Press Clips

Expect faster cell phones, better weather forecasts and cashier-less stores in 2020

The San Diego Union Tribune | December 29, 2019

Better weather forecasts. Faster cellular service. Quicker wildfire detection. Easier ways to buy MTS passes. And speedy, cashier-free convenience stores. They're all coming in 2020, brought along by advances in science and technology, including many innovations that were made or shaped in San Diego, a mecca for research. The focal point is UC San Diego, which recently began using self-driving carts to deliver mail. It's also improving weather forecasting. And early next year, the school will open a retail store that doesn't need or use cashiers. Full Story

Study Finds TuSimple Trucks At Least 10% More Fuel Efficient Than Traditional Trucks

Yahoo! Finance | December 18, 2019

Autonomous trucking companies have long argued that self-driving technology will not only make trucking safer and more cost efficient but that it will also help reduce the amount of pollution commercial vehicles emit. Now a University of California San Diego study has substantiated some of those claims, with findings showing that autonomous trucks operated by self-driving startup TuSimple reduce fuel consumption of heavy-duty trucks by at least 10% and up to 20%. "We were surprised by the data," Henrik Christensen, director of the UC San Diego Contextual Robotics Institute Full Story

UC San Diego Rolls Out Self-Driving Mail Delivery Cars

7 San Diego NBC | December 13, 2019

These days, getting your snail mail at the University of California San Diego is pretty high-tech. For months, UC San Diego has been using self-driving cars to deliver mail on campus. Here's how it works: each morning, the car -- which has seating for four -- is loaded up with mail. The car's computer is programmed with the information that tells it where to go. Then - as a safety precaution - a driver hops on board, just in case anything goes wrong. Full Story

Hand-Tracking Tech Watches Riders in Self-Driving Cars to See If They're Ready to Take the Wheel

IEEE Spectrum | December 5, 2019

Researchers have developed a new technique for tracking the hand movements of a non-attentive driver, to calculate how long it would take the driver to assume control of a self-driving car in an emergency. If manufacturers can overcome the final legal hurdles, cars with Level 3 autonomous vehicle technology will one day be chauffeuring people from A to B. These cars allow a driver to have his or her eyes off the road and the freedom to do minor tasks. However, these cars need a way of knowing how quickly--or slowly--a driver can respond when taking control during an emergency. Full Story

Hand-Tracking Tech Watches Riders in Self-Driving Cars to See If They're Ready to Take the Wheel

IEEE Spectrum | December 5, 2019

Researchers have developed a new technique for tracking the hand movements of a non-attentive driver, to calculate how long it would take the driver to assume control of a self-driving car in an emergency. If manufacturers can overcome the final legal hurdles, cars with Level 3 autonomous vehicle technology will one day be chauffeuring people from A to B. These cars allow a driver to have his or her eyes off the road and the freedom to do minor tasks (such as texting or watching a movie). However, these cars need a way of knowing how quickly--or slowly-- Full Story