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☆ Morgan Stanley says A.I. in China is at an inflection point — and names 3 stocks to play it
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

China's artificial intelligence evolution is at an "inflection point" — and the country is catching up with the U.S., according to Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley, in a separate note, flagged Baidu in particular as the best AI play in China, and the "most obvious beneficiary" of the $7.4 trillion AI opportunity in China. Baidu, China's largest search engine, owns the most extensive proprietary search data — and it's essential for the development of AI-generated content, Morgan Stanley noted. Morgan Stanley predicts that growth will be close to 50% in the next three to five years. Morgan Stanley gave Baidu a target price of $190, or 35% potential upside.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Alibaba, Tencent, Ernie, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: U.S, Stock, Baidu Locations: China, United States

☆ The future of travel: 10 concepts that will change the way we experience the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Kate Springer | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +22 min

Concepts that feel plucked from sci-fi novels and films are quickly making their way into mainstream travel, shaping every step of the journey. Seamus PayneLike air travel, eco-conscious hotels are paving the way for more sustainable travel in the future. HyperloopTTUS entrepreneur Elon Musk has been talking about hyperloop technology – an ultra-high-speed transport system in a low-pressure vacuum tube – for years. Meanwhile, Toronto-based TransPod hopes to bring hyperloop technology to Canada with its eponymous tube-based transportation system powered by renewable energy. By 2025, the company plans to build a 620-mile-per-hour TransPod link between Calgary and Edmonton, connecting the two cities in 45 minutes.

Persons: Elijah Nouvelage, Indira Gandhi, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Austin Farmer, we’ll, don’t, David ”, you’ll, Alexander the Great, ” Michael Breer, KAWS, collectables –, Breer, ” Breer, You’ve, ” Jetson, Peter Ternstrom, Apollo, Cruise, ”, what’s, Boom’s, –, Seamus Payne, room2, Marcel Breuer, Tesla, charades, Yusaku Maezawa, Elon Musk, hyperloop, Virgin Hyperloop, HyperloopTT, Hardt Hyperloop Organizations: CNN, Travel, Hartsfield, Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Bloomberg, Getty, Dubai International Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Indira, Indira Gandhi International, European Union, Emirates, Dubai International, American Airlines, United, Delta, Bluetooth, Alaska Airlines, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Specterras Productions, CNN Travel, VR, Aircraft, Federal Aviation Administration, Baidu, Hyundai, Las, CNN Travel ., Alphabet Inc, Beta, International Civil Aviation Organization, Alice, DHL, Air New, Concorde, Japan Airlines, Bauhaus, CEH Technologies, Origin, SpaceX, International Space, NASA, Galactic, Space Training Academy, Nastar Center, Boring Company, Virgin, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, China Morning Post, China Aerospace Science, Industry Corporation, European Hyperloop Center Locations: Singapore, Dubai, Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda, Delhi, London Heathrow, Paris, Dutch, Europe, Florence, Palmyra, Machu Picchu, New York, Ehang, China, Boston, Las Vegas, Motional, Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, North America, Austin, Beijing, Chongqing, Wuhan, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Mexico, Air New Zealand, Denver, New York City, Frankfurt, LA, Sydney, London, New Haven , Connecticut, Hungarian, Norway, Red, Saudi Arabia, Amsterdam, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Shanxi province, Netherlands, Toronto, Canada, Calgary, Edmonton

☆ Morgan Stanley calls this internet stock the 'best AI play in China,' sees more than 30% upside
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Analyst Gary Yu upgraded shares of the Chinese internet stock to overweight from equal weight and raised his price target by $30 to $190. That's because of its full-stack AI capabilities, commercial use cases, willingness to continue research and its development investments in the AI space. An early advantage and relatively lower regulatory hurdles should also help the company lead the pack, he said. "We believe China's AI evolution is at an inflection point, and BIDU is the best play to capture the US$7.4tn AI internet opportunity," Yu said in a note to clients Monday titled "The Best AI Play in China." Baidu shares are up nearly 27% year to date.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Gary Yu, Yu, Baidu, That's, —, Michael Bloom Organizations: Baidu Locations: China

