Latest news with #MOIA
Fox News
06-07-2025
- Automotive
- Fox News
Volkswagen's iconic cute van drives itself with 360-degree vision
You gotta give it to VW for nailing it with their adorable design that modernizes an icon. I'm still wondering about taking a ride without any driver behind the wheel of its latest innovation. The ID. Buzz autonomous van is Volkswagen's latest step toward making driverless transportation a real option for cities and companies. Instead of modifying existing cars, Volkswagen's mobility brand, MOIA, designed this van from scratch for fleet operations. As a result, public transit agencies and corporate mobility providers now have access to a clean, connected and scalable solution for autonomous travel. Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide — free when you join my To begin with, the ID. Buzz autonomous van features SAE Level 4 autonomy, which means it can manage all driving tasks without human input in certain scenarios. This is possible because of 27 advanced sensors, including 13 cameras, nine LiDAR units and five radars. Together, these provide a 360-degree view of the surroundings, enabling safe and accurate navigation. In addition, Volkswagen partnered with Mobileye to integrate trusted self-driving technology. MOIA's Autonomous Driving Mobility-as-a-Service (AD MaaS) platform supports the van by managing operations, passenger support and real-time logistics. Inside, riders will notice thoughtful features like a spacious cabin with four seats, a raised roof and luggage space where the front passenger seat usually goes. Passengers can also unlock the vehicle using smartphones and dedicated buttons for support and emergencies enhance convenience and safety. Unlike Tesla's Robotaxi, which focuses on individual ride-hailing, the ID. Buzz targets companies and public transit agencies. Therefore, you're more likely to see these vans used in fleets than in private ownership. This vehicle is part of a complete, turnkey solution that includes not just the van but also training, fleet management tools and real-time monitoring software. Because of this, cities and companies can launch autonomous mobility services quickly and confidently. MOIA is partnering with Hamburg as its first municipal client, and a deal with Uber will bring the ID. Buzz to Los Angeles in 2026. Pending regulatory approval, a broader rollout is expected across Europe and the U.S. that same year. Autonomous vehicles like the ID. Buzz can help solve major transit challenges. For example, they could address growing driver shortages and improve service in rural areas. With a flexible and scalable approach, Volkswagen is positioning itself as a key player in the autonomous mobility race. Ultimately, the goal is to bring safe, sustainable and accessible driverless travel to more people, whether in dense cities or underserved communities. There's a lot to admire in the Volkswagen ID. Buzz autonomous shuttle. Its blend of AI-driven technology, practical design and user-friendly features make it a strong contender for the future of urban mobility. In many ways, it's redefining what we expect from autonomous transportation. Would you feel confident stepping into the Volkswagen ID. Buzz autonomous shuttle and letting it handle the entire ride on its own? Let us know by writing to us at Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide — free when you join my Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
Forbes
01-07-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Uber's VW Robotaxi Makes Space For Cyclists And Pedestrians While Waymo And Tesla Lag
MOIA robotaxi on the streets of Hamburg. I've had a preview ride in Volkswagen's driverless ID Buzz electric minivan, which, later this year, Uber will use for a robotaxi ridepooling project in Los Angeles. Christian Senger, CEO of MOIA, VW's autonomous driving subsidiary, joined me for the journey which saw the robotaxi successfully making space for cyclists and pedestrians. MOIA's production autonomous vehicle (AV) was unveiled in Hamburg, Germany, on 18 June, and VW claims it will soon be the first AV to receive regulatory certification in the EU. The ID Buzz AD, upgraded with 27 sensors, has ample room for four passengers (the non-AV version carries seven). Senger was sitting up front next to safety driver Axel Hein in a seat that will become luggage space when Uber soon takes delivery of its fleet. 'Here we see a car blocking the lane,' says Senger as we pull to a stop behind a double-parked motorist. 'Our vehicle now decides if this is part of a traffic queue and to stay put or if it's a badly parked car that should be passed. There, it has already decided to overtake, and off we go again.' VW safety driver Axel Hein at the wheel of a MOIA robotaxi in Hamburg. Hein's hands hovered over the steering wheel, but there had been no cause for him to take control: the black and bronze minivan pulled out by itself, its sensor suite deciding in short order that it was good to go. Thirteen cameras, nine LiDARs, and five radars pump five gigabytes of data per second to MOIA's onboard autonomous driving (AD) software. At a crosswalk, the MOIA-logoed vehicle slowed and stopped for pedestrians and didn't slam to a halt when a cyclist darted through on the inside. Instead, the minivan nudged over to make room. A human driver might have been surprised by the cyclist's seemingly sudden manoeuver, but the minivan's Mobileye sensor and software package anticipated the move, no robotic bird-flipping required. 