Ex-Google engineer charged with theft of autonomous car secrets

SAN FRANCISCO - A former Google engineer was hit with criminal charges Tuesday alleging he stole trade secrets from the technology giant's self-driving car project before he went to work at Uber.

If convicted on the charges, Anthony Levandowski faces up to 10 years in prison and a penalty of $250,000 per violation, according federal prosecutors who announced the criminal indictment.

"All of us have the right to change jobs, none of us has the right to fill our pockets on the way out the door," US Attorney David Anderson said in a release announcing 33 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets.

"Theft is not innovation."

Levandowski, 39, was a founding member of the group that worked on Waymo, a Google self-driving car project that is now a unit at parent company Alphabet.

Levandowski worked on the project from 2009 and was leader of the light-detecting and ranging (LiDAR) team when he resigned from Google without notice in January of 2016, according to the indictment. 

The former star engineer left Google for his own startup called Otto, which was later acquired by Uber. 

The theft allegations came out in a civil case in which Waymo accused Uber of stealing trade secrets. That case ended with a settlement between the two firms last year.

Levandowski was fired by Uber in 2017 as the two firms were preparing to go to court on the civil trial.

Waymo had alleged that Uber conspired with Levandowski, who according to Tuesday's indictment downloaded files that included circuit board schematics, instructions for installing and testing LiDAR, and an internal tracking document.

A source familiar with the confidential deal said Uber agreed to a financial settlement giving the Alphabet unit a small stake in Uber.

The indictment shows both the civil and criminal cases were about LiDAR, a laser-based system which is critical to enabling autonomous cars to get a three-dimensional picture of its surroundings.

The documents states that Levandowski downloaded thousands of files before leaving Google including "critical engineering information" about the hardware and instructions for calibrating and tuning Google's custom LiDAR.

Before the civil trial was cut short by the settlement, jurors saw evidence which was embarrassing for Uber, including a text message in which former Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick told Levandowski to "burn the village."

After the settlement, the newly named Uber CEO said that "we do not believe that any trade secrets made their way from Waymo to Uber." 

Tesla, Waymo, Uber as well as major car companies and other technology firms are rivals in what is expected to be a large market for autonomous vehicles, whether for personal use or in commercial operations such as robo-taxis.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Fiat Chrysler picks Google, Samsung for global connected car system

DETROIT, United States - Fiat Chrysler said on Tuesday it will use technology from Alphabet Inc's Google and Samsung to connect all its vehicles by 2022, providing music and video and facilitating future car-sharing and self-driving capabilities.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will use Google's Android operating system globally instead of a mixture of software that varies by region, a spokesman said. The automaker will also use a cloud-based digital platform from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Harman unit.

Unlike its rivals General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co, FCA has spent virtually nothing on developing self-driving vehicle technology. This saves the company large amounts of money, but makes it reliant on outside parties to provide technology and systems.

FCA said it will launch the new capabilities in the second half of 2019. 

The company said the system will aid owners "by predicting maintenance needs, locating fuel and charging stations, receiving traffic prompts and restaurant offers and providing live customer-care assistance at the push of the button."

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Apple self-driving car layoffs give hints to division's direction

Apple Inc said on Wednesday it planned to lay off 190 employees in its self-driving car program, Project Titan, changes that provide a rare window into the automotive technologies the company has been pursuing.

The tech firm said in a filing with state regulators that it planned to lay off people from 8 different Santa Clara County facilities near its Cupertino, California, headquarters, as of April 16. A company spokesman confirmed that the reduction was from the self-driving car program.

While the iPhone maker has acknowledged its interest in self-driving cars in broad terms, it has never detailed precisely which technologies it is working on and whether it seeks to build a whole vehicle or the sensors, computer system and software to control one.

The public documents filed with regulators provide some previously undisclosed clues.

Among those laid off were at least two dozen software engineers, including a machine learning engineer, and 40 hardware engineers, according to a letter sent by Apple to California employment regulators earlier this month.

Some of the positions hint at physical products for consumers: three product design engineers and an ergonomics engineer face layoffs. A machine shop supervisor was among the reductions, though it is unclear how many machinists reported to the supervisor and whether the shop fabricates automotive parts or smaller parts for electronics and sensors.

The layoffs appear to be the first major shake-up of Project Titan under Doug Field, who returned to Apple last year as Vice President of Special Projects after a stint at electric car maker Tesla Inc.

Apple operates the car project on a "need-to-know" basis, with only about 5,000 of Apple's 140,000 full-time workers included, according to court documents in a theft of trade secrets criminal case filed this year against an ex-Apple employee.

About 1,200 of those are "core" employees that are "directly working on the development of the project," according to the complaint, which was unsealed in January.

Despite the headcount changes, the company appears to have ramped up its testing on California roads. In a filing with regulators earlier this month, Apple said it had logged nearly 80,000 miles of testing in its home state in 2018, far surpassing the less than 1,000 miles it had logged the year before.

It was, however, far fewer than Alphabet Inc's Waymo unit, which logged 1.2 million miles in California last year.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Startup delivers groceries in self-driving cars

SAN FRANCISCO -- Startup AutoX on Monday announced the Silicon Valley debut of a service that will turn self-driving cars into mobile grocery shops summoned with a touch of a smartphone application.

