Would it make sense for Tesla to buy Lyft?

This morning, after hearing about Tesla’s “big announcement” coming this afternoon, I speculated on Twitter that maybe the electric vehicle iconoclast was looking to buy ride-share firm Lyft.

It would definitely be a “new product” for them. But I was wrong, mea culpa.

Turns out it’s a new battery pack, a longer range, and a new “ludicrous” mode that will allow Teslas to be the fastest production cars on the road. All noble things, and worthy of announcing, if not necessarily worth building up so much beforehand.

But…what if?

Lyft has reportedly spurned a bid from current partner GM a week ago. GM plans to rolls out their new electric Bolt via Lyft as part of this partnership, and Tesla’s Model 3 competes with the Bolt.

Since that news, rumors have also emerged that Lyft had also reached out to Apple, Google, Amazon and competitors Uber and Didi to discuss a sale.

Uber founder Travis Kalanick told his investors that Lyft wasn’t worth more than $2 billon, despite having a reported $1.4 billion cash in the bank.

Lyft slapped him and said they really didn’t want to go to the M&A prom anyway because they’re washing their hair that night. Recode reported that everyone has a price, and even with a valuation estimated at $5 to 6 billion, Lyft’s was reportedly $9 billion.

Kalanick also said he didn’t want the anti-trust issues that would ensue, but it’s not entirely clear if the two money-losing unicorns mating publicly like this would warrant federal scrutiny.

“(A merger) could take the pressure off margins for the combined company,” one fund manager who follows next-generation auto tech told ReadWrite. “But then it really just looks like a cab company with an app. We have those already. There’s no real monopoly, in most markets, in their core business today that would damage average buyers’ power.”

So if Lyft’s looking for an exit, Tesla may be the sign on that door.

It’s hardware versus software…again

The intersection of several trends and technologies may soon provide the place for Tesla and Lyft to collide.

Electric vehicle growth will likely be spurred by autonomous vehicle development, and carmakers from Volvo to Ford to Musk himself are now counting the time until a fully autonomous car hits the road in months, not years.

Add to that a sharing economy increasingly treating car ownership as a commodity and not status symbol, and it could become a challenging time to sell $135,000 electric cars no matter how awesome. And they are, without a doubt, awesome.

And it’s an interesting time for the entire “next-generation” auto industry as a whole, as it becomes clear that humans will not be behind the wheel in the future, or even if there will be a wheel in the future.

While this may seem mind-blowing to most car owners today, it’s just a new chapter in the Silicon Valley story of “Hardware vs. Software.”

In this corner, Team Hardware. It’s made up of virtually automaker on the planet, including Tesla, as well as car parts makers, agricultural and construction equipment companies, trucking firms, and ship builders. They’re looking for what happens next, and all roadsigns point towards “metal-as-a-service.”

Whether it’s an entire vehicle or just some of its components, the decades-old relationship with buyers for these huge brands is being unpacked by the new sharing economy audience and broken down into the basket of services that their products actually provide.

Think of all of the advertising you’ve watched over the years from carmakers. Now, the attachment to the idea of owning a certain type of car, or a certain brand of equipment, starts to look gauzier by the day.

In the other corner, Team Software. That includes the ride-hailing giants like Uber and Didi, flush with cash but concerned everyone will figure out “oh, it’s just a cab company, kind of.” Add in Google, Baidu, retailers like Amazon, and shippers like FedEx — who’ve always looked at their fleets as dots on a global last-mile logistics planning map.

Those deliveries don’t happen without wings, wheels or hands. Or possibly, whatever appendages drones will use.

An integrated delivery ecosystem, whether it delivers a person or package, is their end game. If that means a new dimension in fleet management, so be it.

Add to that all of the safety concerns, regulatory needs and data infrastructure issues, and it’ll be a wild time take a ride — or even cross a street  — in the coming years.

Mark your calendars: 2021 will be huge for autonomous cars

Ford revealed on Tuesday its intention to launch a fully autonomous car in 2021. Speaking at Ford’s research lab in Palo Alto, California, CEO Mark Fields said the company plans to launch a “level four vehicle, which means it won’t have a steering wheel, gas or brake pedal.”

