NYTIMES (Eric A. Taub) - Rivian R2 Review: A Tidier (in Size and Price) SUV Is Ready for the Suburbs
The electric automaker’s new R2 takes what works from its bigger, costlier brother and adds a host of features with the mass market in mind.
AMERICANTHINKER (American Thinker) - Does Volkswagen have a Future?
https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en By Thomas Kolbe The impression exists that Volkswagen Group’s consolidation course represents less a controlled downsizing than an internal corporate collapse -- the twilight of an economic era.
YOUTUBE (CNN) - Driverless cars compete in F1-style race
Fully autonomous cars competed in the first international edition of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League in Imola, Italy, on Saturday. The cars have no human drivers and are instead driven completely by AI. CNN’s Ivana Scatola was there to watch the action.
JUSTTHENEWS (Nicholas Ballasy) - Federal regulators investigate Tesla Cybercab rollout in Austin for robotaxi service
The two-seat vehicles are designed to operate without a human driver and have no steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator pedal or conventional mirrors.
NYTIMES (Jack Ewing) - Tesla Begins Offering Rides in a Car Without a Steering Wheel
The new Cybercab embodies Elon Musk’s vision of cars that drive themselves, but it is not clear when the vehicle will be widely available.
AXIOS (Joann Muller) - Exclusive: Waymo says there's no AI shortcut to self-driving
Breakthroughs in AI are fueling hopes that more data and smarter models can provide a shortcut to self-driving vehicles. Waymo, after more than 15 years and 200 million driverless miles, says there is none. Why it matters: The answer could determine whether the AV race is a long, expensive slog that rewards Waymo's head start — or a new track that lets newer rivals hit the road faster. Driving the news: Srikanth Thirumalai, Waymo's vice president of onboard software, said in an exclusive interview with Axios that it takes more than just better AI to safely deploy AVs at scale. - Waymo's goal from the start, he said, has been "demonstrably safe AI." But a growing reliance from competitors on single "end-to-end" AI systems introduces…
AMERICANALMANAC (Alex Tanzer) - Robotics CEO pitches humanoid border patrol to DHS as contract talks advance
A U.S. robotics company says it has demonstrated a humanoid robot to Department of Homeland Security officials and is negotiating contracts to deploy the machines along the southern border, though DHS says no formal deal exists. Foundation, the company behind a humanoid robot called Phantom, told Fox News Digital that it has shown the technology […] The post Robotics CEO pitches humanoid border patrol to DHS as contract talks advance appeared first on American Almanac .
A U.S. robotics company says it has demonstrated a humanoid robot to Department of Homeland Security officials and is negotiating contracts to deploy the machines along the southern border, though DHS says no formal deal exists. Foundation, the company behind a humanoid robot called Phantom, told Fox News Digital that it has shown the technology to DHS officials and is in active discussions with multiple national security agencies about putting the machines to work in one of the most dangerous and difficult operating environments in federal law enforcement. Founder and CEO Sankaet Pathak said the company is ready to move fast, claiming a pilot program could launch almost immediately and a broader deployment within months. DHS pushed…Open
NPR (Camila Domonoske) - Are robotaxis finally here?
Fully self-driving cars for hire have been hailed as the technology of the future for years now. That future has finally arrived -- but only in some cities.
AI:Fully autonomous ride-hailing services have finally entered the market, though deployment remains strictly confined to specific urban centers rather than achieving universal availability. While tech interests frame this as a long-awaited technological breakthrough, the current reality is a fragmented landscape of limited jurisdictions where driverless vehicles operate under heavy geographic restrictions.Open
NYTIMES (Emmy Martin) - Waymo Is Growing Faster Than Ever. So Are Its ‘Edge Cases.’
As Waymo deploys more driverless cars to 15 U.S. cities and counting, its vehicles keep encountering new and unexpected situations that they have no script to handle.
NYTIMES (Stefanos Chen) - An Expert in Traffic Jams Has a Scary Idea: What if the Cars Turn on Us?
Sam Schwartz, a former New York City traffic commissioner, thinks autonomous vehicles are the future. But his book, “Autokill,” imagines a world where they go very wrong.