San Francisco Cop Gives Ticket to Self-Driving Car
A motorcycle cop ticketed a Cruise autonomous vehicle’s human safety driver, saying the car came too close to a pedestrian.
Cruise Automation, which is a startup acquired by General Motors, says it’s a bum rap — that the car’s data shows it was no closer than 10.8 feet from the woman, who was in a crosswalk in the South of Market neighborhood.
“Safety is our priority in testing our self-driving vehicles,” Cruise said in a statement. “California law requires the vehicle to yield the right of way to pedestrians, allowing them to proceed undisturbed and unhurried without fear of interference of their safe passage through an intersection. Our data indicates that’s what happened here.”
Read the article at Detroit Free Press.
Dealers Need to Get Crafty Getting Buyers Into Affordable Priced Cars
According to J.D. Power, the average price of a car to date through February is about $32,200, about $500 more than the price of a vehicle last year.
Tightening credit conditions and higher interest rates are driving up monthly payments, which now exceed $525. New tariffs on steel and aluminum imports could also add to the problem.
If the cost of a new car continues to rise at rates it has been, “it will stop sales,” said Wes Lutz, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association. “It’s just more than the consumer can handle.”
Read the article at The Wall Street Journal.
MetroGistics Hires John Heimann as Associate VP of IT
MetroGistics has hired John Heimann as associate vice president of information technology.
Heimann has 28 years of experience managing IT and integration projects, including 20 years in the transportation industry, and has worked for two Fortune 500 companies.
In his new role, Heimann will help grow the day-to-day IT operations and development. He will also be heavily involved in the integration of MetroGistics’ customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms.
Uber Disabled Volvo’s Safety System Before Fatal Crash
Uber Technologies Inc. disabled the standard collision-avoidance technology in the Volvo SUV that struck and killed a woman in Arizona last week, according to the auto-parts maker that supplied the vehicle’s radar and camera.
Aptiv is speaking up for its technology to avoid being tainted by the fatality involving Uber, which may have been following standard practice by disabling other tech as it develops and tests its own autonomous driving system.
"We don't want people to be confused or think it was a failure of the technology that we supply for Volvo, because that's not the case," Zach Peterson, a spokesman for Aptiv, said by phone. The Volvo XC90's standard advanced driver-assistance system "has nothing to do" with the Uber test vehicle's autonomous driving system, he said.
Read the article at Los Angeles Times.
Ryder Introduces First of its Kind Commercial Vehicle Sharing Program
Fleet vehicle owners now have the opportunity to rent their underutilized commercial vehicles to other businesses through Ryder Systems' new online sharing platform, named COOP.
Ryder's research reflects about 25 percent of the nation’s eight million commercial vehicles sit idle for more than one day a week, excluding weekends.
“COOP by Ryder aims to revolutionize the optimization and utilization of commercial trucks by helping fleet owners get the most value out of their fleets,” said Robert Sanchez, chairman and CEO. ”
Read the article at Insurance Journal.