The service will kick off this month in parts of the California city of San Jose in a partnership with e-commerce company GrubMarket.com which sources food from producers as well as retail shops such as Amazon-owned Whole Foods.

"We're very excited to launch the first autonomous grocery delivery and mobile store service in the heart of Silicon Valley with self-driving vehicles on the road,” said AutoX founder and chief executive Jianxiong Xiao.

"We believe self-driving car technologies will fundamentally change people’s daily lives for the better."

The AutoX application can be used to place grocery orders to be delivered in cars designed to keep produce chilled, according to the startup.

Customers uncertain of what they want in advance will also be able to have cars pull up and open windows so they can browse selections, AutoX said. A human back-up driver will be on board as required by local regulations.

AutoX vehicles rely on high-resolution camera gear instead of more costly sensors and laser arrays for navigation.

The grocery delivery and mobile store pilot program will roll out in San Jose, then expand to Google's home city Mountain View and Palo Alto, where Stanford University is located.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Volvo to supply Uber with self-driving cars

Swedish carmaker Volvo Cars said Monday it has signed an agreement to supply "tens of thousands" of self-driving cars to Uber, as the ride-sharing company battles a number of different controversies.

Volvo -- which is owned by China's Geely and has yet to build a self-driving system -- said in a statement that it would supply Uber with "autonomous driving compatible base vehicles between 2019 and 2021."

Uber would then add its own software system to enable the cars to drive pilot-less.

When contacted by AFP, a Volvo spokesman did not specify the exact number of cars, but a source familiar with the matter said it could be around 24,000.

Neither Volvo nor Uber released financial details, but based on list prices for the cars the deal could be worth more than $1 billion (around 850 million euros).

"This opens a whole new segment for us. We are open to deliver to more taxi companies," Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson told Swedish financial newspaper Dagens Industri.

The deal builds on a non-exclusive agreement signed back in 2016 by Uber and Volvo, which is expected to release its first self-driving car in 2021.

The statement said that "Volvo Cars' engineers have worked closely together with engineers from Uber to develop the XC90 premium SUVs that are to be supplied to Uber."

The base vehicles "incorporate all necessary safety, redundancy and core autonomous driving technologies that are required for Uber to add its own self-driving technology," the statement said.

Uber's head of auto alliances, Jeff Miller, said the deal "puts us on a path towards mass produced self-driving vehicles at scale."

Uber was thrown into disarray earlier this year when Transport for London (TfL) refused to renew its licence to operate in the British capital due to concerns about public safety for passengers and the process of driver registration.

The American ride-hailing app also halted its pilot programme for self-driving cars pending an investigation into a crash of an Uber autonomous vehicle in Arizona in March.

Advocates of self-driving cars say that they can cut down on deadly traffic accidents by eliminating human error.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

UK to have driverless cars by 2021: govt

LONDON - British finance minister Philip Hammond is to announce £75 million ($99 million, 84 million euros) funding for Artificial Intelligence and plans to put driverless cars on UK roads by 2021, in his budget speech on Wednesday.

Hammond will announce regulation changes to allow Britain's driverless car industry, which the government estimates will be worth £28 billion by 2035, to get cars on the road within as little as three yeas, according to extracts of the budget released by his office on Sunday.

The minister, who is under a pressure to deliver an eye-catching budget following Brexit spats with cabinet colleagues, will also announce a £400 million fund for companies hoping to roll out electric-car charge points across the country.

People hoping to buy a battery-electric vehicle will also be able to access funding as Britain attempts to move towards zero-emission transport.

With a focus on tech industries, the government is also planning to spend £75 million supporting companies developing AI and £160 million in developing 5G technology, which it believes will be necessary for the mass rollout of driverless cars.

However, the Conservative minister is likely to be judged more on his social spending policies, particularly on his housing policy in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster that killed 71 people.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Apple gets permit to test self-driving cars

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple has joined the list of companies with permits to test self-driving cars in California, according to an updated roster released on Friday by state officials.

 The iPhone maker has disclosed little about its ambitions when it comes to self-driving vehicles, with chief Tim Cook hinting at plans but the company declining to comment for news reports on long-idling rumors.

Late last year, Apple revealed it is investing heavily in autonomous vehicles in a letter asking the government to make it easier to develop self-driving cars.

Apple issued the letter because it is "investing heavily in machine learning and autonomous systems," an Apple spokesman said in an email to AFP at the time.

The California-based tech giant is expected to focus on software systems, letting partners manufacture vehicles, but would understandably want to be able to test its navigation technology in cars.

Most major auto manufacturers and many technology groups are currently developing autonomous vehicles, considered to be the future of the automobile, along with electric power, with first production models promised for around 2020.

General Motors this week announced that its autonomous driving efforts, investing $14 million and adding 1,100 jobs in a new research center in San Francisco.

While GM is already testing autonomous vehicles through its Cruise Automation unit in California, Arizona and Michigan, the new initiative will ramp up those efforts.

Similar research is being carried out by other automakers including Ford, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota, and by other groups including Uber and Google parent Alphabet.

Continental this week opened a new research center in the heart of Silicon Valley, saying it was dedicated to "mobility innovations and technologies."

