I was had planned to do a long post on self-driving cars a quite long time. I was planning to do one this spring, but I might not do that, because it seems that predictions that self-driving cars would be here in 2020 were far too rosy. Five years ago, several companies including Nissan and Toyota promised self-driving cars in 2020. So it may be wise to take any new forecasts with a grain of salt. Hare is a worth to check out article of the current status of self-driving cars:
Surprise! 2020 Is Not the Year for Self-Driving Cars
https://spectrum.ieee.org/transportation/self-driving/surprise-2020-is-not-the-year-for-selfdriving-cars
In March, because of the coronavirus, self-driving car companies, including Argo, Aurora, Cruise, Pony, and Waymo, suspended vehicle testing and operations that involved a human driver. Around the same time, Waymo and Ford released open data sets of information collected during autonomous-vehicle tests and challenged developers to use them to come up with faster and smarter self-driving algorithms.
It seems that the self-driving car industry still hopes to make meaningful progress on autonomous vehicles (AVs) this year, but the industry is slowed by the pandemic and facing a set of very hard problems that have gotten no easier to solve over the years.
1,917 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tesla surmasi naisen – Elon Muskille jättilasku
Itseohjautuvat autot ovat keskeinen osa Muskin ja Teslan suunnitelmia laajentua robottitaksitoimintaan.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/65d86559-4c77-4766-a3fb-c26d2d971e60
Floridalainen valamiehistö tuomitsi perjantaina Elon Muskin sähköautoyhtiö Teslan maksamaan 243 miljoonan dollarin (210 miljoonan euron) edestä korvauksia 22-vuotiaan naisen kuolemaan johtaneesta onnettomuudesta. Aiheesta uutisoivat muun muassa Reuters, New York Times ja Washington Post.
Model S -Teslaa autopilotilla ajanut George Brian McGee törmäsi Naibel Benavidesiin ja hänen poikaystävään Dillon Anguloon keväällä 2019. Benavides kuoli ja Angulo loukkaantui vakavasti.
McGee pudotti puhelimensa ja kumartui noukkimaan sitä juuri ennen onnettomuutta. Hänen jalkansa oli kaasupolkimella, minkä vuoksi autopilotti ei ottanut käyttöön toimintoa, joka estää törmäyksiä.
Anguloa ja Benavidesin vanhempia edustanut Brett Schreiber syytti Teslaa ”väärän tiedon levittämisestä”, autopilotin kykyjen liioittelusta ja sen negatiivisista vaikutuksista kuskien tarkkaavaisuuteen.
Valamiehistö katsoi Teslan olevan 33 prosenttisesti vastuussa onnettomuudesta. Tesla on ilmoittanut valittavansa tuomiosta.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Matkapahoinvointi voi olla sähköautossa polttomoottorikyytiä pahempaa – tässä syy
Ilmiölle löytyy tieteellinen selitys.
https://www.is.fi/autot/art-2000011396492.html
Tutkimusten mukaan matkapahoinvointi sähköautossa voi olla muita menopelejä voimakkaampaa, kertoo The Guardian.
Käytännössä kyse on siitä, että valtaosa ihmisistä on yhä tottunut matkaamaan lähtökohtaisesti polttomoottoriauton kyydissä.
– Lisääntynyt pahoinvointi sähköauton kyydissä voi liittyä aiemman kokemuksen puutteeseen, sekä kuskina että matkustajana. Tällöin aivot eivät osaa arvioida tarkasti liikevoimia, koska ne luottavat muuntyyppisistä autoista kerättyyn kokemukseen, sanoo matkapahoinvointia tutkiva tohtoriopiskelija William Emond Belfort-Montbéliardin teknillisestä yliopistosta.
– Kun aivot kohtaavat uuden liikeympäristön, niiden tarvitsee sopeutua, koska niillä ei ole tietoa tai aiempaa kokemusta vastaavasta. Tästä syystä esimerkiksi lähes kaikki voivat pahoin painottomissa olosuhteissa.
Tämän ohella jotkut tutkimukset viittaavat siihen, että toinenkin sähköautojen ominaisuus aiheuttaa pahoinvointia.
