In autonomous and self-driving vehicle news are Cruise, Beep, Cyngn, Ford BlueCruise & Cruise.
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Cruise Deployment in SF Decreased 50%
After a Cruise vehicle collided with a fire truck, Cruise will decrease it’s fleet in half in San Francscio, per the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Beep on Treasure Island and Orlando
Beep is offering human assisted self-driving shuttle on Treasure Island.
The Treasure Island Mobility Management Agency celebrated the launch of its autonomous shuttle pilot – called the Loop – on August 16, with agency partners and community leaders, and commenced public service from the Ship Shape Community Center at 3 p.m.
The Loop is one of California’s first demonstrations of AV shuttles operating entirely on public roads. It will provide free rides using fully electric autonomous shuttles with an attendant on-board at all times. The shuttle will pick up passengers along a fixed route that features seven stops around the core of Treasure Island and can accommodate wheelchair users.
The Loop service will operate seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. connecting Treasure Island neighborhoods to community centers and commercial venues. The route complements a portion of Muni 25 line service on the northern part of the Island, with two autonomous vehicles running approximately every 20 minutes.
Funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Metropolitan Transportation Commission and San Francisco County Transportation Authority, the pilot will operate for nine months and is designed to help TIMMA better understand how a shuttle service could meet the needs of people traveling around the neighborhood and provide the community with opportunities to learn about driverless technology.
The City of Orlando announced the start of a six-month autonomous shuttle pilot program in partnership with Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority (LYNX) and Beep Inc., an Orlando-based provider of autonomous shared mobility solutions. The autonomous pilot, called SWAN Shuttle (Shuttling With Autonomous Navigation), will provide the city and LYNX data and learnings to guide the city’s transportation strategy on how shared, electric and autonomous vehicles can enhance accessibility, improve the quality of life for residents and ensure the city remains future-ready and sustainable.
Residents, visitors and businesses will have access to the fare-free SWAN Shuttle pilot seven days a week in Creative Village starting on August 20, 2023. The roughly one-mile route will have five stops connecting LYNX Central Station and SunRail to UCF/Valencia Downtown, Luminary Green Park, Electronic Arts (EA) and Parramore and Creative Village residents and businesses. The shuttles will operate in the existing bus lane dedicated to the LYMMO Orange Line in the early afternoon and evening from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Cyngn Autonomous Road Show
Cyngn Inc. (the “Company” or “Cyngn”) (Nasdaq: CYN), a developer of AI-powered autonomous driving solutions for industrial applications, kicked-off the first leg of its Autonomous Vehicle Roadshow in Sacramento, California with its flagship DriveMod Stockchaser. Cyngn is visiting manufacturing and warehousing facilities in key markets across America to demonstrate the efficiency, safety, and performance of its AI-powered Autonomous Stockchaser.
DriveMod, a full-stack autonomous driving solution, is an all-in-one autonomy integration package that enables the conversion of standard industrial vehicles to fully autonomous vehicles by utilizing sensors, computers, and artificial intelligence via Cyngn’s proprietary DriveMod software. DriveMod can be installed on new vehicles off the assembly line or retrofitted into existing vehicles.
The Autonomous Vehicle Roadshow will:
- Leverage new developments from Cyngn’s recent Enterprise Autonomy Suite (EAS) 9.1 release that streamlined deployment tools and enables the Company to demonstrate DriveMod Stockchasers operating autonomously within hours of touching down at a new site.
- Showcase the DriveMod Stockchaser, an autonomous mobile robot for use in manufacturing, warehouse, and logistics industries that has the capability to tow up to 6,000 pounds.
Ford BlueCruise Standard for More Customers
As Ford continues to evolve how the company offers products and services, this includes the way customers access BlueCruise – Ford’s hands-free highway driving technology. Ford now is including BlueCruise hardware standard from the factory to provide flexibility and choices to more customers.
Now, customers with equipped vehicles can choose to activate BlueCruise at any point during their vehicle ownership journey – at purchase, annually or even monthly – as well as have the opportunity to experience it through a complimentary trial if they choose not to activate at purchase. Ford is projected to install BlueCruise hardware on 500,000 vehicles for the 2024 model year in North America across Ford and Lincoln – expanding the availability onto more electric and gas-powered vehicles.
“BlueCruise is an experience-it-to-believe-it technology, and people are amazed at how BlueCruise can help make driving less stressful and more enjoyable – especially in traffic or on long drives,” said Ashley Lambrix, Head of Commercial Acceleration – Ford Model e. “We believe in this technology and how it can help transform the highway driving experience and want to give more customers the opportunity to try it and provide flexibility for them to activate it when they want to use it.”
