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Today is Juneteenth, a US federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States.
About 10 years ago, there was a lot of chatter about who would win the self-driving car race. One problem with that discussion — besides the assumption that there would be only one winner — is that no one had a reliable way to measure it. This was an early era filled with lots of demos and capital, but little substance – at least what the public, and people like me, had access to.
Start consulting and research AUTNMY AI It has developed a generative AI platform to create a benchmark system that evaluates and ranks autonomous vehicle companies in an attempt to answer this question in real time. This week, the startup released… Index of the path to self-governmentwhich searches relevant global public databases, including federal and state reports, SEC documents, public exchanges, and other data. The system evaluates a company’s operations, size, revenue, business partnerships, manufacturing and safety record based on that data and provides an update every 12 hours. There are four indices that classify taxis, self-driving licensing companies, self-driving trucks, and delivery robots.
An important note, according to Rob Grant, co-founder of Autnmy AI, is that the AI platform doesn’t just scrape information from the internet. “We agreed ahead of time, we don’t collect information,” he said. “If it’s publicly available or if it’s available under a Creative Commons license, we’ll use that information. We have some licensing data that we pay people for, and under this agreement as well.”
The indicators take a global approach, leading to some interesting results. One of the initial points that made a good impression on Grant was China’s stronger rankings across multiple categories.
As of Friday, he was not a robotaxi leader Waymo. It was China Baidu Apollo Go Program – Barely. Waymo came in second place, followed by Chinese companies Pony.ai and We are riding. Tesla He was in fifth place.
birdie
A little bird recently reminded me of monitoring a motorized vehicle tracker in Texas that was launched in May. I’m glad they did; It seems Tesla, Waymoand Zoox They build their fleets in the state. Reminder: This does not mean that every one of them is used commercially. For example, Zoox cannot operate commercially until it receives an exemption from the federal government. It currently has the ability to offer rides in its specially designed robotaxis but cannot charge customers.
As of May 28, Waymo had 577 self-driving vehicles registered in the state. It now has 620 of them, an increase of 7.5% in less than a month. Tesla now has 69 registered self-driving vehicles, an increase of 64% from the 42 it had on May 28. Zoox, which had 35 self-driving vehicles registered last month, now has 43.
Afried, onlyand its subsidiary Volkswagen Moya They stabilize at 317, 47, and 12, respectively.
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Offers!
Cargovia logistics company that uses artificial intelligence to automate shipping operations, It raised $11 million In a Series A funding round led by u.ventures, Toloka and Movens Capital. Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom, and several angel investors also participated.
cara Singapore-based online car marketplace, has acquired Australian used car platform CarPlace, Reuters reported. The conditions were not disclosed.
because, A startup company that develops self-driving trucks for short distances has announced… Multi-year partnership with PepsiCo. The two companies won’t share the value of the deal, but it signals PepsiCo’s commitment to Gatik, which already operates driverless trucks for the food and beverage giant in Arkansas, Arizona and Texas.
Quantumscape Announce a Joint research agreement With Honda R&D to accelerate solid-state battery development and associated manufacturing processes.
Car maker excellentSelf-driving startup WIFIAnd the passenger transportation giant Uber Make a deal To jointly develop and deploy driverless robotaxis.
XDOFa startup focused on bot training data, has raised $70 million from Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, a16z, Lux, and WndrCo.
Notable Readings and Other Stories
A video posted on Reddit showed a driver running a stop sign and Hit by a self-driving vehicle In Dallas. TechCrunch confirmed that it was Afried Robotaxiwhich was welcomed via the Uber app. An Avride spokesperson said no injuries had been reported and that data from the incident was being reviewed “to continually improve technology and processes, as part of our standard procedures.” When asked about the reaction of the autonomous driving system and the human safety operator behind the wheel, Afried said: “Our safety review is currently ongoing, so we cannot provide more precise details at this time.”
Tesla Owners in China have Discover the alternative solution To the vehicle’s distracted driving monitor: Small plastic heads.
In X, people discovered a Tesla with Certified Limousine Permit Sticker San Francisco County and San Francisco International Airport. An SFO spokesperson told TechCrunch, “Tesla has been issued a limousine permit to operate in SFO. This is for traditional limousine operations, which means the vehicles have a human driver. Tesla has not been issued a permit for any self-driving operations in SFO.”
Mobile iwhich has positioned itself as a supplier of autonomous vehicle technology, is now taking steps to become a robotaxi operator. The company plans to launch a robo-taxi service in an unnamed US city in 2027. History lesson: Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua told me in 2020 that to achieve the holy grail of passenger car autonomy, you have to go after robo-taxis first.
Uber It plans to launch a premium robotaxi service in Houston by mid-2027, making it the second U.S. market under its partnership with the electric car maker. clear And the start of autonomous vehicles only.
Waymo It has recalled its fleet of nearly 4,000 robotaxis to prevent them from driving in highway construction zones. Waymo has been taking its robo-taxis off highways for weeks, and has identified at least 13 instances of its robo-taxis driving onto sections of highway that were closed for construction. Here are noteworthy details: A software fix is “in development,” which means this issue has not been resolved.
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