Auto Archives - VR World

Analysis, Augmented Reality (AR), Auto, Education, Gaming, Hardware, Virtual Reality (VR), Wearables

Improving the feel of virtual and augmented reality

Although VR headset technologies continue to improve, with a number of new technologies slated for release this year, and with a long-rumoured Apple AR device potentially in the works, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that there are several more senses beyond sight and sound. And, because virtual taste technology appears to be nowhere near commercialization, and the only commercialized virtual smell technology remains in pre-order phase, sniffing virtual roses or eating a virtual slice of cheesecake are likely a long way off. Those looking for a bit more sensory engagement in virtual and augmented reality can take heart, however, because a number

Artificial Intelligence, Auto, Business, Companies, News, transportation, US

Ford will invest $11bn in electric vehicles by 2022

Ford Motor Co decided that they will significantly increase their planned investments in electric vehicles to $11bn by 2022 and have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles in its model line-up. At the Detroit Auto show that happened last week, the company’s chairman, Bill Ford, said that the whole investment is much more higher than what was previously announced ($4.5bn by 2020). He also added that this investment includes costs of developing dedicated electric vehicle architectures. General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen have already outlined ambitious plans to offer more electric vehicles and also did General Motors who made his announcement last week about new driverless vehicle.

Artificial Intelligence, Auto, Companies, News, Technology Security

General Motors announced their driverless car for the next year

General Motors will no longer need an engineer in the front seat who was managing the robot that controlled its self-driving Chevrolet Bolt. There will be no more steering wheel and also, the pedals will be gone. This announcement came last week and it is more than obvious that this auto-giant got the confidence from it’s engineers. The car will be the fourth generation of its driverless, all-electric Chevy Bolts, which are currently being tested on public roads in San Francisco and Phoenix. And when they roll off the assembly line of GM’s manufacturing plant in Orion, Michigan, they’ll be deployed as ride-hailing vehicles in a

Auto, News, Virtual Reality (VR)

Kia uses VR to market their new Stinger sports sedan

Kia Motors America has incorporated a virtual reality experience into its marketing efforts for their new Kia Stinger sports car. Visitors to the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, which runs from January 13-28, will be among the first to experience what the company is referring to as a “four-dimension virtual reality test drive” of the new vehicle. The company says the 360-degree test drive experience immerses drivers in real-world environments, while also adding haptic feedback. The result is that one can “feel the speed, agility, responsiveness and handling” of the vehicle, while virtually driving in California’s Big Sur, through the South of

2018, Augmented Reality (AR), Auto, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), energy, Hardware, News, Wearables

CES: HiScene demos communication-focused AR glasses

HiScene, a Chinese provider of AR products and services is demoing it’s recently-launched HiAR augmented reality glasses at this year’s CES in Las Vegas. The product, which is intended for fields including aerospace, power, automotive manufacturing and education, previously won an Innovation Award at CES Asia and the Red Dot Design Award 2017. Notably, the company says their product is the first mass-produced binocular AR smart glasses in China. According to HiScene, the glasses improve brightness and heat dissipation compared to earlier models, while also featuring a minimalist user interface that is particularly well-suited to augmented reality. Of further interest is that the glasses integrate

2018, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality (AR), Auto, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Hardware, Internet of Things (IoT), News, Smart Home

CES: Coffee machine and AR mirror turn conversational

SoundHound Inc., a developer of AI and conversational intelligence technologies, this week introduced a range of integrations empowered by their Houndify Voice AI platform. Demonstrations of some of those integrations will occur at this week’s CES in Las Vegas. The integrations run a very wide range of IoT categories, including automotive, connected speakers, robotics, appliances, augmented reality experiences, smart home, and wearables, from companies including Hyundai, HUMAX, Mayfield Robotics, AvatarMind Robots, PhotoSpring and Onkyo. “Conversational voice interfaces represent the next shift in how we interact with the devices around us and the user behavior of speaking to things will quickly become an integral part of

2018, Artificial Intelligence, Auto, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Entertainment, Hardware, Intel, Internet, Mobile, News, Sport, Virtual Reality (VR)

CES: Intel CEO Krzanich keynote highlights AI and VR

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich used Monday’s CES 2018 keynote to highlight how data is changing our work and personal lives, while simultaneously pushing forward technological innovation both at his company and within the larger technology sector. His keynote also specifically addressed Intel’s new initiatives in the VR space. “Data is going to introduce social and economic changes that we see perhaps once or twice in a century,” Krzanich said. “We not only find data everywhere today, but it will be the creative force behind the innovations of the future. Data is going to redefine how we experience life – in our work, in our homes,

