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Google self-driving car hits a bus

It is not the first time one of Google's famed self-driving cars has been involved in a crash, but it may be the first time it has caused one. Google is to meet with California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to discuss the incident, and determine where the blame lies. On 14 February the car, travelling at 2mph (3km/h), pulled out in front of a public bus going 15mph (24km/h). The human in the Google vehicle reported that he assumed the bus would slow down to let the car out, and so he did not override the car's self-driving computer. The crash happened in Mountain View, near Google's headquarters. In a statement, Google said: "We clearly bear some responsibility, because if our car hadn't moved, there wouldn't have been a collision. "That said, our test driver believed the bus was going to slow or stop to allow us to merge into the traffic, and that there would be sufficient space to do that."The company's self-driving cars...

Google's self-driving car system soon be given legal as a human driver

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) - which sets rules and regulations on America's roads - shared its thoughts in a letter to Google made public this week. Until now, any car without a human driver would not be considered roadworthy. However, in light of technological advancements, the NHTSA has changed its perspective. "If no human occupant of the vehicle can actually drive the vehicle, it is more reasonable to identify the driver as whatever (as opposed to whoever) is doing the driving," it said. "In this instance, an item of motor vehicle equipment, the Self-Driving System, is actually driving the vehicle." It means Google's self-driving pod, which has no typical in-car controls, is one crucial step closer to being allowed on public roads. With the NHTSA's blessing, the car now fits the key criteria required to pass the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards test. It's the latest regulatory boost for Goo...

Porsche has no plans to develop driver less cars

Oliver Blume told German newspaper Westfalen-Blatt that people wanted "to drive a Porsche by oneself". He added that Porsche did not need to team up with any tech firms. Analysts Boston Consulting Group predict that by 2025, 13% of cars will have autonomous features. Porsche does, however, intend to launch electric vehicles, and a plug-in hybrid of the 911 model with a range of 50 km (31 miles) will hit the market as early as 2018, Mr Blume said. Porsche also plans to spend about 1bn euros ($1.1bn) on production facilities to build the Mission E, its first-ever all-electric model, a move reflecting parent VW's growing commitment to increase its electric offerings as it struggles to overcome an emissions scandal. VW, along with most of the big carmakers, has signalled its intention to work on driverless cars and at tech show CES revealed a partnership with Mobileye, which produces real-time image processing cameras. It plans to put the cameras in future c...

Google has criticised DMV in California for insisting driverless cars must have a fully licensed driver behind the wheel

On Wednesday, the DMV published draft regulations which outline how the technology could be used on the roads. The regulations say truly driverless cars would be "initially excluded" from operation. Google's director of self-driving cars, Chris Urmson, said the move was "perplexing". "This maintains the same old status quo and falls short on allowing this technology to reach its full potential, while excluding those who need to get around but cannot drive," he wrote in his blog. "We've heard countless stories from people who need a fully self-driving car today. People with health conditions ranging from vision problems to multiple sclerosis to autism to epilepsy who are frustrated with their dependence on others for even simple errands."Google argues that driverless cars are much safer than manually driven cars, because they eliminate the human error that causes a majority of collisions. The technology has inspired a web ga...

Chinese tech giant Baidu successfully tested its driverless car on roads

The 30km (18.6 miles) test route required a modified BMW 3 Series to navigate "complex road conditions", including human drivers, the firm said. The car executed a range of manoeuvres, including U-turns, lane changes and merging into traffic from ramps. Baidu has amassed a library of 3D road maps to guide its autonomous vehicles. "Fully autonomous driving under mixed road conditions is universally challenging, with complexity further heightened by Beijing's road conditions and unpredictable driver behaviour," said Wang Jing, senior vice-president of Baidu and general manager of the company's Autonomous Driving Business Unit. Baidu's highly automated driving (HAD) maps capture road data in 3D to within a few centimetres of accuracy, according to the company. The car is able to detect vehicles, road lanes and objects in its path.Separately, South Korean firm Samsung announced that it would be launching a new division which will make car component...

Bloodhound Super-Sonic Car is unveiled this week

At the point when the Bloodhound Super-Sonic Car is uncovered for the current week, people in general will have the capacity to see the numerous creative innovations utilized as a part of its development. A few surface boards will be evacuated with the goal that individuals can glimpse inside to get a building's feeling needed to make an auto move speedier than 1,000 mph. Given the bespoke way of Bloodhound, a noteworthy number of its segments have been created utilizing 3D printing methods. This incorporates even the directing wheel. With more than 3,500 specially crafted parts, it would have been restrictively extravagant, and inefficient, for the Bloodhound undertaking to utilize conventional group generation approaches in numerous occasions. The perplexing configuration of the auto likewise requests shapes that are troublesome - in some cases outlandish - to make utilizing conventional tooling. As an outcome, the auto's origi...

Laser can disable the system of self-driving car

A homemade gadget can disable the systems that allow self-driving cars to see where they are going, a security researcher has said. Jonathan Petit demonstrated how a modified, low-cost laser could create ghost like objects in the path of autonomous cars. The cars slowed down to avoid hitting them. If enough phantom objects were created, the car would stop completely, Mr Petit told tech magazine IEEE Spectrum. Mr Petit, principal scientist at software company Security Innovation, used a laser, similar to a mass-market laser pen and added a pulse generator - something that can be created using a low-cost computer such as the Raspberry Pi. The set-up cost was just $60 (£40), he said. This device created phantom objects - cars, walls and pedestrians - that fool the "eyes" of self-drive cars - known as lidars. "I can spoof thousands of objects and basically carry out a denial of service attack on the tracking system so it's not able to track ...