Chinese tech giant Baidu, which is working on autonomous driving at its California research center, this week announced the acquisition of xPerception, a US startup that provides visual perception software, along with services and devices for people who are visually impaired.

gc/rl

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Mercedes teams up with Bosch for 'robo-taxis'

FRANKFURT - Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler and supplier Robert Bosch are teaming up to develop self-driving cars in an alliance aimed at accelerating the production of "robo-taxis".

The pact between the world's largest maker of premium cars and the world's largest automotive supplier forms a powerful counterweight to new auto industry players like ride-hailing firms Uber and Didi which are also working on self-driving cars.

Technology companies and carmakers are striving to adjust to a shifting landscape in the auto industry as consumers increasingly use smartphones to locate, hail and rent vehicles, rather than going out and buying cars.

The alliance not only marks an end to Daimler's efforts to develop an autonomous car largely on its own, but moves the auto industry's ambitions beyond simply developing prototype vehicles towards industrial-scale production of self-driving cars.

Financial terms were not disclosed of the deal between the two German companies, which was announced on Tuesday.

Bosch - which was founded in 1886, the same year that Mercedes founder Carl Benz patented the motorcar - will develop software and algorithms needed for autonomous driving together with the carmaker.

Bosch said Mercedes would be able to use the jointly developed system for two years before it could be offered to competitors.

The deal will help the automotive supplier make up ground in a competitive autonomous driving system sector where rivals Continental, Delphi, ZF and others have also made heavy investments.

For Daimler and its Mercedes division, teaming up with Bosch helps them throw more engineering resources at autonomous cars, allowing them to speed up the process of creating a production-ready system for autonomous cars by several years.

The autonomous system will now be ready by the beginning of next decade, Daimler said, without disclosing when it had first envisaged the commercial launch of automated taxis, or robo-taxis.

"The prime objective of the project is to achieve the production-ready development of a driving system which will allow cars to drive fully autonomously in the city," Daimler said in a statement on Tuesday.

The company will continue to build and sell vehicles that can be manually operated by individual drivers.

CAR COMES TO DRIVER

The market for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles is expected to grow from about $3 billion in 2015 to $96 billion in 2025 and $290 billion in 2035, Goldman Sachs said last year.

Daimler is focusing its efforts on the app-based car-sharing and ride-hailing sector dominated by China's Didi, and US-based Uber and Lyft. Like autonomous cars, this market is a big global growth area and is expected to expand by 28 percent a year to 2030, according to consultancy McKinsey.

"Within a specified area of town, customers will be able to order an automated shared car via their smartphone. The vehicle will then make its way autonomously to the user," Daimler said. "The idea behind it is that the vehicle should come to the driver rather than the other way round."

The cutthroat competition to launch self-driven cars has forced carmakers to shift strategy from an evolutionary towards a revolutionary approach.

Instead of evolving driver assistance systems to achieve full autonomy, carmakers are now experimenting with radical car designs combined with software-driven development - which has led to alliances with technology companies.

Mercedes-Benz's arch rival BMW teamed up with Israeli autonomous vehicle tech company Mobileye and chip maker Intel last year to develop new technology that could put autonomous cars on the road by 2021.

Intel has since agreed to buy Mobileye for $15.3 billion, a deal which followed Qualcomm's $47 billion move to acquire Dutch automotive chip supplier NXP.

Before deciding to partner with Bosch, Mercedes-Benz had two engineering teams, totaling about 500 people, working on autonomous vehicles. One took an evolutionary approach, upgrading the capabilities of conventional vehicles, while the other team took a more radical approach to the car's design.

Bosch and Mercedes did not disclose how many additional engineers they would assign to the teams in Stuttgart and Silicon Valley.

"Cars which do not rely on any driver input have a different architecture and sensor setup, with more radar and cameras," Christoph von Hugo, a senior Mercedes-Benz safety manager, told Reuters at a recent event to present safety systems.

NO STEERING WHEEL NEEDED

The current Mercedes E-Class can cruise without driver input on highways, keeping the distance to the car in front and staying in lane using a system which has "level 2" autonomy.

Full autonomy - known as an "eyes off, brains off" or "level 5" system - does away with even the need for a steering wheel.

"We don't want to wait until level 3 has arrived before we start with level 4/5. That will be too late," von Hugo said, adding the prospect of new revenue streams from maintaining fleets of robo-taxis was a big motivating factor for doubling up the carmaker's R&D efforts.

Autonomous vehicles came closer to road-going reality after Google unveiled a prototype car which it developed with the help of Bosch back in 2012. Mercedes-Benz responded by developing an S-class limousine that drove 103 km (64 miles) between the German towns of Mannheim and Pforzheim a year later.

Real commercial applications for autonomous cars will start to take off between 2020 and 2025, Ola Kaellenius, Daimler board member and head of Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars development told Reuters last month.

"If you take the robo-taxi, you start perhaps in a city or several cities or areas of cities, and then you grow from there," he said. "The key is to get to something that you can commercialize, scale up."

Bosch is already one of the world's largest suppliers of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and recently announced an alliance with US tech firm Nvidia to develop a self-driving computer for production cars. Mercedes-Benz and auto supplier ZF also have separate alliances with Nvidia.

The Bosch-Daimler alliance will rely on high-definition mapping systems provided by HERE, the digital mapping firm owned by BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Intel.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Uber suspends self-driving car program after Arizona crash

Uber Technologies Inc suspended its pilot program for driverless cars on Saturday after a vehicle equipped with the nascent technology crashed on an Arizona roadway, the ride-hailing company and local police said.

