driverless

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack today announced the establishment of a new Office for Future Transport Technologies, launched through a $9.7 million investment.

The manual gearbox might be living on a serious time overdraft in many parts of the world, but BMW’s M Division has no plans to stop offering it any time soon. When we spoke to boss Frank Van Meel at the launch of the M2 and M5 Competition earlier this week, he said we can expect to still have the option of a stick shift, even as the company moves to its new, modular fifth-generation architecture.

The Volvo XC90 is set to get some serious autonomous driving technology early next decade, according to a new report out of the US. Speaking with The Car Connection, Volvo's senior vice president, Henrik Green, said the next-generation XC90 will be able to transport "sleeping passengers" to their destination on "limited roadways" – likely referring to highways and freeways. In emergency situations, the system wouldn't default to driver control either.

Chinese brand Wey has revealed its latest creation – the X – an autonomous electric SUV concept bound for the 2018 Beijing motor show. While full details are yet to be revealed, the company has confirmed the X features artificial intelligence (AI) along with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technologies.

Uber has lost its autonomous driving permit in Arizona, after one of its self-driving cars struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona last week. Having welcomed the ride-hailing service to his state with open arms in 2016, Arizona Governor, Doug Ducey, used a letter to Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, to suspend its testing permit.