☆ Elon Musk teases 2 new Tesla products
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk teased two new Tesla vehicles at the company's annual shareholder meeting. He said Tesla will "probably" sell at least 5 million units annually of the two models combined. Elon Musk threw a bone to Tesla fans eager to hear what's next from the company by confirming that the automaker is working on two new vehicles. Tesla says that a robotaxi is in development, so we can assume that's potentially one of the vehicles Musk referred to. And industry analysts say new products and facelifts are needed if Tesla wants to stay at the top of the EV heap.

☆ Video shows police yelling at a driverless Waymo taxi to stop before it runs over a fire hose
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Footage obtained by San Francisco news site Mission Local shows police trying to stop a Waymo driverless taxi. The driverless taxis ferrying passengers throughout San Francisco are a technological marvel — and sometimes a nuisance. Waymo operates autonomous taxis in San Francisco and Phoenix, and customers can hail rides through an app. As impressive as they are, the driverless taxis on roads today still have trouble reacting to unusual situations like blocked streets or commands from first responders. A recent viral Tik Tok video shows a police officer repeatedly gesturing for a Waymo taxi to pull over.

☆ A deep tech investor predicts these 3 AI startups will become the decacorns of this decade with valuations of over $100 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Amir Khan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Amir Khan is a deep tech investor who's known about ChatGPT for 10 years. OwkinA health tech startup called Owkin, based in Paris, France, is working to build an AI model in partnership with top academic researchers and data scientists. MotionalMotional is a Boston-based autonomous tech startup that is gaining traction by successfully running the world's first robotaxi pilot program. If you've seen the old Batman movies, you would know self-driving vehicles were promised to us in the early 2000s. NexarNexar, a New York-based startup, is also a company working to realize our self-driving car dreams.

☆ Tesla's not even in the top 10 of self-driving firms, according to experts who ranked all of the leading companies working on automation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Research firm Guidehouse Insights regularly ranks companies developing automated driving tech. Tesla didn't make this year's top 10, and ranked last of 16 companies assessed. Moreover, of the 16 companies recently ranked by research and consulting firm Guidehouse Insights (which ranks some of the biggest names working on automated-driving technology each year), Tesla came in last. Tesla ranked last in similar lists in 2021 and 2020. To come up with the list, Guidehouse weighs factors such as a company's vision, go-to-market and production strategies, partners, tech, commercial readiness, and more.

☆ Pony.ai gets permit for driverless robotaxi services in China's Guangzhou
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 26 (Reuters) - Robotaxi startup Pony.ai said on Wednesday that it had received a permit to operate fully driverless ride-hailing services in China's Guangzhou city. The Toyota Motor Corp-backed (7203.T) startup, which has operations in China and the U.S., now has permits for fully driverless robotaxis in China's capital Beijing and Guangzhou. Pony.ai started driverless testing in Guangzhou in June 2021 and has accumulated nearly 200,000 fee-charging robotaxi orders globally as of this month, the company said in a statement. Both companies won permits for driverless taxi services in Beijing last month. California-based Pony.ai's next generation robotaxi model has obtained on-road testing licenses in Beijing and Guangzhou, it said, adding that robotaxi services with the model were expected to commence in the near future.

☆ Cruise robotaxis now run all day in San Francisco, with public access after 10 p.m.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Kyle Vogt, CEO and founder of GM -owned autonomous vehicle company Cruise, announced Tuesday that the company's robotaxis are now running around the clock in San Francisco. The Cruise service is open to paying members of the public from 10 p.m. to 5:30am in the Northwest part of San Francisco, Cruise confirmed. People who are eligible to ride in the Cruise robotaxis during the day, and in other parts of the city, are not charged a fee. Across San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin, where Cruise is currently operating or testing its vehicles, there are around 240 driverless cars that run concurrently at night, with a majority in San Francisco. The company did not disclose how many robotaxis are in use in a typical day or night in San Francisco.

