today’s consumers aren’t quite yet bought into the idea of self-driving cars. On one side of the spectrum, 17.6 percent are terrified by self-driving cars, while, on the other side, only 4.6 percent say they will be purchasing one as soon as they can

Read the full article at: medium.com

These numbers seem pretty unimpressive in both cases, but might grow with some good experiences of advanced driving systems saving lives, without as much hyperbole. 

DynamIQ brings greater levels of responsiveness for ADAS solution and increased safety capabilities which will enable partners to build ASIL-D compliant systems for safe operation under failure conditions.

Read the full article at: telematicswire.net

All systems will fail at some point, the key is to enable them to fail safely. A fine grained solution is more likely to be able to support a managed failure, which is critical in a car.

German carmaker BMW is on track to deliver a self-driving car by 2021, the company’s senior vice president for Autonomous Driving, Elmar Frickenstein, said recently.

Read the full article at: telematicswire.net

He actually said “We are on the way… to deliver in 2021” and did not say when a driver would still be needed in the ultimate driving machine and on what roads you could remove the steering. 

http://www.autonews.com/article/20170316/MOBILITY/170319877/bmw-says-self-driving-car-to-be-level-5-capable-by-2021 

Frickenstein later clarified that the vehicle they will release that year will only have Level 3 automation.

The report points out that over the six weeks beginning February 1, Uber’s fleet of 43 cars would make it an average of less than a mile before requiring some sort of driver action.

Read the full article at: telematicswire.net

It looks like a bit of work is still needed before we climb into an Uber with no driver.

Auto Windscreens is the only glass repair and replacement company using the vehicle manufacturers to recalibrate its customer’s windscreens, working with over 4000 dealerships to ensure that it has access to all of the vehicle manufacturer’s latest technology.

Read the full article at: safecarnews.com

This is another example of the complexity of supporting future vehicles if access to advanced technical information is not widely distributed to aftermarket repair shops, ADAS systems that are compromised could result in new accidents, who will be liable? The original OEM?

Standards-based vehicle software such as RVI, deployed across multiple vehicle brands, will make this new connectivity a reality and will strengthen the foundation for future autonomous vehicle deployments in cities.

Read the full article at embedded-computing.com

The challenge is to motivate carmakers to alter their business processes around collaboration, then competition versus the other way around. Many proposals are out there once they decide there is a greater gain in working together.

These numbers are significant considering the fact that major automakers are planning to launch self-driving cars by the end of the decade.

Read the full article at: telematicswire.net

Self-Driving cars are at the top of the Gartner Hype Cycle this year, you know what comes next…the trough of disillusionment. Get ready for a rough landing and hopefully a smooth re-takeoff following VR and AR.

Faraday Future is a mysterious electric car company with cool ideas and not much else. The company has seemed to do little but run up debt and watch its high-profile executives jump ship.

Read the full article at: www.youtube.com

Electric power appears to corrupt whenever money is involved. Is this the future or the past of automotive?

On February 23, the NIO EP9 drove autonomously without any interventions, recording a time of 2m 40.33s (two minutes, 40.33 seconds) at a top speed of 160 mph. The same day, the NIO EP9 also beat the fastest COTA lap time for a production car with a driver, achieving a lap time of 2m 11.30s (two minutes, 11.30 seconds) and reaching a top speed of 170 mph.

Read the full article at: telematicswire.net

Welcome to the most boring race car event in the world, no crashes, no human drivers, just smart engineers in the back room. 

I want to challenge Silicon Valley, Detroit, and all other auto industry hubs to step up and help educate a skeptical public about the benefits of automated technology.

Read the full article at: wardsauto.com

What does it mean to “educate the skeptical public” about the benefits of automated car technology? Public Service Announcements?