California regulator probes crashes involving GM’s Cruise robotaxis

A Cruise self-driving vehicle, which is owned by Typical Motors Corp, is viewed exterior the firm’s headquarters in San Francisco the place it does most of its testing, in California, U.S., September 26, 2018. REUTERS/Heather Somerville/File Photograph/ Receive Licensing Rights

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 18 (Reuters) – California’s autos regulator mentioned on Friday it is investigating “modern regarding incidents” involving autonomous vehicles operated by Standard Motors (GM.N) device Cruise in San Francisco and questioned the corporation to take 50 percent its robotaxis off the roadways.

The assertion from California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) came right after a Cruise robotaxi was associated in a crash with an unexpected emergency vehicle in San Francisco late on Thursday, the most up-to-date accident involving the self-driving vehicles.

The regulator also said it has asked Cruise to right away reduce its lively fleet of autos by 50% until eventually the investigation is comprehensive and Cruise takes steps to make improvements to highway safety. Cruise has agreed to a 50% reduction, it extra.

“The DMV reserves the suitable, next investigation of the facts, to suspend or revoke screening and/or deployment permits” if it is established to be an unreasonable hazard to community security, the regulator claimed in a statement.

Cruise stated just one of its autos “entered the intersection on a environmentally friendly mild and was struck by an emergency automobile that appeared to be en route to an emergency scene” after 10 p.m. on Thursday (0500 GMT Friday).

The car or truck “did establish the risk of a collision and initiated a braking maneuver, lowering its velocity, but was finally unable to avoid the collision,” the firm, which is investigating the incident, explained in a assertion on Friday.

Original investigation shows the collision occurred when a fire truck was working in an unexpected emergency with its ahead going through pink lights and siren on, the San Francisco Law enforcement Division explained in a assertion to Reuters.

The police said the sole passenger in the autonomous car or truck (AV) was transported to a regional hospital with non-life-threatening accidents.

The California General public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last 7 days voted to let robotaxis from Cruise and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Waymo to work at all hrs of the day through San Francisco and cost passengers for rides regardless of sturdy opposition from inhabitants and town businesses.

The two have been managing robotaxi tests constrained by times and geographic areas within just San Francisco.

Town Attorney David Chiu requested the CPUC on Thursday to halt its determination even though the metropolis information for a re-hearing. “We have found that this technological innovation is not however prepared, and inadequate AV effectiveness has interfered with the existence-saving operations of very first responders. San Francisco will endure serious harms from this unfettered expansion,” he claimed in a assertion.

Reporting by Abhirup Roy and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco modifying by Diane Craft and Sonali Paul

Our Expectations: The Thomson Reuters Belief Concepts.

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Mullen Automotive Provides Fiscal Third Quarter Results and Current Business Update

Mullen Automotive, Inc.

Mullen Automotive, Inc. Announces Major Milestones of Moving from Protype to Production for Class 3 Commercial Vehicles and Recording First Revenues

BREA, Calif., Aug. 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle (“EV”) manufacturer, today announced financial results for its fiscal third quarter for the three and nine months ended June 30, 2023.

Recent Company Updates:

The Board of Directors of the Company has authorized a stock buyback program, pursuant to which the Company may, until December 31, 2023, purchase up to $25 million in shares of its outstanding common stock. The shares may be repurchased, from time to time, in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions depending upon market conditions and other factors, and in accordance with applicable regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The authorization of the stock buyback program does not obligate the Company to purchase any shares and may be terminated or amended by the Board at any time prior to its expiration date.

The Company ended fiscal third quarter on June 30, 2023, with stockholders’ equity of $351.8 million, compared to $157.0 million on Sept 30, 2022, which represents an increase of 124%.

During the quarter ended June 30, 2023, the Company successfully secured $100 million in funding from its Series D preferred stock investors which completes all remaining investment obligations to the Series D holders. With this latest investment, the Company’s cash and cash equivalents exceed $200 million as of July 3, 2023, bolstering our liquidity and supporting our move from prototype to production for commercial vehicles.