'She is violating [German] traffic law,' Springer says of the darting cyclist. 'It's not allowed to ride with a bicycle over a zebra crossing—but we allow for the mistakes of others.' A console displayed the status of nearby static and moving vehicles, with stick figures representing pedestrians and cyclists oscillating between red and green depending on their proximity to us. What if a child ran out from the sidewalk between parked cars a meter or two distant, the test that a cameras-only Tesla operating Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode appeared to flunk recently? 'The child would be safe,' asserts Senger. 'Our sensors see things earlier than a human. A minivan's roof is high, and we also have sensors down very low so we can see underneath and above vehicles in front and to all sides. We have trained the system to understand what is and isn't relevant in the environment. If a cat sprang out from beneath a car, we would stop for that in good time, too.' Simulation of VW Moia robotaxis operating in Los Angeles. Uber's version of MOIA's driverless minivan will have NFC keyless entry through a dedicated smartphone app, start-stop buttons for passenger emergency use, and plain plastic flooring for any taxi-style liquid spills or worse. And forget about leaving wallets, phones, or bags on the cream leather seats—cabin cameras linked to speakers will alert alighting passengers that their belongings ought not to be left behind. The internal cameras also police behavior. AI spots any shenanigans—Senger jokes that fights would be prevented between passengers supporting rival soccer teams thanks to MOIA's pre-crime algorithms. Volkswagen's autonomous mobility division has been working on robotaxis for ten years. The name is based on 'Maya,' the Sanskrit word for magic, and was inspired by the Arthur C Clarke quote, 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.' There's no crossbar on the 'A' at the end of the MOIA logo, and upside down, the 'M' and the 'A'—if you ignore the 'I' and the 'O'—spells VW. After discontinuing its troubled Cariad auto software system and pulling funding from its previous partner, Argo AI, VW signed with Intel-owned Mobileye four years ago. This partnership led to the rollout of a skunkworks version of a driverless ID Buzz for a small trial in Austin, Texas, in 2023. 'Leadership in robotaxis is about achieving the highest levels of safety with a technology package that can scale in volume, geography, and cost,' said a statement from Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua. Christian Senger, CEO of MOIA, VW's autonomous driving subsidiary. MOIA's Level 4 self-driving system—capable of speeds up to 130 kph—is enabled by four Mobileye EyeQ6H chips working with the company's REM AV mapping technology, which allows vehicles to adapt to any roads. 'We can even go on gravel roads,' says Senger. 'We are not using GPS,' he adds. 'GPS can be disturbed, as has been shown in recent geopolitics; we are more robust without it. Nor are we dependent on Google Maps or similar—it's our own map format.' In addition to MOIA, Uber also has North American AV partnerships with Waymo and Hyundai-linked robotaxi company Motional, and in the UAE, with WeRide. In a statement from earlier this year, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the Los Angeles trial with MOIA was a 'significant milestone in the advancement of autonomous mobility and highlights both Volkswagen's and Uber's shared dedication to building the future of transportation.' Unlike Uber's new Route Share service, which travels on fixed, bus-style routes with set pick-up and drop-off times, the ride-hailing operation with driverless ID Buzzes in Los Angeles will be a go-anywhere shared taxi service. The MOIA/Uber app would allow a woman traveling alone late at night to book a solo journey rather than ridepool. 'If you are a 17-year-old woman on the way home from clubbing at 1 o'clock in the morning, there will be an option [in the app] to book an exclusive ride,' soothes Senger. 'But at 7.30 in the morning, there's less risk, so a woman could choose to ridepool, knowing that there are cabin cameras monitoring for safety. If needs be, a remote operator can talk to passengers to check everything is OK. It's also easy to stop the ride in an emergency; if somebody is about to be sick, say.' Senger won't divulge how many miles MOIA's driverless vehicles go without human intervention. 'We measure with time, not distance,' he says before pointing at a cyclist ahead. 'He is cycling in the middle of the lane. We won't get any closer. Anyway, we're pulling in here because we've arrived at our first destination. We wouldn't have followed the cyclist closely. We will not do any crazy maneuvers; unlike many human drivers, we follow all traffic laws. If 50 kilometers an hour is allowed, but the cyclist is only doing 15, then the vehicle will pass only if there's enough distance not to bring any danger.' Back moving, we paused at a stop light ahead of a crosswalk and a right turn, frustrating the human motorist behind. 