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The bad news just can’t stop coming for Uber. One of their self-driving cars has crashed in Arizona on Saturday, prompting Uber Technologies Inc to suspend the cars for the time being. This accident is the latest in a long line of incidents involving a self-driving vehicle. Uber has said that there were no serious injuries but that they were grounding all driverless cars in Arizona, Pittsburgh and San Fransisco pending the outcome of the investigation into the incident in Arizona.

The accident apparently occurred when the driver of the second vehicle “failed to yield” to Uber’s vehicle while it was making a turn, according to the Tempe police department, this led to the autonomous vehicle rolling onto its side, thankfully there were no serious injuries. There were two “safety” drivers in the front of the seat of the vehicles and it is uncertain whether they were in control of the vehicle at the time of the crash. A safety driver is able to take control of the vehicle if conditions demand it.

This collision is just the latest event in a series of bad press for the embattled ride-share company. It follows on from the resignation of Uber’s president, Jeff Jones, less than seven months after joining and a number of allegations that Uber is not treating its employees in a fair manner. In February of this year, they were also sued by Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving car unit for theft of its proprietary sensor technology.

This is not the first time that self-driving cars have had road-incidents. In 2016 a driver of a Tesla Motors Inc Model S car was killed in a collision with a truck and there have been a series of small accidents during the testing phases of Google’s cars. Despite these accidents, tech companies still insist that driverless cars will help to drastically reduce the number of accidents on our roads and there is some evidence to back this up. Like any new technology, there is a lot of scrutiny on self-driving vehicles and incidents like these will always catch a lot of attention. There are certainly still kinks left to work out, especially helping automated cars handle unpredictable human drivers.

You'll find me wandering around the Science sections mostly, excitedly waving my arms around while jumping up and down about the latest science and tech news. I am also occasionally found in the gaming section, trying to convince everyone else that linux is the future of the computer gaming.

Cars

BMW predicts a drop in sales as rising prices reduce consumers’ purchasing power

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FRANKFURT — BMW’s quarterly net profit increased 23 percent to 3.18 billion euros ($3.1 billion), largely due to high car prices, but the company cautioned that rising inflation and interest rates will start to impact on sales in the coming months.

Increased profits are being seen despite decreased sales volumes caused by problems in the supply chain, such as the lack of semiconductor chips, which has slowed production for automakers throughout the world.

CEO Oliver Zipse stated in a statement that the company was on track to reach its annual goals because “our outstanding third quarter results highlight that flexibility fosters resilience.”

BMW and other automakers have been able to hike prices because to robust demand and low inventories, but economists believe that consumers will begin to rein down significant purchases as recession chances increase and central banks raise interest rates.

BMW predicted that its above-average order books will “normalize, especially in Europe” in the coming months as a result of rising inflation and interest rates, which would reduce the purchasing power of consumers.

BMW’s finance director Nicolas Peter, though, said the company anticipates its “good momentum” to carry over into 2023, despite full-year sales being somewhat lower than in 2021 and sales of full-electric vehicles expected to treble.

The company said that it expects an operating margin of between 7% and 9% for the full year.

However, the manufacturer saw a 35% increase in revenue to 37.18 billion euros ($36.49 billion) in the third quarter despite global sales falling 9.5% from the same period last year.

BMW’s pretax profit of €4.1 billion was higher than the consensus estimate of €3.4 billion.

Higher costs for raw materials and energy, as well as the price of gaining control of the Chinese joint venture Brilliance, contributed to the 2.7 billion euro increase in costs reported by the firm compared to the same time in the previous year.

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Cars

By 2035, all new car sales in New York and California will be hybrid or electric vehicles.

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According to Governor Kathy Hochul, New York will follow California’s lead and require that all new automobiles, trucks, and SUVs sold in the state be either electric vehicles (EVs) or plug-in hybrids. By 2026, 35% of new cars must be zero-emission vehicles, and by 2030, 60% must be. By 2035, all new school buses must have zero emissions. The rules won’t go into effect until after a public hearing. According to Governor Kathy Hochul, New York will follow California’s lead and require that all new automobiles, trucks, and SUVs sold in the state be either electric vehicles (EVs) or plug-in hybrids. By 2026, 35% of new cars must be zero-emission vehicles, and by 2030, 60% must be. By 2035, all new school buses must have zero emissions. The rules won’t go into effect until after a public hearing.

Hochul directed the state’s environmental agency to establish regulations resembling those imposed by California, which bans the sale of all vehicles powered only by fossil fuels by the year 2035. These regulations, which went into effect this month, with the goal of selling 9.5 fewer internal combustion engine (ICE) only vehicles by 2035 while reducing passenger vehicle pollution by 25% by 2037.

“We had to wait for California to take a step because there’s some federal requirements that California had to go first — that’s the only time we’re letting them go first,” in a press conference yesterday, the governor said.

 

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Cars

Self-Driving To Be Standard In The 2020’s

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Technology in vehicles has seen amazing leaps in the past several years. Only eight years ago things like Bluetooth or WiFi in vehicles were not standard. These amenities were only reserved for luxurious vehicles are standard in even the most economical model of cars now. Companies like GM and Ford purchasing self-driving startups and expecting to release new vehicles in the next few years with self-driving capability.

Companies like Tesla have had self-driving vehicles for a few years. And even Google has experimented with self-driving technology. There have been some hiccups and a few other misuses of the technology. This should not stop the progress of the technology. The technology is still in its early stages but I would expect the minor things to be fixed within the next few years. Many other major car manufacturing companies are predicting to have a self-driving vehicle within the next few years.

While its too soon to tell how this technology will affect future traffic laws, it is likely to make some marvelous changes in the future. Road trips will definitely change with such advances. It can only be hoped that it positively affects us more than any harm it might cause in the future.

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