Honda has a new AI research center, which will begin operation early next year and centralize its R&D efforts in the field. The new center will bring together Honda’s AI teams distributed across Silicon Valley, Europe and Japan in a single location in downtown Tokyo, according to Bloomberg. The consolidation is part of Honda’s plan to begin bridging AI products to market,… Read More
Volvo has little confidence that human drivers will be reliably kind and courteous to the first robot cars to hit the road: The carmaker plans to leave its first road-faring self-driving cars, a pilot group of 100 SUVs leased to users in London sometime in 2018, completely unmarked. Details of the plan come from Volvo senior technical lead Erik Coelingh, who shared the info with The… Read More
Carmakers continue to look at the future of transportation and invest in alternatives to individual ownership: Toyota is the latest to make a bet on a mobility model espoused by a startup, with an strategic investment in SF-based car sharing provider Getaround. Toyota’s investment also comes with integration with Getaround’s platform on the technology and finance side,… Read More
Microsoft revealed that partners including Asus, Dell, Lenovo and others are going to be building VR headsets for use with the Windows 10 creators update, and that these would start at $299, but we don’t know much beyond that about this third party-supported push into Windows VR. Microsoft told Polygon we’ll find out more in December, however, including possibly what a ranged lineup… Read More
Samsung continues its in-house startup incubator program, called “C-Lab,” which encourages employees to build their own business and spin them out as startups on occasion. Previous C-Lab standouts include the Welt, a smart belt with health tracking features, and a new crop of six C-Lab projects includes similarly out-there concepts. This batch includes Hum On!, a music app for… Read More
Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk wasn’t kidding when he said that the new Tesla solar roof product was better looking than an ordinary roof: the roofing replacement with solar energy gathering powers does indeed look great. It’s a far cry from the obvious and somewhat weird aftermarket panels you see applied to roofs after the fact today. The solar roofing comes in four distinct… Read More
