In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology news:
- Tesla updates Autopilot
- Apple shifts car focus
- 3-wheel car (+ video)
- Ford shuttle buy
- Mayer $44M Yahoo parachute
- Burritos by drone at Va Tech
The details:
- Tesla says it’s improving Autopilot by boosting radar
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the electric car company is making major improvements to the Autopilot system used by its vehicles, which will dramatically reduce the number and severity of crashes in which they are involved.
Sunday’s news comes in the wake of a May crash involving a Tesla Model S that was using the semi-autonomous mode at the time. The driver died after crashing into a tractor-trailer.
On a conference call with reporters, Musk said he thinks that the improvements, which will roll out globally in the next week or two in the form of a software update, probably would have prevented that crash.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is investigating the crash, said Sunday that Tesla has provided it with information about the changes to Autopilot, which it will review. It declined to provide an update on its Tesla investigation.
Musk called the upgrades a “massive enhancement,” but he said that Tesla cars are already the safest on the road.
“It’s not about going from bad to good,” Musk said on the call. “Things are already good. I think it’s about going from good to great.”
While he acknowledged that there’s no such thing as perfect security, he predicted that the improvements will cut the accident rate for Tesla vehicles by more than half.
Tesla’s Autopilot system can maintain a set speed, keep the car within its lane and brake automatically. Radar, which was added to all Tesla vehicles starting in October 2014, currently helps the car see things that may be blocked to cameras in bright sunlight or bad weather.
- Apple is shifting the focus of its secret car project
Apple may not become an automaker, but it still wants to develop its own self-driving technology.
The iPhone-maker’s automotive project, long an open secret in Silicon Valley, is shifting to focus on creating the technology for an autonomous vehicle that doesn’t require a human driver. The new direction apparently doesn’t foreclose the possibility that Apple might someday build its own car, but it opens the door to partnering with other car companies.
The new emphasis was confirmed Friday by a person with knowledge of the project, after the New York Times reported that Apple is “rethinking” its automotive strategy. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the project.
Apple had no official comment Friday and has consistently declined to confirm its automotive ambitions. But Elon Musk, the chief executive of electric-car maker Tesla, has said that Apple has hired hundreds of engineers, including some from Tesla, to work on an automotive project. Local officials in the San Francisco Bay Area say Apple contacted them last year about using a former naval base that’s been converted into an automotive testing ground.
More recently, the New York Times and Bloomberg News have reported that Apple’s initial efforts to design its own car have suffered from management turnover and technical delays. Industry experts say building a car is an incredibly complex challenge for any company, even one with the engineering prowess of Apple. Automobile manufacture also poses more regulatory and legal issues than building an iPhone or a computer.
- 3-wheeled electric vehicle set to go on sale this year
A three-wheeled electric vehicle could be on the road later this year in the U.S. and Canada.
Electra Meccanica Vehicles Corp. of Vancouver, British Columbia, officially unveiled the one-seat Solo on Friday. The Solo could go on sale as early as November pending approval by U.S. and Canadian regulators. It costs around $15,500.
(VIDEO: Watch an introductory video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrUVsT66064 )
The Solo is classified as a car in Canada and as an autocycle in 41 U.S. states. That means it doesn’t require users to wear a helmet or have a motorcycle license, but it also doesn’t have some safety features that are required in cars, like air bags.
- Ford buys shuttle service as part of new mobility push
Ford Motor Co. is buying an app-based shuttle service and partnering with a bike-share company as part of its ongoing effort to expand its traditional business.
Ford is buying Chariot, which currently operates 100 14-passenger Ford Transit vans in the San Francisco area. The shuttles determine their routes by users’ needs. Ford says it plans to expand the shuttle service to five more cities over the next 18 months.
Ford also is partnering with Motivate, a New York company that runs bike-sharing programs in 11 U.S. cities and in Melbourne, Australia. Ford says it plans to increase Motivate’s San Francisco fleet from 700 bikes to 7,000 bikes by the end of 2018, using bicycles made in Detroit. It also will increase the number of stations where riders can get bikes. Its program, called Ford GoBike, will be accessible through its FordPass app, which launched earlier this year.
FordPass currently lets users find and pay for parking or remotely start their cars. But the company envisions a day when Ford car owners and non-owners could use the app to coordinate shared rides, rent cars or bikes and link up to public transportation. Ford could collect valuable data on where customers go and which transportation options they use. Ultimately, Ford could even offer rides in the autonomous cars it’s developing.
Ford said it’s also creating a team that will work with cities around the world to propose solutions to traffic congestion and run pilot programs like shuttle services.
Yahoo CEO could reap $44 million if she leaves after sale
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer stands to collect a $44 million severance package if she leaves after Verizon completes its purchase of the once-mighty internet company.
Mayer hasn’t announced plans to leave, but industry observers say she’s unlikely to stay after the $4.8 billion sale closes early next year.
The 41-year-old executive stands to collect $3 million in cash and almost $41 million worth of stock options and awards under a “golden parachute” agreement described in a regulatory filing Friday. In a filing last spring, Yahoo said Mayer could walk away with $55 million in compensation, but the estimates can vary with the value of Yahoo’s stock and the date she leaves.
Mayer has been CEO for four years but failed to reverse a long-standing slide in Yahoo’sa dvertising business. After an unsuccessful effort to spin off its investment in the Chinese internet giant Alibaba, Yahoo Inc. began entertaining offers for its core business earlier this year.
Yahoo weighed a variety of offers, according to the proxy statement filed Friday. One was a merger proposal from Yahoo Japan, a separate company that Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo co-owns with Japanese tech giant SoftBank. Another bid came from an unnamed group that asked Yahoo co-founder David Filo to consider financing its bid.
- Burritos in the sky: Chipotle tests drone deliveries
Flying burritos will soon be a reality over Virginia Tech.
Chipotle is taking part in a test this month that will let some of the university’s students and staff have their favorite tortilla-wrapped meal delivered by drone.
Virginia Tech is conducting the test with Project Wing, a unit of Google owner Alphabet Inc., which makes self-flying devices that deliver food, medicine and other goods.
Chipotle’s burritos will be put together at a food truck and then loaded on a drone.
The flights will take place at an undisclosed site on Virginia Tech property, but not at the main campus in Blacksburg, said Mark Blanks, director of Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership.
“It’s real customers that are working and need lunch and want it delivered by drone,” Blanks said.
Only a select group of people from Virginia Tech will be able to make orders. Hundreds of flights and burrito deliveries are expected to take place over several days, Project Wing said.
