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| China's LeCo super car with the steering wheel folded away. |
BMW, GM and Volvo last week unveiled the next phases of their plans
to make cars that will drive themselves and even chat to the occupants.
With nine in 10 fatal crashes blamed on driver error, the
manufacturers say they can prevent at least 80% of car crashes by simply not
putting human drivers in control.
Following on its successful tests in the robot minibus Olli, IBM
has announced a new collaboration with BMW to “explore the role of Watson
cognitive computing in personalising the driving experience and creating more
intuitive driver support systems for cars of the future”.
This means future BMW models will be able to “shoot the breeze”
with the vehicle’s occupants, as Watson is already doing in the robot minibus
Olli, which this year completed successful trials in several cities.
As part of the agreement, the BMW Group will
collocate a team of researchers at IBM’s global headquarters for Watson Internet
of Things (IoT) in Munich, Germany, and the companies will work together and
explore how to improve intelligent assistant functions for drivers.
Self-steering Bolt
In the state of Michigan in the U.S., General
Motors said it will begin testing autonomous vehicles on public roads.
GM CEO and chairperson Mary Barra announced last week that GM will
build the next generation of its autonomous vehicles at the Orion Township
Assembly Plant in the first quarter of 2017.
The plant will produce Chevrolet Bolt EV equipped with fully
autonomous technology. It already produces the Bolt EV and the Chevrolet
Sonic.
“Revolutionising transportation for our customers while improving
safety on roads is the goal of our autonomous vehicle technology, and today’s
announcement gets us one step closer to making this vision a reality,” Barra
said in a statement.
“Our autonomous technology will be reliable and safe, as customers
have come to expect from any of our vehicles.”
Michican joined the states of Arizona and California, where Uber
last week launched self-driving pilot in San Francisco with Volvo Cars.
Volvo partners Uber
Volvo said the move marks the next phase in a
deepening alliance between Volvo and Uber after the two companies signed an
agreement in August 2016 to establish a jointly-owned project to build base
vehicles that can be used to develop fully autonomous driverless cars. These
cars were initially tested in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The latest cars to be used in San Francisco have been built by
Volvo and sold to Uber, after which Uber’s own self-driving hardware and
software package has been added, most visibly in the roof-mounted control
apparatus.
“The promise of self-driving ride sharing is becoming a reality,”
said Mårten Levenstam, vice president product planning at Volvo Cars. “Volvo is
proud to be at the forefront of the latest developments in the automotive world
alongside our partners.