It is the first public statement from Ford on a fully autonomous car — but rivals like BMW, General Motors, and Audi  all want to have a commercial driverless vehicle available a year earlier, by 2020.

And rumors are that while Tesla’s Elon Musk promised full autonomy by 2018, his firm’s latest update of their AutoPilot system will provide full autonomy in months.

In a Bloomberg interview, which we quoted above, Fields mentions a ride-hailing (or ride-sharing) app that the company plans to launch in major cities. Fields didn’t disclose the app’s business model or its launch date at the event.

From what we can gather, Ford will deploy thousands of autonomous cars, but also sell the car to customers. Fields did not say if the price of the car would be more than the average vehicle, though some expect the autonomous features to come in a more expensive package.

Ford also didn’t mention any major partnerships with Google, suggesting that the automotive giant wants to go it alone. It has made four strategic investments in startups, which includes$75 million to Velodyne LiDAR.

All automakers ramping up efforts

Fields also revealed before the announcement that Ford intends to double the size of its Silicon Valley research lab, to 280 employees.

Ford hasn’t made as much noise as its rival General Motors, which acquired Cruise Automation for $1 billion and invested $500 million into ride-sharing app Lyft. GM also reportedly offered to acquire Lyft, according to The Information, but Lyft rejected the offer.

That lack of noise may be troubling for investors that want to see Ford compete heavily in the market, though it could also play into the company’s favor if GM ends up writing off the Cruise Automation acquisition and losing market share to self-driving competion,

Mark your calendars: 2021 will be huge for autonomous cars

Ford revealed on Tuesday its intention to launch a fully autonomous car in 2021. Speaking at Ford’s research lab in Palo Alto, California, CEO Mark Fields said the company plans to launch a “level four vehicle, which means it won’t have a steering wheel, gas or brake pedal.”

It is the first public statement from Ford on a fully autonomous car — but rivals like BMW, General Motors, and Audi  all want to have a commercial driverless vehicle available a year earlier, by 2020.

And rumors are that while Tesla’s Elon Musk promised full autonomy by 2018, his firm’s latest update of their AutoPilot system will provide full autonomy in months.

In a Bloomberg interview, which we quoted above, Fields mentions a ride-hailing (or ride-sharing) app that the company plans to launch in major cities. Fields didn’t disclose the app’s business model or its launch date at the event.

From what we can gather, Ford will deploy thousands of autonomous cars, but also sell the car to customers. Fields did not say if the price of the car would be more than the average vehicle, though some expect the autonomous features to come in a more expensive package.

Ford also didn’t mention any major partnerships with Google, suggesting that the automotive giant wants to go it alone. It has made four strategic investments in startups, which includes$75 million to Velodyne LiDAR.

All automakers ramping up efforts

Fields also revealed before the announcement that Ford intends to double the size of its Silicon Valley research lab, to 280 employees.

Ford hasn’t made as much noise as its rival General Motors, which acquired Cruise Automation for $1 billion and invested $500 million into ride-sharing app Lyft. GM also reportedly offered to acquire Lyft, according to The Information, but Lyft rejected the offer.

That lack of noise may be troubling for investors that want to see Ford compete heavily in the market, though it could also play into the company’s favor if GM ends up writing off the Cruise Automation acquisition and losing market share to self-driving competitors.

China driver notches second Tesla Autopilot crash

33-year-old Luo Zhen was driving to work on one of Beijing’s busy highways in his Tesla Model S. Like many Tesla drivers, Zhen activated autopilot mode as he often did during his commute.

Unfortunately for Zhen, Tesla’s self-driving system failed to prevent a collision with a stalled vehicle which had been pulled over to the side of the road, partially in his lane.

The result was a side-swipe causing moderate damage to each vehicle, the majority of which were scrapes and scratches. No one was injured. The entire collision was captured on Luo Zhen’s dash-mounted camera.

According to Tesla, Zhen’s hands were not detected on the steering wheel at the time of the accident. Tesla maintains that it requires drivers’ hands to remain on the steering wheel while using the Autosteer feature, which remains in beta. There is even a system in place that if a driver’s hands are not detected on the wheel after a given period of time, an audio alert will remind the driver to do so, and continued absence of the driver’s hands results in the vehicle pulling over and coming to a stop.