☆ Ark's Cathie Wood once again hypes Tesla – expecting her darling stock to hit $2,000 in five years thanks to a robotaxi boom
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Famed money manager Cathie Wood has made an eye-popping prediction about Tesla, once again. The Ark Invest CEO said the electric vehicle-maker's stock could hit $2,000 by 2027 on a robotaxi boom, per CNBC. Under her bear-case scenario, Wood sees Tesla stock hitting $1,400, while her bull case sees the automaker surging to $2,500. Each one of them now presents the potential for robotaxi and robotaxi fleet," Wood said. In February, the money manager also made a monster forecast for bitcoin, predicting the world's largest cryptocurrency could hit $1.5 million by 2030.

☆ Cathie Wood says Tesla could hit $2,000 by 2027 on robotaxi opportunity
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Ark Invest's Cathie Wood said Thursday her EV darling Tesla could hit $2,000 in five years on the back of a robotaxi boom. The innovation investor updated her price target for the Elon Musk company to $2,000 by 2027, a whopping 1,127% increase from Tesla's Thursday close of $162.99. Wood believes the robotaxi opportunity could deliver $8 trillion to $10 trillion in revenue by 2030. The innovation investor said she wasn't fazed by Tesla's first quarter earnings that triggered a near 10% sell-off Thursday. Each one of them now presents the potential for robotaxi and robotaxi fleet," Wood said.

☆ China's Didi Global to roll out self-developed robotaxis by 2025
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The company said that it is collaborating with multiple new energy carmakers in China on developing robotaxis. "We hope they can enter Didi's network and provide services by 2025," Didi Autonomous Driving COO Meng Xing said at a company event that was livestreamed online. He also showed off a robotaxi concept car called "Didi Neuron", with robotic arms that can help passengers pick up luggage. Didi allows users in some parts of Shanghai and the southern city of Guangzhou to hail self-driving cars through its main app. Swedish carmaker Volvo, owned by Geely (GEELY.UL), supplies Didi's self-driving fleet.

☆ China's Didi Global unveils robotaxi concept car called Didi Neuron
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

HONG KONG, April 13 (Reuters) - Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global showed off a robotaxi concept car it called "Didi Neuron" during a company event broadcast online on Thursday, which has robotic arms that can help passengers pick up bottles of water or carry their luggage. The blue and white vehicle was unveiled by Didi Autonomous Driving COO Meng Xing. Reporting by Josh Ye, writing by Brenda Goh; Editing by Bernadette BaumOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China's Zeekr launches electric SUV, targets Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Zoey ZhangCHENGDU, China, April 12 (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle maker Zeekr on Wednesday launched a compact, all-electric sport utility vehicle, as it targeted a premium market in China that has been dominated by German automakers. The Geely-owned [RIC:RIC:GEELY.UL] brand said it also planned to offer the SUV-styled Zeekr X and its Zeekr 001 EV sedan in Western Europe without saying when that would be. The company will start delivering the Zeekr X in China from June with a target of delivering 40,000 this year, An said. After Europe, Zeekr will target Asian markets outside China, An said without providing details. It sold 15,234 of its two existing models - the 001 sedan and the 009 multi-purpose vehicle - in the first quarter, accounting for just 2% of China's battery electric vehicle sales.

☆ Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi developing own driverless taxis, plans to roll them out in 2025
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi debuted the DiDi Neuron, a concept robotaxi. DiDi is working with Chinese carmakers to develop its own autonomous taxis which it is aiming to put into service in 2025. DiDi Global on Thursday said it is developing its own self-driving taxis alongside Chinese carmakers and it plans to roll them out in 2025 on its ride-hailing service. The Chinese giant's autonomous driving unit also showed off a concept robotaxi, or driverless taxi, called DiDi Neuron. DiDi set up its autonomous driving unit in 2016 and spun it off into a wholly-owned subsidiary in 2019.

