Tesla's Autopilot feature gets approved for international use

We’re inching closer and closer to driverless cars. Tesla’s keeping ahead of that curve with its Autopilot feature. Tesla was planning to release the feature around the world once it got regulatory approval. The day has arrived as Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter they got international release approval for all countries except for Japan, which is still under review.

Now, if you want your Tesla to do the driving for you can do so. A new Autopilot 1.01 update is coming out soon with better fleet learning, improved lane tracking on poor roads, curved speed adoption, and controller smoothness. The company’s semi-autonomous driving feature, Autosteer, is in beta. Drivers are still encouraged to keep their hands on the wheel as the car navigates because in case the system detects a section it can’t navigate, it will prompt you to take over the wheel.

Source: Engadget

Uber now has its own mapping cars

Uber’s latest ambitions include entering the autonomous driving space and improving data routing collection. They’re taking steps for both with its new mapping efforts. Uber mapping vehicles have been already been spotted in the US. The company may have missed out on buying Nokia’s HERE mapping service but they acquired Bing’s mapping assets and its team members. And this acquisition is helping them work on improving ETAs and boost routing technology within the driver’s app. Right now they make use of a combination of Google Maps and a proprietary routing algorithm.

Another reason for the ramped up mapping efforts is to support Uber’s bid into the autonomous car space. There are fleets of mapping vehicles near Uber’s Advanced Technology Centers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and near the University of Arizona that make use of the company’s proprietary technology to capture images for routing and safety needs of its autonomous cars.

Source: BuzzFeed | Via: Android Central