Tesla can be “self-driving”…but not really

Zhen, however, told the media that the dealers he purchased the vehicle from demonstrated that the vehicle could be driven without hands on the wheel. He went on to explain that the dealers described the vehicle as “self-driving,” a term that Tesla does not use in its English advertising or sales material.

This incident comes just months after the first reported case of a fatal collision occurring involving a 2015 Model S Tesla with Autopilot engaged. After some review, Tesla went on to state a failed braking system was at fault, rather than its Autopilot feature.

The legal and regulatory issues surrounding autonomous and self-driving vehicles are vast. Here in the United States, local, state, and federal bodies are scrambling to create and pass legislation that focuses on this emerging technology. Self-driving cars are legal in some areas of the country, and remain unlawful in others. Auto makers and other industry bodies are creating new legal teams focused on navigating through these rapidly changing legal waters, as well.

With accidents like these making headlines, it’s easy to forget just how infrequent these incidents are, and that in many cases, autonomous vehicles have proven as (or even more) safe as those operated by human beings.

Connected cars need to play well with smart cities

As autonomous vehicles and smart city investments continue their blistering growth, experts say it’s vital that these two connected juggernauts work in better synchronicity.

An article by IT Online discusses recent findings by the International Data Corporation (IDC) its report “Collaboration Between Automotive OEMs and City Leaders for Implementing Connected Car and Smart City Solutions.”

In the report IDC looked at the interplay between these two massively transformational technologies which are generating huge levels of investment.

Global spending on autonomous cars will reach $29.6 billion by 2017, while governments around the world plan to spend $16.5 billion on intelligent transportation systems in the same timeframe.

IDC says that private-sector leaders of connected car technology must better collaborate with state and local governments to develop further advancements in urban environments.

Specifically, IDC says these two factions must work together on developing solutions for such issues as urban congestion, environmental impacts, street safety, better vehicle design and more value-added services for citizens.

“Connected cars have reached critical mass, and their interaction with the transportation infrastructure within Smart Cities is ongoing,” said IDC report authors Heather Ashton and Ruthbea Yesner Clarke.

“Automotive OEMs and smart city leaders will need to work closely to ensure the continued development of, and support for, connected car capabilities and services such as vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications that will increasingly include autonomous operations.”

But are smart cities projects tackling real problems?

IDC’s recommendations come amid reports that predict that annual revenues from smart city projects will grow to nearly $89 billion by 2025. Despite this spending most smart city initiatives, include smart transportation projects, are focusing on solving peripheral issues, with few big projects tackling core city problems.

Meanwhile, connected car technology is witnessing a global race between technology giants like Tesla, Google and traditional auto manufacturers to develop the category killing robot vehicle. Yet these proponents of autonomous vehicles are focusing more on the technical self-sufficiency of their cars in urban environments, and less on how they integrate into the larger fabric of the reconfigured smart city of the future.

Autopilot in Tesla Model X helps driver get safely to a hospital

A Missouri man might not have made it safely to the hospital without the aid of his Tesla Model X’s self-driving features (via Slate). Joshua Neally, the 37-year old Model X owner, was on the way home from his law firm after work when he was struck by a pulmonary embolism. Neally allowed the Autopilot system to take over for 20 miles of highway driving, which brought the vehicle and its driver to an off-ramp close to a hospital, where he was able to finish the trip.

Tesla’s Autopilot system may be under scrutiny after an accident in Florida earlier this year resulted in a driver death, but this is an example of where it definitely helped the operator of the vehicle. The obvious question that comes to mind is whether it would’ve been safer on the whole for Neally to pull over and call an ambulance instead of relying on his own car’s self-driving features, since Neally admits he didn’t “remember much of the drive” after his embolism began.

But whether or not Neally made the right call in continuing to drive himself, it proves the importance and necessity of offering safety features like Autopilot: In clutch situations like a medical emergency where we feel like our life is on the line, very few people can be relied upon to make the sane, logical and most conscientious choice about our actions.

