Toyota followed in Uber’s footsteps Tuesday, pausing tests of its driverless car system “Chauffeur”.
The decision came even after authorities said Uber was “likely not at fault” for one of its autonomous vehicles striking and killing a pedestrian in Tempe, Ariz., on Sunday. Still, it’s a move one advocacy group exec likely agrees with.
“Is getting them out faster the best idea, or is getting them out right the best idea?” Center for Auto Safety executive director Jason Levine told Cheddar before the Toyota news broke.
Police investigating the Uber incident claim the car, in self-driving mode with a human behind the wheel, was travelling at 38 mph and made no attempt to brake when a woman walked onto the street.
But the pedestrian “came from the shadows right into the roadway,” according to Tempe’s Police Chief, making the accident difficult to avoid in any case.
It was the first known fatality caused by a self-driving car, prompting Uber to halt its own pilot programs and raising questions about the future of the nascent technology, with many calling for a slowdown in development.
“There should be some step between the computer lab, the completely controlled test track, and releasing them into the communities,” said Levine.
The pace of development in this space is moving at a speed that makes it hard to build regulations and safety procedures, he added.
“There, right now, are no regulations before putting these things on the road...there’s no pre-investigation or examination of whether the technology meets the same standards as a non-self-driving vehicle.”
Autonomous cars have been seen as the futuristic antidote to the tens of thousands of deaths caused by traffic accident deaths every year in the U.S. So far the technology’s track record suggests the error levels are far lower than in traditional autos.
The National Transportation Safety Board is currently investigating the Uber incident.
HearHere bills itself as a mobile audio entertainment app for road trips. The company just announced $3.2 million in seed funding led by Camping World, a retail company that sells recreational vehicles and camping supplies. HearHere's GPS-powered app offers over 8,880 stories across the continental U.S. and serves up the stories based on a users' geographic location and interests. The stories are narrated by some big-name celebrities including actor Kevin Costner, who is a co-founder of the company. Woody Sears, co-founder and CEO of HearHere, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
On December 25, 2021, NASA got into the holiday spirit by launching the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space science observatory in history.
It is intended to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA's flagship mission in astrophysics and is able to view objects too old and distant for Hubble. Gregory Robinson, director of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope program, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the mission. "I think a lot of what we don't know today is what I'm expecting to find and certainly really understand what took place more than 13.5 billion years ago and see the formation of some of the first galaxies in our universe," said Robinson.
YouTube creator platform Spotter recently announced $200 million in Series D financing at a valuation of $1.7 billion, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Spotter allows YouTubers to license the rights to their video catalogs in exchange for large sums of cash paid upfront. The company's clients include some of YouTube's most popular personalities, with a combined total of more than 1.2 billion subscribers. Aaron Debevoise, founder and CEO of Spotter, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict drags on — and global economies could see pandemic-era prices and supply chain issues come back full force. Both countries supply key commodities and materials, including semiconductor production. That sector, in particular, was hit hard by the pandemic and was just beginning to see a recovery when the invasion began. What happens next? Do companies have enough to fall back on and can they rely on pandemic-era measures to stay afloat? Everett Millman, Chief Market Analyst at Gainesville Coins, joins Closing Bell to discuss which sectors are being hit the hardest, rising prices, how consumers could feel the impact, and more.
Jamie Hemmings and Jilea Hemmings, owners and founders of Nourish + Bloom Market, join Cheddar News to talk about the inspiration behind creating their cashierless grocery store.
While crypto exchanges have been used to aid Ukraine amid the Russian invasion, critics point to possible sanction evasion on the Russian side using the same technology. Cheddar's Alex Vuocolo takes a closer look.
TikTok is extending the maximum length of its platform's clips to 10 minutes in length, a big leap from its three-minute cap, in order to keep up with competitors such as YouTube and Instagram Reels.