During the quarter ended June 30, 2023, the Company recorded its first revenues on the sale of Campus EV Cargo Vans.

The Company will host a commercial EV production launch event on August 24, 2023. This event will commemorate the production of our first Class 3 commercial vehicles and showcase the Tunica, Mississippi commercial assembly plant. Select media, customers, dealers, suppliers, and local government leadership have indicated plans to attend.

Mullen will be resuming its Mullen “Strikingly Different” tour this summer, featuring additional EV vehicles, including the Mullen FIVE EV Crossover, FIVE RS High Performance EV Crossover, Mullen GT Electric Sports Car, Mullen ONE Commercial Class 1 EV Cargo Van, Mullen THREE Commercial Class 3 Electric Truck, and Bollinger B2 Pickup Truck. The second stage of the tour starts on August 20, 2023, in Austin, Texas and will span multiple U.S. cities, showcasing Mullen’s cutting-edge electric vehicles to a broad audience.

In July 2023, Mullen announced that Bollinger Motors, in which the Company holds a majority ownership, has received final approval for a $3 million grant from the state of Michigan. This grant aims to promote job creation and economic development, further solidifying Mullen’s commitment to driving progress and growth in the electric vehicle industry.

Mullen implemented a 1-for-9 reverse stock split (“Reverse Stock Split”) of its common stock on August 11, 2023, in an effort to regain compliance with Nasdaq’s $1.00 minimum

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Aska Resurrects the Guarantee of a Traveling Motor vehicle

  • Northern Californian firm Aska confirmed this prototype of a traveling auto in the course of Monterey Vehicle Week that it hopes to create inside of two to a few several years.
  • The Aska A5 traveling car or truck can choose off both of those vertically and horizontally, an enhancement on the “flying car” idea.
  • The system is to use these planes as rentals or taxis, priced at close to $800,000, and 100 possible prospective buyers have now positioned reservations, a spokesman told Motor vehicle and Driver.

Traveling cars and trucks have been teased as a someday engineering for a long time, extensive ahead of self-driving cars turned the just-about-the-corner technology to chase. A number of, these as Terrafugia, produced real strides but, finally in no way manufactured it to current market. Now there’s a new participant promising to land the desire in two or a few years’ time.

Aska, a enterprise found in Northern California, has been engineering a remedy with a team of about 50 for the past six yrs, and we obtained a quick (land-certain) experience in its initially prototype through the Monterey Vehicle 7 days happenings. It is even now extremely early, and rough, but Aska has a more innovation on the flying-vehicle idea, as it can get off vertically as properly as horizontally like a standard aircraft. That signifies it could get in and out of substantially smaller sized areas. In fact, CEO and co-founder Dude Kaplinsky has grand visions of changing gasoline stations, a lot of of which he sees heading out of business enterprise with the transition to electrical cars and trucks, into landing pads for his development.

Dave VanderWerp|Car or truck and Driver

The Aska A5 will seat four, and is propelled by means of the air by 6 propellers, four of which can rotate from a vertical to horizontal orientation to facilitate the changeover from takeoff to flight. The Aska can also acquire off conventionally, in which circumstance its acceleration is boosted by an electric powered motor at every rear wheel. Power for the 5000-to-6000-pound craft—Kaplinsky claims the generation edition will be lighter—comes from a about 100.-kWh battery pack, with a fuel-driven vary extender to make a lot more electrical energy when required. Flying assortment is a claimed 250 miles with a 150-mph cruising velocity.

flying car at pebble beach 2023

Dave VanderWerp|Car or truck and Driver

To convert to driving configuration, the front and rear wings fold above the fuselage, which normally takes about a minute, and the wings have to be secured to hold them from bouncing about with road impacts. This is at the moment a handbook procedure, but an automobile-locking mechanism is right about the corner, in accordance to Kaplinsky. Definitely, a more accurate name is a “driving plane” alternatively than a “flying auto,” having said that, as the Aska is not going to meet up with all of the regulatory needs to be absolutely street lawful. In its place, it will be

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Qualcomm Boosts Escalating Automotive Business enterprise With Cadillac Earn

It is no surprise that Qualcomm is emerging as a dominant player in the automotive electronics house. Started to supply quality interaction to the cellular edge, Qualcomm discovered wonderful success in bringing connectivity and capacity to increasingly intelligent mobile gadgets. For a prolonged time, that gadget was your telephone. Which is transforming your car or truck is your greatest linked machine.

