Autonomous Vehicles

Although offshore structures such as wind turbines do need to be protected, crews of guard boats can get bored waiting around – plus, they have to be paid a salary. It was with this in mind that the Autonomous Guard Vessel was recently conceived.

Waymo already has a number of partnerships in place with household names like Walmart and Jaguar. It can now add Volvo to that list, with the two forming an agreement to develop electric vehicles that can drive autonomously.

Russia has a long history of experimenting with wing-in-ground-effect (WIG) vehicles, most notably the huge ekranoplans dating back to the 1960s. Now, Russian scientists are developing a smaller unmanned WIG, that's solar-powered.

After 18 months of planning, the Future Automated Bus Urban Level Operation System (FABULOS) project is about to roll into five European cities to field test autonomous last-mile shuttles in real-world conditions.

Last year, Cognitive Technologies installed its self-driving systems into combine harvesters operated by Russia's Rusagro. The pilot proved successful, and the technology will now be rolled out to 242 combines over the next year or so.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has gained another ally in its pursuit of a self-driving future, teaming up with Voyager who it will provide with a purpose-built Pacifica to accommodate its autonomous vehicle technology for testing.

Volvo has today announced that its next-generation of vehicles will come with the option of LiDAR sensors built into the roof, which will be used to guide the cars down stretches of highway all on their own.

If aeroplanes can refuel each other mid-air, then why not electric cars? What if EVs could share energy on the move? Could the whole traffic ecosystem become one giant battery dedicated to getting everyone where they're going without stopping?

Autonomous driving tech company AutoX has partnered with the Alibaba Group's Amap mobility platform to offer folks in Shanghai the option to hail a ride in an AutoX RoboTaxi.

Karma Automotive's second electrified vehicle platform, the L4 E-Flex Van supports a full-size van with Level 4 autonomy and battery electric drive power. It's for utility vans first and foremost but could lead to a smarter, cleaner camper vans.

The US, like much of the world, is moving to keep contact between its residents to minimum as it grapples with the spread of coronavirus, and a new project taking place at the Mayo Clinic is exploring what this could mean for medical testing.

Simulators have been used for years to train human drivers, pilots and astronauts, and now they're being used to train self-driving cars too – and a new system developed by researchers at MIT could be the most promising yet.