'We have green, but there's not enough room for us before the queue of cars ahead; a human driver might encroach on the crosswalk, but we won't.' The queue soon moved; we pulled ahead; the frustrated motorist behind hadn't been unduly delayed. 'We use the data of all this good behavior to convince authorities that we're smart and always stick to traffic regulations,' says Senger. 'We're good citizens.' MOIA's sensor suite recognizes the sirens and flashing lights of first responder vehicles but, for now, disengages to let the safety driver squeeze over to let them pass. 'We could add what to do in that sort of situation with a software update,' promises Senger, adding that the scenario has been robotically role-played on a private test track in Munich. 'There,' says Senger as we arrive back at the expo halls, 'we have driven through Hamburg fully autonomously.' Hein had little to do on our uneventful 36-minute journey. We had driven smoothly, successfully, and safely to and from the UITP Summit, a transit expo staged in Hamburg's exhibition halls and where MOIA had a booth. Many members of the transit industry believe they will have fully certified autonomous vehicles on the road, without safety drivers, before automakers. Way to go If recent incidents are anything to go by, there's still much room for improvement in robotaxi tech. A San Francisco-based cyclist is suing Waymo after she was seriously injured when one of the company's robotaxis stopped in a bike lane and a passenger opened a back door, hitting the cyclist and causing her to deflect into another Waymo car that was also illegally blocking the bike path. According to the lawsuit, the Safe Exit system employed by Waymo, which aims to alert passengers of surrounding dangers and hazards, failed. The injured cyclist claims that Waymo knows its cars are 'dooring' cyclists. Earlier this month the cyclist sued Waymo and Google's parent company Alphabet in San Francisco County Superior Court alleging battery, emotional distress, and negligence, while seeking unspecified damages. Wayme claims that its robotaxis recognize cyclists as 'unique users of the road,' drive conservatively around them, and recognise common hand signals. 'As technology moves forward, we believe it is crucial for all autonomous car companies to not move forward too quickly,' said a statement from Michael Stephenson, the cyclist's attorney. 'In the interest of public safety, they must make sure they are adequately testing and refining their technology before subjecting the public to these cars,' Stephenson added. In February 2024, a cyclist was injured in San Francisco after a Waymo robotaxi failed to detect his presence and struck him. 'The cyclist was occluded by the truck and quickly followed behind it, crossing into the Waymo vehicle's path," said a company statement. 'When they became fully visible, our vehicle applied heavy braking but was not able to avoid the collision.' Elon Musk's Tesla launched a rival robotaxi service this month in Austin, Texas, but the handful of vehicles are restricted to only certain areas of the city with geofencing, and the first journeys were with invited passengers only, including Tesla fans. The trial has not been without its problems, with many examples of poor autonomous decision made by the Tesla robotaxis highlighted by the well-funded Dawn Project. This organization is bankrolled by one of Musk's fiercest—and richest—critics who is doing his dollar-propelled darnedest to prick the belief bubble protecting Musk. Software billionaire Sam O'Dowd spends huge sums on TV ads and a PR campaign to highlight what he claims are the 'flaws' in Tesla's driverless FSD car tech. O'Dowd believes Musk's claims for FSD are fraudulent, with one of his personally-fronted TV ads asking whether Musk was guilty of running a 'trillion dollar Ponzi scheme.' If this anti-FSD campaign—which pre-dates the anti-Musk Tesla Takedown movement—works even a little it could lead to Musk's financial downfall, believes O'Dowd. Musk has previously admitted he's vulnerable on this front. '[My] overwhelming focus is on solving full self-driving,' Musk said during a June 2022 interview with three Tesla fanboys. 'It's really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money or worth basically zero.' O'Dowd, who made his fortune selling secure software for fighter jets and nuclear bombers, isn't a Tesla hater. He owns five Roadsters and four other Tesla cars, three of which are used as test vehicles by his anti-FSD campaign hosted on the Dawn Project website. 'The Roadster's fantastic,' he tells me from his Santa Barbara, California office. 'It's what I drive every day [and have done] for 15 years.' Nor is O'Dowd down on driverless cars in general. 'It's not that [autonomous driving] is impossible. Waymo made it work. Amazon has them; BYD in China has them—true self-driving cars [exist]. Tesla's [FSD] is nowhere close to [those technologies]. Elon Musk said recently [Tesla is] the leader in autonomy by far, [yet] the thing that its product is supposed to do—which is drive without anybody sitting in the driver's seat—[FSD] can't do.'