Neally told Branson local NBC affiliate KY3 that he “just knew [he] had to get [to the ER]” once he began feeling the symptoms of the pulmonary embolism – in other words, he was essentially panicking and his instinct kicked in, convincing his brain the best course of action was to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.

Continuing to drive while under extreme physical duress might not have been the best choice, but it was the human one, and that’s what makes Autopilot’s role in getting Neally to the hospital in one piece so poignant. Plus, the fact that Neally had a choice at all is a chance outcome of the severity of the embolism: If it had been something more severe, and he wasn’t able physically to continue driving or make a decision, Autopilot would’ve engaged its failsafe mode, which decelerates the vehicle, turns on the four-way hazard lights and slowly moves the car to the roadside.

You can argue about whether or not a driver in this situation is more or less likely to continue driving rather than pull over and call an ambulance since the system is present to begin with, but you can also debate whether allowing Autopilot to drive was more or less safe than other options. What you can’t argue is that people will always make the most rational and informed decision when their life feels immediately threatened, and that’s where autonomous technologies stand to make the most impact.

Tesla misses Q2 earnings, delivers 14,402 vehicles

Tesla news has been dominating Silicon Valley over the last few weeks and today’s earnings report released after the close of the market hasn’t shaken fundamental views about the company.

The energy company born out of an automobile company reported non-GAAP Q2 revenue of $1.56 billion up from last year’s Q2 revenue of $1.2 billion. The company came close but ultimately missed analyst estimates of $1.6 billion.

Tesla closed down 0.62 percent today at $225.79. After the news was released, Tesla shares moved up almost instantly in after-hours trading after the news dropped but have been fluctuating up and down by 2 percent since.

Wall Street analysts expected an adjusted net loss of $52 cents a share but found themselves with a worse than expected loss of $1.06 per share.

Tesla delivered 14,402 new vehicles consisting of 9,764 Model S and 4,638 Model X in Q2, slightly ahead of last month’s estimates.

Tesla had originally aimed to deliver 80,000 vehicles by the end of the year. It is growing tougher by the day for the company to hit that goal. On the bright side, the company noted that almost half of Q2 production occurred in the final four weeks of the quarter.

Investors have expressed angst as Tesla has moved forward on plans to acquire SolarCity and pivot into a vertically integrated energy and transportation company.

Tesla fatality can’t dissuade NHTSA from self-driving upside

Despite a fatal crash setback for the self-driving car industry, the leading U.S. car safety regulator said it is standing behind autonomous vehicles.

Automotive News reported on a conference with Mark Rosekind, chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. During the conference Rosekind indicated that the U.S. government would not pull back its support for research and development into self-driving cars.

Rosekind’s comments come after it was revealed that a Tesla S-model car was involved in a fatal crash this may. At the time of the Florida accident, the car was using autopilot software which is designed to take over driving of the car so that the driver can take their hands off the steering wheel for periods of time.

NHTSA opened a formal investigation into the crash of the Model S, though the government chose to say little on the ongoing Tesla probe.

“No one incident will derail the Department of Transportation and NHTSA from its mission to improve safety on the roads by pursuing new lifesaving technologies,” said Rosekind.

NHTSA wants to know what accidents have been avoided

He continued by saying that his agency still sees a strong future for self-driving car technology, which has the potential to reduce 94% of vehicle accidents caused by human error.

The NHTSA previously said it was releasing safety guidelines for self-driving cars by July 14. However, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx changed the timeline by saying that these won’t be released until “late summer.” The guidelines being developed by NHTSA were to stipulate conditions for the deployment of autonomous vehicles and how they are to behave under various conditions.

Rosekind said that the agency would ensure that autonomous autos would be “much safer” than human pilots before they are allowed to tear around U.S. highways. However, he chose not to quantify how much safer they must be before the threshold is crossed and self-driving cars get the green light.

“If we wait for perfect, we’ll be waiting for a very, very long time,” said Rosekind. “How many lives might we be losing while we wait?”

The comments by government officials come amid concerns that the fragmentation of the U.S. regulatory environment for self-driving car testing and deployment is putting America at a disadvantage compared to nimbler governments around the globe.