Artificial Intelligence, Auto, Companies, News, startups

Riders in Alphabet’s Waymo Cars Will Now Be Insured

Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo self-driving car group announced a deal with Trov Inc., a venture-backed insurance startup, to provide some reassurance against unexpected events for riders who will be testing its upcoming autonomous shuttle service. The insurance coverage will include several protections for passengers for the duration of each trip including lost property, trip interruption benefits, and medical expense reimbursement. Waymo’s Director of Operations Shaun Stewart said that one of the reasons they chose Trov is that innovative technology needs innovative partners. “Trov is pioneering a cutting-edge approach to insurance that’s ideal for ride-sharing because it’s customized for every trip. As we prepare to launch a commercial

Artificial Intelligence, Auto, China, Companies, News

Uber’s Competitor Didi Chuxing Raises $4B more for AI

China’s Didi Chuxing, the country’s ride-hailing giant , said today that it has raised $4 billion in new capital to proceed with their international expansion. In that way, they are posing a direct challenge to its U.S. rival Uber in its efforts to branch out overseas. Just eight months ago, the company raised $5.5 billion, and in 2016 they raised raised $7.3 billion from big companies including Apple. This takes Didi’s total inbound investments to $19.7 billion, but the company only said that the money came from “Chinese and international institutions.” The company expects to continue that expansion and they promised that the part of the funding will be dedicated to the development

Augmented Reality (AR), Auto, Companies, News, press releases

Honda sent Beautiful AR Holiday Card for Sick Kids

That holiday season isn’t always just about presents, overindulging or shopping – Honda tried to explain with their project “Happy Honda Days”. Using augmented reality to deliver the “Ultimate Get Well Card“, a magical card filled with messages from well-wishers around the country and personalized for pediatric patients at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) has been made. Honda transformed an actual CHOC hospital room into an augmented reality winter wonderland in order to bring to life crowdsourced messages from well-wishers to be viewed by young patients through an iPad, held in a custom designed holder, triggering a wintery augmented reality experience. https://youtu.be/nVfCiBPkaW4 “Sending warm wishes

Artificial Intelligence, Auto, Business, Companies, Intel, News, press releases

Collaboration with Waymo ensures Intel leading role in Antonomous Driving

Last week Intel CEO Brian Krzanich revealed that his company supplies processors and other hardware to Waymo, and that Intel would like to continue working with the former Google self-driving car project. The Intel components are used in Waymo’s Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans, which recently replaced a fleet of small pod-like electric cars as Waymo’s frontline test vehicles. The $15.3 billion acquisition of Mobileye could strengthen Intel in the self-driving vehicle space to offer a variety of items related to self-driving vehicles. These products include cameras, machine learning, sensor chips, roadway mapping, cloud software, and in-car networking. Waymo has a hardware program for sensors, autonomous decision-making, pathfinding, and more.

Artificial Intelligence, Auto, Business, Companies, News

Delphi Automotive Creates New Company – Aptiv

Delphi Automotive decided to transform itself from a traditional automotive parts supplier into a tech company focused on autonomous driving. The company is spinning off its powertrain division into a separate entity called Delphi Technologies, and rebranding everything else under a new corporate name — Aptiv. “Delphi Technologies enjoys a balanced revenue mix, robust cost structure and veteran leadership. Also, the company is capable of complying with the strict automotive regulations, pertaining to lowering of the CO2 and other toxic emissions from combustion engines by a considerable amount,”the company announced. They added that Aptiv is now in a position to solve complicated challenges embedded in greener,

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Auto, Companies, News

You can now customize your new BMW i with ARKit

BMW is first brand to offer a configurator through Apple’s Augmented Reality app using ARKit with iOS 11. The BMW i Visualizer app allows you in that way, to select and customize a life-sized version of the BMW i3, i3s, or i8 car while in any location. Now customers in select markets can use their iPads and iPhones to to view real-size 3D renderings of BMW i cars like the i3 and i8. While the app is available in 17 countries already, there’s support for over 21 languages offered through it. “Our products are highly emotional vehicles which customers need to experience,” said Andrea Castronovo, BMW Group

