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Unique remote-piloted EV delivery service Halo.Car has taken a big step forward in its progress of transitioning more people over to electric vehicles. Today, the carshare startup announced it had removed the safety drivers from all its EVs, claiming to be the first company in the world to enable electric vehicles to be commercially remote-piloted on public roads without a human present inside. Watch as the empty EV turns heads around downtown Las Vegas in the video below.

Halo.Car is a Las Vegas-based startup focused on taking the carshare program and turning it on its head. Instead of developing another business requiring designated parking areas or customers to pick up and return their rented vehicles somewhere, Halo.Car drops off and picks up the EV wherever you are.

Here’s the kicker, though… there’s no one inside.

We’ve covered plenty of other startups implementing autonomous robotaxi routes in California and even Halo.Car’s home city of Vegas, but this startup team feels fully-autonomous taxis are still years away. Halo.Car uses remote drivers authorized to operate the fleet of EVs using video and sensor data streamed from proprietary software and hardware retrofitted onto electric Kia Niros.

The startup’s carshare business has been partially underway in the streets of Vegas, but with several fail-safes in place to ensure the safety of everyone inside and outside of the vehicles. This past January, during CES, I got the chance to visit Halo.HQ and ride along with founder and CEO Anand Nandakumar (and a safety driver), who walked me through the company’s four-phase process in reaching seamless carshare mobility:

  1. Deliveries of the car, manual driver inside the vehicle
  2. Deliveries of the car by a remote pilot, with a safety driver inside
  3. Deliveries of the car remotely with no one inside, with a chase car
  4. Deliveries of the car solely via a remote pilot

At the time, I experienced Halo.Car during phase two. Today, however, the startup announced it entered phase three, removing the safety driver altogether.

  • Halo Car

Halo.Car continues to prove remote piloting is viable

Following four years of operating with safety drivers present inside its EVs, Halo.Car shared that it has gone driverless… inside its Kias, at least. Beginning today, customers in Las Vegas can book a Halo.Car, which will be remotely piloted to their designated location without anyone inside.

From there, the customer can hop in, use the EV at will, and then park it and end their rental whenever they are done. From there, a remote driver at HQ will once again take control of the EV, which will appear to drive off on its own. Talk about “ghost ridin’ the whip.” Nandakumar spoke to Halo.Car’s next phase achievement:

Rolling out driverless delivery is a huge step towards our goal of offering ubiquitous carshare on-demand. We want to make it so easy to get a car on-demand that you no longer need to own a car, or use a rideshare service – you just call a car to drive when you need to go somewhere. Driverless delivery is critical to making this vision of on-demand vehicles economically viable.

After testing for thousands of hours, we’ve proven that our remote-piloting technology is robust enough to take the safety driver out. This commercial launch of driverless delivery is a landmark achievement not only for our company, but for the entire transportation industry. We are really pushing the boundaries of what people believed was possible.

The EVs, which you can peruse below, have been equipped with cameras, modems, antennas, and other proprietary components developed by Halo.Car to enable remote driving over T-Mobile’s 5G network. The company shared it has also developed proprietary algorithms to ensure the data streams utilize the strongest network connection available at any given time.

While today’s news is exciting, remember that Halo.Car is only in phase three. That means the driverless EVs will still be followed by a second vehicle to monitor and assist if any issues arise. Soon, however, the chase cars will join the safety drivers on the sidelines back at HQ while the EVs operate on public roads without anyone inside or behind.

Looking ahead, Halo.Car says it will expand driverless deliveries to other parts of Las Vegas outside of downtown in the coming months while simultaneously bolstering its fleet to hundreds of EVs before expanding to new cities in 2024.

Watch Halo.Car’s driverless EVs turn heads around Vegas in the video below.

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Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 disappoints with hallucinations, brake stabbing, and speeding

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Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 disappoints with hallucinations, brake stabbing, and speeding

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) v14, its first major update in a year, disappoints as data points to a lower increase in miles between disengagements than expected.

The system also features new hallucinations, brake stabbing, and excessive speeding.

Earlier this month, Tesla began rolling out its Full Self-Driving (FSD) v14 software update to some customers.

The update has been highly anticipated for several reasons.