Kyse on regeneratiivisesta jarrutuksesta eli siitä, että auton moottori ottaa talteen energiaa auton hidastaessa. Vuonna 2024 julkaistun tutkimuksen mukaan mitä voimakkaammin auto käyttää kyseistä ominaisuutta, sitä voimakkaampaa matkapahoinvointi voi olla.
Do electric vehicles make people more carsick?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2025/jun/21/electric-vehicles-carsick
This article is more than 1 month old
A claymation-style animation of a dizzy person on an electric car that’s bouncing on a spring.
Illustration: The Guardian/Charles Desmarais
An increasing number of people are experiencing motion sickness in EVs, and there is a scientific explanation as to why
With electric cars skyrocketing in popularity around the world – in 2024, 22% of new car sales worldwide were electric vehicles, compared with 18% in 2023 – a growing body of studies and an increasing number of people have found that they feel more motion sick riding in EVs than in traditional petrol or diesel cars. Anecdotes of feeling sick in the passenger or back seat of electric cars litter social media, as do questions from wary prospective buyers.
There is a scientific explanation behind why a person might feel more sick in an EV, though, according to multiple academic studies.
“Greater sickness in EVs can be attributed to a lack of previous experience, as both a driver and as a passenger, where the brain lacks accuracy in estimating the motion forces because it relies on previous experience in other types of cars,” said William Emond, a PhD student researching car sickness at the Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard in France.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tracking global data on electric vehicles
Explore data on electric car sales and stocks worldwide.
https://ourworldindata.org/electric-car-sales
Tomi Engdahl says:
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Lyft partners with Baidu to launch autonomous vehicles in Germany and the UK in 2026, pending regulatory approval; Lyft will deploy Baidu’s sixth-gen robotaxis
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-04/lyft-partners-with-baidu-on-robotaxis-in-european-expansion
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yi-Ling Liu / Rest of World:
China’s vision for its autonomous vehicle industry, backed by state support and infrastructure investment, is driving its lead in ADAS and robotaxi deployment — Strong government backing and strict regulatory oversight of the Chinese autonomous vehicle industry contrasts sharply with the piecemeal laws and slower adoption in the U.S.
China’s vision for a driverless future is miles ahead of everyone else’s
Strong government backing and strict regulatory oversight of the Chinese autonomous vehicle industry contrasts sharply with the piecemeal laws and slower adoption in the U.S.
https://restofworld.org/2025/china-ai-powered-self-driving-cars/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg:
Pony AI says it rolled out 200+ Gen-7 Robotaxis since mass production started two months ago, putting it on track for its 1,000-vehicle goal by the end of 2025
Pony AI, Nearing Full-Year Robotaxi Goal, Eyes European Markets
Tomi Engdahl says:
Euroopan autokauppa vaarassa romahtaa
EU on suunnitellut kieltävänsä hiilidioksidia päästävien autojen myynnin vuoteen 2035 mennessä. Päätöstä kritisoivien joukkoon on nyt liittynyt Mercedes-Benzin pääjohtaja Ola Källenius.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/autouutiset/a/7a82a2ae-016d-4f6b-91a8-2aa37f15c505
Mercedes-Benzin toimitusjohtaja Ola Källenius kritisoi Euroopan unionin suunnitelmaa kieltää hiilidioksidipäästöjä tuottavien autojen myynti vuoden 2035 jälkeen, kertoo Automotive News.
Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius calls for ‘reality check’ on EU combustion engine ban
https://www.autonews.com/mercedes-benz/ane-mercedes-ceo-kallenius-eu-ice-ban-warning-0811/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/19/volkswagen-joins-the-car-as-a-service-movement-with-its-id-3-bev/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Not even insurance companies want anything to do with it. https://trib.al/RJfzknr
The Cybertruck Is Such a Mess That Insurance Companies Are Refusing to Even Cover It
https://futurism.com/the-byte/cybertruck-mess-insurance-companies-refusing?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwMT2K9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHpF-9advl30LC75cuPHUIXkN7pk5T_uhj2ji8EqA6p8qH6P-yMG-0bxP6sv7_aem_Rs7-_2sT1L3uEB7k0gBeoA
Tesla’s Cybertruck is turning out to be a full-blown disaster.
