Autonomy News — December 2018 Edition: Nuro, Formant, & Anthony Levandowski
Ready or not, autonomy is coming to cars, delivery vehicles, tractor trailers, and industrial equipment. Here are some of the latest developments in the field.
Ready or not, autonomy is coming to cars, delivery vehicles, tractor trailers, and industrial equipment. Here are some of the latest developments in the field.
Uber has fired the former Waymo/Google engineer at the center of the company’s current legal battle with the the tech giant, Anthony Levandowski, according to recent reports.
Of course, we all remember that Uber halted its self-driving trial after one of its cars, sadly, killed a woman who was jaywalking. Additionally, Uber settled a lawsuit for $245,000,000 with Waymo after it was learnt that Uber had received 9 gigabytes of Waymo intellectual property from former Waymo employee Anthony Levandowski. Levandowski had previously left Waymo to start his own company, Otto, which was later acquired by Uber. As part of the settlement, Uber agreed not to use Waymo’s technology. After such a conflict, it is a pleasant surprise that the two may decide to partner in some fashion.
Anthony Levandowski, one of the leaders in autonomous driving technology, is planning to create a new deity for humanity based on artificial intelligence. Is that a good thing?
As we reported previously, Waymo/Google is currently in the process of suing Uber over the alleged theft of 9.7 GB of confidential materials relating to Waymo’s self-driving vehicle tech. The thief in this story is claimed to be former engineer Anthony Levandowski, who now works for Uber.
Following the filing of a lawsuit last month alleging that former employee Anthony Levandowski (now the head of Uber’s self-driving tech program) stole key elements of its tech, Waymo (Alphabet/Google) has now requested that Uber be legally blocked from operating its self-driving vehicles.
Connected Cars May Be The New Thing
Tesla has sued Rivian, claiming it is poaching workers who are bringing proprietary information with them to their new employer, a claim Rivian hotly denies.
In its latest blog post, Waymo says it has cut the cost of its autonomous driving sensors by half while doubling how far they can see under all conditions.
Tesla presented its latest and greatest vehicle autonomy features at its recent Autonomy Investor Day. The brain of the system is the Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) computer, which is now included in all Teslas being produced. The Autopilot hardware suite includes 8 cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, radar, GPS, an inertial measurement unit, and sensors that measure the angle of the steering wheel and accelerator pedal.