Tag Archives: Autonomous Driving

GM’s Ultra Cruise Will Leapfrog Tesla Autopilot, Offer Full Hands-Free Driving Virtually Everywhere

In the race to put self-driving vehicles on the road, General Motors may be ready to take the lead with the new Ultra Cruise system it plans to put on the road by 2023.

Cadillac plans to expand the rollout of Super CruiseTM, the world’s first true hands-free driver assistance feature for the freeway. Super Cruise will be available on all Cadillac models, with the rollout beginning in 2020. After 2020, Super Cruise will make its introduction in other General Motors brands.
GM is currently rolling out its original Super Cruise system on a wide range of products, including Chevy and GMC models, as well as those from Cadillac.

The new system will increase by tenfold the number of miles of roads GM’s Super Cruise system can operate on – and where the current system only can operate on limited-access roadways, Ultra Cruise will cover “every road including city streets, subdivision streets and paved rural roads, in addition to highways,” GM said in a statement announcing the new technology. At launch, Ultra Cruise will operate on 2 million miles of roads, said GM, with a goal of increasing that to 3.4 million.

With Ultra Cruise, GM seems positioned to leapfrog Tesla, the EV automaker that marketed the first “self-driving” system, Autopilot. Despite releasing a new update it refers to as “Full Self-Driving,” Tesla’s technology still requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel at all times.

“Ultra Cruise is not just a game changer in terms of what it enables ­− a door-to-door hands-free driving experience − but a technological one as well,” said Doug Parks, GM’s executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain.

The race for autonomy

The auto industry is in a race to develop autonomous vehicle technology – with the eventual goal of having vehicles operate without the assistance of a human driver. GM’s San Francisco-based Cruise subsidiary recently won approval from the State of California to test prototype vehicles that don’t even have a steering wheel or other driver controls. But most experts believe that it will be late in the decade before such systems are ready for widespread use.

(Click to expand.)

In the meantime, the focus is on more limited systems that can reduce the role of the driver – though a motorist would still need to be ready to take control in an emergency, or if the vehicle were to travel outside a “geofenced” area.

A number of manufacturers are developing these systems – known in industry parlance as “Level 2 autonomy.” Tesla was first to market with the original Autopilot, GM following with Super Cruise which it is now rolling out on a wide range of vehicle lines.

Both have significant limitations and make various trade-offs. Tesla has dubbed the latest version of Autopilot “Full Self-Driving,” and many owners have been using the system hands-free. Some have been recorded going so far as to jump into the back seat while the vehicle is moving. But the automaker actually stresses that motorists need to maintain at least a loose grip on the wheel.

Tesla v GM

GM claims drivers actually can take hands off the wheel using Super Cruise. But the system is restricted to about 200,000 miles of U.S. and Canadian roads. And the GM system uses a camera to ensure that the driver remains alert and in position to take over quickly, if necessary.

Tesla FSD Simulation

A digital simulation of Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system.

Tesla has, until recently, not monitored the driver. But it plans to do so after coming under fire for the lax way in which many drivers use Super Cruise. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is conducting a probe of Autopilot in the wake of several dozen crashes, a number of those involving Tesla vehicles impacting stationary emergency vehicles.

“The way Tesla is doing it, there always will be error problems,” said Sam Abuelsamid, principal auto analyst with Guidehouse Insights.

Tesla relies on the data gathered by a network of cameras to operate Autopilot. GM, on the other hand, uses radar, as well as ultra high-definition street maps, with Super Cruise. And the Ultra Cruise system will add LIDAR, a 3D laser technology.

“This is a more robust solution,” said Abuelsamid. “They’ve taken a safer approach (even as they) expand tenfold the number of roads they can use Ultra Cruise on.”

No rollout roadmap – yet

The GM system will be able to recognize street signs and traffic signals, as well as pedestrians, bicyclists and animals. And it will be able to handle pretty much any sort of situation that a human driver would normally be required to negotiate, according to GM.

The automaker hasn’t provided a specific roadmap for rolling out Ultra Cruise but it’s expected to follow the same model used for the original Super Cruise system. That would begin with the flagship Cadillac brand and then expand to other GM brands.