The accident, the latest involving a self-driving vehicle operated by one of several companies experimenting with autonomous vehicles, caused no serious injuries, Uber said.

Even so, the company said it was grounding driverless cars involved in a pilot program in Arizona, Pittsburgh and San Francisco pending the outcome of investigation into the crash on Friday evening in Tempe.

"We are continuing to look into this incident," an Uber spokeswoman said in an email.

The accident occurred when the driver of a second vehicle "failed to yield" to the Uber vehicle while making a turn, said Josie Montenegro, a spokeswoman for the Tempe Police Department.

"The vehicles collided, causing the autonomous vehicle to roll onto its side," she said in an email. "There were no serious injuries."

Two 'safety' drivers were in the front seats of the Uber car, which was in self-driving mode at the time of the crash, Uber said in an email, a standard requirement for its self-driving vehicles. The back seat was empty.

Photos and a video posted on Twitter by Fresco News, a service that sells content to news outlets, showed a Volvo SUV flipped on its side after an apparent collision involving two other, slightly damaged cars. Uber said the images appeared to be from the Tempe crash scene.

When Uber launched the pilot program in Pittsburgh last year, it said that driverless cars "require human intervention in many conditions, including bad weather." It also said the new technology had the potential to reduce the number of traffic accidents in the country.

The accident is not the first time a self-driving car has been involved in a collision. A driver of a Tesla Motors Inc Model S car operating in autopilot mode was killed in a collision with a truck in Williston, Florida in 2016. A self-driving vehicle operated by Alphabet Inc's Google was involved in a crash last year in Mountain View, California, striking a bus while attempting to navigate around an obstacle.

The collision comes days after Uber's former president Jeff Jones quit less than seven months after joining the San Francisco-based company, the latest in a string of high-level executives who have departed in recent months.

In February, Alphabet's Waymo self-driving car unit sued Uber and its Otto autonomous trucking subsidiary, alleging theft of proprietary sensor technology.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty and Bill Rigby)

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Intel's $15-B purchase of Mobileye rewrites driverless landscape

JERUSALEM/DETROIT - Intel Corp agreed to buy Israeli self-driving technology firm Mobileye for $15.3 billion on Monday in a deal that could thrust the US chipmaker into direct competition with rivals Nvidia Corp and Qualcomm Inc to develop driverless systems and components for global automakers.

The acquisition of Mobileye could propel the world's largest computer chipmaker into the front ranks of automotive suppliers at a time when Intel has been downplaying its core semiconductor business. It also promises to escalate the arms race among the world's carmakers and suppliers to acquire autonomous vehicle technology, and could fuel already-overheated valuations of self-driving startups.

The stakes are enormous. Last year, Goldman Sachs projected the market for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles would grow from about $3 billion in 2015 to $96 billion in 2025 and $290 billion in 2035.

Intel so far has not been a significant player in the sector, although it has invested in at least half a dozen startup companies developing different components for self-driving systems, from robotics to sensors.

The acquisition of Mobileye could dramatically expand Intel's potential role in self-driving technology, with a broad portfolio that includes cameras, sensor chips, in-car networking, roadway mapping, machine learning, cloud software and data fusion and management.

"It's an area where (Intel) has had very little presence - the automotive market, and so this is a tremendous opportunity for them to get into a market that has significant growth opportunities," said Betsy Van Hees, an analyst at Loop Capital Markets.

"Mobileye's technology is very critical... The price seems fair," she added.

The $63.54-per-share cash deal represents a premium of about 33 percent to Mobileye's closing price of $47 on Friday, but below its all-time high closing price of $64.14 in August 2015.

The deal also could have an impact on the role of other self-driving component suppliers, including mapping company Here, as well as technology companies from Alphabet Inc's Google to Chinese Internet giant Baidu Inc.

Mobileye's shares jumped 29 percent to $60.96 in afternoon trade, while Intel's shares were down 2.1 percent. Shares of systems integrator Delphi Automotive PLC , which has partnerships with both companies, were up 3.4 percent.

MERGING 'EYES' AND 'BRAIN'

Intel will integrate its automated driving group with Mobileye's operations, with the combined entity run by Mobileye Chairman Amnon Shashua from Israel.

Intel Chief Executive Brian Krzanich said the acquisition was akin to merging the "eyes of the autonomous car with the intelligent brain that actually drives the car."

Mobileye supplies integrated cameras, chips and software for driver-assist systems - the building blocks for self-driving cars - to more than two dozen vehicle manufacturers.

In an interview in January, Shashua told Reuters: "If you want to build a truly autonomous car, this is a task for more than one player... The idea is to have a number of partners to share resources and data."

After Monday's deal with Intel was announced, Shashua told reporters: "When you look at the combined assets of both companies, you see that they are really complimentary to each other."

Mobileye was an early supplier of vision systems to Tesla, but the two companies had an acrimonious and public break-up last summer after the driver of a Tesla Model S was killed while operating the vehicle using Tesla's Autopilot system.

Mobileye, founded in 1999, accounts for 70 percent of the global market for driver-assistance and anti-collision systems. It employs 660 people and had adjusted net income of $173.3 million last year.

