Nothing like a little automatic shade.

When autonomous vehicles rule the roads, they will eliminate the estimated 90 percent of traffic accidents caused by human error, which could save 30,000 lives per year and, according to an advisor to car insurance companies, wipe out car insurance companies. “Cars are not going to crash nearly as frequently, and they’re not going to crash as severely as we’ve seen in the past, so you could say it could be the demise of the car insurance...

Unmanned ships have received relatively little media attention compared to aerial drones and self-driving cars. Researchers in Korea have been developing technologies to enable and facilitate the realization of unmanned autonomous ships in the near future. Unmanned ships (i.e. robotic ships or drone ships) have received relatively little media attention compared to aerial drones and self-driving cars. However, their potential benefit and impact to scientific...

In 2014, in the USA alone, cars traveled an estimated 2,926 billion miles (4,740 billion kilometers) - not always safely. During that year, 32,675 people lost their lives in traffic accidents, and a much larger number were injured. This meant around $200 billion (175 billion euros) in insurance claims and another $670 billion of uncompensated losses in pain and suffering, lost work-time, damaged gear, emergency services costs...

The overwhelming majority of Americans don't want to own a fully self-driving car in the future, according to a new survey by the University of Michigan (U-M). The online survey involving 618 respondents showed that 37.2% were "very concerned" about riding in a completely self-driving vehicle, while 66.6% were "very or moderately concerned." Only 9.7% of respondents said they were not at all concerned about riding in a completely self-driving vehicle.

There has been a lot of focus on self-driving vehicles as of late. Ranging from cars to buses and even trains, there are some exciting developments ahead. But very few people are aware there are self-driving tractors as well. The agricultural industry is changing at an accelerated pace.

It’s not all happening in Silicon Valley. General Motors has created a new team dedicated to autonomous cars at its Warren Tech Center, based in Detroit. There are already several hundred employees working on the development of its self-driving system, alongside test drivers already active in San Francisco. “We’ve got several hundred people in this space right now … expanding to several hundred people more (by end of this year into next year),” said Ken Kelzer, vice president of global vehicle components to Detroit News.

Self-driving cars are in the news again, after several surveys were released showing how people would want their computer-controlled car to react in a situation where it has to decide whether to save the driver or pedestrians. Most survey results suggested the driver would want to limit the amount of casualties, though we have seen sometimes that humans do not choose that option and end up killing more people to save themselves.

In May, a Tesla “autopilot” enthusiast in Florida became the first known fatality in a self-driving car. But this was no ordinary accident. The car performed exactly as designed, and the (non)driver’s failure to take any corrective action could reasonably have been foreseen by the manufacturer. This unwelcome yet widely anticipated milestone may set back progress on what promises to be one of the most valuable technologies of the 21st century.

Only recently, Tesla Motors revealed that one of its self-driving cars, operating in Autopilot mode, had crashed in May and killed its driver. How much responsibility Tesla has for the death is still under debate, but many experts are already reminding us of the huge number of lives that could be saved by autonomous cars. Does that mean we shouldn’t worry much about the single death—that we should look away for the sake of the greater good? Is it unethical to focus on negative things that could slow down autonomous-driving technology, which could mean letting thousands of people die in traffic accidents?

Don't worry, there is still a bus driver onboard ... kind of. Autonomy isn't just for cars; Mercedes-Benz has created a self-driving city bus, too. Mercedes-Benz revealed its latest creation on Monday morning. Called the Future Bus, it's the first city bus that can drive autonomously. Mercedes did more than just unveil the futuristic vehicle. It also sent it on a 12-mile route through the streets of Amsterdam.

Germany plans new legislation to require manufacturers of cars equipped with an autopilot function to install a black box to help determine responsibility in the event of an accident, transport ministry sources told Reuters on Monday. The fatal crash of a Tesla Motors Inc Model S car in its Autopilot mode has increased the pressure on industry executives and regulators to ensure that automated driving technology can be deployed safely.

On Friday, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Mark Rosekind told an audience in Detroit, Michigan that car makers “cannot wait for perfect” when it comes to developing and deploying self-driving car technology. The Wall Street Journal reported that Rosekind said automation would “save people’s lives” in a time when auto fatalities have been up 8 percent since 2014. Rosekind’s comments come after a man using Tesla’s autopilot system fatally crashed into a left-turning truck in Florida. The incident is believed to be one of the first involving a car in autonomous mode.

During a conference call today, Elon Musk talked about Tesla’s progress in level 4 fully autonomous driving and while he didn’t want to make an announcement on the call, he said that it is coming sooner than people think: “What we’ve got will blow people’s minds, it blows my mind …it’ll come sooner than people think.” Musk’s most recent prediction placed the technology being ready in Q4 2017, around the time Model 3 will enter production.

Imagine driving on the highway in your self-driving car. You are reading emails on your phone while your car suddenly slows down. You look out the window, and ”Warning! Rockslide in 1,000 feet” is written in LED lights on the road. The connected cars immediately change lane as the LED lane markings changes. This is the future prospect of our highways. “Smart highways” is a term for incorporating different technologies into roads for both generating electricity from solar power, and improving the operations of self-driving cars. Three key technologies for smart highways are Solar Roadways, wireless charging and intelligent transportation...

“Mark my word,” Henry Ford declared in 1940: “A combination air-plane and motorcar is coming. You may smile, but it will come.” If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic, you’ve probably wished that such a conveyance had arrived, and that you were driving a flying car—a ground-bound vehicle that could sprout wings and take off toward the sky, above the crowded roads and highways, to transport you quickly and easily to your destination.

It’s been a while since news broke in early 2015 that Uber was working on self-driving cars. Earlier this year, the company openly admitted it was testing cars in Pittsburgh, but we haven’t heard much more over the last 18 months. With Google, the self-driving car leader, slowly making progress with its autonomous cars, you’d be forgiven for thinking Uber’s efforts are far behind and barely visible in its frenemy‘s rearview mirror. Well think again!

In the late 1950s, the Radio Corporation of America thought it had a lock on the self-driving car. The January 1958 issue of Electronic Age, RCA’s quarterly magazine, featured its vision of the “highway of the future”: “You reach over to your dashboard and push the button marked ‘Electronic Drive.’ Selecting your lane, you settle back to enjoy the ride as your car adjusts itself to the prescribed speed...

Volvo has partnered with automotive safety systems company Autoliv to "develop next generation autonomous driving software," the companies announced Monday. Nextcar Bug artTogether, Volvo and Autoliv plan to form a new company headquartered in Volvo's hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden. The company, which has not yet been named, will develop new advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving technologies for use in Volvo cars. Autoliv will also offer this future technology to...

Google is working on a technology that would help its self-driving car sensors identify emergency vehicles, according to a newly published patent application. At the core of the technology is the ability for a car to identify a set of lights and determine whether they are emergency vehicles or not, according to the patent.