Weekly Roundup: Verizon buys Yahoo, WikiLeaks publishes DNC emails and Skully crashes

Yahoo finally found a buyer, Mobileye and Tesla broke up, and some of the largest tech companies reported quarterly earnings. These are the biggest tech stories of the week. You can now get the Weekly Roundup sent straight to your inbox, delivered Saturday mornings.

1. Verizon (which owns AOL, which owns TechCrunch) announced it is acquiring Yahoo’s core business for $4.83 billion in cash. This includes Yahoo’s advertising, content, search and mobile activities. It’s crazy to think that in 2000, Yahoo was worth a whopping $125 billion. If you won the last computing platform and are on the cusp of the next one you’re not built for, you might want to sell your company. It’s easier to pivot than make a comeback, after all.

2. Major tech companies reported earnings this week, and the highlights are as follows.Facebook smashed its Q2 earnings, hitting 1.7 billion users and a record share price. Apple’s stock jumped 7% after the company reported solid earnings. Verizon missed on declining sales of $30.5 billion. Twitter stock dove after a mixed report, and poor user growth continued. GoPro sales beat investor expectations but are still in steep decline. Alphabet beat expectations, boosting its shares by 5%. Amazon shattered expectations with $30.4 billion in revenue.

3. Once promising AR motorcycle helmet startup Skully is no longer. We discovered that the company’s shutdown will leave several vendors and Skully’s manufacturer Flextronics with unpaid bills and at least 50 full-time employees out of a job. It’s unclear if any of the vendors will be paid.

4. Oracle made a $9.3 billion acquisition of cloud services company NetSuite. It’s clear now that Oracle is serious about growing cloud computing revenue, but this wasn’t always the case.

5. WikiLeaks published a searchable database of 19,252 DNC-related emails packed with personal and financial information. Following the leak, Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced she will be stepping down from her role as the head of the Democratic National Committee after the end of the event.

6. Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump participated in a Reddit AMA, managing to answer 13 questions on topics ranging from NASA to media bias. In a separate facepalm-inducing moment, Trump invited Russia (yes, the entire country of Russia) to hack into Hillary Clinton’s inbox and release “the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.” Yikes.

7. During their earnings call, MobileEye announced that it will no longer provide Tesla with its self-driving automotive tech beyond EyeQ3, the processor currently used in Tesla vehicles. It is unclear whether Tesla or Mobileye ended the relationship, but Mobileye investors aren’t happy about the split.

8. Upthere, a new company from Apple and Oracle vets, came out of beta with $77 million in funding. The company believes that cloud storage should be your primary storage and not just a place for keeping backups. It’s now generally available for OS X/MacOS, Android and iOS.

9. Xiaomi announced its first laptop, and it sure does look familiar. The Mi Notebook Air comes in two sizes — 13.3-inch and 12.5-inch — running Windows with a full-HD display, full-metal body and type-C USB charging and two USB slots. The Macbook Air rival will come as cheap as $540.

10. Amazon debuted a dedicated shop for Kickstarter projects. Amazon is now hosting 300 successful Kickstarter products across a variety of categories, now all available for purchase.

11. Uber cofounder and CEO of Expa Studios Garrett Camp unveiled Expa’s latest project, Haus. Haus is a real estate play that focuses on digitizing the discovery, buying and selling of residential property.

A glimpse inside Tesla's super secretive Gigafactory

Even having grown up in California, I’m realizing I’m not built for this heat.

We’re 30 minutes or so outside of Reno, but it feels like I’m on the sun. I can feel my sunscreen baking off. Why the hell did I wear black today?

It’s okay; it’s worth it. I’m out here for a glimpse inside Tesla’s Gigafactory, days before its official grand opening. I’ll be one of the first people to step inside the building outside of those who helped build it. That’s worth a slight sunburn, right?

The machine that builds the machine

Tesla needs more batteries. Between the Model S, Model X, the upcoming Model 3 and its at-home solar energy storage product, the Powerwall, just about everything they put their name on uses a battery.

But batteries like the ones Tesla needs are expensive — and heavy. Even if Tesla could find a company in another country capable of producing the volume of batteries that it needs, just getting them onto a cargo ship and shipping them stateside would make up a sizeable chunk of the bill.