Shashua and two other senior Mobileye executives stand to do well by the deal: together they own nearly 7 percent of the company. Shmuel Harlap, Israel's biggest car importer and one of Mobileye's earliest investors, also holds a 7 percent stake.

BATTLE FOR SELF-CONTROL

Mobileye and Intel are already collaborating with German automaker BMW on a project to put a fleet of around 40 self-driving test vehicles on the road in the second half of this year.

At the same time, Mobileye has teamed up with Intel for its fifth-generation of chips that will be used in fully autonomous vehicles that are scheduled for delivery around 2021. Mobileye also has partnered with Delphi on a self-driving platform that is being shopped to smaller car companies that may not have the resources to develop their own systems.

Last October, Qualcomm announced a $47 billion deal to acquire the Netherlands' NXP, the largest automotive chip supplier, putting pressure on other chipmakers seeking to make inroads in the market, including Intel, Mobileye and Nvidia.

The Qualcomm-NXP deal, which will create the industry's largest portfolio of sensors, networking and other elements vital to autonomous driving, is expected to close later in 2017.

Intel is paying a premium of 60 times Mobileye's earnings, about four times the premium that Qualcomm is paying to acquire NXP.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tesla taps Apple engineer for Autopilot software

Electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc. has hired a key Apple Inc. software engineer to oversee its Autopilot self-driving software efforts, Tesla said in a blog post Tuesday.

Chris Lattner, who served at Apple for more than a decade, said in a online message to Apple developers on Tuesday morning that he would "leave Apple later this month to pursue an opportunity in another space" without saying which company he planned to join.

Later in the day, Tesla posted a message on the company's website saying that Lattner had been hired as vice president of Autopilot software but did not say when he would start work there. Tesla declined to comment beyond the announcement. Apple confirmed the departure but would not comment beyond Lattner's posted message.

The move is a significant win for Tesla, bringing a high-profile figure in the world of software development for a position that previously did not have a full-time leader.

Tesla's Autopilot was overseen on an interim basis by the software chief Jinnah Hosein of SpaceX, which is also headed by Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.

Autopilot is the hardware and software system on Tesla vehicles that allows self-driving in some situations but still requires drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel. Federal safety regulators in the United States are examining whether Autopilot played a role in a fatal crash in Florida last year.

Lattner most recently served as a senior director in the developer tools department at Apple and was best known for introducing Swift, a programming language that made it easier for software developers to write apps for iOS, the operating system that powers iPhones and iPads.

In addition to developing Swift at Apple, Lattner also led a successful push to make the programming language "open source," meaning that developers could incorporate it into their applications without having to pay fees to Apple.

The move was a first for Apple, which until then had typically tightly controlled the technology it created. Microsoft Corp. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. have also either published or contributed to open-source programming languages.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Uber defies California, keeps self-driving cars rolling

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Uber said Friday it planned to keep its self-driving cars on the streets of San Francisco, defying a state order to halt the test program.

The ridesharing giant said it disputed the interpretation by the California Department of Motor Vehicles that the cars require a special permit, saying they had the same autonomy capabilities as Tesla cars which have an optional "autopilot" feature.

Anthony Levandowski, Uber's vice president for advanced technologies, said that as with the Teslas, the cars driven by Uber still have a driver capable of assuming control at any time.

"We respectfully disagree with the California DMV's interpretation of autonomous regulations, in particular that Uber needs a permit to operate in San Francisco," Levandowski told a conference call with journalists.

"While these are considered state of the art today, they still require monitoring by a vehicle operator at all times."

Levandowski said Uber did not plan on seeking a state permit and for now planned to continue picking up passengers in San Francisco despite the threat of legal action.

He called it "an important issue of principle" about "uneven application of statewide rules."

"We cannot in good conscience sign up for regulation of something we are not doing," he said.

Levandowski said Uber was having "frank conversations" with regulators and hoped to convince them that its autonomous cars were no different from Tesla's, which allow a driver to turn over many operations to an onboard computer but still need a human behind the wheel.

"We have a person sitting in the driver's seat, and there's also a person next to them looking at the system and trying to confirm that everything is going well," he said.

"They are able to override and take control of the vehicle at any time."

The announcement by the global ridesharing colossus came two days after state regulations said the testing program was not authorized.

In a letter to Uber, DMV counsel Brian Soublet said the permit is required to protect public safety.

"It is illegal for the company to operate its self-driving vehicles on public roads until it receives an autonomous vehicle testing permit," he wrote.

"It is essential that Uber takes appropriate measure to ensure safety of the public. If Uber does not confirm immediately that it will stop its launch and seek a testing permit, DMV will initiate legal action."

Backers of autonomous vehicles say the technology can reduce more than 90 percent of accidents, which mostly are due to human error.

Since its debut in 2010, Uber has grown into a worldwide phenomenon despite regulatory hurdles and resistance from traditional taxi operators.

In its latest funding round, Uber was valued at more than $60 billion, but has racked up losses at it expands and takes on competitors such as Lyft.

rl/acb

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Apple reveals autonomous vehicle ambitions

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple has revealed it is investing heavily in autonomous vehicles in a letter asking the government to make it easier to develop self-driving cars.

The company is "excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation," Apple said in a November 22 letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offering Apple's opinion about draft regulations for the sector.

"Apple looks forward to collaborating with NHTSA and other stakeholders so that the significant societal benefits of automated vehicles can be realized safely, responsibly, and expeditiously," the company's director of product integrity Steve Kenner wrote.

