Connected and Autonomous Vehicle News:
👌 Kodiak Has Made Its First Driverless Truck Deliveries to Customer Atlas Energy. “Kodiak Robotics has officially handed off two autonomous trucks to customer Atlas Energy Solutions, marking the startup’s first commercial launch. Atlas, a provider of (sand) and oilfield logistics, received its first Kodiak-equipped trucks in December and began driverless operations in an off-road environment in West Texas’s remote Permian Basin shortly after.”
💲 Waymo Lobbyist Activity in SF Skyrocketed in 2024. “A recent review of lobbyist disclosure data by the San Francisco Examiner revealed Waymo paid lobbyists to meet with San Francisco government officials 348 times last year, more than double the 137 times it reported in 2023.”
🤞 Waymo Begins Testing Robotaxis on LA Freeways…and Alphabet’s Waymo to Test its Autonomous Driving Technology in Over 10 New Cities.
😏 Elon Musk: Tesla Will Launch Unsupervised Full Self-Driving in Austin as Paid Service in June. “During the earnings call following the release of Tesla’s Q4 2024 results, CEO Elon Musk said: Tesla will launch unsupervised full self-driving as a paid service in Austin in June.”
😕 Tesla Refuses to Do the Right Thing About ‘Full Self-Driving’ Transfers. “Tesla is now using both nodes on the HW3 computer – meaning that it doesn’t even have any compute redundancy, which is required for level 4-5 autonomy.”
🗾 Nexar and Japan Post Join Forces. “Using images and location data from Nexar‘s dashcams in Japan Post Transport Co.’s vehicles, the partnership will monitor highway road construction and damage, helping to develop a system that improves and maintains roads across the country.”
💲 GM Expects to Save up to $1 Billion on Cruise Costs. “General Motors GM 1.37%↑ expects to save up to $1 billion annually by ending its Cruise robotaxi development program, CEO and Chair Mary Barra said Tuesday during the company’s earnings call.”
😧 Did Elon Musk’s ‘Salute’ Cripple the Tesla Robotaxi? “If Tesla, fairly or unfairly, gets a Nazi taint among that population, that creates a big barrier in competing with other services unless it’s vastly superior in service or price.”
🙂 Mobileye and Innoviz Move Up on the Autonomy Scale.
🚘 Rivian Takes Its First Steps Toward Autonomous Driving With a Hands-Free Driving Feature. “The system is classified as a Level 2 autonomous driving feature. The technology will be similar to existing systems like Ford‘s F 0.89%↑ BlueCruise and General Motor‘s GM 1.37%↑ Super Cruise.
🏎 Can an Autonomous Racing Car Beat an F1 Driver? A2RL Aims to Find Out. “What if an autonomous vehicle could drive a racing car faster than a human around a track? That’s the que
