Electric Vehicles & Cars News - Page 62

Researchers and engineers are using Rockstar Games' huge open-world Grand Theft Auto V game to help autonomous cars drive better.

Anyone who's played GTA V knows the world is bristling with AI drivers who react and interact with the environment, and there's tons of randomized events that mimic real-world happenstance. Key researchers are using GTA V-derived code to power simulations and test scenarios to test the software that runs autonomous vehicles--in a sense the vehicles are "playing" the games, learning from interactions within the world itself, and more importantly the mistakes they make. This generates tons of data for the vehicle's "brains" to learn from, and gives engineers valuable information in the process.

The vehicle's machine-learning algorithms are put through their paces via simulations, which act as the other half of testing outside of the cars testing their skills on actual roads. With its myriad of cars, people, and dynamic physics-filled sandbox GTA V is the perfect virtual testing ground for driverless cars to learn from. Researchers at Intel Labs and Darmstadt started using GTA V for autonomous vehicle testing last year, and now other teams have picked up on it.

Tesla Motors has issued a voluntary global recall for some Model S and Model X cars. In a statement, the company said that around 5% of the 53,000 vehicles built from February to October 2016 were affected, but all of those cars are being recalled.

A potential manufacturing issue with the electric parking brakes installed on certain Model S and Model X vehicles could prevent the parking brake from releasing. Tesla determined that around 53,000 vehicles may contain a small gear that could have been manufactured improperly by their third-party supplier.

"If this gear were to break, the parking brake would continue to keep the car from moving, but the parking brake would then be stuck in place," said Tesla's spokesperson in an official statement.

Tesla Motors has officially discontinued the Model S with 60 kWh battery pack. The Model S 60 kWh was introduced a year ago as a more affordable option to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles. According to the company, most customers ended up buying an equivalent to the Model S 75 kWh.

Tesla's Model S 60 and 60D were company's least expensive models with their price starting at $68,000. With them out of the picture, Tesla's cheapest car is Model S 75 kWh, with a $77,000 price tag.

However, Tesla has announced today that the Model S 75 kWh has received a significant price drop - $7,500, meaning that the new price of the car is $69,500. That's just $1,500 more than the 60 kWh version, which has been discontinued.

Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla plans to unveil the final production version of the Model 3 in July.

The company unveiled the prototype version of the $35,000 electric car last year, and although it didn't show the final design of the car, Tesla got more than 400,000 reservations in a couple of months.

The final version should answer the remaining questions about the car.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed today that the company intends to unveil their first electric semi truck in September this year.

Musk added that the upcoming vehicle will be "seriously next level." He also congratulated the entire team for doing an amazing job.

Last year, Musk said that Tesla Semi will reduce the cost of cargo transport and increase the safety. Other companies are also working on delivering a zero-emission cargo truck to the market. One of them is Mercedes-Benz, but their vehicle isn't expected to reach full production until 2020.

While we are still waiting for the release of the Model 3, Elon Musk has teased the next electric car from Tesla - Model Y.

Tesla's CEO didn't reveal anything about the car other that it will come in few years, but what's interesting here is the name of the car.

Tesla first introduced the Model S, followed by Model X, and the latest Model 3, which was, according to Musk, was supposed to be named Model E.

Uber has halted all of its self-driving car efforts after a self-driving car was involved in an accident in Tempe, Arizona - even though Uber's autonomous car wasn't at fault, as it was the human driver that caused the accident.

One of Uber's Volvo-made self-driving SUVs can be seen on its side, with an Uber spokesperson confirming the accident, and that the company is "suspending its autonomous tests in Arizona until it completes its investigation and pausing its Pittsburgh operations" reports Bloomberg. There were no injuries in the accident, with the police report stating that another car "failed to yield for the Uber car, causing the autonomous vehicle to flip on its side", reports Bloomberg.

Tempe police information officer Josie Montenegro said: "There was a person behind the wheel. It is uncertain at this time if they were controlling the vehicle at the time of the collision". An Uber spokesperson added that the company is "continuing to look into this incident and can confirm we had no backseat passengers in the vehicle".

BMW has a bright future ahead of it, if its latest 'A new Era has begun' video is anything to go by, with the carmaker showing off what it envisions, as the next 100 years of automotive and wearable technology.

BMW sees a future of self-driving cars that pull up to you when you need them, with welcoming lights just below the drivers side door that get projected onto the ground, a steering wheel that can be used for driving - but will disappear into the dash when you want autonomous driving enabled. The company continues with augmented reality helmets, and more - it really is a great envisioning of the future of automotive tech, and more so - how it'll improve, and make our lives easier.

These are the four new concept vehicles on show.

Tesla Motors has announced that they are discontinuing the Model S with 60 kWh battery pack.

The Moel S 60 kWh was introduced a year ago as a more affordable option to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles. According to the company, most customers ended up buying an equivalent to the Model S 75 kWh.

The company stated that in order to simplify the ordering process for their customers, they will be removing the 60 kWh option from their lineup.

Intel is making a massive investment into autonomous car technology, acquiring Israeli self-driving car firm Mobileeye for a huge $15.3 billion.

Mobileye has technology inside of 27 carmakers' vehicles, with technology from cameras to sensors around the car, to emergency braking technology, lane assistance systems, and more. Intel has been working with Mobileye for a while, teaming with BMW last year to make a fully autonomous car by 2021.

Intel isn't just throwing down its $15 billion investment for nothing, as the company sees the autonomous car market becoming a mammoth $70 billion market by 2030. Intel boss Brian Krzanich made it very clear that by combining Intel's processing power with Mobileye's advanced automotive computer vision systems, and its partnerships with carmakers, as something transformative. Krzanich said: "Together, we can accelerate the future of autonomous driving with improved performance in a cloud-to-car solution at a lower cost for automakers".