Motorists pay additional fees for vehicles equipped with the basic Super Cruise hardware and GM recently announced that it will charge a monthly usage fee, as well. Tesla, Ford and other manufacturers are adopting similar pricing models.

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Lyft Sells Self-Driving Business Unit to Toyota for $500 Million

Lyft has been using the autonomous prototypes in the Las Vegas market.

Lyft Inc. sold its autonomous vehicle technology unit, Level 5, to Toyota Motor Co. for $550 million, following the lead of its rival, Uber Inc.

The company launched Level 5 in 2017 to build a self-driving system for its network of vehicles. The goal, ultimately, was to eliminate the need for drivers. The company grew to nearly 400 employees, but as Lyft continues to lose money overall, it needed to find ways to end its string of quarterly losses.

Not only will it get $550 million from Toyota, it will also stop funneling multiple millions of dollars into a development project with no finish line in sight for a payoff. Lyft gets $200 million immediately and the remaining $350 million will be paid in installments during the next five years.

Uber finalized a similar deal last fall, selling its autonomous vehicle unit called Advanced Technology Group to Aurora led by former Waymo chief Chris Urmson for $400 million.

Immediate financial relief

Lyft has provided 100,000 self-driving rides as part of its autonomous technology development.

The ride-hailing company said selling its Level 5 subsidiary puts it back on the path to profitability. First and foremost, it cuts $100 million of annualized non-GAAP operating expenses on a net basis, Co-founder and President John Zimmer noted in the announcement.

“Assuming the transaction closes within the expected timeframe and the COVID recovery continues, we are confident that we can achieve Adjusted EBITDA profitability in the third quarter of this year,” Zimmer said in a statement.

The company isn’t getting out of the robotaxi business. It’s already partnered with Motional and Waymo to develop self-driving tech and now it will just rely on that partnership to move toward autonomous vehicles. Working with the pair, Lyft’s already provided more than 100,000 self-driving rides in its vehicles in the last three years.

However, Lyft can now focus on what it can do best with autonomous vehicles by offering services such as routing, consumer interface and managing, and maintaining and cleaning partners’ autonomous vehicle fleets, which could mean added revenue, it said.

Uber made a similar choice

Lyft’s deal is similar to Uber’s move last December to sell its Advanced Technology Group, or ATG, to Aurora, the autonomous vehicle technology company founded by Google and Waymo veteran Chris Urmson. The deal came in at $400 million.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi noted after the sale of its ATG unit the company’s path to profitability had been shortened.

AVs were a critical component of the path to profitability by Uber, which now relies on part-time drivers or gig workers to ferry passengers, using its celebrated phone app. Uber invested huge sums in its internal AV project; however, was crippled in 2018 when one of its test vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. It never really recovered.

Uber also ended up with a 26% ownership interest in Aurora on a fully diluted basis, the company said in a filing.

Aurora and Uber agreed to collaborate to launch self-driving vehicles on its ride-hailing and food delivery network. Uber is also working on building out its freight logistics platform but is not operating its own trucks at present.

The completion of the deal caused Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to utter a familiar refrain to Reuters: “This essentially advances our path to profitability.” He said the deal should put the company on track for profitability by the end of this year, largely due to the fact Uber would no longer be investing vast sums of cash into ATG.

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Krafcik Leaves Waymo After Five Years as CEO

John Krafcik NADA 2018

Waymo CEO John Krafcik is way gone, announcing his departure and the company’s plans to move the current COO and CTO into the role of co-CEO.

Add “former” to the title of Waymo CEO John Krafcik, who announced today he’s left the company.

The former Hyundai Motor America chief spent five years heading up the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of Google, which, according to his farewell on LinkedIn, “was called ‘Chauffeur’ internally.”

Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov, of whom Krafcik said “having seen their brilliance, vision, and commitment in play for years — I assure you they are very well suited for this,” take over as co-CEOs of the Mountain View, Calif.-based AI-focused company. As is often the case with senior executives, Krafcik will stay on in an advisory capacity.

“So now, with the fully autonomous Waymo One ride-hailing service open to all in our launch area of Metro Phoenix, and with the fifth generation of the Waymo Driver being prepared for deployment in ride-hailing and goods delivery, it’s a wonderful opportunity for me to pass the baton to Tekedra and Dmitri as Waymo’s co-CEOs,” he wrote.

