We heard about this company whilst researching other small technology companies in the automotive space - and with the constant chatter about autonomous cars, here at Motoring Weekly, we felt that we should look at those companies that aren’t so well known today. Drive.ai was spawned from the Stanford University where the Artificial Intelligence Lab was developing systems. Moving to Mountain View in Silicon Valley in 2015, the original idea was to retrofit their kit to existing cars - a path that many of the autonomous vehicle platforms tried and moved away from. Only Waymo appears to be the only one travelling this path with their announcement to take production cars and add to them. Drive.ai says that they are building the “brain of self-driving vehicles” and secured $12M in funding during 2016 and then followed that up a year later with an extra $50M. They have also recently received a further $15M to continue their development which appears to be going rather well. … [Read More...]
Industry
Ex Chrysler Dealers Sue US Government
64 ex Chrysler dealers in the US have started a court case against the US Government when their franchises were cancelled in 2009 during the restructuring of the marque.
Jaguar Land Rover Wins Fight Against LandWind
Jaguar Land Rover wins a copycat case in a Chinese court against LandWind who had taken the Range Rover Evoque design and cloned it.
The Mazda Toyota Twins
Toyota is buying a Mazda and rebadging it for the small city car market in the US. It is a cost-effective way of keeping in a market segment with a reliable product.
FCA Settles Incorrect Sales Numbers Lawsuit
FCA has settled another lawsuit, this time relating to incorrect monthly sales figures. In fixing this problem, they have created more lawsuits!
Technology
JETCharge – A Pioneer in Electric Charging Infrastructure
JET Charge is an Australian provider of electric vehicle charging infrastructure technologies. They are a pioneer in this field and will help the growth of EV sales.
Jaguar C-X75 Engine
The Jaguar C-X75 concept was used in the James Bond film, Spectre. The car had three different power sources during its life: a diesel turbine powering batteries and electric motors, a petrol 4 cylinder with two additional electric motors and a traditional 5-litre V8.
Rack and Pinion Steering
Rack and Pinion Steering helped cars to improve their directional changes in a lighter more efficient way. It is based on a theory patented over a century before the steering mechanism was put into production.
The Duke Engine
Duke in New Zealand has developed an axial five cylinder engine that is highly efficient, lightweight and compact. It could be the next generation power unit.
