Autonomous Vehicles

When scientists wish to gather oceanographic data over long distances, autonomous "underwater gliders" are often used. A new one is claimed to be highly maneuverable, yet it has no external propulsion or steering systems.

Although autonomous tractors may be well-suited to some applications, there are other times when a human driver is still required. That's where a new kit comes in, as it allows existing tractors to be switched between autonomous and manual modes.

Bus maker New Flyer and autonomous vehicle development company Robotic Research have unveiled the Xcelsior AV self-driving transit bus, which is reported to be North America's first fully operational heavy duty autonomous transit bus.

After partnering with Alibaba for a ride-haling robo taxi service with a safety driver aboard in 2020, AutoX went on to launch the first fully driverless pilot in Shenzhen last month. Now the company has opened that up to members of the public.

At the online-only CES 2021 earlier this month, German mobility startup Sono Motors revealed a collaboration with EasyMile to install its solar technology on driverless shuttles. Now we have a few more details.

Microsoft is looking to leverage its prowess in cloud computing to help usher in the era of autonomous vehicles, with the company announcing a partnership with Cruise, the self-driving arm of General Motors.

Almost three years after revealing its autonomous delivery vehicle, Nuro is about to start commercial operations in California. Initially, service needs will be met by fully autonomous Prius vehicles, but the R2 delivery pods won't be far behind.

Walmart is pressing ahead with its efforts to automate certain parts of its logistics operations, today announcing plans to conduct tests of completely driverless trucks along a leg of its supply chain in Arkansas.

Joining a slew of electric transport pods built for autonomous travel in congested areas, such as the Nuro, the LUTZ Pathfinder and Toyota’s e-Palette people mover, is a new electric robotaxi from Amazon subsidiary Zoox.

While ocean-based fish farms do help take pressure off of wild stocks, they have eco-unfriendly drawbacks of their own. A new underwater robot is being designed to address that situation, by autonomously inspecting the fish and their pens.

Although AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) excel at gathering marine data without human intervention, they're still limited by battery life. Texas startup Terradepth has set out to address that problem, with a novel tag-team system.

When it comes to targets for autonomous machinery, those carrying out repetitive tasks on farmland are ripe for the picking. The newly introduced Monarch Tractor is designed to show how it’s done, packing an all-electric powertrain and machine learning.