A Tesla running on autopilot crashed into a parked police car in Laguna Beach on Tuesday.

A Tesla sedan crashed into a parked police car in Laguna Beach, California on Tuesday, while using Autopilot resulting in “minor injuries” to the driver. The incident added to a fast-growing list of similar accidents where autopilot was involved. Fortunately, the officer in charge of the police car at the time of the crash was not inside the vehicle and thus avoided being injured.

Тhe man who was driving the Tesla said he had engaged the autopilot mode before the crash—the latest in a series of incidents involving a self-driving car on autopilot mode. More »

The driver and one of his passengers died after a Tesla Model S burst into flames following a crash.

Less than two months after a Tesla Model X got in fire in Mountain View, CA while on autopilot mode and its driver died, Tesla tragedy has struck again.

The driver of a Model S and one of his passengers died after the vehicle was involved in a single-car crash in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Tuesday evening.

 

According to Telegraph.

Pentagon is likely to beat Uber and Telsa in the race over self-driving vehicles.

The Pentagon could beat the big competitors in the race to develop self-driving vehicles such as autonomous tanks to deliver food and fuel on the battlefield.

Michael Griffin, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said at a hearing on Capitol Hill this month that the U.S. Department of Defense is going to make self-driving vehicles for the needs of the Army before “we’ll have self-driving cars on the streets.”

 

According to Bloomberg Quint.

A BritishTesla owner has been banned from driving for 18 months for climbing into the passenger seat of his Model S after turning on its semi-autonomous feature. Tesla instructs its drivers to keep hands on the steering wheel while Autopilot is engaged. More »

Two-person, 110mph electric craft made by Google co-founder’s drone company begins regulatory approval process in New Zealand

Kitty Hawk is the “flying car” company that is financially backed by Google founder Larry Page. The firm has announced that it will begin the regulatory approval process required for launching its autonomous passenger-drone system in New Zealand. Kitty Hawk has already conducted secret testing under the cover of another company called Zephyr Airworks.

The all-electric craft, called Cora with a wingspan of 36ft has been eight years in the making. It can fly autonomously up to 3,000ft above ground.
The two-person craft is a 12-rotor plane-drone hybrid that can take off vertically like a drone, but then uses a propeller mounted at the back to fly at up to 110 miles an hour for around 62 miles at a time.

The story continues here.

Ford is planning to test its self-driving vehicles on the streets of downtown Miami and Miami Beach.

The Michigan-based automaker has started a pilot program that includes delivery service, testing self-driving cars around the city and setting up a fleet-management center.

The company’s commercial plans for robot cars include ride-hailing and deliveries, the automaker announced a few days ago. The tests will find out what works for both customers and companies. In addition, the company needs to figure out how to run an armada of autonomous cars which means to focus on maintaining and operating a whole fleet of robot delivery cars. That is why the Detroit automaker is going to build its first operations terminal in Miami.
The vehicles arrived last week, and tests are already underway. More »

The autonomous cars and robots will lead to mass unemployment.
Аccording to Dr. Subhash Kak, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and a leading expert from Oklahoma University, artificial intelligence, and self-driving cars could put a third of all people out of work.
Vehicles that transport people using artificial intelligence are increasingly becoming a part of our everyday life. Dr. Subhash Kak believes a third of jobs will be lost.

Dr. Kak also warns that as robots are taking control of the world, humans are heading for a dystopian future with mass unemployment. Autonomous cars and artificial intelligence are making an impact in all business sectors. Dr. Subhash Kak says that as one-third of the people in any advanced economy are engaged in transportation, those employees will lose their jobs as soon as self-driving cars become widely adopted. Kak predicts a world where robots replace humans and machines will work at a cheaper price and longer hours without getting tired. More »

Autonomous vehicles with no human backup will be put to the test on roads next year.
Seeing a car with no human backup is moving closer to reality after two companies announced a partnership to test fully-autonomous cars on public roads in 2018.
Two companies, Delphi, a U.K.-based company with U.S. headquarters in Metro Detroit which is an automotive electronics and parts maker, and Transdev, a French transport company, are planning to use autonomous taxis and a shuttle van to carry passengers on roadways in France.

 

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Tesla Inc has recalled nearly two-thirds of Model S and Model X vehicles made last year to fix a parking brake issue.
Following the biggest ever recall for the company, announced on Thursday, shares of the luxury electric car maker were down nearly 1 percent to settle at $302.77 in afternoon trading.
The vehicles affected are roughly 53,000 of Model S and Model X electric cars built between February and October of 2016. 31,000 of them were sold in the U.S. More »

Tesla bucks the tradition and the company is going to release the Model 3 with a single central display.
After almost a year of rumors and speculation, Elon Musk has confirmed that Model 3 will not feature a head-up display. That means everything, from navigation to music, will be on the one display.
There will not be a traditional gauge cluster behind the steering wheel, and no head-up display, either; no speedometer, fuel gauge, temperature gauges, rev counter, or even a clock in front of the driver. More »