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Mark Rober tested out both a Lexus equipped with lidar, and a Tesla that uses just visible light cameras. He wants to see if which of the systems will fall for a variety of tests that could fool self-driving cars. Including painting a fake road on a brick wall.

Bonus points, he took a lidar onto his ride of various Disneyland rides. He tries to see if by just bringing his lidar on Space Mountain if he could map and 3D print it. Results of that at 16:25

James Bruton has made a number of omni-directional vehicles, now he creates a omni-directional bike that uses balls for the wheels.

Unity was chosen by Toyota Motor to help deliver a graphical user interface for its upcoming cars.

Links:

• https://venturebeat.com/games/unity-is-working-with-toyota-on-the-next-gen-human-machine-interface-for-cars/
• https://unity.com/solutions/automotive
• Volvo case study: https://unity.com/case-study/volvo

During the rulemaking process, the Bureau of Industry and Security found that certain technologies originating from China or Russia present an undue and unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.

“Cars today aren’t just steel on wheels – they’re computers,” outgoing Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a news release Tuesday. “They have cameras, microphones, GPS tracking, and other technologies that are connected to the internet. Through this rule, the Commerce Department is taking a necessary step to safeguard U.S. national security and protect Americans’ privacy by keeping foreign adversaries from manipulating these technologies to access sensitive or personal information.”

The software bans will apply to Model 2027 cars, while the hardware bans will apply to Model 2030 vehicles.

Article:

• https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/us-ban-russian-chinese-software-hardware-vehicles/story?id=117627935

Teslas seem to do some of the best at retaining their range.

Articles:

• https://insideevs.com/news/747374/ev-range-loss-cold-heat-pump-data/

Security researcher Sam Curry found a security flaw in the always connected Starlink system integrated into Subaru cars. It allows bad actors to obtain drivers’ personal information include VINs, location history, the odometer, and personal owner information, including customer names, phone numbers, and email addresses.

Using the obtained data, the hackers could proceed to the next phase of the attack and use the access to Starlink servers to create new administrator accounts to a connected vehicle. Doing this granted the attacker full access to remote control features, meaning that a bad actor would have obtained permission to start a connected Subaru car, lock and unlock it, and see where it was in real-time.

Articles:

• https://www.autoevolution.com/news/hackers-found-a-way-to-control-subaru-cars-over-the-internet-without-drivers-even-knowing-246128.html

As automotive demand falters in Europe, Bosch said 450 of it’s employees (primarily in Stuttgart and Gerlingen) would get reduced hours, and equivalently reduced pay, starting March 1, 2025. In Oct, they also announced plans to lay off 7,000 employees

Link

• https://fortune.com/europe/2024/11/22/german-giant-bosch-employees-unwanted-4-day-week/

The end of speeding as we know it?

The NTSB is calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to mandate the use of speed control technology in every new car. It uses a mechanism called ISA (intelligent speed-assist).

ISA technology uses the car’s GPS location and matches it to a database of posted speed limits and onboard cameras to come up with the legal speed limit. Passive ISA systems warn a driver when the vehicle exceeds the speed limit through sound, visuals or haptic alerts. Active systems might make it more difficult to increase the speed of a vehicle, or even fully limit it from going, above a posted speed limit.

Europe already mandated such systems in all new vehicles starting in 2022.

Articles:

• https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/16/ntsb-speed-reduction-tech-in-every-new-car/

CES 2024 showed off a lot of new automotive tech and was focused on AI – but largely gone were the earth-shattering predictions of fully autonomous driving. So if driverless cars aren’t ready to fully replace human drivers for some time – what’s the alternative?

Instead we saw other things like around improving driver-car control. Distractions surrounding using and correcting existing map/audio/infotainment systems can cause accidents. To help, Mercedes decided to add ChatGPT to it’s in-car voice control in the MBUX Virtual Assistant to promote more natural interaction with the car. VW and BMW also announced it was also adding ChatGPT to it’s in-car voice control.

Perhaps fully autonomous driving is a bridge too far right now, but we can greatly improve the driving experience in countless little ways like this. Like many have said, I don’t need an AI that does all the things I want to do – I want an AI that does all the little, dumb things I DON’T want to do (like laundry and dishes).

Articles:

• https://www.tomsguide.com/opinion/forget-self-driving-cars-ces-2024-showed-us-how-ai-will-truly-benefit-drivers