Autonomous Vehicles

A futuristic project that would bring self-driven autonomous vehicles to New Jersey’s capital city has received interest from about 20 companies, city officials said this week, with one company holding a demo.

Uber Eats is launching two autonomous delivery pilots in Los Angeles with Serve Robotics, a robotic sidewalk delivery startup, and Motional, an autonomous vehicle technology company. The pilots will focus on shorter and longer trips respectively.

A connected vehicle project with vehicle-to-everything technology in Georgia will continue a trend in the transportation sector that merges traditional highway infrastructure with digitally connected vehicles.

The state of Michigan and the National Park Service will be partnering on a number of transportation projects to address issues like congestion and parking, as well as increase electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

The Pittsburgh Robotics Network is made up of about 140 organizations, which includes more than 90 commercial robotics businesses, securing the region as a central hub for robotics research and development.

The K5 Autonomous Security Robot is a crime-fighting robot that patrols, prevents and protects, according to its maker. The machine can also take photos and videos for security purposes.

The headwinds facing electric vehicle adoption range from supply side issues to charging infrastructure. However, EV observers see things gradually moving toward electrification and “transportation-as-a-service” models.

States have taken a wide range of approaches to regulating autonomous vehicles. In places like Florida, some argue that the market and insurance companies should set the tone. Other states are much more prescriptive.

In many Tesla vehicles, the boombox function can blast music outside of the car itself. The feature violates federal standards in that the noise can drown out pedestrian warning system sounds.

Experts from the world of autonomous vehicles weighed in on when we might see the personal self-driving car appear at our doorsteps, and some of the other use cases on the more immediate horizon.

Many food delivery robots aren't autonomous in the purest sense and require a human superviser and driver. Delivery robot startups like Coco are benefiting from a relatively untapped workforce: Generation Z.

Arlington RAPID, an on-demand, autonomous service, launched a year ago and is already planning for an expanded operation. The vehicles operate in autonomous mode about 80 percent of the time.

A study indicates that autonomous trucks could replace 500,000 long-haul jobs, or approximately 90 percent of human long-haul trucking. Truckers have said that long-haul jobs can be automated.

Kirkland, Wash., has a citywide moratorium that prevents Amazon autonomous robots from delivering goods. The moratorium is intended to give officials enough time to work out related issues like safety and zoning.

There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about the slow adoption of AVs, but real progress is being made in the space. The path to large-scale adoption remains unclear, though more players are entering the game.

Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Mich., is partnering with a number of companies to deploy autonomous technology in its operations. The controlled nature of the environment makes it ideal to test this tech.

Steve Reinharz, CEO of Robotic Assistance Devices, hopes that one of his company's 750-pound robotic security guards will start patrolling an Orlando, Fla., theme park by the end of the year.

The driverless car company — which is owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc. — operates an autonomous taxi fleet in San Francisco, and the question in the suit is whether public safety-related data can be a trade secret.