Rivian goes all in on'universal hands-free' driving at its first Autonomy and AI day EV automaker Rivian just held its which, unsurprisingly, focused extensively on hands-free driving. An upcoming software update promises the introduction of universal hands-free driving. The company says its vehicles will be able to autonomously navigate more than 3.5 million miles of roads in North America, covering the vast majority of marked roads in the US. This is coming to the, but also Gen 2 R1 vehicles like the . The service will be locked behind a subscription for something called Autonomy+ that includes self-driving, but also offers access to forthcoming and unannounced autonomous features.

Earlier this month, a woman in San Francisco was hit by a car while crossing the street. Had the story ended there, it would have been just another one of the small tragedies that occur on America's roads, where roughly 100 people die every day. She was hit again, this time by a robotaxi from the start-up Cruise. The car braked, coming to a stop with her pinned underneath. Then it started driving again, dragging the woman along with it for an agonizing 20 more feet.

Welcome to the future of insurance, as seen through the eyes of Scott, a customer in the year 2030. Upon hopping into the arriving car, Scott decides he wants to drive today and moves the car into "active" mode. Scott's personal assistant maps out a potential route and shares it with his mobility insurer, which immediately responds with an alternate route that has a much lower likelihood of accidents and auto damage as well as the calculated adjustment to his monthly premium. Scott's assistant notifies him that his mobility insurance premium will increase by 4 to 8 percent based on the route he selects and the volume and distribution of other cars on the road. It also alerts him that his life insurance policy, which is now priced on a "pay-as-you-live" basis, will increase by 2 percent for this quarter. The additional amounts are automatically debited from his bank account. When Scott pulls into his destination's parking lot, his car bumps into one of several parking signs.

After two years of faltering sales and fallout from the 2018 arrest of then-Chairman Carlos Ghosn, Nissan Motor Co.'s newly installed management is at another crossroads: how to get Japan's second-largest automaker out of a rut and beyond the shadow of the disgraced executive who drove its strategy for decades. It's a tall order, particularly considering Nissan's hefty pile of debt, around ¥8.3 trillion ($80 billion) -- double what it had 10 years ago -- lackluster showing in Europe, and U.K. factory supply chain woes. Nissan is also facing unparalleled competition, especially in the realm of advanced autonomous driving. The automaker spends only about half of the ¥1 trillion that Toyota Motor Corp. outlays annually on research and development and carmakers in general lag behind capital-rich tech firms like Alphabet Inc., which has spent more than $1 billion on self-driving technology via subsidiary Waymo LLC. Nissan Senior Vice President Takao Asami is cognizant of the challenges, admitting that "if we lose out in terms of technology, we're going to lose out in terms of business." "Lately there's been a lot of discussion internally about what our DNA is, what areas we can dig deep into and win," Asami said in an interview.

The Cabinet on Friday approved rules for operating partially self-driving vehicles, paving the way for the use of autonomous vehicles on public roads. Autonomous driving technology is classified into five levels, ranging from Level 1, which allows either steering, acceleration or braking to be automated, to fully automated Level 5. The government plans to enforce an ordinance defining violations and setting penalties by May next year as it envisions the use of Level 3 vehicles, which allow conditionally automated driving, on expressways in 2020. The newly decided penalties apply to the inappropriate use of Level 3 autonomous driving technologies, which require users to switch to manual operations when preset conditions regarding road type, driving speed, weather, time of day and other factors are no longer met. Violators of the ordinance will face fines of up to ¥12,000 ($110) depending on vehicle size.

Dan Peate, a venture capitalist and entrepreneur in Southern California, was thinking of buying a Tesla Model X a few years ago--until he called his insurance company and found out how much his premiums would rise. "They quoted me $10,000 a year," Peate recalled. For all the concern over accidents involving driverless cars, including Tesla's troubles with its limited self-driving Autopilot mode, it's easy to forget one of the supposed virtues of autonomous vehicles: They will make the roads safer. A sophisticated array of lidar, radar and cameras is expected to be more adept at detecting trouble than our mortal eyes and ears. And computers never get drunk, check Tinder or fall asleep at the wheel.

While technology firms rush to put self driving cars on the roads, a new study has revealed one problem - people could be too scared to get in them. A new report from AAA found that three-quarters of Americans reported feeling afraid to ride in a self-driving car, while and only 10 percent said that they'd feel safer sharing the roads with driverless vehicles. However, it also discovered 59% were keen to have some self driving technology in their next vehicle. The AAA report said 59% of drivers were, however, keen to have some self driving technology in next vehicle, although it found just 10% said they'd feel safer sharing roads with driverless cars'A great race towards autonomy is underway and companies are vying to introduce the first driverless cars to our roadways,' said Greg Brannon, AAA's director of Automotive Engineering and Industry Relations. 'However, while U.S. drivers are eager to buy vehicles equipped with autonomous technology, they continue to fear a fully self-driving vehicle.'