Next steps

Waymo co CEO Tekedra Mawakana

Waymo named former COO Tekedra Mawakana as its new co-CEO to replace Krafcik.

Krafcik didn’t offer many details what the future holds, although it could be that he’s uncertain himself. He said he and his wife, Leila, will take a “coupbatical,” which he described as “a refresh period where we look forward to reconnecting with old friends & family, and discovering new parts of the world.

“After that, we’ve got a few ideas for focus and contribution that we’ll flesh out together and share when the time is right. We’ve already relocated to Austin, Texas, and we look forward to seeing some of you there, or on our travels.”

Krafcik once headed up Hyundai’s U.S. operations, helping lead the brand through an image renaissance and a period of rapid growth. He even earned the “Automotive Executive of the Year” in 2013. However, his run there ended in late 2013 after the South Korean automaker declined to renew his contract — despite the accolade.

However, he quickly landed on his feet, taking over as CEO of TrueCar just as the automotive sales and data website was readying to go public. His tenure there was short, however, as he moved on to Waymo, then-Google’s self-driving car project, just a little more than a year later in September 2015.

Dynamic duo

Waymo coCEO Dmitri Dolgov

Waymo CTO Dmitri Dolgov joins Mawakana as co-CEO with Krafcik’s departure.

As for the company, Mawakana and Dolgov now step into new roles. Previously the COO and CTO respectively, they are described as having “complementary skill sets and experiences.” Due to the nature of their roles, they’re already accustomed to working together.

Dolgov, who started in autonomy as part of Stanford’s DARPA Urban Challenge team, joined the company in 2009, when it was still referred to as Google’s self-driving car project. Over time, his influence and responsibility grew. He became CTO late in 2016.

Mawakana, joined­­ Waymo as a policy lead. Prior to joining the company in 2017, she led global policy teams at eBay, AOL, Startec and Yahoo, after beginning her career as Washington, D.C.-based law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP.


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First Look: 2021 Nissan Ariya

The 2021 Nissan Ariya is about the size of a Rogue SUV – but features the interior space of the bigger Murano.

Nissan is singing a new tune. With the arrival of the 2021 Ariya, Japan’s second-largest carmaker hopes to rebuild its once-lofty position as an innovator in the emerging market for battery-electric vehicles.

The automaker was, in fact, the first to mass market a BEV, but a decade after the launch of the original Leaf model, Nissan has not only been eclipsed by Tesla, but is being challenged by more conventional competitors, such as Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors,  each rolling out waves of new long-range battery-cars.

The 2021 Nissan Ariya is the long-overdue battery-SUV meant to keep Nissan in the game. It’s a ground-up offering, not just a redesigned Leaf, with a brand-new platform and electric drive system that is more powerful and able to deliver longer range. Ariya also debuts Nissan’s first hands-free driving system.

(A week with the 2020 Nissan Leaf SL Plus.)

The Nissan Ariya will be offered in either front- or all-wheel-drive configurations.

The new model “is the spearhead, showing our vision of the future,” said Ivan Espinosa, the carmaker’s senior vice president of global product planning, during a media roundtable ahead of the battery car’s Wednesday debut. “Ariya is not just an EV,” he emphasized. “It is showing the technical prowess of Nissan…what Nissan stands for.”

Pronounced like the song an opera diva sings, a concept version of the Ariya made its first appearance at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show last autumn, followed by a U.S. debut at January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Though there were some design details unique to exotic concepts, like the oversized wheels, the show car will go into production with only minor changes.

The 2021 Ariya rides on a flexible new architecture, Espinosa explained during the online meeting. It eventually will be used for a variety of battery-cars to be produced not only by Nissan but also by its two alliance partners, Japan’s Mitsubishi and France’s Renault.

(Nissan lifts the covers on the next-gen Rogue.)

Features like the grille-less nose help reduce aero drag.

“The beauty of this platform is it’s modular (which) allows us to accommodate different possibilities,” he said, adding that the three partners have “a lot of questions about what new areas of the market we can explore.”

As with key competitors like Tesla, Ford, GM and VW, the platform positions its batteries, motors and other key components below the load floor. That reduces the size of the traditional engine compartment, allowing significantly more freedom, said Nissan’s global styling chief Alfonso Albaisa. And the development team found other breakthrough strategies. Rather than mounting the climate control, or HVAC, system within the instrument panel, it was moved into the modest space left where an engine would normal go, freeing up more space for the passenger compartment.

