Vehicles hired through Fetch are piloted to the customer by an operator at a remote location, though customers will still have to manually drive them for the duration of their rentals.

A new car rental service has launched in the UK that aims to deliver vehicles directly to customers without a driver inside. Instead of relying on autonomous driving technology, Fetch — a service launched by British startup Imperium Drive — remotely pilots its fleet of electric cars from the comfort of the company’s head office, providing a ‘driverless vehicle’ experience with the added safety of technically still having a human driver in control.

Honda has unveiled the EM1 e: e-scooter in Europe. Announced last September, the new model will be the first two-wheeled EV from the brand to launch on the continent. The EM1, or Electric Moped 1, has a three-phase brushless in-wheel motor with 0.58 kW typical and 1.7 kW peak power. The engine has a top speed of 45 kph (~28 mph) and delivers up to 90 Nm of torque.

The EM1 e: uses the removable 50V Honda Mobile Power Pack e: providing up to 41.3 km (~25.7 miles) typical range or 48 km (~30 miles) range in ECON mode. The battery can be recharged up to 2,500 times, with a 2.7-hour charge taking the battery from 25 to 75%; a full recharge takes around six hours. LED lights indicate the battery charge level, and the scooter consumes 47 Wh/km (~76 Wh/mile). A digital dash shows information such as the remaining battery, and you can recharge your phone via a USB-A port.

Fan is gleeful about video of beta Full Self-Driving mode breaking traffic laws.

Tesla released a new version of its controversial “Full Self-Driving Beta” software last month. Among the updates in version 11.4 are new algorithms determining the car’s behavior around pedestrians. But alarmingly, a video posted to Twitter over the weekend shows that although the Tesla system can see pedestrians crossing the road, a Tesla can choose not to stop or even slow down as it drives past.

The video was posted by the Whole Mars Catalog account, a high-profile pro-Tesla account with more than 300,000 followers. The tweet, which has been viewed 1.7 million times, featured a five-second video clip with the accompanying text …

中国CATL（寧徳時代新能源科技）は2023年4月16日23時15分（現地時間）、同社のナトリウムイオン2次電池（NIB）が、中国の自動車メーカーChery Automobile（奇瑞汽車）の電気自動車（EV）に採用されたとツイッターで公表した（図）。NIBが量産車に搭載されるという発表は世界で初めて。今後、多数のEVや定置用蓄電池などにNIBが使われる見込みで、これまでリチウムイオン2次電池（LIB）が担ってきた大容量蓄電池の市場の一角をNIBが占めることになりそうだ。

奇瑞汽車は1997年に、安徽省と同省蕪湖市政府が出資して設立された、ある意味、“公立”の自動車メーカー。現時点では、上海汽車などいわゆる「ビッグ5」の一角を占めるまでに成長した。

国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所（以下「産総研」という）情報・人間工学領域 デジタルアーキテクチャ研究センター加藤晋首席研究員は、福井県吉田郡永平寺町で実証実験を実施している遠隔型自動運転システムによる無人自動運転移動サービスの車両を高度化し、遠隔監視のみのレベル4の自動運行装置を備えた車両として、国内で初めて、2023年3月30日に認可※を受けました。

産総研は、遠隔監視・操作型の自動運行装置を備えたレベル3の車両について、2021年3月5日に国内初の認可を受け、当該車両を用いて、永平寺町が2021年3月25日より本格運行を開始していました（2021年3月23日お知らせ）。

産総研は、経済産業省および国土交通省の令和4年度「無人自動運転等のCASE対応に向けた実証・支援事業（自動運転レベル4等先進モビリティサービス研究開発・社会実証プロジェクト …

Reporting by Daniel Leussink and Gilles Guillaume; Additional reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim, Shounak Dasgupta and Christina Fincher …

“This concept we’re proposing for traffic intersections, which we call a ‘white phase,’ taps into the computing power of autonomous vehicles (AVs) themselves,” says Ali Hajbabaie, corresponding author of the paper and an associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State. “The white phase concept also incorporates a new traffic signal, so that human drivers know what they are supposed to do. Red lights will still mean stop. Green lights will still mean go. And white lights will tell human drivers to simply follow the car in front of them.” …

Domenick Nati told Insider that he plugged his electric car into a supercharger on Friday when it was 19 degrees outside. The car’s battery level was at 40% at the time.

“Two hours went by and not much changed,” Nati told the outlet. “It was very slow and the numbers got lower as the temperature dropped. Eventually, it stopped charging altogether.”

Nati said he tried charging the car at home, but having no luck there he went to another supercharger Saturday afternoon.

The launch marks the electric carmaker’s first foray into the trucking business as U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is set to offer a generous $40,000 tax credit for clean commercial vehicles.

At the unveiling event in Tesla’s battery factory in Nevada, analysts will look for details such as pricing, how much freight the Semi can carry, and its charging speed.

Waymo can now provide driverless rides to passengers in San Francisco. On Friday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said it granted the Alphabet-owned Waymo a permit to participate in its driverless pilot program, which lets autonomous vehicle (AV) companies transport passengers in test AVs without anyone at the wheel.

Waymo still isn’t allowed to charge for these rides, though. The state of California requires companies to obtain a series of incremental permits from both the CPUC and the Department of Motor Vehicles before they’re able to charge for driverless rides. Waymo just needs to secure the driverless deployment permit from the CPUC to fully launch its robotaxi service, as it already received clearance from the DMV to charge for driverless rides earlier this week.

The federal government released two new reports highlighting — for the first time — crashes and fatalities involving autonomous vehicles (AV) and vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS). Tesla reported the most crashes involving driver-assist technology, while Alphabet’s Waymo disclosed the most incidents involving its autonomous vehicles.

Car and tech companies insist these technologies save lives, but more people died in auto crashes last year than in the last three decades. More data is needed to accurately determine whether these new systems are making roads safer or simply making driving more convenient.