Ford customers who know and love BlueCruise can choose to order or purchase a vehicle with BlueCruise already activated for three years. It can be rolled into the financing as part of the vehicle purchase. For customers who want to try out BlueCruise first, they can use BlueCruise for 90 days from vehicle purchase during a complimentary trial. At the end of the trial or at any point during their vehicle ownership, customers can activate it on an annual or monthly basis. Plus, to meet the needs of active or occasional users, there is no minimum length commitment required to activate it. For example, a customer could activate the service for one month for a road trip and not activate it again for another year.
Previously, customers would have to decide when ordering the vehicle if they wanted BlueCruise so the hardware could be installed. Now, Ford is removing this burden from customers, not forcing them to decide upfront if they might want access to this technology.
Expanding BlueCruise Flexible Offering to Additional Vehicle Lines
According to the results of an S&P Global Mobility study from March, consumers are willing to activate connected-car services that add value if they have the chance to try them first. In fact, 82% of respondents who had experienced a free trial or an existing connected service plan said they would “definitely” or “probably” consider purchasing a connected service on a future new vehicle purchase.
Ford first applied this approach on the Mustang Mach-E, and the company now is expanding this flexibility on all 2024 model year vehicles where BlueCruise is available – F-150 Lightning, Ford F-150 and Ford Expedition.*
BlueCruise activation for Ford customers costs $2,100 for three years at time of order or vehicle purchase. If a customer chooses not to activate upfront, after their complimentary trial they can choose an annual plan for $800 or a monthly plan for $75. If a customer chooses to forego activating BlueCruise, they can continue to experience Adaptive Cruise Control, which lets the driver set a cruising speed and distance from the vehicle ahead, including in stop-and-go traffic.
Expanding BlueCruise Offering for Lincoln Vehicles
The company also is expanding the BlueCruise offering for Lincoln customers. Now, all series of the 2024 Lincoln Navigator and Lincoln Nautilus and select trims of Lincoln Corsair will come equipped with BlueCruise hardware.** BlueCruise will also be available for the first time on the all-new Nautilus when it launches early next year.
Based on the vehicle trim, Navigator and Nautilus customers will receive either four years of BlueCruise access included at purchase or a 90-day complimentary trial with the option to choose an annual plan for $800 or a monthly plan for $75 and activate it at any point during the vehicle ownership. Corsair trims built with the BlueCruise hardware, will receive four years of access included at purchase.
BlueCruise Will Continue to Improve
BlueCruise can add value to highway driving time, helping make stop-and-go traffic for a daily commute or a long road trip easier and more enjoyable.† Customers have spent 1.4 million hours enjoying BlueCruise to date, and the number of miles driven has grown by more than 40% since the end the first quarter, reaching more than 100 million miles and counting.
Ford is continuing to improve BlueCruise with a dedicated in-house team of advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) engineers. There are currently 225,000 Ford and Lincoln vehicles equipped with BlueCruise hardware on the road today globally. By adding additional BlueCruise-equipped vehicles, Ford’s ADAS team can continue to use the power of large-scale data, which customers have agreed and opted-in to share with Ford, to deploy improvements and features to vehicles through software updates.
Earlier this year, Ford rolled out BlueCruise 1.2 and will soon be rolling out BlueCruise 1.3, first to 2021-2023 Mustang Mach-E vehicles equipped with BlueCruise hardware. The latest generation of BlueCruise software makes hands-free highway driving even better. It has improved performance when driving around curves and in narrow lanes. For example, based on our internal testing, BlueCruise 1.3 stayed engaged in hands-free mode for an average of 5X longer compared to BlueCruise 1.0, the first version of BlueCruise.
Customers can verify their BlueCruise access and status as well as renew the service via the FordPass App and Ford Account under Connected Services. If the vehicle has Ford BlueCruise capabilities, it will appear under Connected Services and include the status as well as the date the BlueCruise active service plan began.
*Ford BlueCruise requires a Connected Service plan that provides regular map updates, FordPass® App, and modem activation. Ford BlueCruise-equipped vehicles come with either a 90-day trial or a 3-year BlueCruise Connected Service plan, after which purchase is required. See ford.com/bluecruise for BlueCruise availability and version details. See the Connected Services section of your Ford Account for your BlueCruise Connected Service plan status and available plan options.
**Lincoln BlueCruise requires a Connected Service plan that provides regular map updates, Lincoln Way® App and modem activation. Lincoln BlueCruise-equipped vehicles come with either a 90-day trial or a 2 or 4-year BlueCruise Connected Service plan, after which purchase is required. See your retailer to confirm BlueCruise Connected Service plan options for your vehicle. Owners, see the Connected Services section of your Lincoln Account for your BlueCruise Connected Service plan status.
†Driver-assist features are supplemental and do not replace the driver’s attention, judgment and need to control the vehicle. BlueCruise is a hands-free highway driving feature. Only remove hands from the steering wheel when in a Hands-Free Blue Zone. Always watch the road and be prepared to resume control of the vehicle. It does not replace safe driving. See Owner’s Manual for details and limitations.