Skip to main content

Lucid kicks off its Nuro-Uber robotaxi deal with delivery of first vehicle

image of Lucid Gravity robotaxi

In July, Lucid, Uber, and Nuro announced a massive robotaxi deal that would see the deployment of 20,000 autonomous vehicles in the US over the next six years. But every journey begins with a single step, and today Lucid announced the delivery of the first Gravity SUV to Nuro for retrofitting.

The vehicle was built at Lucid’s factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, and then transported to the automaker’s headquarters in Newark, California. There, a team from Nuro installed the sensors and other hardware for autonomous driving. But this process was unique to the engineering prototype; eventually, the retrofitting will take place on Lucid’s assembly line ahead of deployment.

The prototype is now at Nuro’s Santa Clara facility, where the company’s engineers are integrating the Nuro Driver software and beginning testing and validation. The companies intend to deploy their first road-ready robotaxi on Uber’s ridehailing network sometime next year.

Delivering the first vehicle for testing is an important milestone, but the companies have a long way to go before we start to see any driverless Lucid Gravity SUV’s on the road in any significant numbers.

In many ways, the size of this deal — “a minimum” of 20,000 vehicles, but expected to be “much, much more,” Nuro’s executives have said — recalls some of the early promises from autonomous vehicle developers about tens of thousands of vehicles on the road in just a few short years. Those early assumptions turned out to be way off, and most companies are still struggling to deliver even just a few self-driving cars.

Today, Waymo is operating less than 2,000 vehicles in a handful of markets as part of a commercial robotaxi service. Tesla has a few dozen “robotaxis” (that aren’t quite real robotaxis, as they still have safety monitors) in a small part of Austin, Texas. The rest are still in beta and still not open to the public — including the self-driving trucks, which have had their own problems.



from The Verge https://ift.tt/A75ZM3c
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pandora Stories lets artists add commentary to their own playlists

Pandora launched Stories today, a tool that lets artists and creators add voice commentary to their own playlists. The Stories feature merges podcasts with music playlists, and is meant for artists to add context to an album, or for podcasters to experiment with new storytelling formats. The feature is part of Pandora AMP, the streaming service’s free Artist Marketing Platform that helps creators promote their work. To kick off the launch, Pandora’s prepared some Stories by artists like John Legend and Daddy Yankee, who tell listeners their personal stories interspersed between their own songs. There’s also a Stories playlist called Love Songs That Aren’t Really Love Songs , which includes commentary on individual songs like a podcast... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Xz1oNc
Post a Comment
Read more

Experts are furious over the FCC’s rosy picture of broadband access

To hear the Federal Communications Commission tell it, this is a golden age for broadband access in the United States. According to a newly released report from the agency on the digital divide, the gap between rural and urban internet access has “narrowed substantially, and more Americans than ever before have access to high-speed broadband.” Between the end of 2016 and the end of 2017, the number of Americans without broadband access fell from about 26 million to about 21 million, the report found. But experts, and even some commissioners at the FCC, say the report is flawed. The data underlying it, they argue, doesn’t truly capture what broadband looks like in rural America — leaving lawmakers and government officials with a warped... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2HOPCZj
Post a Comment
Read more

London health workers to receive free e-bike loaners to avoid public transport

Gocycle’s e-bikes are being offered as part of the plan. | Image: Gocycle Key National Health Service (NHS) workers in London are being offered a three-month e-bike loan to help them commute to work while social distancing. There are currently 20 Gocycle GS loaner e-bikes available, with more brands like Raleigh soon to join. The e-bikes and Abus locks and helmets are being distributed as part of a plan being organized by London-based e-bike retailer Fully Charged. Interested NHS workers can register their interest on this Fully Charged page , which also calls on other bike manufacturers and sponsors to pledge their support. Not only will free e-bikes reduce commuting costs for essential workers, but it will also help them avoid having to travel in close proximity to others on public transit. Transport for... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2QQxBOf
Post a Comment
Read more