GM's Self Driver Goes to New York

Testing in the big apple next stop for GM

To tour Manhattan inside a 'Geofence'

If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere...as the song goes and GM is looking to the streets of Manhattan as the ultimate testing ground for Cruise Automation, its autonomous vehicle system.

After piling up the miles in the tough streets of San Francisco, GM is set to conquer the big apple by letting loose a small fleet of engineer riding autonomous vehicles in Manhattan.

The autonomous vehicles will operate in a geofence, a GPS no-go area that the self-driving cars are off limits too. The densely populated city is a good candidate for testing since it will increase hazards and obstacles the autonomous system can learn from. Testing will begin in 2018. From CNBC.

GM pushing Google and other self-driving platforms 

GM is serious about its autonomous vehicle program. It purchased Stobe a few days ago, a manufacturer of microchips that have found a way to run Lidar technology on a very small chip. It also cuts the costs of Lidar way down.

Lidar is a technology that sends out laser beams that bounce off objects, telling the computer what to avoid while operating driverless vehicles. Tesla uses a different system for its driverless platform. Instead of using Lidar, it will lean on advanced camera and image technology to give its system 'eyes' to navigate on the road.

Ford stays quiet about its driverless program

Ford is less conspicuous when it comes to its driverless program. But it essentially mirrors GM's.

From Wired magazine:

In July, it invested in Civil Maps, a Berkeley, California, startup that makes the software needed to turn LiDAR data into maps robo-cars can read and automakers can update. The automaker just invested heavily in LiDAR manufacturer Velodyne, a bid to cut make the technology far more affordable—the spinning bucket atop each Google car costs about $85,000. And it signed an exclusive licensing deal with Nirenberg Neuroscience to use that company's machine vision and deep learning tech. Israeli startup Saips will provide further help there with technology that helps robo-cars identify pedestrians, garbage cans and the like.

China wants to beat America with Baidu's self-driving technology

Chinese search engine giant Baidu wants to beat Google and others to the road when it comes to self-driving technology. Though it started late and doesn't have a car to manufacture, it believes it can edge America's efforts at the finish line. 

It makes artificial intelligence and deep learning the center of its platform. And it focuses on developing the technology and not so much about other aspects related to vehicle production. It also believes the Chinese market will accept driverless cars more quickly due to there being less vehicle ownership in China. China also has a more tech-oriented culture, they say. From Wired magazine. 

By 2020 expect someone to have a driverless vehicle available to consumers  

Whether it is one of the several traditional auto manufacturers, a tech company like Google, or upstart Tesla, someone will have to be first. This much is true. All of them are jumping in with both feet. There will be no middle ground between semi-autonomous and fully autonomous. All are going to fully autonomous or nothing at all.

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