AbsolutSurgen Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 Cruise Unveils Origin, a Self-Driving Vehicle with No Steering Wheel or Pedals Quote The Cruise Origin was unveiled at the company's "Moving beyond the Car" event in San Francisco. It'll hold four passengers with plenty of legroom. The doors open like the back doors of a minivan. While the company was acquired by GM in 2016 and has Honda investment, the ride-hailing service will be branded Cruise. The electric platform is built by GM, but the company otherwise gave no specs—not battery size, not range, not price, not even where it will be built. The Origin resembles many of the other squarish small buses we've seen from startups and automakers. It's a bit like a smaller Toyota e-Pallet. The outside corners are home to sensors, including lidar. On the current Cruise vehicles—Chevrolet Bolt EVs—a crown of technology made of roof-mounted radar, lidar, and cameras helps guide them through the city. Getting the autonomous bus on the road will require additional research and testing. The company spoke briefly about the trials of driving on busy San Francisco streets and how much that has helped them improve their artificial intelligence. During three years of testing using Chevy Bolt EVs with safety drivers, the startup says it has built three or four generations of the vehicle. This newest generation—built without steering wheel or pedals—has not been driven on public roads yet. The near-term future of autonomous vehicles is not regular production vehicles with sleds of LIDAR sensors on top -- it's purpose built vehicles that will be used for ride-hailing services, and other fleet applications. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b_m_b_m_b_m Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 If they're going to do this, they should at least design the car to be less lethal to pedestrians. That said, Quote The electric platform is built by GM, but the company otherwise gave no specs—not battery size, not range, not price, not even where it will be built. So this is just a pr puff piece Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CayceG Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 Get rid of the battery. Have it connected to wires above the road. Make it travel on a fixed route. Make it longer to hold more people. It's a trolley. It's better. I fucking hate silicon valley. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uaarkson Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 The obsession with AVs is going to completely wreck all of the progress we’ve made in unfucking our cities. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwinIon Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 They were talking about this at CES and they insist that it's not a distant concept and that they will actually build it, but it's hard to buy at this point given how little they want to tell anyone. It also doesn't look like it would meet safety standards. Another thing that occurs to me is that while the mostly symmetrical design makes sense given its purpose, it also seems confusing to other drivers who might not know which way is forward. Given that it'll be pulling over to pick up and drop people off, I feel like a better visual indication of front and back would be helpful to the human drivers this would be sharing the road with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anathema- Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 7 hours ago, CayceG said: Get rid of the battery. Have it connected to wires above the road. Make it travel on a fixed route. Make it longer to hold more people. It's a trolley. It's better. I fucking hate silicon valley. "Why would anybody drive when they can ride the red car for a nickel?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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