China’s Best Self-Driving Car Platforms, Tested and Compared

I experienced the City NGP function under XNGP in a P7i in Shanghai, and later in a G6 in Guangzhou. With my second experience I soon realized it was a tale of two cities. In Shanghai it was quite smooth, and at least one of the interventions made was due to me being disoriented rather … Read more

A First Look at Matic, the Reengineered Robot Vacuum

Within a few minutes of arriving at the WIRED offices in San Francisco, Matic cofounder Mehul Nariyawala brings up the classic Paul Graham piece on schlep blindness. The essay talks about how engineers will often shrink away from starting a company to tackle a very commonly understood problem simply because solving that problem would require … Read more

Massive Layoffs Hit Troubled Robotaxi Developer Cruise

Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving development subsidiary, will lay off almost a quarter of its workforce—about 900 employees—the company announced Thursday. The cuts are part of a broader restructuring to focus the robotaxi unit on a narrower path to commercialization. Instead of expanding its commercial robotaxi service to multiple US cities, the company will relaunch its … Read more

Kyle Vogt, CEO of Robotaxi Developer Cruise, Resigns As Questions Linger Over Grisly Crash

Kyle Vogt, the CEO of self-driving car developer Cruise who founded the company before its acquisition by General Motors in 2016, resigned this evening. His announcement comes amid upheaval at the company, which last month had its permit to operate its groundbreaking robotaxi service in San Francisco suspended by state regulators. “The status quo on … Read more

GM’s Cruise Rethinks Its Robotaxi Strategy After Admitting a Software Fault in Gruesome Crash

In August 2016, WIRED visited the San Francisco offices of a young startup recently snapped up by a surprising buyer. General Motors acquired three-year-old Cruise for a reported $1 billion in hopes the straitlaced Detroit automaker could coopt the self-driving technology tipped to disrupt the auto industry. Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt—a scrappy Twitch cofounder who … Read more

GM’s Cruise Halts Self-Driving Operations Across the US After Regulator Safety Fears

Cruise, the self-driving arm of General Motors, said late today it had halted its robotaxi service across the US and would no longer operate its vehicles without safety drivers behind the wheel. That decision to hit the brakes comes two days after California regulators suspended the driverless-car company’s permit in San Francisco, alleging that Cruise … Read more

GM’s Cruise Loses Its Self-Driving License in San Francisco After a Robotaxi Dragged a Person

Cruise says the vehicle then stopped again. Emergency responders arrived soon after, according to TV station NBC Bay Area, and the San Francisco Fire Department said the victim was “extricated from beneath the vehicle using rescue tools.” The department said she was transported to the hospital with multiple traumatic injuries. The human driver of the … Read more

Remote Driving Is a Sneaky Shortcut to the Robotaxi

On the busy streets of suburban Berlin, just south of Tempelhofer Feld, a white Kia is skillfully navigating double-parked cars, roadworks, cyclists, and pedestrians. Dan, the driver, strikes up a conversation with his passengers, remarking on the changing traffic lights and the sound of an ambulance screaming past in the other direction. But Dan isn’t … Read more

Cruise and Waymo Robotaxis Can Now Work the Streets of San Francisco 24/7

California right now cleared all-day paid robotaxi service in San Francisco—with limitless fleets of self-driving vehicles. Quickly, anybody within the metropolis would possibly be capable of hail a driverless automobile with a couple of faucets of a telephone. And San Francisco cab and ride-hail drivers could have new, automated competitors. The three-1 vote by the … Read more

Uber’s Deadly Self-Driving Automotive Crash Saga Ends With the Operator Avoiding Jail

Whereas Vasquez and Uber could discover some closure within the plea deal, self-driving professional Bryant Walker Smith says the NTSB ought to revisit the Slack subject to seek out the reality. “I don’t need the story of the primary automated automobile fatality to be a lie. Or be a matter of disputes,” says Walker Smith, … Read more