Autonomous driving software specialist Plus has announced a long-term partnership with several commercial fleet developers under the Traton Group, including MAN, Scania, and Navistar, to deploy Level 4 autonomous trucks globally. Public road testing is already underway on two continents.
Plus is a global provider of autonomous driving solutions headquartered in Silicon Valley alongside operations in both Europe and Australia. The company specializes in next-generation safety systems, automation like PlusDrive, and its Level 4 driverless technology SuperDrive.
The startup’s proprietary autonomous tech has garnered interest from several commercial vehicle developers, including partnerships with Bosch, IVECO, Nikola, and Luminar, to name a few. Additional partners include multiple brands under the umbrella of commercial vehicle manufacturer Traton Group, like MAN, Navistar, and Scania.
Today, Plus announced an extended partnership with those brands to develop and deploy Level 4 autonomous trucks globally; testing is already underway.
Source: Plus
Plus is testing Level 4 autonomous trucks in US and Europe
Plus shared details of its new multi-year Level 4 autonomous truck deployment via press release this morning, stating its new partners will use their existing autonomous-ready base vehicles to be implemented with Plus’ SuperDrive driverless software and hub-to-hub operations. Plus co-founder and COO Shawn Kerrigan spoke about the partnership:
Plus is thrilled to have our industry leading autonomous driving software be chosen for the Traton Group’s impressive portfolio of storied and trusted global commercial vehicle brands across Scania, MAN, and Navistar. Together we will accelerate the global commercialization of Level 4 autonomous trucks and bring to market safer and more sustainable transportation solutions. By expanding our autonomous hub-to-hub program, we are taking a leading position in providing autonomous solutions to our customers.
Plus followed by stating that Traton Group trucks have already been equipped with its Level 4 autonomous technology and are already being tested on public roads in Europe and the US (with a safety monitor present onboard).
The public road testing stems from a joint development between Traton Group and Plus that has been in the works for the past year, including tests in busy freight corridors around Texas. Following today’s expanded partnership, Plus says the Traton Group brands will pilot commercial operations of Level 4 autonomous trucks through 2024.
From there, the partners intend to begin series production and globally deploy the commercial vehicles at scale. Those expansions will continue incrementally along “strategic US corridors,” as well as testing between Södertälje and Nyköping in Sweden for the European routes. Plus states that European fleet customers should also see pilot operations begin sometime in 2024.
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Tesla (TSLA) is reintroducing Full Self-Driving (FSD) transfers and offering $2,000 loyalty discounts on the new Model Y to existing owners amid a demand surge.
Now, Tesla has pulled new demand levers to drive sales of these vehicles.
First, last night, Tesla began sending emails to early Model Y owners in the US, offering them a $2,000 discount on upgrading to the new Model Y.
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This is an unusual type of discount for Tesla and a significant one.
On top of the direct loyalty discount, Tesla also announced that it is bringing back “FSD transfer” on all vehicles in the US:
‘Vox populi, Vox Dei’. Tesla says that it’s by popular demand that it is coming back, but that’s true. It’s because Tesla needs it.
If it were by popular demand, FSD transfer would always be available to Tesla owners as long as Tesla hasn’t delivered on its promise of delivering unsupervised full self-driving. That would simply be the right thing to do and what most owners, who are not also Tesla shareholders, have been asking for years.
But instead, Tesla is using its own inability to deliver a product it promised and sold as a way to create more demand for its newer vehicles.
In the summer of 2023, CEO Elon Musk finally agreed to allow FSD transfers after owners had asked him for years, but not because it was the right thing to do. Instead, he said it would be a “one-time amnesty” for a single quarter. Tesla used this to boost sales in the quarter.
Tesla ended up bringing back the incentive four more times when it needed to boost orders, making Musk a liar for saying it would only be for a quarter. By claiming it’s only for this one time, Tesla is creating urgency in trying to get people to upgrade – instead of doing the right thing and offering everyone who bought FSD the ability to transfer until Tesla actually delivers on its promise.
Electrek’s Take
‘Vox populi, Vox Dei’. That’s funny. It’s Latin for “the voice of the people, the voice of God.” But it should be more “vox necessitatis, vox pecuniae,” which is “the voice of necessity, the voice of money.”
That’s not by popularity. If Tesla were doing what owners wanted and what is right, FSD transfer would be permanent and available to any Tesla owner who purchased the FSD package, until Tesla delivers on what it promised.
Tesla is doing this now because it needs it. It already has no backlog of orders for the new Model Y in the US and it is testing out these incentives before going back to offering 0% financing, likely in the coming weeks.
Something interesting to note is that these incentives are both technically loyalty incentives, as they apply to existing owners.
Tesla used to have incredible customer loyalty, but that has changed in the last few months due to Elon Musk.
I’d be curious to see how successful they are and if it can convince some people who swore off Tesla because of Musk to actually get another one.
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This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time, that includes a new cargo e-bike launch from Tenways, Lime bringing its new e-bike and e-moped to its larger fleets, testing a 100 mile e-bike, California’s e-bike vouchers are set to open again in another lottery round, a new electric unicycle from InMotion, and more.
Today’s episode is brought to you by retrospec—makers of sleek, powerful e-bikes and outdoor gear built for everyday adventure.Electrek listeners can get 10% off their next ride until May 8th with the exclusive code ELECTREK10 only atretrospec.com.
The Wheel-E podcast returns every two weeks on Electrek’s YouTube channel, Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
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After the show ends, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
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Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the Wheel-E podcast today:
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 9:00 a.m. ET (or the video after 10:00 a.m. ET):
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This one’s pretty simple, kids – it’s exactly what it says on the tin: a Polestar 2 owner took to the Polestar subreddit this week claiming that the window glass in his new EV actually stopped a bullet from hitting him. Plus, he says he’s got the pictures to prove it. (!)
The brand may be evolving into its own, but the OG Polestar 1 and Polestar 2 were little more than hot electric versions of Volvo cars – and Volvo cars are known throughout the world for their secure, planted feel on the road and absolutely bananas high-tensile steel safety cages. As such, it should come as no surprise that the Polestar 2 is one of the safest sedans on the road today … but is the car really bulletproof?
That’s what one redditor is claiming after his window was hit by what they believed to be a stray bullet just five days after taking delivery.
Now, that was fun, sure – but it’s worth noting that a number of commenters claiming alternately that there’s no way this was a .22 caliber bullet (certainly not a .22 WMR) or that it was a stray shot from very far away. The consensus seems to be that a .177 caliber air gun pellet is most likely to blame, but my money is on a small piece of stone or gravel kicked up at a weird angle from a nearby vehicle.
Regardless, it seems like CptMerica29 is A-OK, and their Polestar 2 hardly seems worse for wear, either. Here’s hoping it’s the last time we have to have a debate about what kind of bullet was being fired at an EV driver for a long time.
If you’d like to try your hand at driving a Polestar 2 through a volley of flying debris and other assorted projectiles and letting us know how you do, click the link below to score a great deal on one near you (while you still can):
Disclaimer
I would like to believe this is obvious, but there’s a “do not use batteries as toothpaste” sticker on this pack of Duracell batteries for a reason, so I’m going to err on the side of caution here and tell any of you reading the above and taking it seriously that: I am kidding. That was a joke.
To be clear, it is my position that NO VEHICLE this side of a Mercedes-Benz EQS GUARD or Inkas Armored S Class is actually bulletproof – and that, yes, a .22 is a real gun with plenty of lethal stopping power and, also yes, a pellet gun can and has killed a lot of people. DO NOT SHOOT AT CARS, and do not sit in your cars and let others shoot at you if you can at all avoid it.