Tag: vehicle

Bloodhound preps for land speed record with 200MPH test run

It’s finally happened. Nine years after the Bloodhound project was announced at London’s Science Museum , the supersonic car has completed its first test runs. At a closed-off airstrip near Newquay airport, Cornwall, the monstrous vehicle roared across the tarmac at roughly 200 MPH. That figure is a long way off the team’s ultimate goal of 763 MPH, however, and a new world land speed record. Eventually, the team hopes to crack 1, 000 MPH at the dusty Kalahari desert in South Africa. Before then, however, the team had to prove that the car was more than vapourware and broken promises. Today, the car relied on a Eurojet EJ200 jet engine for thrust. That on its own could take the car to 650 MPH. The final configuration will also have a rocket system provided by Nordic aerospace company Nammo. For the initial record attempt, the Bloodhound will use a single monopropellant rocket which can produce around 40kN of thrust. It will then be swapped out for a hybrid rocket system that, combined with the jet engine, can carry the car to 1, 000 MPH. In total, the vehicle will produce 212kN of thrust, which is eight times the power output of a Formula 1 starting grid. To install the rocket system, however, Bloodhound needs cash. Funding has always been a problem for the team in Bristol, which relies on sponsorship and fan donations to operate. The trial runs in Cornwall, then, serve two purposes; they’re a vital form of testing, giving the team valuable data and insight into the practicalities of running the vehicle. They are, though, also a marketing tool which the team hopes will attract the interest and, ultimately, the cash of a deep-pocketed investor. Without extra funding, the team will have to delay its record attempt in late 2018. Bloodhound is driven by Andy Green, an RAF pilot who set the previous world land speed record with the Thrust SSC in 1997. He’ll be piloting the vehicle both for the initial land speed record (the team hopes to hit about 800 MPH) and the 1, 000 MPH attempt. Bloodhound is a complicated and intimidating car to operate, measuring 13.4 meters and weighing roughly seven and a half tonnes. In Cornwall, however, Green seemed unfazed —excited even — as he clambered into the cockpit. We’re not surprised; he’s waited as long as the public to finally push the accelerator pedal. Here’s hoping it won’t be quite as long before we see Bloodhound run again.

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Bloodhound preps for land speed record with 200MPH test run

NVIDIA introduces a computer for level 5 autonomous cars

At the center of many of the semi-autonomous cars currently on the road is NVIDIA hardware. Once automakers realized that GPUs could power their latest features, the chipmaker–best known for the graphics cards that make your games look outstanding–became the darling of the car world. But while automakers are still dropping level 2 and sometimes level 3 vehicles into the market, NVIDIA has announced its first AI computer, the NVIDIA Drive PX Pegasus that it says is capable of level 5 autonomy. That means no pedals, no steering wheel, no need for anyone to ever take control. The new computer delivers 320 trillion operations per second, 10 times more than its predecessor. Before you start squirreling away cash for your own self-driving car, though, NVIDIA’s senior director of automotive, Danny Shapiro, notes that it’s likely going to be robotaxis that drive us around. In fact, the company said that over 25 of its partners are already working on fully autonomous taxis. The goal with this smaller more powerful computer is to remove the huge computer arrays that sit in the prototype vehicles of OEMs, startups and any other company that’s trying to crack the autonomous car nut. NVIDIA’s announcement should make all those companies happy. The computing needed to power a self-driving car’s AI and data crunching not to mention the huge amounts of data coming from potentially dozens of cameras, LiDAR sensors , short and long-range radar is staggering and usually means there’s a small server room stored in the trunk. All that processing power sucks up a ton of power from the vehicle and as more cars are going electric, the last thing an automaker wants is a system that cuts in the range of their new car. The new NVIDIA Drive PX Pegasus AI computer is the size of a license plate and uses far less power than the current model. But it’s going to be a while before anyone gets their hands one. The new computer will be available in the second half of 2018 with next generation GPUs that NVIDIA hasn’t actually announced yet. But there’s already one institution that’s ready to go autonomous: the Deutsche Post DHL. The delivery service is looking to deploy a pilot fleet with the current Drive PX in 2018. The hope is to have the car be able to shadow its delivery persons as they drop off packages. A driver could get out of the truck or van with a few packages for a block and when they are finished, the vehicle will be waiting for them outside the last house. So the autonomous future isn’t just about delivery people, it’s also about delivering your online purchases. Source: Nvidia

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NVIDIA introduces a computer for level 5 autonomous cars

