PHOENIX—An Arizona Uber driver involved in the first death connected to a fully autonomous vehicle will be tried in June on a negligent homicide charge. Rafaela Vasquez, 49, previously had been scheduled for trial next month in the March 2018 crash that killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg as she walked a bicycle outside the lines of…

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk on Tuesday said that the next generation small car the company is working on would operate mostly in autonomous mode, similar to a promise he made in 2020. On Tuesday he said there was a clear path to delivering a car that cost half as much to build as Tesla’s…

Cargo carrier Ameriflight has announced its $134 million deal to buy 20 autonomous regional freight aircraft from San Diego-based Natilus. The conditional purchase agreement marks Natilus’ first sale of its Kona 3.8T blended-wing-body (BWB) remotely-piloted aircraft to a U.S.-based company, according to a news release. “Through this strategic partnership, we are positioning Ameriflight to build…

Intel Corp.’s self-driving car unit, Mobileye, has confidentially filed paperwork for a U.S. IPO, Reuters reports. The IPO could value the Israeli unit at over $50 billion. Intel acquired Mobileye for $15.3 billion in 2017 to fire up rivalry with Nvidia Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. in developing driverless systems for automakers. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has been under pressure from activist…

Volkswagen AG. and German engineering and technology company Bosch have forged a software alliance to take the legacy automaker toward Level 4 autonomy. What Happened Cariad, the automotive software unit of Volkswagen, and Bosch announced Tuesday an extensive automotive driving partnership. The partnership will seek to make partially and highly automated driving suitable for volume…

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday touted the worthiness of autonomous vehicles just hours after the electric vehicle maker raised the price of its full self-driving (FSD) software package price to $12,000. What Happened The 20 percent jump in FSD package pricing was introduced a day later than scheduled and includes no change in…

BERLIN—Germany’s car watchdog has cleared Mercedes-Benz’s semi-autonomous driving system, paving the way for the Daimler AG subsidiary to begin offering its Drive Pilot system internationally. The highly automated system allows the driver to focus on other activities while a car equipped with the technology is in heavy traffic or on congested highways, Mercedes-Benz said in…

SAN FRANCISCO—Self-driving tech startup Nuro said on Wednesday it was rolling out California’s first commercial autonomous delivery service in partnership with 7-Eleven, a convenience store operator. Nuro and rivals such as Waymo are launching or planning to launch autonomous delivery services with regulatory approval in the United States, though the services are limited or not…

SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco transport authorities on Thursday raised concerns about the safety record of Tesla’s advanced driver assistant system, as the electric car maker prepared a wide release of a test version of the software that works on city streets and highways. The San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) also disputed the name of the…

MUNICH—Volkswagen may have to spend more to deliver its planned transformation, the German carmaker’s supervisory board chairman said, particularly a shift towards autonomous driving. The world’s second-largest automaker, which plans to invest 150 billion euros ($178 billion) in its business by 2025, has repeatedly said that it can fund the transition towards electric vehicles and…