#166-Cruise goes driverless; Caterpillar ramps up AV tech; Ollie 2.0

Marc Hoag AI Law Pod (formerly Autonomous Cars with Marc Hoag)

Today: Cruise to start driverless testing in California; Caterpillar grows its AV division; Local Motors plans to test its new Ollie 2.0 in Toronto. All this… right now.

Driverless Cruise

I’ve been a big fan of GM’s Cruise (formerly Cruise Automation) pretty much since ever. But I didn’t agree with their announcement in 2019 that they would release to the world a true driverless car — sans steering wheel, mind — onto the chaotic streets of San Francisco by year’s end.

First, I said it was an unlikely goal to achieve, which of course they didn’t. Alternatively, even if they did achieve it… so what? What really matters is not so much the marketing hype of demonstrating to the world that you have an L5-capable vehicle, but rather that consumers are actually using it, like Waymo is doing in Arizona.

Now GM has become the fifth company in California to receive from the California Department of Motor Vehicles a driverless testing permit for their Cruise vehicle on the streets of California. But they still aren’t testing them; at least not yet. More to the point, I still say “so what” in the sense that it would be vastly cooler to get paying customers in their cars on limited roads across San Francisco.

Caterpillar’s Heavy Metal AV

While COVID-19 has obviously caused a bit of a slump in the real estate and construction sector, reflected by a sales dip in heavy metal machinery like Caterpillar’s tractors and earth movers, their AV division is seeing a marked up-tick. Have a listen to find out why.

Ollie 2.0

Local Motors has signed a deal to start testing its Ollie 2.0 autonomous shuttle pods on the streets of Toronto starting in Spring 2021. But with seating for up to 8 passengers, I question their viability during these times of COVID, and suggest that something like driverless car rides like Waymo and (eventually) Cruise are vastly more relevant immediate solution.