Forbes
27-06-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Advances In LiDAR And Radar Accelerate Driving Autonomy
17 June 2025, Hamburg: Anjes Tjarks (Alliance 90/The Greens), Hamburg's Senator for Transport and ... More Mobility Transition, speaks at the presentation of the autonomous "Volkswagen AD" in Hamburg's Hafencity. Volkswagen is presenting the series version of its autonomous electric van ID Buzz for the first time in Hamburg. Prototypes are already being tested on the streets of Hamburg by the ridesharing subsidiary "Moia", so far still with a safety driver on board. Photo: David Hammersen/dpa (Photo by David Hammersen/picture alliance via Getty Images) Volkswagen recently announced the launch of the L4 (Level 4 autonomy with no human driver in designated locations, times and driving conditions) AD microbus. The business model is to work with existing transportation and mobility companies (private and public), by providing the hardware (vehicle, sensors, compute) and autonomous driving software stack (including fleet management software). The first set of 500 vehicles is slated for delivery in 2026 to Uber for ride-hailing trials (with a human driver) in Los Angeles, Fully autonomous ride hailing is planned for 2027. The AD is currently offering ride share services In Hamburg, Germany, through MOIA, a 'technology company of the Volkswagen Group which develops on-demand ride-pooling services to redefine mobility for people in urban areas'. Volkswagen has attempted to enter the autonomous mobility market since 2020 with ambitious plans and $Bs in investments - both, internal (the CARIAD software division), and external (co-investment in Unfortunately, these were delayed or dissolved, led to board tensions and senior executive changes, and slowed the effort. This is similar to the experience at other OEMs like Ford and GM Cruise. Volkswagen is re-entering the space at a time when technology giants (Waymo-Alphabet, Zoox-Amazon and Tesla) are already significantly ahead. Even the Sam Altman-led OpenAI, (the company that started off as a non-profit venture and now also has a for-profit division) announced recently on a podcast that 'We have some new technology that could just do self-driving for standard cars' (see minute 6 of the podcast). So can a century old automaker (and other automakers) prevail in this market, dominated by technology companies? In Volkswagen's case: Valeo As a global, publicly listed (~$25B/year in revenues), Tier 1 supplier to automotive OEMs, Valeo supplies a wide range of products in electrification, driving assistance systems, interior cabin experience and lighting groups. Products include mechanical, electrical, sensing and electronic components, spanning from motors and lighting assemblies to ultrasonic, camera, radar and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). The SCALA™ series of LiDARs is one of these products, with the second generation (SCALA 2) version designed into the Mercedes S-Class (see Figure 1) to support its L3 autonomy (self driving under certain conditions with human driver ready to take over in 10 seconds) feature (Drive Pilot) at a maximum speed of 95 km/h (60 mph). SCALA 2 achieves a 80 m range for brick and tire debris size objects and 300,000 pps (points per second, a metric akin to resolution or pixels in a camera) in a ~ 600 cm³ volume with a square optical format. Figure 1: 05 May 2022, Berlin: Mercedes is the first manufacturer in Germany to start selling a ... More system for highly automated driving that can completely take control in gridlocked traffic on the autobahn. Photo: Carsten Koall/dpa (Photo by Carsten Koall/picture alliance via Getty Images) Valeo's next-generation version, the SCALA 3, uses a similar platform as the SCALA 2, but delivers significantly higher range (200m) and resolution (12.5M pps) performance in a ~1200 cm³ volume, with a 45 mm height and rectangular format, suitable for roof or behind-the-grill mounting, see Figure 2). Figure 2: SCALA 3 LiDAR (Left) and Point Cloud Image for Rooftop Mounted Version (Right) The higher performance of the SCALA 3 is expected to increase the allowable L3 speeds for the Drive Pilot to 130 km/h (80 mph). SCALA 3 is expected to start production in 2025, and has been selected by Stellantis (launch of Stella AutoDrive for L3 at initial speeds of 37 mph in 2026). It has also been selected by 3 other global OEMs to support L3 and L4 autonomy features. Per Antoine Claudepierre, V.P of LiDAR Business Development, one of these is a leading Asia-based automotive OEM (to start