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Driverless Taxi’s?
Autonomous Taxi’s which don’t require a human as back up are one step closer to becoming reality after a test programme was announced which would trial these “on demand, driverless services” on public roads from next year.
Delphi and Transdev are looking to launch 2 Renault “Zoe” autonomous taxi’s in Rouen, Normandy and a shuttle van between a rail station and a campus in the University district of Paris-Saclay to trial this super cool scheme. During the scheme there’ll be drivers behind the wheel to take over if any problems arise, but the plan is to phase out behind the wheel drivers for employees at a central dispatch location to watch over journey’s and take over from there, manually if required.
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Vespa Personal Robot
Piaggo Group the people behind the well known Motorbike brand Vespa, are creating a personal cargo robot (so basically an every day version of a personal robot caddy) called Gita under a new brand called Piaggio Fast Forward. This little robot can carry up to 40lbs worth of supplies autonomously via maps or by following its user. The little robot is a nippy little guy too with a top speed of 22mph and according to the website has human like abilities to turn with a zero turning radius. The Gita is not just limited to the streets either, it can be used inside as well!
It is expected to be trifled in business to business test programs however Piaggio intends to release something to the wider public for personal use. More information is expected to be released February 2nd.
To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!
Uber Self Driving Cars
Originally Uber had self driving cars in San Francisco, California. Until there was some legal trouble and the California Department of Motor Vehicles banned them from San Fran – now Uber have moved their self driving cars pilot scheme to Arizona.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey flirted with Uber on Social media stating that: “California may not want you; but AZ does!”
Although California has banned them – the DMV have asked Uber to apply for a registration for autonomous vehicle testing, saying that it has a dedicated team to help expedite the process for them. The company spoke of the ban and argued that it behaved differently than Tesla, as they produce electric cars which include an autopilot feature. So didn’t apply for a license for California’s autonomous driving rules as their cars require oversight by a human driver.
The California vehicle code defines an autonomous vehicle as – “technology that has the capability to drive a vehicle without the active physical control or monitoring by a human operator.” – California’s DMV rules in state that a human driver is required to take control of autonomous vehicles
Companies are required to file reports when drivers intercede or their cars crash. Tesla doesn’t file any such reports and similarly believes it doesn’t meet the requirements for autonomous vehicles.
Uber also operates self driving cars in Pittsburgh, California was the second state in which the pilot program began.
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Apple’s interest in Self Driving Cars!
It’s technologies worst kept secret – Apple are planning to get into the world of driverless cars – this week it became concrete. Apple have sent a letter to the United States ‘National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’ and put forward in detail how excited they are about automation in the transportation field amongst others.
They want to address any ethical issues that they may encounter alongside any regulatory issues, to help the car industry further Apple are calling for companies to share crash data to improve safety but not at the risk or cost of privacy.
While it seems Apple are going to be investing heavily in the autonomous/driverless car industry it is not clear if the company are planning to make their own vehicles or they’re sticking to the software side, either way we’re very excited about an Apple car.
Listen to the guys chatting about this here!