#driverless vehicles

Two years from now the bus that commuters take to their nearest TTC station may be missing a familiar feature — a driver.

The City of Toronto plans to take a step into the pioneering field of autonomous vehicles with a pilot project that would test driverless shuttles operating to and from transit stops.

According to a report going to the city’s public works committee next week, the $1.2-million pilot, which would launch in 2020, “is intended to test the technology’s ability to meet an existing unmet need in public transit.”

The report suggests autonomous shuttles could provide a solution to the so-called “last mile” problem, a term used to describe the difficulty of finding efficient ways to transport people between their homes and transit stations in areas where ridership demand doesn’t meet the threshold that would necessitate conventional transit service.

Elon Musk warned of a hard year ahead for Tesla Inc., adding to the automaker’s woes after reporting one of its worst quarters of the last decade. The chief executive officer pointed to the pending loss of electric vehicle incentives in the US and the lengthy process of rolling out driverless vehicles, saying it could be late 2026 before Tesla would have “compelling” economics again. “Does that…

GM's Cruise Is Recalling 950, Computer Chip–Driving Robotaxis, After Pedestrian Collision – Philadelphia Pennsylvania reporting

● Cruise, the autonomous vehicle venture owned by General Motors, has issued a recall affecting 950 of its robotaxis following a pedestrian collision in San Francisco last month.

● Previously, Cruise lost its permits to operate driverless vehicles in California without a human safety driver on board.

● According to its most recent quarterly update, GM has lost roughly $1.9 billion on Cruise between January and September this year, including $732 million in the third quarter alone.

▶︎ Previously, the company had grounded all of its driverless operations following the Oct. 2 collision during which a pedestrian was thrown into the path of the Cruise robotaxi by a human driver in a different car who hit her first.

⛔︎ The Cruise autonomous vehicle braked aggressively before impact and then tried to pull over to the side of the road, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration filing and prior statements from the company. In the process, the vehicle dragged the pedestrian forward about 20 feet. ⛔︎

The Oct. 2 collision triggered a federal probe. The collision, along with Cruise's disclosures around it, led to California regulators stripping the company of its permits to operate driverless vehicles in the state, unless there is a human safety driver aboard.