Alphabet Inc’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, has slashed the cost of a key technology required to bring self-driving cars to the masses and rolled it out on Sunday in an autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivan.
Waymo has cut costs by 90 percent on lidar sensors, which bounce light off objects to create a 3D map of a car’s surroundings. The breakthrough will let Waymo bring the technology to millions of consumers, Waymo chief executive officer John Krafcik said in a speech at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
“When we started back in 2009, a single top-of-the-range lidar cost upwards of [US]$75,000,” Krafcik said.
Photo: Reuters
He did not say when Waymo would get its self-driving cars in the hands of consumers, but he predicted the technology would show up “in personal transportation, ride hailing, logistics and public transport solutions.”
The executive also reported a big improvement in the performance of Waymo’s system during testing in California last year.
“We’re at an inflection point where we can begin to realize the potential of this technology,” Krafcik said.
“We’ve made tremendous progress in our software and we’re focused on making our hardware reliable and salable. This has been one of the biggest areas of focus on our team for the past 12 months,” he added.
Tesla Motors Inc, BMW, Ford Motor Co and Volvo Cars have all promised to have fully autonomous cars on the road within five years.
“What truly excites us is the potential this technology has to create many new uses, products and services the world has yet to imagine,” Krafcik said. “We’re thinking bigger than a single use case, a particular vehicle, or a single business model.”
Krafick, who has spoken previously about the importance of forming partnerships, did not identify any new alliances with automakers or other companies.
Alphabet and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV are doubling their self-driving partnership, adding about 100 more Pacifica Hybrid minivans to the test fleet, according to people familiar with the decision.
Previous talks between Google and automakers including Ford have broken down over who will control the flow of data from autonomous cars that marketers covet to learn the habits of consumers, people familiar with the discussion have said.
To the car industry, Google’s allure has always been its software, but in Detroit, as the company debuts its more ambitious automotive aims, Krafcik, a former Ford and Hyundai Motors executive, touted Waymo’s hardware chops.
The high cost of specialized equipment remains an impediment to making self-driving tech mainstream. Reductions in sensor prices would help in selling driverless cars.
That is a business where Waymo, which launched as a standalone Alphabet business last month, hopes to compete.
Krafcik noted improvements in its suite of hardware had created a “virtuous cycle” with the company’s complicated software that makes the technology more reliable and cost-effective.
“Having our hardware and software development under one roof is incredibly valuable,” he said.
The Pacifica he showed on Sunday has technology developed exclusively by Waymo over the past seven years.
Waymo plans to use the Fiat Chrysler minivans in a ride-hailing service, which the companies expect to launch this year, people familiar with the plans have said.
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
RSS