Thus, the Gigafactory. A colossal, $5 billion structure smack dab in the middle of the Nevada desert, meant to help Tesla meet its battery needs.

It’s “a machine to build the machines,” as Elon Musk refers to it.

A working work in progress

We enter on one side of the building — Section A, as it’s called.

To our left, row upon row of machines, racks and robotic arms responsible for assembling Powerwalls.

To our right, separated from the factory floor by just a hip-height dividing wall, are the designers. Their project? The rest of the Gigafactory.


You see, Tesla is moving into the Gigafactory as soon as each section — of which there are currently four in progress — is complete.

They’re working from the inside out, and it’s quite a sight to see. It’s like watching a robot build itself into a bigger, badder robot. Walking through the building is like viewing a timelapse; a gradient of construction.

Section A? Up and running, designers in place.

Section B? The walls are up and painted, but much of the clockwork — like two-story tall, gymnasium-sized machines that Tesla wouldn’t disclose the purpose of — are still being assembled.

Section C? Lifts, hardhats, painters and drywallers.

Section D? Raw steel beams as far as the eye can see.

When all is said and done, the Gigafactory will have the largest footprint of any building in the world.

Secret, super secret and top secret

We’ve been invited in for an early look, but that doesn’t mean we have an all-access pass. Even in most of the areas in which we are allowed, cameras generally aren’t (I’d have brought more pictures back if I could, I promise).

For every machine we’re able to see, two are shrouded under tarps. We enter a room with one machine that nearly scrapes the roof 40 feet above us — covered, of course, in 40 feet of tarp.

“Are those tarps there because it’s not finished yet, or because the machine is secret?” I ask.

“A bit of both,” replies someone from Tesla.

“What does that one do?”

“I can’t say.”

“What part of the process is it for?”

“Battery production.” (Essentially everything in this factory is ultimately for battery production.)

“Can you tell me anything else?”

“It’s part of either the cathode or anode process” — essentially a fancier way of saying that it’s for making batteries.

“…”

“Okay! On to the next room.”

The next room has another 40-foot tall machine, still covered. They won’t tell us what this one does, either.

So what’s the reason for the secrecy?

Ultimately, the Gigafactory isn’t just big for the sake of being big. Tesla, in partnership with Panasonic, is putting $5 billion into this place to have a playground on which they can build all the things they can’t build elsewhere. They’re building new stuff here to help them drive down the costs of the batteries they need… and they don’t want anyone to know exactly how it all comes together.

“[This factory] deserves more attention from creative problem solving engineers than the product it makes,” Musk would later tell us in a Q&A. “Over time… the majority of our engineering will actually go into designing the factory as a product itself… If we take a creative engineering person and apply them to designing the factory — this machine that makes the machine — they make 5 to 10 times the headway per hour than if they’re trying to improve the products it makes.”

What’s next?

Everyone calls this thing the Gigafactory — but that’s short for its official name, “Gigafactory 1.”

As you can probably grep from that “1” tacked on to the end there, Elon doesn’t want this to be the only Gigafactory.

In a Q&A, Elon confirmed that he wants to build Gigafactories in other countries. And he wants to build Gigafactories that handle both halves of the Tesla manufacturing equation — building the batteries AND building the cars. Currently, that job is set to be split between its car plant in Fremont, CA and Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. This one is in the U.S. because that’s where it needs the most batteries; as other countries show demand, they’ll build Gigafactories there.

Semi-autonomous car hits new record speed at Indy track

Arrow Electronics second semi-autonomous (SAM) race car has broken another speed record, achieving 152 mph at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Former IndyCar driver and current team owner, Sam Schmidt, was in the driving seat of the modified 2016 Corvette Z06 during the Indianapolis 500, surpassing his previous record of 107 mph in 2014. Schmidt has been paralyzed since his racing accident in 2000, but found a new way to drive thanks to Arrow’s autonomous technology.

The electronics firm added specialized sensors that can follow the driver’s head movement, letting them steer, accelerate, and brake. The company claims this is a way for disabled people to enjoy the experience of driving on the road, without giving the computer full autonomy.