An autonomous Ford Fusion will deliver Domino’s in Michigan

Domino’s has been experimenting with high-tech delivery methods for years, from UAVs to drones with wheels . This time, the pizza chain might send a self-driving Ford Fusion to deliver your food if you’re in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Domino’s has teamed up with the automaker to test people’s response to an autonomous delivery car. They’ll use one Fusion equipped with all the trappings of a self-driving vehicle, including Ford’s full suite of cameras, sensors, radar and LIDAR, to deliver pizza for the month-long test. Despite the full equipment, a human engineer will be behind the wheel, since the test is all about observing customers’ reactions. He’ll be hidden behind tinted windows, though, and won’t be ringing anybody’s doorbell. Customers who agree to be part of the trial will get a text when their order arrives. They’ll then have to walk out, meet the car, punch in the last four digits of their phone number on a touchscreen display installed at the rear passenger-side window and take out the pizza from a warming oven inside. The partners will be keeping an eye on whether customers are willing to meet the self-driving car at the curb or if they want it to park in their driveway. They’ll observe how long it takes for people to punch in their codes and to take out their pizza from the oven. Most importantly, the test will help them determine if people are inclined to touch the car’s pricey LIDAR system spinning atop the vehicle. Ford will tweak the self-driving Fusion based on the trial’s results — we’ll bet the LIDAR system will end up hidden inside a tough casing if customers can’t stop themselves from touching. The trial is a perfect fit for the automaker’s vision for its self-driving vehicles. Like many other companies working on autonomous vehicles, Ford aims to develop a self-driving car with no steering wheel, brake and accelerator pedals. The automaker plans to use them for ride-sharing fleets, but it believes the vehicle has many other potential applications, including delivery. Sherif Marakby, Ford VP of autonomous and electric vehicles, said: “It’s not just ride-sharing and ride-moving or people moving, but it’s also moving the goods. We develop the plan to go to market as we develop the tech. We work with partners (and) this is one example. There will be more in the future.” Source: Ford Motor Company , The Detroit News , Bloomberg

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An autonomous Ford Fusion will deliver Domino’s in Michigan

The first self-driving taxis are cruising around Singapore

Uber announced that it will start self-driving trials in Pittsburgh later this month, but it was beat to the punch by a much less well-known company. Starting today, nuTonomy will offer rides to Singapore residents in specially equipped Mitsubishi i-MiEV or Renault Zoe electric vehicles. As with Uber, passengers won’t be alone with a robotic driver like Silicon Valley ‘s hapless Jared. A nuTonomy engineer will be along to monitor the vehicle, and a safety driver will “assume control if needed to ensure passenger comfort and safety, ” the company wrote. The rides will be free to start with, and the company will stick to an area called “One-North” for the tests. Municipal officials designated the 2.5-square-mile residential zone specifically for self-driving trials in an effort to reduce congestion in the city, where 5.5 million residents live in a region about three times the size of Boston. Pick-ups and drop-offs will also be limited to certain areas to avoid traffic concerns. nuTonomy, which spun off from MIT in 2013, equipped its EVs with six Lidar sets and two cameras to detect obstacles, lanes and traffic light changes. Just a few dozen passengers have signed up so far, but the company says it will open the trials to thousands of users in the coming months. The aim, it says, is to “collect and evaluate valuable data related to software system performance, vehicle routing efficiency, the vehicle booking process, and the overall passenger experience.” With the city’s cooperation, other companies, including Delphi, plan their own self-driving tests in Singapore. However, nuTonomy appears to be the farthest along, and plans to launch its robotic service there as early as 2018. There are still some bugs to work out, though. An Associated Press reporter noted that the safety driver had to hit the brakes when a parked vehicle moved suddenly into the oncoming lane. Via: Associated Press

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The first self-driving taxis are cruising around Singapore

