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News Roundup: U.S. Senate Approves Driverless Car Bill, Federal Government Gives State Millions For Automated Taxi Service, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Driverless car bill passes in the U.S. Senate

Members of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a bill similar to one already passed in the House of Representatives that will presumably help clear the way for driverless car technology to move forward. The bill keeps approval of driver’s licenses, regulation of insurance and enforcement of traffic laws within the states’ purview, but places oversight of the design and manufacture of driverless vehicles in the hands of the federal government-specifically the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Like the House bill, the Senate bill also permits Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to hand individual auto manufacturers exemptions from federal safety standards for up to 100,000 vehicles per year while they are fine-tuning their technology; and it also places responsibility with tech designers to protect their vehicles from cyber attacks. Read more from the Washington Post. 

 

Federal government giving South Carolina county millions for driverless taxis?

According to a news report from a USA Today-affiliated regional newspaper, the federal government has pledged millions of dollars toward the development of a driverless taxi service in Greenville, South Carolina. Greenville Online says $4 million has been pledged to help develop the nation’s first automated taxi service in Greenville County. In a news conference Thursday, county officials announced the first test vehicle will be deployed on the Clemson University campus, in connection with the college’s International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR). While the test vehicle is only the size of a golf cart, officials said the program’s expansion will feature typical-size vehicles, as well as possible non-emergency medical vehicles for senior and disabled residents. A group called the Global Autonomous Vehicle Partnership is matching funds to help the development of the autonomous vehicles. Read more from Greenville Online.

 

Driverless startup hires execs away from Google’s Waymo, Microsoft

Driverless vehicle startup Nauto is fresh off a monster round of funding, and is already looking to expand its business both locally and globally. In a first step toward that goal, the startup announced this week that it has hired executives from Microsoft, and Google Alphabet’s self-driving car spinoff, Waymo. Waymo’s former head of business, Jennifer Haroon, has joined Nauto as its new vice-president of corporate development and business operations. Microsoft’s former vice-president of global enterprise sales, Sanket Akerkar, joins Nauto as its new senior vice-president of global fleets and insurance. Nauto most recently raised $159 million in funding from a number of major firms, and already has several lucrative partnerships in place with auto manufacturers such as General Motors, BMW and Toyota. The company currently outfits commercial fleets with accident detection devices (shown in image), and is looking to scale out its geographic operations and commercial business. Read more from Recode.

Image: Nauto accident detection device / Credit: Nauto Inc.

Waymo Taps Rental-Car Giant Avis as a New Self-Driving Car Partner, Russia Enters the Driverless Game, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Our roundup of recent news to come out of the driverless, connected-vehicle industries:

U.S. Congress appears to enjoy bipartisan support for driverless vehicle legislation

News outlets are reporting that discussion of driverless vehicle legislation that would propel forward adoption of the technology was received positively in Congress last week, and that there is a chance some bills could be voted on before the end of the month. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle appear eager to progress the advent of self-driving vehicles, and make it easier for car manufacturers and tech firms like Ford, Tesla Motors, Google’s Waymo and NVIDIA to bring their products into the market through loosening restrictive laws. They also seek to create a level of consistency from state to state, many of which have widely varying laws for self-driving vehicles. Read more from The Motley Fool.

 

Russia moves full speed ahead toward driverless vehicles, will soon debut bus

Russia will not see itself fall behind the west, and has announced it will be debuting a fully autonomous shuttle bus at the upcoming third Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September. The debut ride will be jointly hosted by the companies behind the project — Bakulin Motors Group (BMG) and the Skolkovo innovation center. The bus is called Matryoshka, and can carry 8 to 12 passengers, carry cargo, or be used as a public utility vehicle. The bus is electric and its battery will allow it to travel a distance of up to 80 miles at speeds of up to 18 miles per hour. Passengers can even call the operator via video call from their seats. Russia does not yet have laws allowing for driverless vehicles on public roads, so all testing thus far has been done on closed courses. Read more from RBTH.

 

Waymo enters agreement with Avis Budget Group to manage its fleet of driverless cars in Phoenix

Avis Budget Group, which owns the rental-car brands Avis and Budget, as well as car-sharing company Zipcar, has been tapped by Google’s Waymo to manage its fleet of self-driving cars in Phoenix. The fleet recently started allowing members of the public to test its vehicles in April of this year through its “early rider program.” The program aims to discover where people most want to be able to use self-driving cars, and has been picking up and dropping off passengers for the past few months. As per the deal, Avis will clean the cars and perform regular maintenance and minor repairs as needed. Read more from the Washington Post.

