Even as electric vehicles account for a growing share of U.S. new-car sales, significant charging hurdles hold back interest, especially among renters and condo dwellers. Home equipment, typically in an owner’s garage or within easy driveway access, supports 84 percent of all EV charging in the U.S., according to a 2022 J.D. Power study. But
Harman International acquired Israeli startup Caaresys for its car-occupant monitoring system. Caaresys’ technology uses low-emission radar to monitor adults and children in a vehicle cabin, marking the locations of passengers and measuring their vital signs, such as respiration and heart rate. Harman said the company is working with major automakers to provide a production-ready system
Nearly every autonomous driving developer envisions transporting food or other goods in its deployment plans. Despite being a subsidiary of Amazon, Zoox has only one thought: carrying passengers. “We’re really focused on moving people around cities,” Zoox co-founder Jesse Levinson told Automotive News. Package delivery is “not in the immediate roadmap,” he said. While they
Apple’s new version of CarPlay is designed to take over every screen on the dashboard, replacing user interfaces and controls while gaining access to crucial vehicle and driver data. It’s likely to launch a turf war with automakers reluctant to give up such valuable real estate. Where drivers view extending iPhone functions into the dashboard
Automakers want to tap space-based communications to obtain precise positioning data and more robust connectivity for vehicles that will increasingly drive themselves. As such, Toyota Ventures joined a 2021 funding round to invest in Xona Space Systems, a San Mateo, Calif., startup that plans to launch low-Earth orbit satellites. Last month, Mercedes-Benz held a Car2space
Electric vehicle owners are dealing with a large number of inoperable charging stations and a slow rollout of public charging infrastructure, hurdles that could hamper adoption even as the technology looks to be gaining momentum. EVs accounted for about 5 percent of U.S. new light-vehicle registrations during the first half of this year, up from
It’s hard to imagine now that Apple CarPlay is in 98% of new vehicles, but when the feature was first introduced in 2014 automakers worried about the data Apple – and Google with Android Auto – would be able to access. German automakers in particular expressed alarm and Toyota held off adding CarPlay until the
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Automotive sensor startup Compound Eye has unveiled a VIDAS development kit, allowing automakers and suppliers to test the system that creates lidarlike imaging for less cost. Compound Eye designed VIDAS, which stands for visual inertial distributed aperture system, to work with the cameras automakers are adding to light vehicles with advanced
Sono Motors has debuted the production design of its Sion, a battery-electric crossover that uses solar cells to generate electricity and extend range. The Munich-based startup, which trades on the Nasdaq under SEV, pitches the Sion as “the world’s first affordable solar electric vehicle.” At a Munich event Monday, Sono also unveiled a solar kit
Parking is a pain point that technology has tried to solve with solutions such as automated attendants, cameras and even sensors on cars used to recognize empty on-street spaces. But beyond app-based payments, technology has not moved the needle in terms of transforming parking the way, say, ride-share has altered the taxi industry. For those