Qualcomm Enters the Car Business enterprise

Assisted driving (delivered by an innovative driver-aid program, or ADAS), the digital cockpit practical experience, and even cloud connectivity, are all central to a driver’s experience. These capabilities are also all enabled by complex digital devices that make the contemporary automobile look nearer to a rolling information centre than any standard notion of a “car.” There is an arms race in the automotive electronics space, with a handful of ahead-seeking technological innovation businesses chasing a sector expected to be worthy of an estimated $100B by 2023.

Qualcomm to start with entered the automotive section by selling its cell mobile phone know-how into the space. Modems offered a all-natural expansion into a specifically adjacent marketplace. More than time, Qualcomm expanded its choices into a complete range of automotive answers, such as ADAS, with its acquisition of Arriver as part of its Veoneer acquisition.

Qualcomm’s investments in automotive are shelling out off. In its latest earnings call, CEO Cristiano Amon explained to us that the enterprise had developed its automotive revenues by “double digits” year-more than-calendar year. In its modern earnings launch, Qualcomm claimed income for its automotive merchandise of $434M. Which is up 13% 12 months-in excess of-12 months.

There’s a lot more earnings to adhere to. Past September, Qualcomm explained to investors at its Automotive Investor Day that its layout gain pipeline is envisioned to provide $30B back again to the organization. That was nearly a yr ago the pipeline has undoubtedly grown.

The Snapdragon Digital Chassis

The Snapdragon Digital Chassis is Qualcomm’s umbrella established of alternatives for the linked car. The portfolio covers four necessary factors:

  • Snapdragon Automobile Connectivity is a complete portfolio of 4G/5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and positioning remedies.
  • Snapdragon Vehicle-to-Cloud supplies a program suite of integrated, adaptable services permitting automakers to offer around-the-air telemetry and linked functions.
  • Snapdragon Cockpit powers the driver-going through experience, enabling a application-outlined in-cabin working experience with a vary of hardware and software selections.
  • Snapdragon Journey: a scalable alternative stack customizable by automobile OEMs to provide automatic driving abilities ranging from standard AI inference and vision processing to entire-stack autonomous driving.

Specified the hugely specialized nature of the space, automotive is a current market necessitating deep partnerships with shoppers and other folks in the ecosystem. This is also legitimate of the cell telephone company. Qualcomm has spent its complete existence enabling, and becoming enabled by, other people in its market. The firm carries on to establish on that energy as it grows in the automotive sector.

Qualcomm’s listing of associates is expansive. It contains deep collaboration with the automakers, these

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Toyota claims battery breakthrough in possible raise for electric powered autos | Automotive marketplace

Toyota says it has created a technological breakthrough that will enable it to halve the body weight, sizing and charge of batteries, in what could herald a main progress for electrical cars.

The world’s 2nd biggest carmaker was previously pursuing a system to roll out autos with state-of-the-art solid-condition batteries, which offer you added benefits compared with liquid-centered batteries, by 2025.

On Tuesday, the Japanese corporation stated it had simplified production of the content employed to make them, hailing the discovery as a sizeable leap ahead that could substantially reduce charging periods and boost driving assortment.

“For both equally our liquid and our reliable-condition batteries, we are aiming to significantly adjust the situation where current batteries are as well major, weighty and highly-priced,” reported Keiji Kaita, president of the Japanese car firm’s investigate and growth centre for carbon neutrality. “In phrases of possible, we will aim to halve all of these elements.”

David Bailey, a professor of small business economics at the University of Birmingham, stated that if Toyota’s promises have been established, it could be a landmark minute for the long run of electrical automobiles.