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First off, it has been a year since Tesla released any significant FSD update to customers, as it focused on its internal robotaxi fleet in Austin. The update is believed to feature improvements developed through Tesla’s robotaxi fleet, which requires supervising like its consumer FSD.

Secondly, CEO Elon Musk has claimed that Tesla still plans for “Supervised Full Self-Driving” to become unsupervised by the end of the year in consumer vehicles. For that to happen, we needed to see a massive improvement from v13 to v14.

As I previously reported, I anticipated an improvement in miles between critical disengagements from ~400 miles in v13 to ~800 to 1,200 miles in v14. It would be a significant improvement, but still way short of what’s needed to make FSD unsupervised.

Tesla notoriously doesn’t release any data about its FSD program. Musk has literally told people to rely on anecdotal experiences posted on social media to gauge progress.

Fortunately, there’s a crowdsourced dataset that gives us some data to track progress with miles between critical disengagement. It’s far from perfect, but it is literally the best data available, and Musk himself has shared the dataset in the past – albeit while misrepresenting it.

In the last week, Tesla started pushing the FSD v14 update (now v14.1.4) to more owners – resulting in more crowdsourced data and anecdotal evidence.

With now over 4,000 miles of FSD v14 data, miles between critical disengagement sits about 732 miles – below the lower end of our expectations:

Tesla would need to be closer to 10,000 miles between critical disengagements to allow unsupervised operation, and even then, it would likely be in geo-fenced areas with speed limitations.

This is unlikely to happen by the end of the year, as Musk predicted, as FSD v14 appears to have some significant issues still.

First off, many FSD v14 drivers are reporting that the update is having problems with hallucinations where the car decides to stop on the side of the road seemingly randomly:

It does seem like FSD v14 sometimes misinterprets other vehicles’ turn signals as emergency vehicle lights and pulls over.

In some cases, FSD v14 has been known to completely disable FSD features inside vehicles:

Many FSD v14 drivers have also reported an increase in “brake stabbing”, where the vehicle seems to hesitate and frantically applies the brakes and releases them – resulting in a stabbing motion.

As previously reported, Tesla also brought back its ‘Mad Max’ mode in FSD v14, which allows for driving exceedingly over the speed limit.

Electrek’s Take

Now, I don’t want to hear anything about my use of anecdotal evidence and crowdsourced data. That’s literally the best data available for FSD.

Unlike virtually all other companies developing self-driving technology, Tesla refuses to release any.

If it were to release some data, I’d be happy to use it.

One thing is clear from v14 so far: unsupervised FSD in consumer vehicles is not happening in any meaningful way this year.

I expect significant improvements in upcoming FSD v14 point updates. Maybe enough to get it to my previous expectations of ~800 to 1,200 miles between disengagements, but that’s about it.

Finally, while I generally don’t count on NHTSA to enforce any rule in any significant way when it comes to Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” effort, I think they might actually do something about “Mad Max.”

This video on Instagram has 4.5 million views, and it shows extremely dangerous driving behavior at up to 90 mph (145 km/h)

I think the authorities will have to intervene here, because it makes no sense for an unproven autonomous driving system to be able to operate under those parameters.

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The Toyota Corolla EV is bringing a sharp new look, but that’s just the start [Images]

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The Toyota Corolla EV is bringing a sharp new look, but that's just the start [Images]

Toyota’s best-selling car is finally going electric. The Corolla EV looks more like a Porsche or BMW than the Toyota vehicles on the road today, but that’s just the start.

The Toyota Corolla is evolving into a rad-looking EV

After revealing the Corolla Concept for the first time at the Japan Mobility Show on Tuesday, Toyota’s CEO, Koji Sato, said the compact car has always been “a car for everyone.”

Since it hit the market over 50 years ago, Toyota has sold well over 50 million Corollas. The Corolla even surpassed the VW Beetle in the 90s to become the world’s best-selling vehicle. Like the Prius, Toyota’s compact car lured in buyers with an affordable price and a reputation as a reliable daily driver.

Although it’s still a top-seller, the Corolla has lost some of its charm as more advanced, stylish, and efficient electric cars hit the market.

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Toyota looks to change that with a drastic overhaul that takes the Corolla to the next level. To stay relevant, Sato asked the crowd at the event, “How should the Corolla evolve?”

