Category: Automation
AutoX becomes China’s first to remove safety drivers from robotaxis
Residents of Shenzhen will see truly driverless cars on the road starting Thursday. AutoX, a four-year-old startup backed by Alibaba, MediaTek and Shanghai Motors, is deploying a fleet of 25 unmanned vehicles in downtown Shenzhen, marking the first time any autonomous driving car in China tests without safety drivers or…
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Honda to mass-produce Level 3 autonomous cars by March
Honda claims it will be the first automaker to mass-produce vehicles with autonomous capabilities that meet SAE Level 3 standards, with plans to begin producing and selling a version of its Honda Legend luxury sedan with fully approved automated driving equipment in Japan from next March. Honda announced the news…
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Self-driving vehicle startup Argo AI completes $2.6B deal with Volkswagen, expands to Europe
Volkswagen Group finalized Tuesday its $2.6 billion investment into Argo AI, the Pittsburgh-based self-driving car startup that came out of stealth in 2017 with $1 billion in backing from Ford. The deal turns Argo into a global company with two customers — VW and Ford — as well as operations…
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Microsoft cuts dozens of staff as it shifts to AI for MSN news stories
Workforce automation is about to cost dozens of news contractors their jobs. The Seattle Times and The Guardian report that Microsoft is letting go of dozens of news contractors (about 50 in the US, 27 in the UK) after June 30th due to a shift to AI… Source
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SoftBank pours $500M into Didi in China’s biggest autonomous driving round
The race to automate vehicles on China’s roads is heating up. Didi, the Uber of China, announced this week an outsized investment of over $500 million in its freshly minted autonomous driving subsidiary. Placing the bet — the single largest fundraising round in China’s autonomous driving sector — is its…
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Bipartisan Senate bill aims to invest $100 billion in technology R&D
A group of bipartisan, bicameral politicians have drafted a bill that would “dramatically” increase investment in tech research and development. The Endless Frontiers Act would commit $100 billion over five years toward research in artificial intelli… Source
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