TechCrunch Mobility: Blue-green is the color of autonomy

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U.S. federal safety regulators continue to tackle the sticky problem of autonomous vehicles, this time with a proposal that could signal to the public, quite literally, when a vehicle is operating autonomously. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed new lighting requirements for autonomous vehicles that include an option (dare I say a strong suggestion?) to use cyan-colored lights to signal when a vehicle is operating autonomously without a human occupant monitoring the road.

The agency is not proposing a mandate for blue-green lights. Importantly, under the proposal, the lights would be used when an AV is operating in autonomous mode. 

Still, federal regulators are clearly seeking some uniform way of identifying autonomous vehicles. 

The proposal establishes equipment specifications, including where the lights are mounted, the color they emit, and how they’re activated. It would also remove requirements for manually operated controls for turn signals, high beams, and hazard lights.

Under the proposal, the NHTSA suggests the lights be cyan (blue-green), remain steadily illuminated rather than flash, and be visible from the front, rear, and both sides. 

This latest proposal is one piece of a bigger effort to update regulations that help speed up the adoption of AVs while maintaining safety, according to NHTSA administrator Jonathan Morrison. 

The agency is already working on a federal automated vehicle framework and is trying to update federal motor vehicle safety standards, which already govern automakers today. For instance, FMVSS rules were not designed for vehicles like the Tesla Cybercab and Zoox robotaxi, which lack traditional, federally required equipment like pedals, steering wheels, and design features like side mirrors and rearview mirrors.

While the feds wrestle over regulating the future of transportation, GM laid out how it plans to be part of it. The automaker held its annual GM Forward event, and a lot of what was announced builds on last year’s push into AI. But now we have more details and dates. 

The U.S. automaker is overhauling the electrical and computational guts of its future vehicles in a bid to deliver faster software, more capable automated driving features, and a custom, conversational AI assistant that will change its 30-year-old OnStar service. 

This technological overhaul is set to debut in 2028 with the Cadillac Escalade IQ. The company will also roll out an autonomous highway driving feature in 2028 that will allow drivers to have their hands and eyes off the road and without the need to be ready to take over.

GM has also adopted enterprise AI across the company to slash its traditional four- to five-year development timeline in half. 

I have been around long enough to remember previous efforts at GM and other legacy automakers, all of which were interpreted as a bid to compete with Tesla. This time, GM seems to be preparing for a bigger fight.

Deals! Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

AI startups are getting snapped up across industries, including transportation. The latest example is Rivian’s acquisition of Third Dimension, a U.K. startup founded by veterans of the gaming and autonomous vehicle industries that uses AI to turn images and videos into lifelike 3D worlds.

This is all about simulation, and specifically the idea of taking driving data and bringing it into a virtual world that matches the physical world. Rivian’s head of autonomy, James Philbin, told me the company knew it needed a technology that could close the “sim-to-real gap,” meaning the data gap between real and simulated environments. 

Students of the AV industry will likely shout “Simulation is so 2017!” And yes, that’s true, simulation is a tool AV developers have relied on and continue to do so. The technology behind simulation continues to evolve, and startups like Third Dimension are ripe for the picking. 

The terms of the deal weren’t released. There are a few clues for what size of deal this may have been. Third Dimension previously raised a $7 million seed round, and it has about 15 engineers, and Rivian didn’t disclose this in an SEC filing (meaning it didn’t hit the bar for material information). 

Other deals that got my attention …

Ride-hailing company inDrive, known for letting passengers and drivers negotiate fares, is working with Chinese autonomous driving firm Pony.ai and Nvidia to begin testing robotaxis in Kazakhstan in 2027. The companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore bringing Pony.ai’s robotaxis to inDrive’s platform.

Reliable Robotics, a startup trying to commercialize autonomous flying technology that can be installed on existing aircraft, raised $115 million. The Series D extension round included $90 million in equity funding led by Nimble Partners and $25 million in debt from Silicon Valley Bank. The Series D round now totals $275 million and has pushed the startup’s valuation beyond the $1 billion mark. 

Notable reads and other tidbits Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

A group fighting robotaxis has some mysterious origins, the Washington Post reported. This reminds me of another anti-robotaxi group that I dug into earlier this summer called Coalition for Accountability and Road Safety, which was canvassing voters and posting on social media. My reporting discovered that the organization was registered to an employee of a New York lobbying firm that has previously been retained by several labor unions and the New York Black Car Operators’ Injury Compensation Fund. 

GM is closing a plant south of Detroit that assembled battery packs for Cadillac’s flagship EV, the Celestiq, and both electric drive units and battery packs for the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray. The closure is not related to GM’s electric vehicle strategy but because the lease on the site was nearing its end, according to a GM spokesperson.

Google is upgrading Gemini in vehicles with a personal intelligence feature that can draw on information from Gmail, Google Calendar, YouTube, Maps, Google Search history, and other connected Google services to understand your preferences, activities, and past experiences.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe shared his vision for how autonomy will allow his company to build radically different kinds of vehicles than the R1S electric pickup truck and R1S and R2 SUVs it makes today. All eyes are on R4. 

Tesla and SpaceX reported third-quarter earnings this week, and comments by Elon Musk, who is CEO of both companies, has kicked merger talk into fifth gear. Musk said the boards of each company have formed special committees to review a merger. 

Meanwhile, SpaceX’s AI business is booming, generating $7.5 billion in revenue, and now makes up 52% of the company’s income. And Tesla’s revenue, across its segments, was flat, while the company’s expenses grew. The upshot: Profits fell 43% year-over-year. Musk is very much focused on the company’s AI and robotics future, though. Tesla started production of its Optimus humanoid robot, reported rosy FSD subscription growth even as the “unsupervised version” was delayed to Q2 next year, and said it plans to start selling its Cybercab to customers by the end of the year. As senior reporter Sean O’Kane wrote: Tesla is prepping for a Cybercab onslaught.

Waymo keeps expanding within cities it already operates and into new ones. The company said it plans to launch a robotaxi service in Spain, starting with Madrid. It expects to open it up to riders in 2027. Closer to home, Waymo is now shuttling customers to and from the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.

One more thing …

TechCrunch Disrupt just wrapped and I am already preparing for another event. This time, it is the Founder Summit — a one-day event in Boston focused on, you guessed it, founders. This event, taking place November 4, is valuable for startup founders, aspiring founders, and investors. Attendees can expect advice-driven talks from VCs and serial founders, plus lots of chances to network. 

And I will be there! Come say hi. To help make that happen, I will give TechCrunch Mobility readers a 30% discount on tickets. Click this link and use the code mobility30. 

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