Volkswagen Wants a Driverless Taxi to Take You Home
A new Silicon Valley start-up wants to make driverless vehicles accessible to the masses, and is teaming up with Volkswagen and Hyundai to do it.
“Our goal at Aurora is to provide the driver,” said Chris Urmson, the company’s CEO and the former technology chief of Google’s Waymo. “Our partners build vehicles. They understand their customers, and they understand the businesses they want to be in. And we are going to provide them the capabilities for their vehicles to drive around.”
“We think that by developing a driver with a variety of other companies, we can actually make it better and safer, quicker.”
Aurora plans to develop fleets of self-driving electric taxis to roll out across major cities. Urmson told Cheddar that the company will be working with city governments to ensure a reliable system.
Founded about a year ago by Urmson, robotics expert Drew Bagnell, and Tesla alum Sterling Adelson, Aurora also announced a partnership this week with Nvidia to use the chip maker’s products in its autonomous systems.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-the-worlds-biggest-automakers-are-turning-to-this-company-for-self-driving-technology).
Jill and Carlo discuss the pending approval for Pfizer's vaccine for kids, the state of anti-Semitism three years after Tree of Life, potential criminal charges in the 'Rust' prop gun shooting and more.
Mo Gawdat, author of 'Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World' joins Cheddar News to discuss his book that dives into the future of AI.
Mark Wagman, Managing Director at MediaLink, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the impact of Apple's iOS security change on fellow big tech companies Facebook, Snap, and Twitter. Apple now lets iOS users opt-out of cross-app data tracking - which hurt Facebook and Snap's advertising revenue in the third quarter.
Facebook has dominated the headlines over the past week. The social media giant reported earnings on Monday, has been in the crosshairs of lawmakers and is now expected to rebrand itself as it gears up for what it calls the metaverse. Daniel Newman, Founder & Principal Analyst at Futurum Research, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell where he discusses what we should expect to see ultimately unfold.
Verizon is teaming with Amazon's Project Kuiper low-orbit satellites to help improve communications and internet connectivity. Sampath Sowmyanarayan, chief revenue officer for Verizon Business, joined Cheddar to talk about the relationship with Amazon and what customers can expect from the strategic partnership. He noted that the 5G expansion via the satellite network will benefit rural communities where internet and wireless access remains difficult.
