Between the new year, CES, and the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, there have been a lot of announcements about deploying self-driving cars in the real world.
Voyage will expand it’s self-driving car service to The Villages in Florida:
“Voyage is bringing self-driving cars to a retirement community (and city) like no other: The Villages, Florida. With 125,000 residents, 750 miles of road and 3 distinct downtowns, The Villages is a truly special place to live. Today, we’re excited to announce that Voyage has started testing its self-driving fleet within the community. Beginning in early 2018, we’ll start rolling out a door-to-door self-driving taxi service to residents.”
Uber is planning to remove the safety driver from its vehicles:
“Uber plans to carry passengers in autonomous vehicles without human backup drivers in about the same time frame as competitors, which expect to be on the road at the latest sometime next year, the service’s autonomous vehicle chief said Wednesday.”
“The ride service now has 1,600 people working on autonomous vehicles in the four test locations.”
Aptiv and Lyft will continue the self-driving car service that made such a splash at CES:
“Now, both are announcing that they’re definitely extending the project beyond the timeframe of CES in Las Vegas, and that they’re already in talks to expand a second pilot to another market located elsewhere in the U.S.”
GM is seeking a permit for Cruise to operate nationwide:
“If granted, the waiver would allow GM to launch as many as 2,500 self-driving vehicles a year into a form of taxi service and help pave the way for fully autonomous vehicles to move from niche testing fleets into broader commercial applications.”
“GM has announced plans to test the cars in Arizona, California and Michigan. It is expected to expand to New York City in 2018.”
The race is on.
David Silver 