Arrow has been building on what it’s learned

“Arrow’s engineers incorporated insights learned from the previous model to build an advanced car design that incorporates cutting-edge Internet of Things technologies and live data-streaming, among other exciting improvements,” said Joe Verrengia, Arrow’s global director of corporate social responsibility. “We hope the SAM car continues to inspire and drive technology innovation forward.”

While we wait for autonomous cars to become safe and legal, semi-autonomous features like head movement could be a smart way to tackle the challenge of disabled drivers. Reports suggest that we’re going to see a large influx of disabled and elderly drivers, once autonomous cars are available to the public.

“It was a thrill to be back in control and hitting racing speeds on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway again,” said Schmidt. “The SAM project is a great example of what’s possible when the right people come together to innovate and push boundaries.”

To expedite the development process and get more developers on board, Arrow has made its car platform open source. Engineers are able to add functionality to the platform or use it for their own projects.

Tesla (dis)charging to victory on Pikes Peak?

On the 100th anniversary of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, can a Tesla set a new record on what’s considered one of the world’s most dangerous races?

Race car driver and serial entrepreneur Blake Fuller will take the wheel in the modified stock version of the Tesla Model S, the first time the world’s best-selling electric car has competed in the race.

“To return to Pikes Peak for the 100th Anniversary as an invited competitor is an honor,” says Fuller. “To be able to compete in the first Model S to do so makes this year even more special.”

He says his team has “been wanting to see a Model S compete Pikes Peak. We kept waiting for someone to do it, and now we don’t have to wait any longer.”

Fuller is no stranger to victory in this quick-but-gruelling race competition. He earned “Rookie of the Year” honors in 1999 at Pikes Peak and won the prestigious Open Class in 2002.

Along with hundreds of professional motorsports podium finishes since, he’s managed to launch a couple of an innovative battery startups – the latest being GO PUCK, which let’s you take more power with you on the go to keep your electronics powered u2p.

Fuller actually began in motorsports working on the battery concept behind the scenes. In 2001, he developed a new battery for his 2002 race-winning Pikes Peak hill climb vehicle that was 80% lighter than the car’s original battery. In the decade since, his batteries have powered championship winning vehicles in NASCAR, Indy Car, and Formula 1.

He took that experience to develop GO PUCK’s versatile battery for consumer goods, and his belief in the lithium ion technology is what’s enticing him back to racing.

Electric production class record at stake?

For the electric production class – stock production vehicles in which few modifications are allowed – the current record holder is the electric version of the 2012 Honda Fit, with a time of 12:55.59 set in 2014.

But if you’ve driven in the, uh, economical Honda Fit, you’ll quickly notice a difference in size between the compact starter car and the Tesla Model S.

For racing purposes, larger means heavier, and heavier could mean slower. And the Tesla Model S packs on over 2000 extra pounds of weight than the Fit. Fuller has lightened his Model S by 800 pounds before installed required safety equipment.

The car has already seen testing at Sonoma Raceway and private tests in the forests of Northern California.

“Being the first to enter the Model S into competition poses many unique challenges from advanced electronics to unique vehicle dynamics,” Fuller said. “At each stage of the preparation, we are discovering new possibilities and areas for innovation in which we endeavor to help bring to fruition.” 

Although it’s only 12.42 miles, the Pikes Peak course has 156 turns. It begins at 9,390 feet and finishes at the mountain’s summit, 14,115 foot up. Drivers have been known to pass out due to the altitude.

Full details of final race spec will be released on or about the first testing dates at Pikes Peak June 4-5th, but here are the current stats for the GO PUCK Tesla Model S:

HP: 750hp+

Top speed: 145-160 mph

CD: .24-.26

Wheelbase: 116.5 in

Length: 196.0 in

Width: 77.3 in

Height: 56.5 in

Curb weight: 800lbs lighter than stock, pre-roll cage.