Apple issued the letter because it is "investing heavily in machine learning and autonomous systems," an Apple spokesman said in an email to AFP.

"There are many potential applications for these technologies, including the future of transportation, so we want to work with NHTSA to help define the best practices for the industry."

Rumors about Apple's ambitions in the sector have circulated for years.

The company has a separate organization called "Project Titan" that is developing automotive projects.

Although Apple has never officially confirmed the project, several of CEO Tim Cook's comments have fueled speculation.

After a $1 billion investment in a Chinese ride-hailing service called Didi Chuxing, he spoke of "some strategic things that the companies can do together over time."

However, in early September, The New York Times reported that the group had narrowed its ambitions, laying off dozens of staff as part of the project's "reboot."

Instead of designing and producing a complete self-driving car, the group will now concentrate on developing underlying technologies for autonomous vehicles.

In its letter, Apple urges the NHTSA not to penalize new participants in the sector by restricting the testing of cars under development on public roads, for which established automakers generally have exemptions.

"To maximize the safety benefits of automated vehicles, encourage innovation, and promote fair competition, established manufacturers and new entrants should be treated equally," it says.

Apple also encourages data sharing, particularly for accidents, saying that would enable the industry to "build a more comprehensive dataset than any one company could create alone."

Most major auto manufacturers and many technology groups are currently developing autonomous vehicles, considered to be the future of the automobile, along with electric power, with first production models promised for around 2020.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tesla to build self-driving tech into all cars

SAN FRANCISCO - Tesla will build self-driving technology into all the electric cars it makes, running it in "shadow" mode to gather data on whether it is safer than having people in control.

"Every car that Tesla produces from here on out will have the full autonomy capability," said Tesla co-founder and chief executive Elon Musk.

A new onboard computer with 40 times the processing power of the previous generation will run a new "neural net" for vision, sonar and radar sensors, he said.

During a conference call with reporters, Musk referred to the hardware as "basically a super-computer in a car," different from auto-pilot technology to date.

It will be up to regulators and the public as to when the self-driving capabilities will actually be put to use on roads, according to Musk.

Meanwhile, the system will run in "shadow mode" to gather data regarding when it might have avoided or caused accidents if it was in command.

Musk hoped that Tesla would one day be able to impress regulators with a statistically significant amount of data showing the autonomous driving technology would avoid crashes and save lives.

"Then we are at a point where we can allow it to take action," Musk said of amassing data showing the system's merits.

Upgrading existing cars with the autonomous driving hardware was not practical, according to Tesla.

"It would be like giving someone a spinal cord transplant; not advisable," Musk said on the call.

MILLIONS OF MILES

Tesla planned to calibrate the system using feedback from millions of miles of real-world driving before enabling the new hardware.

In the meantime, Teslas with the first-generation Autopilot technology will lack some standard safety features such as automatic breaking and collision warnings.

As features are validated, they will be enabled with over-the-air software updated.

The United States last month unveiled a sweeping new regulatory framework for the unexpectedly rapid rise of self-driving automobile technology, just days after Uber broke ground with its first driverless taxis.

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the federal government intends to set the safety standards for cars of the future where no human is involved in the driving, even while individual states still regulate cars with humans behind the wheel.

Announcing a 15-point safety assessment for driverless car systems, Foxx stressed that the government wants to work with developers -- which include most large automakers as well as tech giants such as Uber and Alphabet (Google) -- without stifling their efforts.

A Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets boasts founding members including Ford, Google, Lyft, Uber and Volvo.

The coalition supports guidelines that standardize self-driving regulations across the country, avoiding confusion and lost industry momentum.

EXPECTATIONS

Meanwhile, Germany wants Tesla to stop advertising the "autopilot" function on its cars because it leads to false customer expectations, as the system comes under scrutiny following two fatal crashes.

Transport regulator KBA has written to the company, telling it: "In order to prevent misunderstandings and false expectations from clients, we are asking that the misleading term 'Autopilot' no longer be used in advertisements for the system."

The KBA letter cited in Bild am Sonntag was confirmed to AFP by the transport ministry.

Germany has been conducting an investigation into the autopilot system in vehicles made by electric carmaker Tesla, which has been available with its Model S series since October 2015.

Questions have been raised over the system after two fatal crashes, one in northern China in January and another in the US state of Florida in May.

In September, a Tesla electric car crashed into a tourist bus on a motorway in northern Germany, lightly injuring the driver who said he had activated the vehicle's autopilot system.

At the time, Tesla said the driver had confirmed the autopilot was "functioning properly and... was unrelated to the accident."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Uber launches driverless car service in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Uber launched a groundbreaking driverless car service Wednesday, jumping ahead of Detroit auto giants and Silicon Valley rivals with technology that could revolutionize transportation.

In an ambitious experiment, a fleet of cars equipped with lasers, cameras and other sensors -- but with no one's hands on the wheel -- were to be deployed by the web-based ride service on the challenging roads of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, steering themselves to pick up regular Uber passengers who are used to being fetched by cars driven by humans.

Four of the Ford Fusion hybrids with their ungainly rooftop load of technology will be deployed to select customers on Wednesday, with the company showing at least a dozen more ready to put on the streets.

