Self-Driven: Uber and Tesla

Self-driving cars have been in the news a lot in the past two weeks. Uber’s self-driving taxi hit and killed a pedestrian on March 18, and just a few days later a Tesla running in “autopilot” mode slammed into a road barrier at full speed, killing the driver. In both cases, there was a human driver who was supposed to be watching over the shoulder of the machine, but in the Uber case the driver appears to have been distracted and in the Tesla case, the driver had hands off the steering wheel for six seconds prior to the crash. …read more

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Autopilot raises $12 million to help businesses with targeted client emails

Touchscreen Email Concept Why hunt for new customers when you can make more money from the ones you already have? At least that’s the idea behind Autopilot, a startup which helps businesses reach out to existing clients. Blackbird Ventures and Salesforce Ventures are part of a group betting $12 million that this is the software businesses need. Other investors include Rembrandt Venture Partners and Southern… Read More Continue reading Autopilot raises $12 million to help businesses with targeted client emails→

Self-Driving Cars Are Not (Yet) Safe

Three things have happened in the last month that have made me think about the safety of self-driving cars a lot more. The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued its guidance on the safety of semi-autonomous and autonomous cars. At the same time, [Geohot]’s hacker self-driving car company bailed out of the business, citing regulatory hassles. And finally, Tesla’s Autopilot has killed its second passenger, this time in China.

At a time when [Elon Musk], [President Obama], and Google are all touting self-driving cars to be the solution to human error behind the wheel, it’s more than a little …read more

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