All of the electric, connected, self-driving cars at CES 2017 – The Verge

Why carmakers want to keep Apple and Google at arm’s length

2017-01-13T15:57:17-05:00

The splashiest auto news coming out of CES and the North American International Auto Show has been about new models, self-driving tech, and wild concepts. But in a quieter series of moves, automakers also continued to strengthen their control over what it is we're able to do inside our cars, particularly when it comes to the apps that run on infotainment systems.

Though carmakers have generally embraced Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto, many are hoping to establish an alternative app system that will be almost entirely under their purview. Automakers bill it as a move to create a seamless experience for their customers, but others …

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Nissan and BMW bring Microsoft’s Cortana assistant to cars

2017-01-05T19:21:51-05:00

Just days after teasing a Nissan and Cortana partnership, the car maker is unveiling its plans to integrate Microsoft's digital assistant into some vehicles. Nissan is working directly with Microsoft on its Connected Vehicle Platform, which utilizes Azure, Cortana, and Office 365. Cortana will be available in cars and will adapt its preferences and features based on drivers and others in the vehicle.

Nissan demonstrated Cortana integration in a concept video of what will be possible with the digital assistant. Asking "what is my schedule" surfaces the usual functionality of Cortana's calendar integration, but Nissan also demonstrated the ab …

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Nissan is using Mars Rover tech from NASA to control autonomous car fleets

2017-01-05T19:07:40-05:00

Nissan has taken NASA technology built for the Mars Rover to help control fleets of autonomous vehicles. It's called Seamless Autonomous Mobility (SAM), and Nissan believes it's a solution for when vehicles don't know how to handle the unexpected.

Though even basic self-driving car systems can handle the vast majority of situations - heading down a well-lit highway in nice weather - the biggest obstacle to fully autonomous driving is how to handle unusual or unpredictable or just plain weird situations.

SAM allows a "mobility manager" to examine vehicle images and sensor data when the car encounters something it can't handle and decide on …

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Nissan’s next Leaf will drive autonomously on highways

2017-01-05T19:07:09-05:00

Nissan announced today that it is planning to release a new Leaf electric car in the "near future." The new model will be the successor to the most popular electric car in the world and will include support for Nissan's ProPilot autonomous driving technology. ProPilot, which was first revealed last summer in the Serena minivan for Japan, allows for single lane autonomous driving on the highway.

Nissan did not say exactly when the new Leaf will be available, nor how much it will cost. It is likely that it will launch first in Nissan's home market of Japan.

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Honda unveils first electric ride-sharing concept car

2017-01-05T14:16:28-05:00

Car companies love to say they got there first. It appears Honda may be the first major automaker to show a concept vehicle designed for the ride-sharing market. The NeuV, which was announced Thursday at CES, is an acronym for the New Electric Urban Vehicle. NeuV [noo-vee] is based on the premise that self-driving, electric cars can be put to work rather than sitting idle nearly all the time.

Honda says the two-seat vehicle could be programmed to pick up and drop off passengers when its owner isn't using it, or to sell back remaining energy to the grid. "We designed NeuV to become more valuable to the owner by optimizing and monetizing the …

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Nvidia is working with Audi to get you a self-driving car by 2020

2017-01-05T03:01:43-05:00

Nvidia might be most famous as a manufacturer of computer graphics cards, but the company has been increasingly turning its attention to the automotive market over the past few years. This CES, it detailed new moves that will move it even further into the market: partnerships with suppliers ZF and Bosch that will see it making parts for automatic cars, and an expanded deal with Audi that will see the companies bring a proper self-driving vehicle to market by 2020.

Audi and Nvidia have worked together before, but the new partnership, announced by Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on stage at CES 2017, will see the companies working to produce a "Lev …

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Nvidia’s self-driving cars will help you drive better, too

2017-01-05T01:29:26-05:00

Nvidia thinks it can use autonomous driving sensors to make manual driving safer, and that's very clever. It's called AI Co-Pilot and Nvidia unveiled it at CES as part of an extensive set of upgrades it made to its autonomous vehicle products.

Self-driving cars will, eventually, save many lives. But, it could be decades before autonomous cars can drive in every situation. Until then, there will be times when we must drive ourselves, because there are lots of situations where autonomous cars still aren't good enough. Anything from bad weather and construction zones can flummox them.

use autonomous tech to make human driving safer

But Nvidia …

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Watch BB8, Nvidia’s self-driving car, navigate the world

2017-01-04T23:19:09-05:00

This is BB8. It's Nvidia's autonomous car and it's been driving around in California and New Jersey testing things out. It's always nice when companies give their cars cutesy names (this one is, of course, borrowed from The Force Awakens) but between the upbeat music and the eager way the car explores the world with brightly colored boxes identifying other cars, traffic lights, and road signs, you can't help but smile. Sure, we've seen similar videos before, but the fact that cars are freaking driving themselves is still mind blowing.

Nvidia is all-in on autonomous cars. Its supercomputer for self-driving cars is being used by everyone from …

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Ford becomes the first automaker to bring Amazon Echo into their cars

2017-01-04T23:00:02-05:00

A year ago, Ford teased a possible integration with the Amazon Echo smart home device, so car owners could turn on their home lights or browse their music libraries from the comfort of their Fusions or F-150s. Or they can switch it up and ask Alexa to start their car from inside their homes. Now the integration between Ford and Amazon is official and will be rolling out in the weeks to come, the companies announced at CES today.

Ford claims it will be the first automaker to offer real-world integration with Amazon's popular smart home device. Other car companies have also working to get Alexa in their vehicles, but it looks like Ford may ha …

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BMW thinks your car interior will look like this in five years

2017-01-04T21:50:27-05:00

BMW today unveiled what it called a "glimpse into the mid-future" for the interior of its cars. It's called the BMW i Inside Future sculpture, and it's what BMW thinks you might be sitting in after 2020. It's got comfy seats, a futuristic control system called HoloActive Touch, and the ability for each passenger to watch their own videos or listen to music without bothering everyone else in the car.

These concept designs are important because the way we ride in cars will be changing over the next decade. Instead of driving everywhere, new cars will be able to drive us around while we read a book, take a nap, or (for many of us, sadly) get s …

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