Autonomous, Alternative and Experimental Vehicles

Reports concerning autonomous, electric, hydrogen, fuel cell vehicles, driverless shuttles and buses, self-driving trucks, autonomous cars, etc.

By Charles Wardell

Charles Wardell
Mobile Technology
Exclusive look at Cruise’s first driverless car without a steering wheel or pedals
The Verge - Andrew J. Hawkins
The not-a-car sits on the gleaming black stage surrounded by a halo of light. It’s orange and black and white, and roughly the same size as a crossover SUV, but somehow looks much larger from the outside.
2 days ago
Charles Wardell
Electric Vehicles
GM Cruise unveils self-driving electric car for ride-sharing
Electrek - Fred Lambert
Cruise, GM’s self-driving startup, has unveiled the Cruise Origin, a new autonomous electric vehicle that will power an all-electric completely autonomous ride-sharing service. The vehicle is a result
2 days ago
Charles Wardell
Autos
Autonomous vehicle R&D group 'Capri Mobility' is testing 'driverless pods' in the UK
TechSpot - Cohen Coberly
In context: Autonomous vehicle technology is on the rise, and numerous companies have reached major milestones in this industry. Waymo has begun a …
2 days ago
Charles Wardell
Autos
Thomas Built Buses on track to deliver Virginia’s first electric school buses
Digital Trends - Ronan Glon
Thomas Built Buses announced it’s preparing to deliver an initial batch of 50 electric school buses to the state of Virginia. The company is working …
2 days ago
Charles Wardell
Alternative Fuel
VW will divert resources away from fuel cells, focus on BEVs instead
motor1.com - Andrei Nedelea
CEO says VW could face the same fate as Nokia if it doesn’t adapt. Volkswagen group CEO, Herbert Diess, recently announced that the German car making …
3 days ago
Charles Wardell
Design Thinking
Niu launches self-balancing electric moped ahead of major U.S. debut
Inverse - Mike Brown
The Chinese company could change your daily commute. Niu, a major Chinese electric scooter manufacturer, is coming to the United States. Ahead of the …
January 7
Charles Wardell
Mobile Technology
Lightyear One: Hands-on with a solar-powered car with 440-mile range
VentureBeat - Dean Takahashi
Move over Tesla. The Lightyear One will be a solar-powered electric vehicle that can drive 440 miles on a single charge. I missed the Dutch company when I visited CES 2020, the big tech trade show in Vegas
4 days ago
Charles Wardell
Autos
Batteries Aren't Just For Passenger Electric Cars Anymore
insideevs.com - David Lardner
There are very few parallels between the EV market and the blossoming electric heavy-duty equipment market. But one that stands out is adoption. Just …
January 15
Charles Wardell
Lifestyle (UK)
Panasonic unveils mini electric fire engine for narrow alleys and backstreets
independent.co.uk - David Phelan
Panasonic makes some tremendous stuff, from gorgeous TVs with immaculate picture quality to rugged laptops, to truly outstanding cameras. As anyone …
5 days ago
Charles Wardell
Clean Energy
Ecovolta presents electric mini excavator -
electrive.com - Author: Chris Randall
On behalf of Avesco AG, the Swiss battery system manufacturer Ecovolta has equipped a vehicle based on the Caterpillar Cat 301.7 with an electric …
January 14
Charles Wardell
Volkswagen
Volkswagen CEO: We Need To Move Faster On Electric Vehicles Or We Will Follow Nokia's Fate
cleantechnica.com - Zachary Shahan
Volkswagen CEO: We Need To Move Faster On Electric Vehicles Or We Will Follow Nokia’s Fate Volkswagen’s CEO, Herbert Diess, has reportedly expressed …
January 16
Charles Wardell
Alternative Fuel
Toyota’s hydrogen-powered car will do 650km on a single tank
metro.co.uk - Jeff Parsons
Toyota has unveiled the final production design of its second generation hydrogen-powered saloon car at a special event in the Netherlands. The Toyota …
January 16
Charles Wardell
Fiat Chrysler
Fiat Chrysler And Foxconn Partner To Build Electric Cars In China
Forbes - Liane Yvkoff
To build an electric vehicle for the largest market for cars, Fiat Chrysler announced today that it’s forming a joint venture with Apple supplier Foxconn, according to an article in Nikkei Asian Review.
January 17
Charles Wardell
Transportation
A $100 Million Investment Pulls an EV Startup Out of Stealth Mode
WIRED - Alex Davies
Hyundai and Kia are backing Arrival, a startup British maker of electric delivery vans, a good use case for EVs. Hyundai and Kia announced Thursday …
January 16
Charles Wardell
Waymo
Mobileye takes aim at Waymo
TechCrunch - Kirsten Korosec
Mobileye has built a multi-billion-dollar business supplying automakers with computer vision technology that powers advanced driver assistance systems. It’s a business that last year generated nearly billion
