Autonomous

Back in March, we mentioned that a sweet autonomous racing series was in the works that would have racecars with no drivers taking to the track. The only thing we saw at that announcement was a rendering of what the car might look like.

The Chevrolet Bolt is a neat little electric vehicle that announced a while back, but won’t go into full production until this October. It is also the car that GM and its recently-acquired Cruise Automation division have chosen to use as their autonomous test vehicles, with the hopes of eventually offering self-driving Lyft rides.

Nissan has a new version of its Serena Van coming in Japan that will hit dealerships this August. One of the cool options available is Nissan’s first autonomous drive system called ProPILOT. ProPILOT is an autonomous technology that is designed for use in single lane traffic.

For gearheads like us, it’s easy to think only of the Polestar wagons and sedans when we think of the Volvo name today, but perhaps the biggest market for the automaker is in the big truck realm.

With GM having recently poured $500 million into ridesharing service Lyft, the two companies have revealed that they are joining up to develop electric automated vehicles to help people get around. The autonomous vehicles will be based on the forthcoming Chevrolet Bolt, and will use tech that GM is acquiring in its purchase of Cruise Automation, a firm that develops autonomous driving tech.

I like to think that shortly after the first two cars showed up in the same town, the first car race went down. With autonomous cars getting closer and closer to production, it’s no surprise that a racing series for autonomous cars is in the works.

Stanford University has a slick looking autonomous Audi TTS, dubbed “Shelley” that it has been working on for a long time. The car can drive itself with no human intervention. Recently the researchers took the car out to the racetrack at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, California and set it loose.

A completely autonomous shuttle bus recently began testing on public roads in the Netherlands. Wepods buses can carry six passengers and are completely automated. There is no driver seat or controls for a human. Wepods are also fully electric with a 62-mile range per charge.

Following in the footsteps of Google, Ford has announced that it will kick off testing of its autonomous vehicles on public roads next year. The testing will commence with fully autonomous Fusion Hybrid vehicles on roads around its Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto, California.

When I first heard of autonomous cars, I worried that it might be an excuse to take driving out of the hands of humans and give it completely to a computer. With all of the tech so far letting drivers defeat the system if they want control, I am liking the autonomous future more and more.

Ford has announced that it is the first automaker to test its autonomous cars at the new University of Michigan test facility called MCity. The test facility is a simulated city environment spanning 32 acres. The test location has fake city streets, traffic signals, curb cuts, bike lanes, hydrants, sidewalks, signs, construction zones, and traffic control devices.

Stanford researchers wanted to build a vehicle that could be used to perform research on autonomous cars in extreme situations. The goal was to help figure out safety protocols for self-driving cars. To perform the research they didn’t turn to something boring like a Prius with water sprayed on the road.

Autonomous cars are the future of driving and we all know they are coming. Google and a slew of automakers are testing self-driving cars right now to reduce accidents and traffic thanks to their ability to drive with no input from a distracted human.

One of the things that I am looking forward to the most about autonomous cars is the ability to pay more attention to the people you are with and the sights you see during long road trips.

You have to be doubly lucky to be one of the people testing the new Tesla Autopilot software that’s in closed beta right now. First, you need to be fortunate enough to own a pricy Model S EV.