Schlagwort-Archive: Volkswagen AG

Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, and Honda lead the autonomous car race

Kommentar verfassen
Automakers have spent the majority of 2016 announcing their plans for self-driving and the future of automation, but while some just begin to prototype systems, others are soaring ahead of the pack.

Research and advisory firm Lux Research has charted the 12 major automakers on business execution and technical value, and noted if the company has a positive or negative view on the advent of self-driving.

Lux Grid Auto Self Driving

Toyota, Honda, and Mercedes Benz are ahead right now, as you can see in the graph above. Tesla and BMW aren’t far behind, but the report claims that the two companies have a “wait and see” attitude to self-driving, rather than actively pushing for its arrival. The attitude is based on investments, partnerships, and demonstrated capability.

Daimler Trucks and Hyundai are the other two automakers in the top right on technical value and business execution. German automaker Audi has a decent technical value rating, but lacks the investment or business execution its German rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz have achieved.

The two major automakers in the U.S.—General Motors and Ford—have similarly poor outlooks. The two companies are lower than all European rivals on technical value and business execution, apart from Renault-Nissan, which is far behind the group.

Self-driving car R&D market is white hot

General Motors has started spending heavily in the self-driving market, investing $500 million in a partnership with ridesharing app Lyft and purchasing Cruise Automation for $1 billion in March. Ford, on the other hand, may be looking to partner with Google to fix some of its self-driving shortcomings.

See Also: Can taxi drivers still have a place in a driverless world?

The PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler are both not on graph, despite both working on self-driving or partnering with tech companies. PSA Group, which controls Peugeot and Citroen, is currently the only firm allowed to test self-driving cars in France. Fiat Chrysler recentlypartnered with Google, providing them with 100 vans, and may have plans to create similar partnerships with Uber and Amazon.

While it is worrying to see companies like Renault-Nissan and Audi not invest in self-driving as much as rivals, we are still three years away from any concrete legislation that allows driverless cars on the road. That is enough time for any automaker to change their attitude towards self-driving.

http://readwrite.com/2016/06/21/autonomous-car-leaders-tt4

Most Cars Will Have Automatic Emergency Braking Standard By 2022

Kommentar verfassen

In a significant move, 20 automakers have agreed to make automatic emergency braking standard on their cars by September 1st, 2022. This was announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety today. The announcement mentions that these automakers represent “more than 99 percent” of the auto market in this country.

Automatic emergency braking systems have long been hailed as effective measures for preventing collisions. Cars are equipped with forward-looking sensors which detect the risk of crashing into the car in front and ping the car to automatically brake should the driver not take any action.

 

These systems were initially only available in expensive luxury vehicles like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class but have since trickled down the cars you and I can afford. This agreement will go a long way in ensuring that mass market cars feature this technology which can prove to be the difference between life and death in such unfortunate scenarios.

Keep in mind though that this is an agreement and not regulation so there’s nothing compelling car manufacturers from abiding by this agreement. The fact that major car manufacturers in the country have decided to sign their names to the document shows their willingness to work together to bring the benefit of this system to as many people as possible.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-regulations-safety-idUSKCN0WJ27E