Autonomous Vehicles

Technology and transportation experts weighed in on the autonomous, drone and electrification technologies potentially needed to power the package deliveries of the near and distant future.

After their success in other locations, Waymo has announced their plan to bring their robotaxi service to Los Angeles. The company has been mapping the roads since 2019 but does not know when the service will be available.

Earlier this week, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that it had begun a three-day demonstration period to test the use of electric autonomous vehicle shuttles at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The rural northern community of Grand Rapids is now being served by Minnesota’s Autonomous Rural Transit Initiative, an 18-month pilot program to explore the use of self-driving on-demand microtransit.

The CEO of Zoox, Amazon.com Inc.’s self-driving unit, says that the company’s technology could be on city streets “sooner than people expect” during the Bloomberg Technology Summit in London this week.

A study by Carnegie Mellon University found that if at least 20 percent of cars are autonomous vehicles, traffic systems may start to see the operational improvements these vehicles are expected to bring.

The Urban Institute’s new report around autonomous vehicles advises they have the potential to greatly improve the transportation systems in the United States, with the proposed set of regulatory controls and incentives.

The autonomous transportation projects being lead by the Minnesota Department of Transportation are testing not the technology, but the use cases these new forms of mobility can serve.

Tesla, under federal investigation and facing a California DMV complaint over driver-assistance technology, is accused of deceiving buyers and the public with claims about its "Autopilot" and "self-driving" systems.

Four pilot projects in cities across the country demonstrated some of the everyday challenges faced by deployments of small, self-operating delivery robots. The infrastructure the device must navigate can be a major limitation.

Robotic people-moving pods were recently tested at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The autonomous electric vehicles are designed to transport people in need of assistance in crowded places like airports and malls.

Waymo announced earlier this week its fleet of self-driving semi-tractor-trailers would increase to 60. In addition, the company will begin operating on public roads in Texas and Arizona.

Interstate 66 in northern Virginia will be operated through a public-private partnership, deploying the latest in technology to enable dynamic tolling lanes and real-time traffic management for a range of mobility users.

Focused on autonomous vehicle research, the University of Maine's Virtual Environment and Multimodal Interaction Lab created a ride-hailing app that assists older adults and visually impaired passengers.

On Tuesday, Lyft and Motional, an autonomous vehicle company, announced the launch of a new all-electric, autonomous vehicle on the Lyft network in Las Vegas. For the time being, rides will be accompanied by two safety drivers.

Following an autonomous shuttle pilot project at Fort Carson in Colorado, US Ignite released a report detailing the project’s strengths and weaknesses. The report comes as interest in the technology grows at the municipal level.

As the Pennsylvania Senate prepares to consider legislation that could make it possible to conduct self-driving testing without a person behind the wheel, the issue is more important than ever.

The agency alleges the electric carmaker misled customers with advertising language on its website describing Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies as more capable than they actually are.