Today: Tesla’s FSD Beta request deployment! Tesla’s (supposedly) about to finally deploy its infamous Tesla FSD Beta to a wider audience… sort of. Tonight. Maybe. And it’s not really a full deployment, rather it’s a “Request” button which will enable those of us, like yours truly, who already purchased FSD, to — you guessed it — to “request” FSD Beta. After requesting, Tesla’s insurance system will analyze your last seven consecutive days of driving to determine whether you “qualify” for...

Today: VW’s impressive AV plans, Germany’s AV regulation, and Tesla’s FSD beta v9. All this... right now. VW’s AV plans VW has pivoted from being the leader is diesel fuel, to a potential leader in the EV space; and now it’s doing the same with its AV initiatives with everything from a software platform to its co-ownership with Ford of Argo.ai. Germany’s AV legislation Germany seems poised to pass legislation allowing for driverless Level 4 autonomous vehicle driving on its roads come...

Today: 7/11 installs EV charging stations; Cruise starts driverless passenger rides; Volvo announces a Lidar-equipped Level 4 XC90 for 2022. All this... right now.  7/11 chargers They're not quite Super Gulp Slurpies -- or whatever 7/11 calls its diabetes-inducing ambrosia these days -- but 7/11 is indeed moving forward with a plan to install some 500 chargers at their various stores across the US. This is a pretty great idea if only to entice folks to stop and buy up more junk food from...

1. Cruise in Dubai: Cruise becomes the exclusive partner to launch a robotaxi service in Dubai from 2023 to 2030, with the aim of getting 4000 Cruise Origins on Dubai's roads. 2. Tesla's vision-only FSD v9.0: Elon announces that a soon-to-be-released version of Full Self Driving beta, v9.0, will be "vision-only," meaning no radar, and of course, still no lidar, i.e., it will be camera-based only. 3. Mercedes EQS: The new electric S-Klasse, the EQS, is a technological and aesthetic marvel,...

Today: 1. The conclusion for Xpeng's cross-China AV trek 2. The auto insurance industry in an autonomous future  3. A huge AV simulation testing service 

Today: 1. Xpeng starts a six day autonomous trek across China 2. BMW's larger, curvier iDrive suggests revolutionary AV capabilities  3. Cruise does indeed acquire Voyage, but I'm not entirely pleased with the implications All this... right now.

***This episode brought to you in party by The Information. Get 75% off your first month at TheInformation.com/Hoag*** My guest today is Allan Witters, the CEO of T4L -- that's Transportation for Life -- a brand-agnostic electric vehicle subscription service that already has over $3M in pre-orders, and is already eyeing an IPO; they've also got a WeFunder page. If that sounds a bit much, a bit too sudden, a bit too everything to be true, that's because the T4L team are determined to do...

My guest today is Noel Marshall of the drive-by-wire team over at Schaeffler's US offices. We discuss everything from their Indy Autonomous Challenge; the SAM Car Project; the USDOT inclusive design challenge; and tackle some of the much broader issues surrounding autonomous vehicles, society, and much more besides.

Today: 1. I explain further why AVs need to be EVs, and talk about Cruise's huge new charging station in SF 2. I explain why teleoperations should be considered as an alternative to AVs 3. Argo.ai has partnered up with LabCampus at Munich Airport to develop an AV test track

Today:  1. All AVs must be EVs in California by 2025 2. Pennsylvania recognizes delivery bots as "pedestrians"  3. I debate the notion that Tesla's FSD beta is nothing more than a glorified L2 system

1. We reflect on Didi and AutoX's progress on autonomous ride sharing in China; their remote control center; and the validation of AVs in a covid world 2. Honda surprises the world with the first publicly available L3 vehicle 3. Cruise may have just bought Voyage

NHTSA: Final barriers to be removed thanks to NHTSA's final rule on AVs GM: The new circular test track offers 4 lanes and 62 mph AV testing Baidu: They get ready for numerous deployments in China and become the 6th company in California to get a driverless testing permit

1. Volkswagen and Microsoft partner up to deploy an automotive cloud solution for OTA updates and AV capabilities  2. UK values AVs at £42B by 2035 3. Germany gets closer to allowing L4 vehicles on public roads

Apple buys lidar: Apple is off shopping for lidar. I theorize that they're likely going after solid state lidar. Lucid gets SPAC'd: First Faraday, and now, as I predicted, so has Lucid, to the tune of $4.4B. Volvo's solution for motion sickness: Volvo is using predictive data to solve motion sickness with audio queues.

