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.
Just ahead of Google parent company Alphabet reporting its fourth quarter earnings, investors are keeping an eye on revenue from its cloud services, which has been a major area of development recently as well as its ad revenue. Adam Lampe, CEO and Co-Founder of Mint Wealth Management explains why the cloud may be the future for Alphabet.
After weeks of bad news about Peloton, reports indicate that the at-home fitness giant might find itself getting acquired. Doug Astrop, managing partner at Exponential Investment Partners, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss the possibility that Amazon, Nike, and Apple might be showing interest in buying the subscription-based business, whose shares have plummeted near 80 percent in the past year. "At some point everybody hits the limit on how many monthly fees they want to pay, how many subscriptions they want to have," said Astrop. "And you know, you've got Netflix, you got Amazon Prime, you got Spotify — I mean there's there's endless people who want you to pay a monthly fee. So, if you can be part of these bundles, it can really be advantageous for everybody."
Jarrod Loadholt, Partner at Ice Miller, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down the latest proposal by the SEC and explains how it could allow the agency to make major regulatory moves within the cryptocurrency space if approved.
Personal data platform Caden raised $3.1 million in pre-seed funding. Caden says its service allows users to have complete control over their data and earn a profit from it by sharing certain data with trusted brands, while never relinquishing ownership. The company also says its goal is to transform the internet and the use of personal data and make a better system for both consumers and brands. Caden founder and CEO John Roa joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Consolidation has been transforming the industry for at least the past two years, but much of the activity was happening in the background. That all changed in the past month.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
