Tesla is being criticized by motor-safety experts for using YouTubers to beta test its self-driving technology rather than trained safety drivers. After signing non-disclosure agreements, these would-be influencers film their experiences on the road, Vice first reported, using Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta to navigate busy streets. Urban policy expert David Zipper criticized the FSD in a tweet, posting a clip which sees one Seattle beta tester's steering wheel suddenly spin right and the car lurches toward a crosswalk. 'Whoa, s--t!, sorry--it gave up there,' the driver announces with an apologetic wave to pedestrians. Seattle YouTuber'HyperChange,' posted a video trying out v.10 of Tesla's Fully Self Driving beta.

Volkswagen at one time said its electric ID.Buzz van would reach dealerships by 2022 (that announcement has been removed but you can view it in the Internet Archive), but news from its commercial division confirms that at least an unveiling is still on deck for next year. Beyond that, VW autonomous driving exec Christian Senger said "This year, for the first time, we are conducting field trials in Germany, in which the self-driving system by Argo AI will be used in a version of the future ID. Argo AI is the autonomous driving technology that Ford and VW have partnered to invest in and develop. The commercial vehicles team is developing vans to use the self-driving tech in that are based on the ID.Buzz to power a ride-hailing and pooling concept with autonomous vans that can operate in urban areas. With the announcement VW also released this concept sketch (above) of the self-driving test vehicle that Germans may see on roads any moment now.

According to JLR, it will span 12km of public roads, combining smart junctions and connected car parks to facilitate the harnessing of valuable sensor data and offer the unique ability to trial new technologies. Aptly named the Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI), the facility will be equipped with sensors throughout the site, along with high-accuracy location systems, a data management and control centre and self-driving prototype vehicles. Russel Vickers (pictured above), chief executive officer at the FMCI, explained: "The smart-city zone provides a first-class facility for global companies to work together and develop world-leading technology, from autonomous vehicles to connected infrastructure. The testbed provides an opportunity to test in the real world and help answer some of the questions posed by the future of mobility in a collaborative and efficient way." As part of the trials, the company's all-electric performance SUV, the Jaguar I-PACE, will be deployed for testing.

In order to make self-driving cars viable, the automotive industry has recruited some of the best software developers, hardware engineers, and mobility analysts humanity has to offer. There's a new community working to push autonomous technology forward, but these researchers aren't human at all. Buried deep within the halls of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) lies a small suburb called Duckietown, a mock-up municipality used to test and develop driverless technology. Populated entirely by rubber ducks riding on autonomous robo-taxis, Duckietown is the culmination of a graduate-level class that could prove invaluable to automakers in the future. "We believe a tool like this will help create a common platform and language for researchers to build on," said CSAIL postdoctoral associate Liam Paull, who co-leads the Duckietown course.