production in 2026 for L3 vehicle). Valeo has previously supplied LiDAR for Honda's L3 efforts. On the imaging radar front, Valeo announced a design win with a leading European OEM, with production slated for 2028. The goal is to increase allowable speeds for unsupervised Highway Pilot to 130 km/h. Apart from the imaging radar, the sensor suite will also use a LiDAR (supplier evaluation ongoing). Given the discussion above, its seems likely that this is for the Mercedes Drive Pilot. As a Tier 1 supplier, Valeo has collaborated with Mobileye since 2015 on front-facing cameras and other driver assist solutions. In September 2023, the companies announced a collaboration to industrialize imaging radar for autonomy where 'automakers gain access to the latest cutting edge technology from Mobileye that they can trust will exceed industry expectations as we have proven before, while benefiting from the customization, industrialization, testing and support capabilities brought by Valeo'. The two companies have also collaborated on delivering ADAS features to OEMs like Volkswagen, with Valeo as the Tier 1 and Mobileye as the Tier 2 supplier. Mobileye has been developing its imaging radar (Mobileye Imaging Radar™) since 2018 and separately announced a design win with a major OEM for L3 capability (at or > 130 km/hr) to launch in 2028 (Mercedes again??). More on this later in the Mobileye section. Innoviz Technologies Innoviz has been chosen as the LIDAR supplier for L4 autonomous driving in the Volkswagen microbus. With launch of this capability planned for 2026 in select cities like Los Angeles and Hamburg, Innvoiz is currently ramping up production of its InnovizTwo short and long range LiDARs. Each will use a total of nine InnovizTwo LiDARs (6 short and 3 long range). Innoviz uses 905 nm SPAD (Single Photon Avalanche Diodes) based detectors and edge emitting laser arrays, along with MEMs (Micro Electro Mechanical) mirror scanners in the InnovizTwo LiDAR family. The InnovizTwo short range LiDAR has a range of 100 m and a high vertical Field of View (FoV) of up to 90°. The long range version has a range of 300 m, a 120°x43° maximum FOV, minimum angular resolution of 0.05°x0.05°, 20 Hz frame rate and a physical volume of 825 cm³. Figure 3 shows the InnovizTwo, and point clouds at short and long range: Figure 3: InnovizTwo (Left), Point Cloud at Short Range (Middle), Point Cloud at Long Range (Right) InnovizTwo is also resilient to optical path obscurations (mud, rain, insect splatter), a critical requirement for autonomous operation. Per Mr. Kielaf, having such capabilities in an L4 vehicle (no human driver) is an absolute requirement since loss of perception at high speeds can be lethal. The optical design of the InnovizTwo LiDAR ensures redundancy in the optical path for the transmit and receive path for each pixel. As an example if the window is 25% covered, no single pixel will be 'dead' and some pixels will lose about 7% of the range performance. Innoviz was selected by Audi (a Volkswagen brand) to deliver LiDAR as a Tier 1 supplier in 2023. Achieving this designation has many benefits - direct relationships with the OEM, transparency and integration smoothness, visibility into other program opportunities, direct performance and product feedback, higher profit margins and credibility for other OEMs. But it has its own challenges as well - intensive audits on multiple fronts - manufacturing, costs, quality and production strategy. Innoviz has a manufacturing facility in Israel. However, it is not automotive-certified, and achieving this takes time and investments. Innoviz announced a partnership with Fabrinet, a publicly listed contract manufacturer with automotive grade certification, and a specialist in high volume manufacturing of precision opto-mechanical-electrical products. Its factories in Thailand can scale manufacturing to automotive volumes and quality as demand grows. This positions Innoviz to deliver as a Tier 1 supplier to the Volkswagen L4 program as it scales up. Apart from the Volkswagen and Audi selection, Innoviz is also the preferred LiDAR supplier to Mobileye for their different autonomy applications. The company also announced recently that 'it has signed a Statement of Development Work (SoDW) agreement with a Top 5 passenger automotive manufacturer. Through this SoDW, Innoviz will supply advanced LiDAR units for the OEM's L3 highly automated series-production program with target SOP of 2027'. Mercedes Again?? According to Omer Kielaf, CEO of Innoviz, the company's success in getting designed into major