Project examines how to automate charging for self-driving fleets

Automated charging pilot project  -  EA and Stable AutoWithin the next decade, companies and fleet operators face a serious logistics dilemma: If the future is autonomous and electric, as some major automakers now argue, the only way this works smoothly is if the charging is as well-automated as the driving itself. That’s what Electrify America plans to study together with the San Francisco...

Study: Americans have little confidence in EVs, less in self-driving cars

Chevrolet Bolt EV Cruise Automation test mule in San FranciscoCar shoppers know electric-cars are good for the environment, but relatively few would consider buying one, according to results released Tuesday by J.D. Power and Associates. In its first-ever Mobility Confidence Index, 61 percent of respondents told the automotive polling juggernaut that they agree that electric cars are better for the...

2019 CES: Quiet year for green-car and self-driving news

2019 Nissan Leaf PlusAs always, the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show held this week in Las Vegas was massive. Hundreds of thousands of attendees, workers, and support staff converged at multiple venues to show off their latest wares, meet with clients, partners, and the media and try to break through the news clutter. For automotive news, however, this year’s CES...

Toyota’s newest self-driving test car is a Lexus LS luxury sedan

Toyota Research Institute P4 Automated Driving Test VehicleIf you're going to develop a self-driving test vehicle, why not make it one that passengers would enjoy riding in? Perhaps that's the logic behind Toyota's choice of its new Lexus LS large luxury sedan as the basis for the P4, its latest automated-driving test vehicle—unveiled yesterday by the Toyota Research Institute, or TRI. The...

Tesla removes Full Self Driving option from website for all models

2018 Tesla Model 3Friday marked exactly two years since Tesla announced that every one of its cars was being produced with the hardware needed for Full Self-Driving. Friday was also the first full day that Tesla removed the option from its configurator—at the same time that it introduced a new $45k Model 3 Mid Range, effectively splitting the difference...

How autonomous vehicles will compound electric-car benefits

Navya autonomous bus in Sion, SwitzerlandA lot of ink has been spilled over self-driving cars lately—whether they'll work, how they work, and the potential for accidents. What hasn't been discussed as much is how autonomous vehicles could help the environment. Self-driving vehicles go hand-in-hand with electrification, said Raphael Gindrat, the founder and CEO of Bestmile, a...

The Apple car to finally hit the road, only it’s a VW Bus

VW MOIA ride-sharing concept carAfter years of trials aimed at remaking driving in the mold of the iPhone, Apple is finally building some self-driving electric cars to test on roads in the San Francisco Bay Area—and they're Volkswagen buses. The New York Times reported on Thursday that, after years of looking for a partner among automakers, Apple has teamed up with the...

Jaguar I-Pace electric car to join Waymo’s self-driving car fleet

Waymo Jaguar I-PaceBritish carmaker Jaguar Land Rover and Waymo said Tuesday the carmaker would sell Google's autonomous-car technology arm up to 20,000 of its new all-electric Jaguar I-Pace SUV to be used in self-driving service by 2020. While last week's news focused entirely on the fatal crash of a Volvo converted by Uber to autonomous operation—apparently...