by Baker Donelson | Oct 28, 2019
Lexus announced its first-ever all-electric vehicle recently at the Tokyo Motor Show. Toyota (Lexus’s parent company) has made no secret about investing in AVs, but has been slower than some of its competitors. We recently blogged about Toyota’s tie-up with Subaru to collaborate on AVs. With the forthcoming Level 2 autonomous vehicle, and in light of recent notable accidents involving AVs, Lexus is continuing its deliberate thought process on launching AVs. The new vehicle will be able to operate on highways, from entrance ramps to off ramps, with traffic merging capabilities, according to Toyota Executive Vice President Shigeki Tomoyama. (more…)
by Baker Donelson | Oct 7, 2019
Firm client Covenant Transportation has recently added Level 2 autonomous trucks. The Freightliner Cascadia has electronic steering, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, blind-spot warning, pedestrian warning, collision avoidance, intelligent high beams and active brake assist. The “Detroit Assurance” system in the truck collects, shares and validates safety-related information by tracking up to 40 objects simultaneously up to 660 feet away and reporting information about six vehicles in the truck’s path – their distance, velocity, width, lateral offset, type and confidence level – while the Video Radar Decision Unit (VRDU) refreshes the speed, distance, and time calculations 200 times per second. (more…)
by Baker Donelson | Oct 1, 2019
At the ADAS & Autonomous Vehicles USA conference in Detroit on September 25, I spoke about some previously unusual alliances being formed in the car industry to tackle AVs, such as those between Ford and VW, Mercedes and BMW, and several heavy truck manufacturers. And now, we have another one. On September 27, 2019, Japanese carmakers Toyota and Subaru announced a “new business and capital alliance” to develop what they are calling “CASE” (connected, autonomous/automated, shared, and electric) vehicles. The two companies had previously announced a joint venture to develop battery electric vehicles using Subaru’s all-wheel drive technology (which is on all Subaru vehicles) and Toyota’s vehicle electrification technologies. (more…)
by Baker Donelson | Aug 20, 2019
On June 13, Florida enacted legislation allowing cars without human drivers to begin operating on its roads. While Michigan and Texas also allow cars without human drivers to some degree, Florida has gone one step further, by prohibiting local regulations that differ from state law, essentially making all of Florida’s roads fair game for testing AVs. (more…)
by Baker Donelson | Aug 8, 2019
According to a recent IIHS study, 27 percent of people surveyed thought it was acceptable to remove your hands from the steering wheel of L2 systems found on Supercruise-equipped Cadillacs. 48 percent thought it was acceptable to do so on Autopilot-equipped Teslas. And a startling six percent thought it was acceptable to take a nap while Autopilot was active. (more…)