OEM platforms 'are our history of deep working relationships, disciplined project management, investing in becoming a Tier 1 designated supplier, the cost-performance-durability-size of the InnovizTwo LiDAR, and the ability for customers to source short and long range lidars from the same supplier'. Mobileye One of the biggest success stories of high tech from Israel in the last decade, Mobileye is today a Nasdaq listed company (occurred in 2022 after its spin-off from Intel which had acquired the company earlier). With a market capitalization of ~$15B and revenues of $1.8B/year, it is easily the leading player in the pure play autonomy landscape. Its customers include 50 automotive OEMs who use their ADAS-based solutions (cameras, chips, software) across 1200 car models and 190M cars. The goal is to support ADAS, L2, L3 and L4 capabilities through a combination of semiconductor chips, crowdsourced data from its mounted camera units, sensor integration (internal and external) and AI based software for path planning and drive policy. These products are listed below: Mobileye had a development program for a proprietary 1320 nm FMCW (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) which it presented at CES 2023. In late 2024, it discontinued this effort claiming that this development was less essential to its future efforts, and 'that the availability of next-generation FMCW lidar is less essential to our roadmap for eyes-off systems'. It cited as reasons the progress on its EyeQ6-based computer vision perception, performance of its imaging radar, and better-than-expected cost reductions in third-party time-of-flight (ToF) LiDAR units. The Mobileye Imaging Radar™ draws on IP during its tenure within Intel. Mobileye believes that its imaging radar is a perfect complement to cameras, especially in bad weather and will play a big role in compensating for loss of LiDAR and camera sensitivity. The core of the radar is the proprietary design of radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFIC), embedded in a unique architecture where the entire radar signal is sampled and digitally processed by a dedicated proprietary processor. It has 1500 channels (virtual antennas), 20 Hz frame rate, 100 dB dynamic range and an angular resolution of 0.5°. The resolution is twice that of other imaging radars on the market enabling small object hazard detection, segmentation and identification at 130 m range (at speeds of 130 km/hr, presumably for L3 or L4, this is an OEM requirement). Larger objects like pedestrians and traffic poles can be detected at a 300 m range. Costs are expected to be in the $100 range. At short range, a combination of these radars can address a 360° FoV. In essence, this radar delivers essentially the same type of 3D point cloud and axial velocity information as a FMCW LiDAR, but at 100X lower angular resolution. It can detect most objects and their axial velocities, but not identify or classify them. The big advantage of course, is that performance is not degraded in bad weather and it costs 5-10X lower than a LiDAR. It is also more compact and can be gracefully designed into the vehicle body. Figure 4 shows a point cloud generated by the imaging radar. Figure 4: Point Cloud (dots) Superimposed on a Camera Image from Mobileye Imaging Radar. Colored ... More Dots Represent x-y-z Position. Doppler Velocity for Each Point is Also Provided. According to Dan Galves, Chief Communications Officer, 'Our imaging radars were designed as a key technology pillar to enable high-precision hands-off, eyes-off driving in both robotaxis and privately-owned vehicles, with a cost that supports scale. By adding a perception layer based on imaging radars, fully independent of cameras and LiDAR, Mobileye delivers a scalable, safe and cost-efficient solution to support the global deployments of consumer AVs and robotaxis - no matter where they drive.' Automotive OEMs are entering the autonomous car revolution once again. The challenge for them is not the technology - that exists. It is to find business models that unleash meaningful revenues and profits demanded by their shareholders (unlike the tech giants who have massive profits on their core business, and autonomous driving is just another BET). On the L3 front, it is a feature they can sell to consumers by the millions, and at reasonable cost and profits. Leveraging this into L4 capability for autonomous ride-hailing services will require competing aggressively with technology giants already deep in the game. It will be interesting to see how this war unfolds.