Seats: 1 Sparco racing seat- (7 Seats OEM)

Wheels: Wheel Pros

Tires: Toyo Tires

Safety: Sparco Racing Seat & Harnesses, Kertz Fab Roll Cage, Fire Extinguishers, Window Nets, Open Eyes

Team Partners: GO PUCK, GoPro, Kilpsch Audio, ROBRADY Design, Toyo Tires, T Sportline, Wearable IOT World, Wheel Pros

China's push for driverless cars accelerates

In the race for driverless car technology, Chinese companies are taking big strides competing with the likes of Google and Tesla.

With the Beijing Motor Show under way, the days when the country's domestic car firms was brushed off as mere copycats are well and truly over.

And a lot of this year's buzz is around driverless cars in particular.

In past years, innovation might have come from Silicon valley, but Chinese companies are pushing ahead.

"There is a lot more going on in China than many in the West have realised," car expert Prof David Bailey of the Aston Business School tells the BBC.

Who are the big players?

• Changan: Two driverless cars drove more than 2,000km (1,240 miles) from its headquarters to Beijing using cameras and radar to complete the trip in six days - the car firm says it was able to do research on lane-keeping and changing, traffic sign recognition, automatic cruising and voice control.
• Baidu and BMW: A cooperation between Chinese tech giant Baidu and German car maker BMW saw a driverless car drive 30km through Beijing traffic, managing a range of manoeuvres, including U-turns, lane changes and merging into traffic from ramps.
• Geely and Volvo: Chinese owned Swedish car maker Volvo says it plans to test 100 driverless cars on public roads in "everyday conditions". It is thought to be a significant move to establish the Sino-Swedish team at the forefront of development. Volvo is also testing driverless cars in Sweden and the UK.

In addition to these main players there are many others vying for attention. Research in China takes place in car companies, tech firms and at universities.

Last week, entertainment company LeEco made a big splash presenting itsconcept car LeSee, which at least in the presentation impressed with wide-ranging capabilities.

The company is also investing in the US electric car start-up, Faraday Future, and and is cooperating with legendary British Aston Martin on an electric car project.

How soon is now?

So when will it be normal to have a driverless car pull up next to you at the traffic light? "We are probably still one decade away from that," says Prof Bailey.

Yet Changan, Baidu and Geely are right in the midst of research and development, eager to get there ahead of Silicon Valley.

"Both in China as well as in the West this will be a technology that will creep up on us," he adds.

Just think of the many driver assistance technologies that we already have. Cars help you stay in lane, park themselves or detect when they should brake.

"Over time, we'll see a lot more of these features in cars and eventually that will lead to a driverless car," he says.

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How driverless is 'driverless'?

Given that it is a new technology, even definitions are still in the making. Authorities in the US have proposed a classification of levels 0 to 4.

• Level 0, no automation: All the driving and and features are down to you.
• Level 1, function-specific automation: One or more features are automated, such as electronic stability control.
• Level 2, combined function automation: At least two automated features work together, such as adaptive cruise control in combination with lane centring.
• Level 3, limited self-driving: The car does all the driving "under certain traffic conditions", the driver is only needed for "occasional control", which is what the Google car and Chinese projects are aiming for.
• Level 4, full self-driving: The car does all the driving for the entire trip, it doesn't even need a driver to be in the car anymore.

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Image copyrightAP

Image captionTrailing the rear lights of a Chinese model soon?

Who will take the lead?

Obviously a tough question to answer - but there's a lot to suggest that Chinese companies do not intend to come second.

The tests and trials that are being conducted are very extensive and the experimentation and learning process will be crucial to progress in the field.

But still, it is the US where the technology was pioneered and where a lot of the past innovation has come from.

"The heart and centre of the innovation lies in Silicon Valley," industry expert Prof Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer told the BBC from this year's Chinese-German Car Symposium conference in Beijing.

"Silicon Valley is where the automated car will come from."

Yet public attitudes to driverless vehicles are a lot more favourable in China than elsewhere.

And the fact that research into the new technology has the backing and support from the government in Beijing might also prove to be a decisive factor.

"So if we see this happen in China, it will probably happen on quite a big scale," says Prof David Bailey.

Motivated by the widespread pollution problems, Beijing has pushed for more electric vehicles and Chinese car makers have responded significantly.

It's quite possible that Google might just find itself trailing the rear lights of a Baidu, Geely or Changan car.