The cars and their supporting technology have been trained on the city's complicated grid for less than two years, but demonstration rides ahead of the launch showed them very able to handle most situations -- as able as many drivers.

Still, the first riders will be joined by two company technicians to make sure everything goes right, one sitting behind the wheel, with hands at the ready to take over in sticky spots, while the other monitors the car's behavior.

The move has put Uber ahead of the rest of the auto industry in getting such cars out for the general public. The major automakers all have driverless car development programs, as do tech giants Alphabet (Google) and Apple.

What allowed Uber to get to the front of the pack was not auto engineering but rather its ability to accumulate and crunch massive amounts of data on road and driving conditions collected from the billions of miles driven by Uber drivers.

"We have one of the strongest self-driving engineering groups in the world, as well as the experience that comes from running a ridesharing and delivery network in hundreds of cities," said Uber founder and chief executive Travis Kalanick in a blog post Wednesday.

The introduction of driverless cars challenges Uber's image as an app-based service of the "gig economy" that gave millions of car owners around the world the chance to make money ferrying passengers without taxicab licenses or other permits.

Uber's vision now suggests a world of taxis on call by app with no drivers at all.

"Self-driving is core to Uber's mission," Anthony Levandowski, Uber's vice president of engineering, said.

That would be far away, Uber officials stress. Kalanick says the main aim is to create safer roads.

"Self-driving Ubers have enormous potential to further our mission and improve society: reducing the number of traffic accidents, which today kill 1.3 million people a year; freeing up the 20 percent of space in cities currently used to park the world's billion plus cars; and cutting congestion, which wastes trillions of hours every year," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Self-driving cars headline Tokyo motorshow

Agaw-eksena sa Tokyo motor show ang mga concept cars na eco-friendly at self-driving. Virtual reality naman ang ipinakitang mauuso sa Paris Games Week. Si Lebron James, magkakaroon ng bagong game show. Ang bagong James Bond movie na "Spectre," tumabo agad sa takilya sa opening day sa London. Bandila, October 29, 2015, Huwebes

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Apple Music boasts 6.5 mil subscribers

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said Monday the technology giant's new music service has some 6.5 million subscribers.

"It is going really well," Cook during an on-stage chat on the opening evening of a Wall Street Journal technology forum on the Southern California coast.

"Lots of people are liking it."

People have begun ending free trials of the music service, which launched at the end of June in more than 100 countries.

More than eight million people are still in the free trial of Apple Music, pushing the total number of users above 15 million, according to Cook.

He credited a human curation element -- actual people who fashion playlists -- for creating listening experiences superior to that delivered by "zeroes and ones" of computer algorithms.

"We have music experts just like the DJs when we were growing up," Cook said, setting the service apart from entrenched rivals such as Spotify and Pandora which use software to tailor tunes to people's tastes.

Apple Music, the tech giant's new streaming service, went live at the end of June as the company behind iTunes looks to dominate the fast-growing sector.

Apple Service began with the launch of Beats 1, an international radio station that will feature shows by high-profile artists, and offered streaming -- for the first time -- of Taylor Swift's blockbuster "1989" album.

To edge its way into the streaming music market, Apple has offered a three-month trial period to new subscribers, after which subscriptions cost $9.99 per month.

- Apple TV turned on -

On another entertainment front, Apple will begin taking orders for new Apple TV hardware beginning on October 26 and shipments will start by the end of that week, according to Cook.

"I think it will be disruptive of the TV watching experience," Cook said.

"This is the foundation of the future of TV."

The new Apple TV unveiled last month has the potential to do for television what iPhone did to mobile phones, while claiming a starring role in home entertainment.

Updated Apple TV hardware was not expected to revolutionize the television industry, but it could strike a blow to cable companies that have been in a power seat when it comes to delivering shows and other content.

The new Apple TV will have a version of the App Store that has been a hit on iPhones.

Siri virtual assistant software built in Apple TV allowed for natural language searches for shows, such as asking for something funny or a certain actor by name.

People should also be able to see what they want on-demand instead of being at the mercy of cable broadcast schedules.

These options can spur a trend of "cord cutting" or ending the subscription "bundles" offered by cable and satellite TV firms.

By letting media companies keep control of their content in apps, Apple could find new money-making models while sidestepping worries studios might have about distribution rights.

"What has to happen in the TV land is it has to be brought up and modernized," Cook said.

"It is almost as though you step into a time capsule when you step into your living room."

The new Apple TV will launch with a starting price of $149.

Apple TV has lagged behind rivals such as Roku and Google Chromecast.

Cook declined to provide figures regarding Apple Watch sales, but said the California company shipped "a lot" in the first quarter they were released and that number has ramped each subsequent quarter.

He dodged questions regarding what kind of plans, if any, Apple had for making a car.

Rumors have abounded in recent months of Apple working on a self-driving car, in its own spin on work being done by Google and Tesla.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

What Google tweeted about car-sharing service report

SAN FRANCISCO - Google late Monday fired off a terse tweet that appeared aimed at putting brakes on a report that it is readying a ride-sharing service that would rival Uber.

"We think you'll find Uber and Lyft work quite well," said a message fired off at the Internet titan's official @google Twitter account. "We use them all the time."


Google referred AFP to the tweet in response to a request for comment regarding a Bloomberg report citing an unnamed source as saying that the California company is developing its own car-hailing service, most likely in connection with its work on self-driving cars.