Indian Express
26-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Cyber scammers dupe Pimpri-Chinchwad-based software engineer of Rs 48 lakh in online share trading fraud, FIR lodged
Cyber scammers duped a Pimpri-Chinchwad-based software engineer to the tune of Rs 48 lakh in an online share trading fraud. The victim, 38, a resident of Pimple Gurav, lodged the first information report (FIR) in this case at the Sangvi police station in Pimpri Chinchwad on Wednesday. The police have booked one fraudster identifying herself as 'Aanya Smith' and others, including holders of the fraudulent bank accounts in which the complainant's money was transferred, under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 318(4), 316(2), and 2(34), and sections of the Information Technology Act. They said the cyber fraudsters contacted the complainant over WhatsApp last year, assuring him huge returns on investment in the share trading business. As per a press release issued by the police on Thursday, the accused, Aanya Smith, added the complainant to a WhatsApp group named 'Motilal Oswal Wealth Management D555'. He was further asked to download the fraudulent app 'MOIA' on his cell phone and transfer money into certain bank accounts as an investment in share trading. The police said that after the complainant transferred money, the fraudsters sent him 'screenshots' showing his profits, on the WhatsApp group. Also, the MOIA App was showing him huge gains against his investments. Between August 2024 and October 2024, the complainant transferred Rs 48,38,824 into multiple bank accounts as per instructions of the fraudsters. The MOIA App in his cell phone was showing him a profit of Rs 1,31,43,356. But when he tried to withdraw this money, he learnt that the MOIA was a fraudulent application showing him fake profits. The victim, thereafter, filed a complaint with the Pimpri Chinchwad police.
Malay Mail
22-06-2025
- Automotive
- Malay Mail
Volkswagen challenges Waymo with launch of electric ID. Buzz autonomous robotaxi fleet in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES, June 22 — Volkswagen, through its subsidiary MOIA, is preparing to roll out its first ID. Buzz AD autonomous vehicles in Los Angeles in 2026, in collaboration with Uber. This initiative is part of a strategic partnership with the goal of deploying several thousand electric robotaxis in the United States over the next 10 years. MOIA is a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group that focuses on developing shared transportation services, particularly on-demand shuttles. It has announced the upcoming launch of a robotaxi service consisting of a fleet of ID. Buzz AD vehicles. The ID. Buzz AD is an electric van equipped with Mobileye technology, which includes cameras, radars and LiDAR sensors. The vehicle thus has precise 360-degree vision for up to 400 meters. Volkswagen promises level 4 autonomous driving capabilities, meaning that no human intervention is required. The first vehicles are set to enter the testing phase in Los Angeles at the end of 2025, with at least one safety operator on board. A commercial launch is planned for 2026. A roll-out in Europe is also planned, probably in Germany to start with. With the goal of deploying thousands of robotaxis in major US cities, Volkswagen is stepping on Waymo's toes, taking advantage of legislation favourable to the commercial operation of fully autonomous fleets. Waymo currently operates around 1,500 autonomous taxis in the United States, spread across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin. The company plans to add 2,000 more by the end of 2026, notably by expanding its service to cities such as Atlanta, Miami and New York. — ETX Studio