January 15
Charles Wardell
Autos
Lucid Air's $60,000, 400-Mile Electric Sedan Will Debut in April
Car and Driver - Roberto Baldwin
Lucid Motors, an EV startup that also supplies batteries to Formula E racing, is gearing up to unveil its final production-ready Lucid Air sedan at an April event timed to the New York auto show. After
January 15
Charles Wardell
Lifestyle
Here’s What It Costs To Run An Electric Car And Its True Environmental Impact In Five U.S. Cities
Forbes - Jim Gorzelany
While it’s indeed true that it costs less and is better for the environment to drive a zero-emissions electric car than a comparable combustion engine model, exactly how cheap and how clean it will wind
January 14
Charles Wardell
Technology
Swarms of Teeny Robo-Tractors Will Outmaneuver Tesla’s Driverless Cars
Medium - Sarah Kessler
Between 2009 and 2015, Google spent $1.1 billion on autonomous vehicles for its Waymo subsidiary, which have so far roamed more than 10 million miles …
January 13
Charles Wardell
Electric Vehicles
Nissan e-4ORCE First Drive: New dual motor AWD control tech makes EVs quicker and safer
Electrek - Seth Weintraub
Nissan flew us out to Las Vegas during CES 2020 and put us up, allowing us to get a first hand drive of the new e-4ORCE AWD technology going into their upcoming Ariya platform vehicles. We got to drive
January 12
Charles Wardell
Mobile Technology
Fleets of electric school buses are being tested to store power for the grid
Axios - Joann Muller
Utility companies are helping cash-strapped school districts replace diesel buses with electric ones that have a secondary purpose: helping to manage …
January 10
Charles Wardell
Electric Vehicles
Tesla Semi: new update on test program, improvements, and timeline for electric truck
Electrek - Fred Lambert
Tesla has sent a letter to Tesla Semi reservation holders to update them on its test program for the electric truck, as well as plans to improve it, and a slightly updated timeline. When unveiling Tesla
January 11
Charles Wardell
Technology
My first self-driving car ride with an empty driver seat was surprisingly not terrifying
Mashable - Sasha Lekach
Last year at CES, I rode in what felt like an endless stream of self-driving cars up and down the Las Vegas Strip. Lo and behold, for every ride a "safety engineer" or "operator" was inches from the steering
January 9
Charles Wardell
Nissan
Nissan e-4ORCE Makes Electric Vehicles Drive Like Sports Cars
PCMag - Matthew Humphries
The move to fully-electric vehicles is allowing car makers to experiment with new tech. The latest innovation coming from Nissan is a twin-motor …
January 8
Charles Wardell
Technology
Pilotless air taxi from China’s Ehang takes flight in the US for the first time
The Verge - Andrew J. Hawkins
Chinese drone maker Ehang demonstrated its autonomous air taxi in the US for the first time. The all-electric two-seater took flight for five minutes above a test track south of Raleigh, North Carolina,
January 8
Charles Wardell
Business
LIDAR sensors aren’t just for self-driving cars anymore
The Verge - Andrew J. Hawkins
Most people will recognize a self-driving car based on the whirling sensor perched on the roof. LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, uses laser pulses to build a 3D model of the environment
January 7
Charles Wardell
Autonomous Vehicles
Watch Mobileye’s self-driving car drive through Jerusalem using only cameras
The Verge - Andrew J. Hawkins
When it comes to self-driving cars, the general axiom for sensors is “the more the merrier.” The safest systems are the ones that use a multiplicity of sensors, such as cameras, radar, ultrasonic, and
January 7
Charles Wardell
Electric Vehicles
UK car sales hit 6-year low but electric vehicles see surge in demand
CNBC - Anmar Frangoul
New car registrations in the U.K. fell by 2.4% in 2019, new figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show, with demand for …
January 6
Charles Wardell
Rivian
Amazon-backed Rivian will integrate Alexa into its electric pickup and SUV
TechCrunch - Kirsten Korosec
Rivian will integrate Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa into the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, the company’s first electric vehicles that are set to debut at the end of the year. Rivian said Monday it also plans
January 6
Charles Wardell
CES
Mercedes' CES showcar is an Avatar-inspired look at an autonomous future
Roadshow - Steven Ewing
This story is part of CES 2020, our complete coverage of the showroom floor and the hottest new tech gadgets around. Some futuristic, way-off concept cars look like they're straight out of the movie Avatar.
January 6