Faraday Future: FF just went public via a SPAC valuing the troubled EV automaker at $3.4B Aurora & Toyota: The AV technology company partners up with Toyota to utilize their Sienna minivan for ride hailing fleets Apple Car: Apple's long-rumored Apple Car is apparently not happening with Hyundai-Kia; so what's going on? 

Guest: Jessica Uguccioni, Automated Vehicles Review - Lead Lawyer, at Law Commission of England and Wales Topics: The Law Commission of England and Wales' review of the UK's regulatory framework for AVs on behalf of the UK Government's Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV)

Watch this review on my YouTube channel: YouTube.com/AutonomousCarsWithMarcHoag Read this review on my Medium channel  So I know this review has been a long time coming; those of you who listen to my podcast will remember that my wife and I took delivery of our white-on-white Tesla Model Y Long Range All Wheel Drive in June of this year; based on a delivery tracking site, I think it’s safe to say we were one of the first in California to take possession of that particular configuration. And...

I was introduced to Richard Goebelt through my H+C partner Martin Adler. The Director for Automotive & Mobility of the TÜV — the Technischer Überwachungsverein — Richard’s primary field of work, not to mention his passion and interests, rests entirely on the safety and regulatory landscape of all things automotive and mobility generally, with, of course, a focus on autonomous vehicles. Unsurprisingly, then, our conversation spanned the gamut from his thoughts about Tesla; a brief history...

Our guest today is Ramon Marrades, the Director for Placemaking Europe, and he's joining return guest (#170) John Rossant, the Chairman of NewCities.org; CEO of CoMotion; and advisory board member of Neom. As an urban economist, a writer, and activist, Ramon has a real passion for people and places, and crucially, how people interact with places. Prior to Placemaking Europe, Ramon was the Chief Strategy and Finance Officer at La Marina de València, a waterfront development agency for the...

"What Phillip Wilcox has accomplished with The Future is Autonomous is nothing short of remarkable. The scope and depth of this book is simply staggering, while remaining an incredibly fast and easy, conversational read. From technology to society; from a micro view of individual companies to a macro, holistic look at the global AV industry; from legal issues to policy matters and everything in between, Wilcox somehow manages to cover the entire spectrum of the burgeoning autonomous vehicle...

My guest today is Noam Arkind, the CTO at Israel-based Arbe Robotics (@Arbe_Robotics). Noam holds a PhD in Applied Math from the Robotics Lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science, so it’s no surprise that we did a fantastic one hour deep dive into all the fascinating technology behind their 4D high-resolution imaging radar solution. What struck me most about Arbe — and it took me until maybe half-way into our discussion to realize it — isn’t just their full development kit that includes both...

Today's guest is Brett Bavar, the Engineering Lead at rideOS.ai, a universal mobility-as-a-service platform that aims to "efficiently move people and things throughout the world."  I first connected with Brett via my good high school friend Bill Chen, one of the first team members of rideOS, and we agreed it made sense to do an episode together on the fascinating work they've been up to which, frankly, is fairly unique in the AV landscape. Simply put -- though of course I leave it to Brett to...

1. Uber selling ATG News is circulating that Uber is prepping a sale of its self-driving car division Uber ATG -- Advanced Technologies Group -- to Aurora. Once worth over $7B, this sale would come almost three years after Uber's autonomous driving ambitions were stalled following the tragic accident in which an Uber test vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona. But is this really game over for Uber's self-driving car plans? I think not. 2. Motional in Vegas Two episodes back...

Today’s guest is John Rossant, the Chairman of NewCities.org and CEO of CoMotion. John also sits on the advisory board of Saudi Arabia’s impressive Neom City, a 150 sq-mi (388 sq-km) planned smart city powered fully by renewable energy, and eschewing conventional transportation methods for autonomous vehicles, both land-based and air-based. During our 40-minute conversation, John shares his fascinating insight on Neom, while touching on his global experiences derived from his time at...

Today: Hyundai and Aptive do a thing; I make a mistake; and ghosts learn to drive cars. All this, right now… 1. Hyundai and Aptive About a year ago, we discussed the new partnership as between Hyundai and Aptiv which saw the two companies forming some sort of unknown venture. This venture was apparently a company called Motional, and Motional has just partnered up with Via, a shuttle-van ride service that partners up with municipalities. The idea is for Motional to give Via driverless...