Augmented Reality (AR), Auto, Business, Companies, News, Nvidia, startups

Alibaba Backed WayRay won Grand Prize on AutoMobility LA’s Top Ten

The Swiss-based company WayRay that makes augmented reality for cars, won the grand prize in a start-up competition at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Tuesday. It’s augmented reality driving system makes a car’s windshield looking like an actual video game. WayRay made its way into this year’s Top Ten after being selected out of over 300 applicants thanks to its innovative approach to user experience design. After making it to the Top Three alongside an impressive group of innovative startups from around the world, including Ohio-based GhostWave and Israel’s Innoviz Technologies, they were named this year’s winner of the 2017 Top Ten Automotive Startups Competition. They developed holographic augmented-reality technologies for advanced

Augmented Reality (AR), Auto, News, VR World

Nissan’s new AR experience to leverage the Star Wars universe

Nissan is poised to unveil an augmented reality experience throughout their North American showrooms that intends to educate customers on the automaker’s safety- and driving assistance-related technologies. The Nissan “See the Unseen” experience, which leverages characters from the Star Wars universe including stormtroopers and droids, will be rolled out by early December, preceding the upcoming release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. “In our collaboration with Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we have brought ‘Retail Theater’ to Nissan showrooms and found exciting ways to engage customers with a new world of technology,” explained Jeremy Tucker, vice president of Marketing for Nissan North America. “While

Artificial Intelligence, Auto, Business, Companies, Hardware, News, Nvidia

Volta Chips Secured Nvidia Record Growth

Shares of Nvidia Corp hit a record on Friday, after it posted stellar quarterly results powered by higher demand for graphics chips used in gaming and data centers, and the rapid adoption of its new Volta chips for AI and driverless cars. Shares of this chipmaker rose about 6 percent in morning trade on Friday – hitting a record of $217.18. CEO Jensen Huang called it a “great quarter across all of our growth drivers.“ “Our Volta GPU has been embraced by every major internet and cloud service provider and computer maker. Our new TensorRT inference acceleration platform opens us to growth in hyperscale datacenters. GeForce and

Artificial Intelligence, Auto, Biotech, Business, Companies, News, Space and Science, Technology Security

Ford and EKSO Partners Up creating bionic people functions

Robots have replaced many U.S. manufacturing workers, but new mechanical exoskeletons being tested by Ford Motor Co (F.N) may help factory workers to function like bionic people, reducing the physical damage of millions of repetitive tasks over many years. The company announced this week that some of its workers are currently testing out a new wearable technology called EksoVest, that essentially allows factory workers to function like bionic people. The vest, which was designed by California-based Ekso Bionics (EKSO), acts as an upper-body support system to help workers increase productivity and reduce fatigue when completing overhead tasks on the job. “Collaboratively working with Ford enabled

Artificial Intelligence, Auto, Business, China, Companies, News, press releases

Baidu Joins Shoqi to develop driverless cars

Chinese search engine giant Baidu and Shouqi Limousine & Chauffeur, a car-hailing operator, are joining up to develop driverless vehicles, said Reuters. Baidu will supply Shouqi with the tools it needs for both its existing business and driverless cars, including map services, its Apollo autonomous platform and its conversational AI platform DuerOS. In return, Shouqi will supply Baidu with high-precision maps. Baidu will also offer software and hardware solutions such as the “DuerOS” and “Apollo platform” to Shouqi to help it develop autonomous vehicles. “DuerOS is an AI platform that provides tools for developers looking to quickly build intelligent devices that anyone can interact with, primarily through

Artificial Intelligence, Auto, Business, Companies, Intel, News

Intel develops a formula for driverless cars safety

Intel and its subsidiary Mobileye have jointly developed a mathematical formula that can objectively figure out just how safely a self-driving car is operating. The model is called Responsibility Sensitive Safety, and revolves around what’s called a “Safe State.” The world’s largest chipmaker calls this a set of standards, based on mathematical formulas, that will govern the behavior of robot cars and trucks. If they’re adopted, Intel argues, it will bring certainty to questions of liability and blame in the event of an accident. There are two main concerns when it comes to autonomous vehicle driving safety. First is what almost all car makers are currently focused on, the sensors, equipment,

Artificial Intelligence, Auto, Business, Companies, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), News

Toyota Yui wants to know how you feel

After unveiling a concept model for a new line of autonomous vehicles, Toyota expects to start testing these driverless cars in 2020. Toyota is supposedly combining their Concept-i cars with an AI called “Yui” — the product of spending billions on a venture capital arm meant for AI development. Yui isn’t your typical autonomous driving system. Toyota wants their AI to be able to chat with drivers and get to know them better by using their preferences, emotions, and habits, which Yui builds through deep learning. The company says the Concept-i series is based on its Learn-Protect-Inspire technology that understands people, uses automated driving technology to increase safety and can