Tag: Transportation

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Why Tesla is relying on radar (and the cloud)

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Radar readings and camera views are fed into the Autopilot system on Tesla cars. (Credit: Tesla)

Tesla car owners are getting an upgrade to their Autopilot semi-autonomous driving software, but this won’t be your standard software upgrade: CEO Elon Musk says Autopilot 8.0 will put more emphasis on radar readings as well as crowdsourced, networked information about potential hazards on the roadway.

Musk said the upgrade might have prevented the kind of collision that led to the death of a Tesla Model S driver in May. “These things cannot be said with absolute certainty, but we believe it is very likely that, yes, it would have,” Musk told reporters during a teleconference on Sunday.

That accident involved a crash between the Model S and a freight truck that was making a left turn from the opposing direction. Preliminary data suggest that Autopilot’s camera system did not recognized the reflective signature of the truckagainst the background of a brightly lit sky. As a result, the car smashed with full force into the truck, killing Tesla driver Joshua Brown.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it’s investigating the accident.

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Supersonic jet plant could come to Washington

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An artist’s conception shows Spike Aerospace’s supersonic jet. (Credit: Spike Aerospace)

Washington state is among the candidates for a supersonic jet factory being planned by Boston-based Spike Aerospace, but it’s not the only one.

Seven other states are in the running for what could amount to a $500 million investment over five years, Pete Goldsmith, Spike’s vice president of manufacturing, told GeekWire today.

Goldsmith, who’s based in the Seattle area, is playing a key role in site selection for Spike’s manufacturing facility, which is expected to start taking shape in late 2017 and could be into full production by 2022 or so.

He said the eight states being considered are all aerospace hot spots with a coastal presence. In addition to Washington, there’s Oregon, California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina as well as Massachusetts, where privately held Spike is headquartered.

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Uber powers ahead on autonomous vehicles

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Uber plans to use Volvo XC90 cars that have been modified for autonomous driving. (Credit: Uber)

Uber says it’s acquiring Otto, a venture working on self-driving trucks, and starting up an autonomous-vehicle experiment with Volvo in Pittsburgh.

The moves by the ride-share trailblazer, announced on Thursday, came just days after Ford laid out its plan to put autonomous ride-share vehicles on the road by 2021. Such moves signal that ride-sharing and ride-hailing will loom as a major frontier for automotive autonomy.

In a blog post, Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick said that Otto’s co-founder, Anthony Levandowski, would lead the company’s self-driving efforts in the San Francisco Bay area as well as Pittsburgh. “If that sounds like a big deal — well, it is,” Kalanick said.

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Ford plans fully autonomous cars by 2021

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Ford plans to have fully autonomous vehicles available for mobility services by 2021. (Credit: Ford)

Ford Motor Co. says it’s aiming to mass-produce fully autonomous vehicles for ride-sharing and ride-hailing services within five years – and it’s investing tens of millions of dollars in ventures that could help the company hit that goal.

“We see autonomous vehicles as having as significant an impact on society as Ford’s moving assembly line did more than 100 years ago,” Ford President and CEO Mark Fields said today at the company’s Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto, Calif. “And that’s why today we’re announcing Ford’s intent to have a high-volume, SAE Level 4, fully autonomous vehicle in commercial operation in 2021.”

To meet that timetable, Fields said the Silicon Valley center’s staff would be doubled to more than 300 – and that’s not all.

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Blue Angels jet will be trucked to Seattle

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The U.S. Navy Blue Angels perform at Seafair 2015 in Seattle. (GeekWire photo by Kevin Lisota)

A 30-year-old Navy F/A-18 Hornet jet that’s been through combat duty as well as a dozen years with the Blue Angels is being packed up in Florida for ground delivery to Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

Museum spokesman Ted Huetter told GeekWire that the partially disassembled airplane will travel from the Blue Angels’ home base at Pensacola Naval Air Station by truck. “It is going to be making its way across the country this week,” he said today.

Arrival is expected sometime in the Aug. 21-23 time frame. Huetter said the museum is planning to provide updates on the shipment’s progress via social media.

The Navy is phasing out the Hornets, and the Blue Angels’ fleet is expected to get anupgrade to the heavier F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornets by as early as next year.

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Boeing opens hip new data lab in Vancouver

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Boeing’s new Vancouver lab will focus on data analytics. (Credit: Boeing Canada-AeroInfo)

A Canadian subsidiary of the Boeing Co. has announced plans to open a data analytics laboratory in downtown Vancouver, B.C., to help the aerospace giant and its customers figure out how to maximize their efficiency and minimize their costs.

The downtown lab will supplement Boeing Vancouver’s operations in suburban Richmond, where 200 software engineers and data scientists are currently employed.