Tesla takes the wheel: driving a Model S hands-free

Elon Musk isn’t happy just introducing an automobile and walking away to work on next year’s model. Instead his company continues to offer over-the-air upgrades to current vehicles. The latest software enhance is landing in its electric cars tomorrow with a slew of new autopilot features . They won’t drive you around town, but will make highway driving and parking a bit easier. While the new Autopark does exactly what you would expect, Autosteer is a bit more ambitious. With it, you’re supposed to be able to go for miles on the open road with it doing most of the heavy lifting. The car tracks lane markers and uses enhanced GPS data to keep the car from launching off into the median. I had a chance to drive a Tesla on the highway with its new ability — without using my hands — and it was outstanding, but also a bit weird. The big feature, Autosteer, is less autonomous driving and more of a very advanced version of cruise control. For those looking forward to getting a robot car to drive them to work, Musk expects Tesla will have a fully autonomous vehicle ready to go in three years. In the meantime, this new autopilot feature will maintain the cruise control speed while keeping a safe distance between itself and the vehicle in front of it and stay in its lane. It’s a gradual step toward the future that’ll make commuting less of a pain. After setting the mode in the car’s updated UI and double-tapping the cruise control arm, the car does the driving for you. It’s an eerily smooth transition. If the vehicle determines you’re not centered in a lane, it adjusts itself without jerking the vehicle. After that, I removed my hands from the wheel and the Model S tracked itself along Interstate 280 better than most of the other drivers on the road. It had no trouble with meandering corners. It kept a safe distance behind the car in front of it (something you can manually adjust if you would like more cushion). Adjusting the speed was a matter of flipping the cruise control arm: up to go faster and down to slow down. Meanwhile you just sit there. Because you’re hurtling down the freeway, you’re still paying attention, but it lowers the stress level a bit. If you’re stuck in traffic, it takes the pain out of the stop-and-go experience because it does it for you. You’ve gone from driver to driver/passenger. This is the first step to the pure passenger experience of truly autonomous cars. While it’s cool, Musk stresses that this is a public beta of the feature and that drivers should keep their hands on the wheel at all time: “We want people to be quite careful.” That warning becomes an audible alert in the vehicle when the lane markers become faded or another car slides into your lane. At that point, you’re reminded that, yeah you’re still the driver. The entire Autosteer system is built around the vehicle’s confidence that what’s about to happen is safe. If the roadway is less than optimal, you can’t engage it. If while engaged, it detects something out of the ordinary, an audible and visual warning inform you to take control. If you ignore that, the warning gets more persistent and the system will eventually slow the car down and bring it to a complete stop. That confidence spills over into the Auto Lane Change feature. While in Autosteer, I attempted to automatically move to the left lane. A vehicle was approaching at a rather quick pace on my left and the car wouldn’t complete the move on its own. At that point, it got a little too careful and wouldn’t automatically move itself into any lanes. After having the passenger turn the feature off and then back on again (just like a router, but speeding down the highway), I was switching lanes (when it was safe) without checking my blind spots or even grabbing the wheel. For someone that’s completely obsessed with safe driving, it’s unnerving letting the car take over like this. But with a quick brake tap or slight turn of the steering wheel, I was back in control. While existing the freeway, I was able to complete a few automatic lane changes, but when the car detected a car that was behind and to the right of me, it again wouldn’t go on its own. I accelerated and pulled into the right lane as I would with any other car. The car errors on the side of caution without making you feel like you’re being coddled. Yes, it’ll be abused (get ready for more texting and driving), but even while driving down a surface street, it avoided a bus sticking out in the road. But it’s not even close to infallible. Hence the repeated warnings from Musk during a briefing. It also has difficulty with sharp turns and inclement weather conditions like rain, snow and fog. Tesla is adamant that the feature is “hands on” so you’re supposed to keep those mitts on the wheel. So don’t starting updating Twitter while you’re supposed to be driving. Yet, It’ll get better as more and more Teslas drive in autopilot mode and feed road information back to companies highly detailed mapping system. The update also brings enhanced versions of traffic-aware cruise control, side collision warning, vehicle hold (keeping the car rolling on inclines), Autopark and better climate control that cools or heats the interior quicker without using more energy. All of that is wrapped into a brand new UI. Tesla is still a few years away from getting us from point A to Pint B without our interaction. But in the meantime, it’s tackling the commute, the worst aspect of the driving experience by letting its cars take the wheel. It’s a smart move and for anyone that sits in a traffic, a welcome relief. Source: Tesla

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Tesla takes the wheel: driving a Model S hands-free

Uber Is Punishing Drivers for Following the Law 

Uber drivers attempting to follow the law are getting screwed by Uber in California. A Buzzfeed investigation revealed that Uber suspended at least 12 drivers last month for properly registering their cars as commercial vehicles. To get their jobs back, Uber said the drivers had to re-register the cars as personal vehicles, which is a clear violation of DMV rules. Read more…

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Uber Is Punishing Drivers for Following the Law 

Future Ford cars to balance MyFord Touch with old-fashioned buttons

While Ford’s MyFord Touch is a popular option for tech-savvy drivers, it’s not always the most intuitive — some complain that basic tasks, like radio tuning, are relatively awkward. The company is very aware of the feedback, as it’s now supplementing the touch controls with “traditional” buttons and knobs. Both the latest F-150 and future vehicles will reflect the hybrid approach. Ford is still giving touchscreens some love with a MyFord Touch update due this summer, but it’s clear that the company will keep one foot in the analog world for a while longer. Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: SlashGear Source: Ford

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Future Ford cars to balance MyFord Touch with old-fashioned buttons