Sales are circling the drain, with the Elon Musk-led automaker selling a mere 4,306 Cybertrucks in the second quarter of 2025, a stunning 50.8 percent drop over the same period last year.
Resale values are cratering as well, with the value of a used Cybertruck plummeting by more than 30 percent over the span of a year.
Even just insuring the stainless steel behemoths is turning into a massive headache. Owners insured through Hanover Insurance are being informed that their policy is being terminated.
Hanover Insurance cited the vehicle’s low production volume and its high repair costs for terminating his policy.
It’s a damning predicament, highlighting just how much of a hot potato the electric pickup has become. Apart from turning into a highly politicized lightning rod, the Cybertruck has proven itself to be an expensive-to-repair and issues-riddled lemon. It’s a warning sign for the carmaker, which is already struggling with nosediving demand worldwide and plummeting sales.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Liikenteen pahin päästölähde paljastui – Se ei olekaan pakokaasu
Suurin osa yksityisliikenteen hiukkaspäästöistä on peräisin jarruista. Pakokaasujen osuus hiukkaspäästöistä on pienempi kuin rengaspölyn
https://www.iltalehti.fi/autouutiset/a/ae630fd9-b715-425e-9476-b069d0ba8b77
Jarrujen päästöt muodostavat suurimman osan autoilijoiden muodostamista ei-pakokaasupohjaisista pienhiukkasista. Jarrupölystä 40 prosenttia päätyy ilmaan ja loput maahan.
Asia ilmenee Euroopan unionin rahoittaman saksalaisen EIT Urban Mobilityn tutkimuksesta, jossa selvitettiin ei-pakokaasupohjaisia päästöjä tieliikenteessä.
Rengaskuluma todettiin toiseksi suurimmaksi ei-pakokaasupohjaiseksi päästölähteeksi. Renkaiden kulumisesta tulevat päästöt päätyvät pääosin ympäristöön ja ainoastaan 1–5 prosenttia päätyy ilmaan. Rengaspöly sekoittuu katupölyyn ja voi päätyä vesistöihin sekä maaperään.
Rengaspölyn määrä on erityisesti kaupungeissa suurempi. Kaupunkiajossa tehdään useita kiihdytyksiä, jarrutuksia ja käännöksiä. Lämmin ympäristö aiheuttaa renkaiden kulumista vielä enemmän.
Painavat ajoneuvot, kuten sähköautot tuottavat enemmän rengasperäistä saastetta. Tutkimus arvelee rengassaasteen koituvan pitkällä aikavälillä ongelmalliseksi.
Sähköautojen energiaa talteen ottavan moottorijarrutuksen todettiin vähentävän sähköautojen jarrupäästöjä peräti 80 prosenttia.
Pakokaasut murto-osa yksityisliikenteen hiukkaspäästöistä
Tutkimus nostaa esimerkiksi hiukkaspäästöistä Lontoon suuralueen. Lontoon yksityisliikenteen hiukkaspäästöt ovat enimmäkseen peräisin jarrupölystä. Pakokaasujen osuus hiukkaspäästöistä on rengashiukkasiakin pienempi.
Mopojen ja moottoripyörien sekä raskaan- ja julkisen liikenteen osalta pakokaasut muodostivat suurimman osan hiukkaspäästöistä.
Study on non-exhaust emissions (NEE) in road transport
https://www.eiturbanmobility.eu/knowledge-hub/non-exhaust-emission-study/
Why this study matters
More than 96% of the European population was exposed to PM2.5 concentrations exceeding the World Health Organization’s annual air quality guideline limit in 2022 .Road transport is a primary source of particulate matter in urban areas.
As exhaust emissions decrease, non-exhaust emissions (NEEs) – particles from brake, tyre and road wear – are now a dominant source of urban particulate matter (PM).