 

Image by Waymo & Avis Budget Group

Increased Demand for Volvo AB Products Leads D20 to Second Consecutive Weekly Gain

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Seventeen price gainers, led largely by Volvo AB, helped the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) to a second consecutive week with more than a 3-percentage-point gain.

The D20 outgained both the Dow, which added 1.9 percent, and the S&P 500, which climbed 1.5 percent to close the week at 2384.20. 

Since February of 2016, the D20 is up 60 percent, while the Dow is up only 31 percent, and the S&P 500 has gained 28 percent.

Volvo AB (STO:VOLV-B), the Swedish truck and heavy equipment maker, led the D20 with an 12-percent price gain. Volvo AB saw its construction equipment orders climb by a third in the first quarter, mostly driven by increased orders for its mining equipment.

Other significant movers this week were Alphabet (GOOG), which jumped 7.4 percent; Valeo; SA’s ADR (VLEEY), which climbed 7.2 percent; and Visteon (VC), which gained 6.1 percent to climb over the $100-per-share mark, closing the week at $102.95.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

Zoox, a driverless car start-up headquartered in Menlo Park, California, has hired the former head of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Mark Rosekind.  He will focus on safety innovation for Zoox.  Zoox, which has raised $290 million in venture funding, remains in stealth mode and has not shared detailed plans about products publicly.

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News Roundup: Google Forms Self-Driving Car Company Called ‘Waymo,’ Uber Starts Testing Driverless Taxis in San Francisco Without Permission, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A look at some of the most interesting headlines to come out of the driverless and connected-car industries this past week:

Google spins out driverless car arm into its own company: Waymo

It’s finally happened-Google has officially launched its own self-driving car company, known as Waymo. Google officially announced the formation of Waymo this week on Dec. 13, 2016, along with the launch of Waymo’s own website. Using the same fleet the company has been testing in four U.S. cities over the past few years, Waymo says its next steps will be to start allowing people to test drive its self-driving cars “to do everyday things like run errands or commute to work.” Read more on Waymo’s website.

 

Uber starts testing self-driving taxis in San Francisco without DMV’s permission

The industry marveled when Uber rolled out self-driving cars in Pittsburgh earlier this year, but the government was less than happy when the ride-hailing giant began trying out autonomous taxis in San Francisco this week-without the DMV’s permission. Not to mention, some people are reporting seeing the driverless cars make traffic violations such as running red lights. News reports indicate the California DMV is currently trying to get Uber to halt the use of the driverless cars in California until testing permits are finalized. Read more from Business Insider.

 

Univ. of Iowa to use USDOT grant to research autonomous cars, pedestrians

The University of Iowa will share a $1.4-million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation with four other institutions, and says one of the areas it will focus on with the research money is the safety and viability of self-driving transportation. Dr. Joseph Kearney, a computer science professor at the school, said “There’s work being done and work that will be done, that will look at interactions between pedestrians and bicyclists, and automated vehicles and semi-automated vehicles, in order to see how pedestrians respond.” Read more and see video footage from KCRG-TV.

Denso and Google’s Alphabet Inc. the Only Bright Spots Among D20’s Broad-Based Losses

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Eighteen losers and only two gainers ensured that this would be a down week for the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20).

The D20 lost 2.5 percent of its value to close down 4.05 points at 156.40.  The Dow and S&P 500 were also down for the week, but not nearly as much as the D20.  The Dow lost 0.6 percent and the S&P lost 1 percent.

The two bright spots were the Japanese Parts maker Denso Corp. (DNZOY) and Alphabet Inc. (GOOG).  Denso was up 2 percent, gaining $0.40 to close at $20.62, while Google gained $3.45 or 0.5 percent to close at $778.53.

Mobileye (MBLY) was the D20’s biggest price percentage loser.  Its stock price dropped $3.81, or 9.3 percent, to close at $36.99.

TomTom (TOM2) had more bad news as its share price plummeted 5.0 percent on the announcement that its Q3 revenue dropped 6 percent.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

 

Up-and-Comers:

Optimus Ride, an MIT-spinoff startup, has raised $5.25 million in a seed round to develop driverless technology.  CEO Ryan Chin has assembled an all-star cast in which lead investors NextView Ventures, FirstMark Capital and D20 constituent, Nvidia (NVDA), have placed their money and their trust.