Stephen Crouch of Montana-based Blackmore explains how the company's lidar technology would help a robot car see what's ahead. Waymo will build self-driving vehicles in Detroit. The company, once known as Google's self-driving car project and now a leader in the push to develop autonomous vehicles, had previously said it was scouting locations in southeast Michigan but did not name a specific city. CEO John Krafcik revealed Detroit as the company's choice in a blog post Tuesday titled, "Making Waymos in Motor City." It refers to being "up and running" this year.

Aurora has kept a low profile and is in a more nascent research and development phase than some of its rivals. It has partnerships with Byton, Hyundai Motor Co and Volkswagen to develop and test self-driving systems that one day, Urmson said, can be used by a broad range of automakers, fleet owners and other transportation industry players.

Waymo just took another major step toward bringing self-driving cars into the mainstream. The Alphabet-owned brand has received approval to establish a factory for its driverless vehicles in Michigan. This will be the first factory in the world to be completely devoted to mass-producing Level 4 autonomous vehicles, the company said. It may be a while before the first vehicles roll off the line. Waymo first plans to "identify a facility" somewhere in southeastern Michigan, and it's not clear when that factory might be ready.

It's not just Ford that's working with Baidu to develop self-driving cars for the Chinese market -- Volvo has also revealed its team-up with the tech giant. While Ford announced the partnership earlier, the Swedish luxury automaker says it's the "first foreign car maker to collaborate this closely with Baidu" when it comes to autonomous vehicles. The two companies will pool their resources to create and mass produce electric and fully autonomous vehicles when the time comes: Volvo will be in charge of developing the cars themselves, which will be powered by Baidu's Apollo autonomous driving platform. Their ultimate goal is to create and sell Level 4 autonomous vehicles -- those that don't need a human driver at all -- but it's unclear if they're also releasing semi-autonomous models before they achieve that. At this point in time, Baidu's Apollo is already capable of driving in basic urban environments, even at night.

The two companies said they would form a joint venture by the end of March, with 50.25% owned by SoftBank and 49.75% owned by Toyota, to deploy vehicles in a country where 83% of its bus operators aren't profitable. Toyota and SoftBank hope to deliver robot-cooked meals or provide medical checkups using Toyota electric vehicles by the latter half of the 2020s, they said. The two are also studying other services, such as mobile offices, they said. "Many people must be wondering why SoftBank and Toyota are partnering," Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda said, noting that the automotive giant and the technology investor have long been seen as incompatible. But "the automotive industry is at a once-in-a-century transformation, he said, adding that working with SoftBank will be important to unlocking new partnerships in a self-driving, connected era.

BMW rivals and ride-hailing companies are considering joining its consortium for developing self-driving cars as auto industry profits come under increasing pressure, board member Klaus Froehlich said on Tuesday. Carmakers and ride-hailing companies have sought to build self-driving cars as a way to enter the business of smartphone-hailed robotaxis. However, they are entering a crowded field where the likes of Apple and Alphabet Inc have been pouring billions of dollars into cars that can drive themselves. Harald Kruger, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, poses in front of the new BMW series 3 during a media preview at the Auto show in Paris. Carmakers and ride-hailing companies have sought to build self-driving cars as a way to enter the business of smartphone-hailed robotaxis.

The key technical hurdle standing between you and your truly self-driving car is a double-decker: the car needs to see its surroundings, and it needs to understand them, too. And today, Volvo announced a move that could help it clear both of those barriers: It has struck a deal with lidar maker Luminar, investing an undisclosed amount in the startup through its recently launched venture capital fund. Just about every player in the autonomous driving space agrees lidar--which builds a 3-D map of its surroundings by firing millions of laser pulses every second and measuring how long they take to bounce back--is a vital sensor. The trouble is that it's a relatively young technology, and it has taken a while for manufacturers to find the right mix of range, resolution, reliability, and cost. The biggest player in this space, Velodyne (which made the first lidar specifically for driving in 2005), sells its most capable sensor for $75,000.

These algorithms can learn tasks on their own by analyzing vast amounts of data. "It used to be that a real smart Ph.D. sat in a cube for six months, and they would hand-code a detector" that spotted objects on the road, Mr. Urmson said during a recent interview at Aurora's offices. "Now, you gather the right kind of data and feed it to an algorithm, and a day later, you have something that works as well as that six months of work from the Ph.D." The Google self-driving car project first used the technique to detect pedestrians. Since then, it has applied the same method to many other parts of the car, including systems that predict what will happen on the road and plan a route forward. Now, the industry as a whole is moving in the same direction.

These algorithms can learn tasks on their own by analyzing vast amounts of data. "It used to be that a real smart Ph.D. sat in a cube for six months, and they would hand-code a detector" that spotted objects on the road, Mr. Urmson said during a recent interview at Aurora's offices. "Now, you gather the right kind of data and feed it to an algorithm, and a day later, you have something that works as well as that six months of work from the Ph.D." The Google self-driving car project first used the technique to detect pedestrians. Since then, it has applied the same method to many other parts of the car, including systems that predict what will happen on the road and plan a route forward. Now, the industry as a whole is moving in the same direction. But this shift raises questions.

A mysterious Chinese automaker has offered to purchase Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Automotive News reports. It's part of a larger Chinese effort to acquire international assets to make inroads abroad--a strategy that's worked with Volvo and Pirelli. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo seems to have made an about-face on the congestion pricing issue, calling it "an idea whose time has come, according to The New York Times. The scheme, still in its infancy, would charge drivers to drive on some of the city's most crowded streets. New ways to deliver stuff may not help traffic, and yet: General Motors' Maven mulls entry into a crowded ridehail and on-demand delivery market, Reuters reports. The trick is to pull off experiments in the area without angering partners Lyft and Uber. More in traditional automakers gone Silicon Valley: Fiat Chrysler says it will join a potent alliance between BMW, chipmaker Intel, and the tech and sensor mavens at Mobileye to build self-driving cars. While you wait for your robocar: Enjoy Hyundai's effort to give you Google Assistant in its upscale Genesis brand. The Verge argues it's probably healthier for you to enjoy this once-in-a-generation event outside of your vehicle and with some friends--no matter how much you love your car. A mysterious Chinese automaker has offered to purchase Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Automotive News reports. It's part of a larger Chinese effort to acquire international assets to make inroads abroad--a strategy that's worked with Volvo and Pirelli. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo seems to have made an about-face on the congestion pricing issue, calling it "an idea whose time has come, according to The New York Times.