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Hyundai plans Level 4 autonomy by 2021 in a fuel-cell car

SAN FRANCISCO — Silicon Valley startup Aurora announced on Thursday partnerships with Volkswagen AG and Hyundai to develop a self-driving system within their vehicles, the latest tie-up between global automakers and Silicon Valley tech companies. Aurora was founded in 2016 by robotics expert Drew Bagnell, Chris Urmson, who came from Alphabet Inc's Google, and Sterling Anderson, who formerly worked at Tesla. For Hyundai, Aurora's technology will be incorporated into custom-developed models and tested in markets including China. Hyundai said the first model to be used in testing will be its latest generation fuel-cell vehicle, debuting at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas next week. The model name of the car, shown above, will be announced then. Under the alliance, Hyundai plans to commercialize level 4 autonomous vehicles — which can operate without human input or even human oversight under select conditions — in unidentified "pilot smart cities" by 2021. This is the first announcement on a self-driving technology partnership by the South Korean carmaker, which has traditionally shunned tie-ups in favor of developing technology in-house. The strategy has raised investor concerns that it may be left behind in the race for self-driving and electric cars. A company spokeswoman said Hyundai has "various collaborations" under way in self-driving technology and would continue to pursue cooperation. In a statement, Volkswagen said Aurora's self-driving technology can be integrated over time across the automaker's brands and in different product categories, whether self-driving pods, shuttles, delivery vans or self-driving trucks. Aurora and Volkswagen said they had been working together over the past six months to integrate Aurora's sensors, hardware and software into the German carmakers' electric vehicles to develop self-driving ride services in cities. The non-exclusive partnerships mark the first deals for the young Silicon Valley company and show how some carmakers have chosen to partner with technology companies with more experience in artificial intelligence, deep learning and robotics in order to save time and money bringing self-driving cars to market. Within the self-driving car space, Waymo — formerly Google's autonomous program headed by Urmson — is offering something similar. The tech company has been working with Fiat Chrysler since 2016 to outfit its Chrysler Pacifica minivans with autonomous technology.

Lucid Air, VW ID.4 AWD and Polestar 2 Single Motor driven | Autoblog Podcast #704

In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Autoblog Green, John Beltz Snyder. Greg's been driving the Volkswagen ID.4 AWD and the Lucid Air, while John has been in the Mini Cooper Hardtop and Polestar 2 Single Motor. They discuss the big Rivian news of the week, its stellar IPO. They take a question from the mailbag about whether to sell a Tesla Model 3, and they help a listener decide whether to buy a Ford Maverick or some other pickup. Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com. Autoblog Podcast #704 Get The Podcast Apple Podcasts – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes Spotify – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast on Spotify RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown What we're driving2022 Volkswagen ID.4 AWD Pro 2022 Lucid Air 2022 Mini Cooper Hardtop 2022 Polestar 2 Single Motor Rivian's IPO Mailbag: To sell or not to sell a Tesla Model 3 Spend My Money: Ford Maverick FX4 or something else? Transcript Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on Apple Podcasts Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

German authorities claim 2.8 million VW diesels evaded testing

While Volkswagen admits that there are 11 million diesel vehicles around the world that may be able to evade emissions testing, investigations by government authorities are starting to provide a glimpse of where some of those actually are. According to German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt, there are 2.8 million VWs in the country with the tech to cheat environmental rules, Reuters reports. In the US, at least 482,000 cars are believed to be affected. German regulators claim not knowing about the automaker's emissions testing evasions until quite recently, and Dobrindt didn't begin a fact-finding mission into the situation until just this week. Environmental agencies around the world have also begun their own inquiries into the scandal, including in Canada, South Korea, and many countries in Europe. In the US, where the story originally broke, the Department of Justice has started a criminal investigation into VW, and a maximum fine from the Environmental Protection Agency could tally $18 billion. The automaker has responded so far by setting aside about $7.3 billion to fix the affected models. CEO Martin Winterkorn is also already gone, and Porsche boss Matthias Muller is taking the top spot. The company's next moves still aren't clear, though. "VW needs to be very open about what has happened, how it was possible that this could happen to make sure that this never happens again in the future," an anonymous, top shareholder in the company said to Reuters.