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Toyota CEO Koji Sato reveals the Corolla Concept at the Japan Mobility Show (Source: Toyota)

We all want to drive a car that looks cool, but there’s much more to it nowadays. Buyers are increasingly seeking more efficient vehicles with the latest software, connectivity technology, and other features.

“Whether it’s a battery EV, plug-in hybrid, hybrid, or internal combustion engine vehicle―whatever the power source―let’s make good-looking cars that everyone will want to drive!” Toyota’s CEO said, adding the car is “packed with inventions aimed at making that a reality.”

Although Toyota didn’t confirm the concept was headed for production, the next-gen Corolla is expected to arrive with a similar style.

The concept still features Toyota’s newest design elements, like the “hammerhead” front end, but with a bit more of a futuristic feel.

You can barely tell the concept is a Corolla, aside from the massive COROLLA badging on the rear. Toyota didn’t reveal any powertrain details, but the charge port and closed-off grille suggest it’s an EV.

The next-gen Toyota Corolla is expected to be offered as an EV, a plug-in hybrid, a hybrid, and, likely, still an ICE variant.

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Uber chooses first market to deploy its Lucid Gravity robotaxis featuring Nuro Driver

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Uber chooses first market to deploy its Lucid Gravity robotaxis featuring Nuro Driver

Three months after Uber, Lucid Motors, and Nuro announced a partnership that would enable Gravity SUV robotaxis, the rideshare network has shared where the public will first be able to hail one. Spoiler alert, it’s easy to guess if you give it half a thought.

As we reported in July, Uber Technologies committed to a $300 million investment in Lucid Group (parent company of American EV automaker Lucid Motors), to deploy at least 20,000 Lucid vehicles as robotaxis over the next six years.

Those Lucid vehicles, which will consist of the automaker’s flagship Gravity SUV to begin, will hit public roads equipped with a Level 4 autonomous system called Nuro Driver. Nuro, the third partner in this equation, is a robotics company specializing in zero-occupant delivery vehicles, which garnered an existing partnership with Uber Eats as well as a “hefty” (yet undisclosed) investment from Uber Technologies.

Last month, Lucid delivered its first Gravity SUV to Nuro to begin the retrofitting process of the Nuro Driver system to support Uber’s hopes for a luxe robotaxi fleet. While the partners continue to work toward building an exciting new fleet of Lucid Gravity Robotaxis, Uber has shared the location where they will first go into service… Casper, Wyoming.

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Just kidding!

It’s the San Francisco Bay Area, of course.

Lucid-first-EV-Uber
Lucid Gravity SUV fitted with Nuro’s self-driving tech (Source: Lucid)

Uber to deploy Lucid Gravity EVs in Bay Area in 2026

Today’s update from Uber expands upon the ongoing partnership with Lucid Group and Nuro. According to the companies, the San Francisco Bay Area will be the first market where riders will see this next-generation autonomous robotaxi program in operation. That milestone is expected sometime in 2026.

Uber has shared that it has been updating policymakers and regulators at every level on the progress of its exclusive Lucid Robotaxis and continues to meet the operational requirements. Notably, Uber has shared that on-road development with the Lucid Gravity robotaxi engineering fleet is already underway in the Bay Area.

Furthermore, Nuro and Lucid intend to be operating over 100 Gravity robotaxis as part of the test fleet “in the coming months.” Lucid interim CEO, Marc Winterhoff, spoke about today’s announcement:

Lucid has always celebrated its California roots, and we’re thrilled to make the San Francisco Bay Area the first market for our new robotaxi on the Uber platform, powered by the Nuro Driver. Beginning next year, riders will experience a level of convenience, safety, and comfort unlike anything else on the road. We can’t wait to bring this service to life and expand it to communities across the country.

To build this fleet of Uber-exclusive robotaxis, the required hardware will be integrated into Lucid Gravity SUVS while they are still on Lucid’s assembly line in Arizona. Those builds will then be integrated with Nuro’s proprietary software when Uber officially commissions them.

All eyes on 2026 as we now know that residents around the Bay Area will be able to hail a driverless Lucid Gravity through the Uber platform. I’m very much looking forward to seeing this fleet in action.

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