“You get inside and you’re really shocked,” suggested Albaisa, pointing out that the exterior footprint of the Nissan Ariya is about as big as the subcompact Rogue SUV, but the cabin has the roominess of the much larger Murano.

(Nissan among automakers taking big sales hit in Q2.))

The interior borrows heavily from the Ariya concept.

From an exterior design perspective, the Ariya is far less geeky than the Leaf which was designed during an era when green machines were expected to look like something from a sci-fi flick. That said, there are some obvious cues that tell you it’s a BEV, starting with absence of a conventional grille – electric vehicles needing far less disruptive airflow under the hood. Slit headlamps each feature four distinct LED bulbs. From the side, the crossover adapts a curvaceous, coupe-like shape, with plenty of subtle details designed to cheat the range-stealing wind – including twin rear spoilers.

Inside, Albaisa’s team adopted a minimalist approach, with a floating, horizontally oriented instrument panel featuring side-by-side video screens, each measuring 12.3 inches. One of the neat tricks is the ability to swipe across the infotainment display and move elements to the primary gauge display. The lack of a center tunnel creates a flat floor that makes it possible to sit five inside with reasonable comfort.

The new modular architecture is, fundamentally, front-wheel-drive, though buyers also will have the option of ordering an all-wheel-drive, twin-motor package. Nissan started all but from scratch, developing a new electric drive system it has dubbed e-4ORCE. The system has been described as the “spiritual offspring” of the automaker’s GT-R sports car, and that underscores a fundamental shift in thinking. No longer does Nissan believe BEV buyers will sacrifice that fun-to-drive quality just to go green.

Ariya will offer a standard battery or a 300-mile option.

The front-drive system delivers 160 kilowatts, or about 214 horsepower, and 221 pound-feet of torque. The twin-motor AWD system bumps that up to 290 kW, or 389 hp, and 443 lb-ft. The e-4ORCE system can direct power to individual wheels, using torque to assist driver input, among other things, when tracking through a corner.

That also pays off when using the next-generation ProPilot Assist 2.0, Nissan’s semi-autonomous driving system. The original version could help center the vehicle in its lane, among other things, but required drivers to keep hands on the wheel at all times. The new system, Nissan explained, allows “attentive drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel under certain conditions.”

Specific details have yet to be released but it appears to follow the format of GM’s Super Cruise and Ford’s new version of CoPilot 360, operating on limited-access roads mapped in high-resolution. A monitoring system makes sure a driver remains alert and ready to take control in an emergency.

In terms of batteries, Nissan has continued tinkering with the chemistry of its lithium-ion cells and has both cut their cost and increased their energy density, storing more power in less space. The base 2021 Ariya stores 63 kilowatt-hours. That’s within a kWh of the current, longest-range version of the gen-2 Nissan Leaf Plus. The Ariya offers an extended-range 87 kWh battery expected to get around 300 miles per charge, according to the EPA.

Ariya’s 2nd row folds to create a flat load floor.

As for charging, Nissan officials weren’t ready to offer details beyond noting Ariya can handle up to 137 kilowatts of power, a big jump up from the roughly 50 kW limit for Leaf. That would suggest an 80% recharge for the smaller pack in perhaps a bit over an hour at a CCS charger.

And that signals another big shift by the automaker which had been the only key player in the U.S. market committed to the older, slower CHAdeMO system. Nissan’s policy “is to have happy customers,” said Espinosa,” and with more – and faster — CCS chargers now available, the switch was overdue, according to EV analysts.

As for pricing, the base version of the 2021 Nissan Ariya will start at $40,000, said Espinosa. It is set to go on sale in Japan in the coming weeks, with U.S. dealers beginning deliveries “later in 2021.”

For the first half of the past decade, Nissan dominated EV sales charts. It has lost its lead to Tesla and is facing plenty of other competition going forward. Whether it can come close to being a significant player with Ariya is far from certain. But Nissan officials are betting that the new BEV has enough going for it to make Ariya a serious contender.

(Ford’s Bronco is back…and it’s now part of a new family of SUVs.)

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