Kangaroos are confusing Volvo’s self-driving cars

Volvo seems to have run into trouble with a certain marsupial as they test their self-driving cars in Australia. The car maker has discovered that kangaroos are both a nuisance and a source of confusion for its self-driving vehicles. This isn’t the first time Volvo’s detection system has been exposed to large animals. In Sweden, it’s responded to deer, caribou, and elk. But the unusual pattern that kangaroos move seems to have thrown these machines into a loop.

“When it’s in the air it actually looks like it’s further away, then it lands and it looks closer,” Volvo Australia’s Technical Manager David Pickett explains to ABC. Kangaroos aren’t just wreaking havoc with Volvo’s cars, these marsupials have been the cause of vehicle collisions in Australia. But it’s a good thing that this was detected early on to avoid any catastrophic run-ins with the creature somewhere down the line. But it does seem to delay Volvo’s plans a bit. Or at least make things a bit more challenging as they aim to sell autonomous driving vehicles by 2021.

Source: Engadget + The Verge

Ford to invest US$1 billion into autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI

REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

Not wanting to be left behind in the self-driving car race, Ford is pouring a US$1 billion investment over five years at Argo AI. The previously unheard of startup is led by Uber and Google veterans. They will be working with Ford’s team to create a fully self-driving car by 2021. The cars will be used for commercial ride sharing fleets. Argo AI won’t be owned by Ford but the company is the largest shareholder. The startup will be focusing on artificial intelligence and robotics side of the system to help develop Ford’s “virtual driver system.”

Argo AI plans to hire 200 more employees to get the job done. A possible enticement when it comes to recruitment is that employees could have equity stake in the company. "They have the opportunity to run it pretty independently with a board, but because it is a separate company or subsidiary, it has the opportunity to go out and recruit with competitive compensation packages and equity,” Ford Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields says at a press conference.

Alphabet’s Waymo in talks with Honda regarding self-driving car tech

After Google recently spun out its self-driving car division into Waymo, it looks like the new Alphabet company is trying to strike a big deal. Honda announced it is entering talks with Waymo on integrating autonomous vehicle tech into its cars. The discussion is still in its very early stages but Honda is proposing to give Waymo modified vehicles to help speed the process along. The new announcement isn’t meant to derail Honda’s own automated driving plans, which it intends to have self-driving cars on the road by 2020, but will be considered a “different technological approach.” If it does push through though, this would help legitimize Waymo further as a viable option for manufacturers who just plan to integrate an established self-driving platform over creating their own version.

Source: Engadget

Former head of Google’s self-driving car initiative looks to start his own autonomous vehicle company

The autonomous vehicle market is growing quiet quickly and hoping to join in on the fun is a former Googler. Chris Urmson, the ex-chief technology officer for Google’s self-driving car program, is said to be preparing to launch his own company that will compete not just with its former employer but with the many others working on autonomous vehicles. Urmson was approached by a lot of self-driving startups and Silicon Valley companies when he left Google back in August but he’s decided to strike out on his own.

He’s reportedly in talks for the past month with engineers from the likes of Uber, Tesla, and Apple in hopes of having them work with him. What Urmson wants to bring to the market is a complete self-driving package, including everything from software, data, to hardware. He’d allow the package to be licensed and altered by automakers, much like what Microsoft does with Windows.

Source: ReadWrite