By CRM staff
Toronto, Ontario – May 24, 2019 – In this week’s autonomous vehicle report, Musk shares his opinion on Lidar systems, Ford displays its latest project, and GM’s Cruise shares its progress.
Musk Bashes Lidar Systems
Aurora CEO Chris Urmson has bought Lidar sensor manufacturing firm Blackmore. These sensors use laser scanning to detect nearby objects. “Lidar is critical for developing the safest and most reliable self-driving system, one that can navigate our roads more safely than a human driver,” Urmson said in a statement announcing the acquisition of the Montana-based firm. CEO of Tesla Elon Musk begs to differ. Musk said in a statement “In cars it is freaking stupid. It is expensive and unnecessary.” Tesla’s autopilot systems use cameras that see the road and send the data back to the car’s computers. Musk might be alone in this argument. Reports say that not only Aurora, but Waymo, GM’s Cruise and other tech firms believe that Lidars are essential.
Digit Delivers
The days for receiving a package at the door from a human might be outnumbered. Ford has teamed up with Agility Robots on a new project to support the increasing volume of deliveries. It’s walking robot, Digit, folds out of a self-driving car, walks up to a door, delivers the package at the door and lets the customer know through text, that their package has arrived. The self-driving car plays an important role in this project because it gets Digit from point A to point B. The vehicle also helps Digit in cases where the robot starts to get confused.
Making Turns
When it comes to driving in general, left-handed turns can be difficult to make, so you can only imagine the challenge it must be for self-driving vehicles. General Motors recently posted a video showing the progress it has been making with its autonomous vehicle division, Cruise. The company shared a video showing that it made 1,400 unprotected left turns every 24 hours in a complex area within San Francisco. “In an unpredictable driving environment like San Fransisco, no two unprotected left-turns are alike,” Kyle Vogt, Cruise’s president and chief technology officer, said in a statement. “By safely executing 1,400 regularly, we generate enough data for our engineers to analyze and incorporate learnings into code they develop for other difficult maneuvers.” With this progress, Cruise is planning on launching its commercial ride-hailing service in San Francisco at some point this year.