“Often there are breakthroughs at the prototype stage but then scaling it up is tough,” he said. “If it is a legitimate breakthrough it could be a gamechanger, quite substantially the holy grail of battery automobiles.”

Kaita explained the firm had produced methods to make batteries far more sturdy and thought it could now make a solid-point out battery with a array of 1,200km (745 miles) that could charge in 10 minutes or much less.

The organization expects to be able to manufacture solid-state batteries for use in electric automobiles as shortly as 2027, in accordance to the Financial Occasions, which very first noted on Toyota’s claimed breakthrough.

Solid-condition batteries have been broadly viewed as a possible gamechanger for electric cars, promising to decrease charging instances, enhance capacity and reduce the fire hazard associated with lithium-ion batteries, which use a liquid electrolyte.

Nonetheless, solid-condition batteries have commonly been harder and costlier to make, limiting their commercial software.

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Asahi Kasei The united states, Inc. Expands Functions with a Point out-of-the-Artwork Novi Office environment to Bolster Automotive Sector Existence | News

NOVI, Mich.–(Company WIRE)–Jul 31, 2023–

Asahi Kasei The usa, Inc., the regional headquarters of the Asahi Kasei Group for North America, announces the productive relocation of its Novi Workplace to a more recent, bigger facility. This strategic shift is component of the company’s dedication to bolster marketing and advertising routines centered on the dynamic automotive marketplace.

This press launch characteristics multimedia. View the entire launch below: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230731260777/en/

Asahi Kasei America Novi Office environment

The industry of mobility has often been a essential aim for Asahi Kasei, renowned for its slicing-edge vehicle inside resources, plastic compounds, battery separators, and electronic factors. Asahi Kasei’s higher-good quality products have uncovered common adoption in a lot of car versions by main OEMs. As the industry ventures into the era of electrical car propulsion, the automotive elements and components landscape is transforming considerably. Asahi Kasei’s new, larger office environment will serve as a hub to showcase a number of supplies through this major surge in need.

By relocating to Novi, around Detroit, the team aims to foster stronger associations with major automakers and their in depth community of suppliers in the region. The expanded Novi Office environment will catalyze and strengthen promoting and sales promotion functions, enabling the adaptation to rising changes in desire quickly.

“We are fired up to embark on this journey of advancement and innovation. As the mobility entire world proceeds to speed up in various parts, Asahi Kasei is dedicated to developing a much better foundation for the foreseeable future. The business expansion permits us to reinforce collaborations with our esteemed OEM and Tier One particular associates even though showcasing our most up-to-date systems. It aligns with our progress approach, driving us to continuously provide revolutionary goods to an ever-transforming market,” mentioned Iichiro Kitsuda, Govt Vice President of Strategic Scheduling and Marketing for Asahi Kasei The usa.

The Novi Business office is a useful area in which people from Asahi Kasei Team functions all through North America and past, alongside with husband or wife providers and prospects, can occur collectively. The facility has been thoughtfully designed to host displays, activities, and complex demonstrations, delivering a platform to showcase Asahi Kasei’s merchandise qualities and features even though instantly knowledge customers’ evolving requirements. The Novi Business attributes a devoted solution showroom showcasing Asahi Kasei’s AKXY® POD motor vehicle inside idea and a demonstration vehicle presenting reducing-edge long run systems.

Over and above mobility, Asahi Kasei’s other business enterprise operations will use the Novi Business to examine new prospects, specifically in decarbonization, in close collaboration with the firm’s various business enterprise units and R&D capabilities headquartered in Japan.

The growth of the Novi Business reaffirms Asahi Kasei’s unwavering determination to becoming at the forefront of innovation, consistently providing earth-course items and alternatives to meet up with the ever-evolving demands of the automotive sector.

About Asahi Kasei

The Asahi Kasei Group contributes to everyday living and dwelling for folks all-around the environment. Given that its foundation in 1922 with ammonia and cellulose fiber enterprises, Asahi

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