The report came the same day that Uber and Carnegie Mellon University announced a partnership to collaborate on a center devoted to research and development of mapping, car safety, and autonomous vehicle technology.

"As a global leader in urban transportation, we have the unique opportunity to invest in leading edge technologies to enable the safe and efficient movement of people and things at giant scale," Uber chief product officer Jeff Holden said in a release.

"This collaboration and the creation of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center represent an important investment in building for the long term of Uber."

Google was an early backer of Uber, investing in the controversial ride-sharing service through its venture capital arm.

Google Maps software integrated into Uber's smartphone application lets users check progress of drivers on their way to pick them up.

San Francisco-based Uber has grown into one of the world's largest startups, valued at some $40 billion, with operations in more than 200 cities in 54 countries around the world.

But Uber's growth has also generated frictions with existing taxi operations, and posed challenges for regulators.

Uber does not employ drivers or own its vehicles, but instead uses independent contractors with their own cars.

Uber allows consumers to use a smartphone app to locate a driver -- in some cities with several classes of service -- and instantly book a ride.

Since launching in 2010, Uber has also been the prime example of a "disruptive" economic force. Taxi drivers in dozens of cities have staged protests against Uber, and regulators in many cities have sought to shut it down.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Self-driving cars also talk to each other

DETROIT -- An Acura RLX sedan demonstrated an unusual way to tow another car this week: the vehicles were not physically attached. The second car drove itself, following instructions beamed over by the first in a feat of technology that indicates a new stage in automation is happening faster than many expected.

Systems that enable vehicles to communicate with each other have been developed in recent years in parallel with features that enable cars to drive themselves. Manufacturers and suppliers now are putting the two together in novel ways, with broad implications for vehicle safety and convenience.

General Motors Co., Honda Motor Co., which owns Acura, and other automakers are working with traditional suppliers and startup firms. Tech giants Google, with its pioneering work on driverless cars, and Apple, which is working with automakers to embed greater connectivity in their cars, are accelerating the change.

"It is the mix of big companies -- Apple, Google, the automakers and the data aggregators -- that starts to create momentum. Two years ago, it was different. It was a promise. Today, it's reality," said Laurens Eckelboom, executive vice president of business development at Parkmobile, a smart-parking startup whose investors include BMW AG and Ford Motor Chairman Bill Ford's venture capital firm Fontinalis Partners.

A "truck platooning" application by Peloton Technology, a startup based in California's Silicon Valley, is intended to save fuel and reduce collisions.

As with virtual towing, a "platoon" of two heavy trucks use wireless communication and computer-controlled braking and acceleration to keep in close formation on the highway, according to a description by the company, which expects to start selling the technology late next year at $2,000 per truck plus a share of the projected operating savings.

The total price tag for widespread adaption of such features could be steep. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates automakers will need to spend billions of dollars to install safety systems that automatically assist drivers and could be mandated by 2020, when the industry expects the first self-driving cars to start easing onto roads.

Who is liable?

There are other risks and issues including reliability, cybersecurity and legal liability.

"What happens if a self-driving car gets into an accident? Who is liable for the damages? Will the human 'copilot' be at fault or will the car's manufacturer?," the Center for Insurance Policy and Research wrote last month, citing "a long list of safety and legal issues to iron out before self-driving cars hit the road."

All the razzle-dazzle technology promised by automakers and regulators "shouldn't take our eyes off the prize -- cars that don't crash," Jon Lauckner, GM's chief technology officer, said at the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress in Detroit this week.

Citi analyst Itay Michaeli said the convergence of connected and automated technologies also has the potential to reduce vehicle emissions and fuel usage, and bring down vehicle operating and insurance costs.

Active safety, including hands-free driver assistance and accident avoidance, was a common thread of many technical discussions and technology advances on display at the ITS show, which attracted 10,000 engineers, scientists and researchers, ending on Thursday.

Automakers are starting to put more of the new technologies on the road "to get some experience and see how the market reacts in advance of the government requiring it," said Jeff Owens, Delphi Automotive chief technology officer.

Price is still a big question. Some advanced systems could cost two to three times more to develop than early adopters are likely to pay, several industry insiders estimated in conversations at the show.

Even with just a few semi-automated systems installed, the price tag remains stiff, although recent studies have shown car buyers are willing to pay about $3,000 to have hands-free driving capability.

The Chrysler Group, a unit of Italy's Fiat SpA, is charging nearly $3,500 for a technology bundle on its new 2015 Chrysler 200C sedan that includes adaptive cruise control, which automatically applies brakes and throttle to keep a vehicle a safe distance behind the one ahead; lane departure warning with lane keep assist, which automatically redirects a vehicle that is drifting out of its traffic lane; blind spot and cross path detection, which helps the driver monitor the presence of vehicles, and automatic park assist.

GM's Cadillac brand hasn't said how much its new Smart Cruise system will cost when it debuts in about two years. The system is designed to enable hands-free driving on the freeway with automatic steering, braking and throttle, as well as using GM's OnStar system to provide location, weather and traffic information to the automated systems.

But drivers should not expect to take a snooze. "We are talking about 'automated' driving features, not autonomous driving," with Smart Cruise, warned spokesman Jim Cain. "We will have strategies in place to keep the driver alert and engaged."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com