Latest Autonomous Vehicles Headlines

All the headlines from our Autonomous Vehicles Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Safety Worry: Keeping Humans In and Around Autonomous Vehicles Engaged

Apr 11 2018 // After partially faulting Tesla Inc.’s automation system for a 2016 fatal crash, U.S. safety investigators last year called on carmakers to do more to ensure drivers stay engaged as next-generation cars start to steer...

4 Reasons Autonomous Vehicles Won’t Control the Roads for Some Time

Apr 11 2018 // Monday was the first day of the AAIS Main Event. The focus was about a focus on the future and all of the speakers that we heard talked about the future of insurance. We heard from folks at Insuretech companies and from a...

Ethics and Incentives Behind Driverless Car, Insurance, Other Algorithms: Viewpoint

Apr 10 2018 // Self-driving cars keep killing people. Just in the past few weeks, one crashed into a highway barrier and another ran over a pedestrian. This will inevitably lead to much hand-wringing about the ethics of the algorithms...

California Mulling New Rules for Autonomous Cars to Pick Up Passengers

Apr 9 2018 // California’s public utility regulator signaled it would allow self-driving car companies to transport passengers without a backup driver in the vehicle, a step forward for autonomous car developers just as the...

Safety Experts Weigh In on Autonomous Car Standards After Uber, Tesla Fatal Crashes

Apr 4 2018 // Autonomous cars should be required to meet standards on their ability to detect potential hazards and better ways are needed to keep their human drivers ready to assume control, U.S. auto safety and technology experts said...

U.S. Safety Board ‘Unhappy’ Tesla Released Crash Information

Apr 2 2018 // The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday it was “unhappy” that electric car maker Tesla Inc made public information about the crash of its Model X vehicle on Autopilot that killed the driver...

More Relatives of Victim of Uber Driverless Car Crash Hire Lawyer

Apr 1 2018 // More family members of a woman killed by an Uber Technologies Inc. self-driving vehicle have hired legal counsel, indicating the ride services firm’s legal problems may not be over in the first fatality caused by an...

Uber Settles with Family of Victim of Driverless Accident

Mar 29 2018 // The family of the woman killed by an Uber Technologies Inc. self-driving vehicle in Arizona has reached a settlement with the ride services company, ending a potential legal battle over the first fatality caused by an...

Human Influence Makes Autonomous Vehicle Programming Unsafe: Professor

Mar 29 2018 // The way autonomous vehicles are currently being programmed may not be safe because the programs are copying humans, according to a computer professor in the state where the first pedestrian fatality occurred n a collision...

Uber Won’t Renew Autonomous-Vehicle License for California

Mar 28 2018 // Uber Technologies Inc. won’t renew a license to operate self-driving cars in California while the company evaluates how one of its vehicles killed a pedestrian in Arizona last week.The San Francisco-based company...

U.S. Launches Investigation into Fatal Tesla Crash in California

Mar 28 2018 // A fatal crash and vehicle fire of a Tesla Inc Model X near Mountain View, Calif., last week has prompted a federal field investigation, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said, sparking a big selloff in Tesla...

A Look at Risk. Are New Risks Really New?

Mar 28 2018 // “The more it changes, the more it’s the same thing.” Alphonse Kerr“It’s like deja-vu, all over again.” Yogi Berra The world is undergoing a pace of change unlike anything that...

Uber Cut Back on Safety Sensors on Volvo Involved in Fatal Accidents: Reuters

Mar 27 2018 // When Uber decided in 2016 to retire its fleet of self-driving Ford Fusion cars in favor of Volvo sport utility vehicles, it also chose to scale back on one notable piece of technology: the safety sensors used to detect...

Arizona Governor Halts Uber’s Self-Driving Car Testing

Mar 27 2018 // The governor of Arizona has suspended Uber’s ability to test self-driving cars on public roads in the state following a fatal crash last week that killed a 49-year-old pedestrian.The decision to block Uber...

Waymo Claims Its Driverless Car Would Have Avoided Uber’s Fatal Accident

Mar 26 2018 // The head of Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous driving unit, Waymo, said on Saturday that the company’s technology would have safely handled the situation confronting an Uber self-driving vehicle last week when it...

After Uber Crash, Florida Still Welcomes Free-Range Robot Cars

Mar 26 2018 // Florida has been trying to lure self-driving cars to the state for testing on public roads, shaping laws that are much more lax than places like California and New York. The fatal accident last week in Arizona, another...

Chinese Tech Giant Baidu to Test Self-Driving Cars in Beijing

Mar 23 2018 // China’s capital city has given the green light to tech giant Baidu Inc to test self-driving cars on city streets, an important step as the country looks to bolster its position in the global race for autonomous...

Uber’s Self-Driving Cars Insured by Old Republic

Mar 22 2018 // Old Republic International Corp., the Chicago-based insurer, provides commercial liability coverage of as much as $5 million for each of Uber Technologies Inc.’s self-driving vehicles.The policy covers bodily injury,...

Daughter of Pedestrian Killed by Uber Driverless Car Hires Lawyer

Mar 22 2018 // The daughter of the woman killed by an Uber self-driving vehicle in Arizona has retained a personal injury lawyer, underlying the potential high stakes of the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle.The law firm of...

Police Release Video of Fatal Collision of Uber Driverless Vehicle with Pedestrian

Mar 22 2018 // Police in Arizona on Wednesday released a short video of a fatal collision between an Uber self-driving vehicle and a pedestrian, as investigators probe the accident that has put new focus on the safety of autonomous...