Tomi Engdahl says:
A federal judge in San Francisco just greenlit a class action lawsuit by Tesla owners to sue the carmaker for exaggerated claims by CEO Elon Musk and the company about the self-driving capability of its electric vehicles that stretch all the way back to 2016.
It’s the latest blow to plans by the world’s richest person to reposition Tesla as a leader in artificial intelligence and autonomous driving amid a dramatic slowdown in its EV sales. https://trib.al/q6HT3VX
Tomi Engdahl says:
Financial Times:
How legacy carmakers fell behind Tesla and Chinese EV brands in software, as a Toyota Woven engineer says the company’s new Arene platform is “full of bugs”
‘Full of bugs’: how the world’s biggest carmakers fell behind in software
https://www.ft.com/content/d5d5b7fb-30fc-4f32-86d2-7499bcc433b6
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tesla denied having fatal crash data until a hacker found it
The data was key evidence in the death of a pedestrian in 2019.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/08/how-a-hacker-helped-win-a-wrongful-death-lawsuit-against-tesla/
At the beginning of the month, Tesla was found partly liable in a wrongful death lawsuit involving the death of a pedestrian in Florida in 2019. The automaker—which could have settled the case for far less—claimed that it did not have the fatal crash’s data. That’s until a hacker was able to recover it from the crashed car, according to a report in The Washington Post.
In the past, Tesla has been famously quick to offer up customer data stored on its servers to rebut claims made against the company. But in this case, the company said it had nothing. Specifically, the lawyers for the family wanted what’s known as the “collision snapshot,” data captured by the car’s cameras and other sensors in the seconds leading up to and after the crash.
According to the trial, moments after the collision snapshot was uploaded to Tesla’s servers, the local copy on the car was marked for deletion. Then, “someone at Tesla probably took ‘affirmative action to delete’ the copy of the data on the company’s central database,” according to the Post.
Tesla only acknowledged that it had received the data once the police took the Tesla’s damaged infotainment system and autopilot control unit to a Tesla technician to diagnose, but at that time the local collision snapshot was considered unrecoverable.
That’s where the hacker, only identified as @greentheonly, his username on X, came in. Greentheonly told The Washington Post that, “for any reasonable person, it was obvious the data was there.”
During the trial, Tesla told the court that it hadn’t hidden the data, but lost it. The company’s lawyer told the Post that Tesla’s data handling practices were “clumsy” and that another search turned up the data, after acknowledging that @greentheonly had retrieved the snapshot locally from the car.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rivianin toimitusjohtajan mukaan amerikkalaisten sähköautovalmistajien ei pitäisi niinkään olla huolissaan hinnasta kuin teknologisesta paremmuudesta.
https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/rivianin-toimitusjohtaja-varoittaa-kiinalaiset-sahkoautot-ovat-parempia/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1756890764
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s Electric Car Industry Is in Deep Trouble
“This is a race to dominate, not a race to profitability.”
https://futurism.com/chinas-electric-car-industry-trouble?fbclid=IwdGRjcAMnSfRjbGNrAydJPWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEeQJAt38AAYNaT9DsEndPOP433WUWUEm9rvkUW3JjArpYDNc3y_7UuKflT_Rg_aem_lyPv33EWitjkJcpnHBufDA
China’s electric vehicle industry is, by most accounts, experiencing unprecedented boom times: the cars are cheaper, consumers more primed to purchase them, and there are lots of viable options outside of Tesla.
Unfortunately, that competition comes with a price — or rather, with a price war. As the New York Times reports, rabid competition among about 50 of the country’s top EV automakers has led to repeated price-slashing in a manic hunt for new buyers. As those manufacturers race to the bottom, it’s causing an immense financial squeeze: many have started having trouble paying their suppliers to meet demand, instead imploring state-run banks to help them build more factories.
In other words, it’s a startling reversal of expectations: in China, the world’s largest communist country, an unfettered free market is driving down prices so far that it’s threatening the auto sector
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s Electric Car Industry Is in Deep Trouble
“This is a race to dominate, not a race to profitability.”
https://futurism.com/chinas-electric-car-industry-trouble