News Roundup: Bentley Tests On-Demand Gas Fill-Up, Fly-Mode Wins With 3-D Printed Car and Drone Package, and More

A roundup of interesting headlines from around the driverless and connected-car world:

Bentley teams up to introduce on-demand gasoline fill-up service

Imagine your head is hitting the pillow one night, and you’re running through all the myriad errands you’re going to need to make in your car the next day. And then you remember, your gas tank is on empty. Well, if you lived in California and you owned a Bentley, that wouldn’t be a problem. It’s true, Bentley is teaming up with tech startup Filld to test out on-demand fuel delivery in California. With Bentley’s connected-car system, on-demand fuel is available 24/7, without even needing to hand over your keys. A technician will show up and refuel your car through the gas port, and a bill will be sent to your home. So, you could wake up the next morning to a full tank of gas, your car ready to hit the road. Pretty cool! Read more about this from AutoEvolution.

Check out this 3-D printed autonomous vehicle that features a scout drone

Imagine traveling with your car through gridlock traffic (not hard, I know). But then imagine you could send out your car’s drone to fly high overhead and scout out the best route to get around the traffic and get you to your destination faster. That could become a reality soon, thanks to Fly-Mode, a team of inventors that recently won the Essence of Autonomy Challenge, hosted by Local Motors and Mouser Electronics and judged by MythBusters star Grant Imahara.  The quad-motor drone has a landing pad on the rear of the vehicle, and occupants can use a joystick to control the drone, sending it up in the air to scout out surroundings, which Imahara says makes one feel as though they are in a flying vehicle, up in the air along with the drone. The drone’s images are sent to a projection screen inside the vehicle that can be inflated and deflated as needed. Read more about Fly-Mode from Popular Science.

Google inches closer to public release of self-driving cars, hits 2 million miles on public roads

Few companies have invested nearly as much time or money in the development of self-driving cars as Google’s Alphabet Inc. Recently, the company hit 2 million miles of driving on public roads. And in fact, it only took a little more than one year to go from 1 million to 2 million, as the fleet now consists of more than 60 self-driving test vehicles in four states. As news outlets report on the new benchmark, a reporter with Verge describes his recent ride in a Google self-driving car, including how he was a passenger while the car completed an obstacle course that had the vehicle dodge pedestrians, slam on the brakes as other cars cut in front, and navigate cyclists. Read more from Verge.