“The expansion represents a natural extension of Boeing Vancouver’s analytics, software development and professional consulting work,” Boeing Vancouver President Bob Cantwell said in a news release issued today. “As one of the largest analytics groups within Boeing, we are well suited to house the new Vancouver Labs, which will focus on delivering data-driven solutions at a rapidly increased pace over traditional development.”

A spokesman for the company, Mike Pound, told GeekWire that 50 data analysts would be working at the downtown location, which is in a converted warehouse on Homer Street in the Yaletown district. Moving day is due to take place next month.

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Photos: Amazon One wows the Seafair crowd

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Amazon’s first “Prime Air” cargo jet soars over Seafair. (Credit: Scott Eklund / Red Box Pictures)

Amazon’s first branded cargo jet made its daylight debut today at Seattle’s Boeing Seafair Air Show, but not before show announcer Mark Christopher drummed up a bit of drama.

As the program got under way, Christopher drew the attention of hundreds of spectators to a white dot approaching from the north. “It seems like a normal jet, but this is about to make history,” he said.

Then, as Seafair fans made out the Prime Air lettering on the side of the Boeing 767-300 jet, and the Amazon smile logo painted on its tail, the announcer made the formal introduction.

“Flying for the first time is Amazon One!” Christopher boomed as the plane buzzed past, just 500 feet above Lake Washington.

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Amazon Prime Air jet makes stealthy debut

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Amazon’s first branded freighter jet sits inside a Boeing hangar. (GeekWire photo by Kevin Lisota)

The first freighter jet to carry the Amazon brand is primed for its public debut in Seafair’s sunny skies, after making a stealthy flight from New York to Seattle in the middle of the night.

“It’s hard for me not to be a little bit giddy, almost. This is the first time I’ve actually seen the plane in person,” Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, said at a press preview that took place behind closed hangar doors at the Boeing Co.’s Seattle Delivery Center on Aug. 4.

The plane, emblazoned with “Amazon” on its belly, “Prime Air” on its sides and the Amazon smile logo on its tail, will fly over Lake Washington during the Boeing Seafair Air Show at around 1:15 p.m. Aug. 5 through 7. Until now, the big reveal was kept so hush-hush that Seafair organizers referred to the event only as a “Special Guest Flyover.”

The Boeing 767-300 jet is part of what will eventually become a fleet of 40 planes, transporting cargo between Amazon’s distribution centers for delivery to customers. Clark said the planes will mesh with Amazon’s network of 4,000 branded truck trailers, the Uber-like Amazon Flex delivery system, and the services provided by transportation partners such as UPS and FedEx.

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Virgin America shareholders OK Alaska merger

Virgin America and Alaska Airlines jet tails
Virgin America and Alaska Air Group are getting set to merge. (Credit: Alaska Air)

California-based Virgin America said today that its shareholders have approved the air carrier’s merger with Seattle-based Alaska Air Group, clearing one of the major requirements for the $2.6 billion deal to take effect later this year.

Under the terms of April’s merger agreement, Virgin America’s investors will receive $57 a share, which would pay a nearly 50 percent premium on the stock price in effect just before the deal was announced.

Alaska Air Group, which is the corporate parent of Alaska Airlines, won out after a fierce bidding war with JetBlue. The merger will give Alaska a firmer foothold in California, particularly for high-traffic routes to New York and Washington, D.C. Alaska Air’s CEO, Brad Tilden, has said the combined company might still keep Virgin America as a brand that’s distinct from Alaska Airlines.

The Virgin brand would have to be licensed from British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, at a cost that’s likely to amount to millions of dollars.

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Solar-powered plane finishes global circuit

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The Solar Impulse 2 plane heads toward its landing in Abu Dhabi. (Credit: Solar Impulse)

Solar Impulse’s history-making 22,000-mile flight around the world ended tonight with a solar-powered landing in the dark in Abu Dhabi, where it all began more than 16 months ago.

After two straight days of flying, Swiss psychiatrist-adventurer Bertrand Piccard aced the landing at Al Bateen Executive Airport just after 4 a.m. local time Tuesday (5 p.m. PT Monday), The touchdown marked the conclusion of the first-ever round-the-world journey completed by a solar-powered airplane.

“We made it!” Piccard told the cheering crowd on the runway just after landing.

Prince Albert of Monaco, one of Solar Impulse’s biggest backers, joined other dignitaries, scores of well-wishers and a bagpipe band at the finish-line celebration.

Piccard and Solar Impulse’s other pilot and co-founder, Andre Borschberg, organized the $170 million sponsor-funded effort to show off clean technologies – and potentially blaze a trail for fuel-free solar electric aviation.

“The future is clean. The future is you. The future is now. Let’s take it further,” Piccard told the crowd.

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