different European cities.
Initially launched as a platform for arranging carpools, Spare has experience applying its technology to on-demand service-scheduling for transit systems in Oslo and Stavanger, Norway, which led to it being invited to join SAGA, the Norwegian-based team, according to Spare CEO Kristoffer Vik Hansen.