☆ Waymo vehicles pull over in California due to fog
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 12 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) self-driving technology unit Waymo said on Wednesday that some of its vehicles in San Francisco encountered dense fog and briefly pulled over to the side of the road. The incident, which occurred at around 6.00 a.m. Pacific Time, impeded some traffic movement before the cars moved out of the area as the fog began to clear, Waymo said. "We have software updates planned to improve our fog and parking performance to address such situations in the future," the company said in a statement to Reuters. The company's cars use a system consisting of lidar sensors, cameras and radar sensors to perceive their surroundings. Last week, General Motors' (GM.N) robotaxi unit Cruise said it is recalling self-driving software in 300 vehicles after one of its driverless vehicles crashed into the back of a San Francisco bus.

☆ GM's Cruise recalls 300 self-driving vehicles to update software after bus crash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - General Motors' (GM.N) robotaxi unit Cruise LLC is recalling the automated driving software in 300 vehicles after one of its driverless vehicles crashed into the back of a San Francisco bus. The March 23 collision was the fault of a software error in a Cruise automated vehicle (AV) that inaccurately predicted the movement of an articulated San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority bus, Cruise said on Friday. The crash caused moderate damage to the Cruise but did not result in any injuries. Cruise in September disclosed that it recalled and updated software in 80 self-driving vehicles after a June crash in San Francisco that left two people injured. NHTSA in December opened a formal safety probe into the Cruise autonomous driving system after it received reports of incidents in which self-driving Cruise vehicles "may engage in inappropriately hard braking or become immobilized."

☆ Self-driving startup Venti raises $28.8 mln to speed up growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Nick Carey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Self-driving startup Venti Technologies said on Tuesday it has raised $28.8 million in Series A funding to speed up the growth of its autonomous vehicle (AV) business for customers the logistics and supply chain industry. Investors in the funding round included LG Technology Ventures, the venture capital arm of LG Corp (003550.KS) unit LG Group, and UOB Venture Management, the venture capital arm of Singapore's United Overseas Bank. Venti has been developing its self-driving for vehicles for the last three years at one of the world's largest container ports in Singapore and is already generating revenue. This year the company will deploy dozens of entirely self-driving vehicles, CEO Heidi Wyle told Reuters. Developing fully self-driving vehicles that can go everywhere has proven harder and more expensive than expected, but investors are continuing to fund startups that target simpler self-driving vehicle solutions far removed from pedestrians and other vehicles operated by humans.

☆ Cruise robotaxis blocked a road in San Francisco after a storm downed trees and wires
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

General Motors ' self-driving vehicle unit Cruise acknowledged that some of its cars stalled out on city streets in San Francisco following rainstorms that downed trees there on Tuesday night. After that, another tree on Polk and Clay streets fell into the street. In response, he said, the San Francisco Fire Department had blocked off Clay between Polk and Jones streets with caution tape. He said the driverless Cruise vehicles did not appear to detect and avoid the caution tape and bus wires properly, and instead became "tangled in them." Cruise has permits to test and deploy autonomous vehicles in San Francisco all hours of day and night, excluding heavy rain."

☆ Baidu's smart car business to test autonomous vehicles in Shanghai
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

[1/2] The Apollo logo is seen on a car of Baidu's driverless robotaxi service Apollo Go, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China February 24, 2023. REUTERS/Josh Arslan/File PhotoHONG KONG, March 22 (Reuters) - Apollo, Chinese tech giant Baidu's (9888.HK) smart car business, has received approval to be among the first companies to test fully autonomous vehicles in Shanghai, China's largest city, it said on Wednesday. The business currently operates driverless robotaxi services in specially designated areas of Wuhan, Chongqing and Beijing. Reporting by Twinnie Siu and Eduardo Baptista Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Baidu wins permit to offer driverless robotaxi service in Beijing city
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Baidu Inc FollowSHANGHAI, March 17 (Reuters) - Chinese search engine giant Baidu (9888.HK), said on Friday it had won a permit to provide a fully driverless ride-hailing service in the Chinese capital of Beijing. With the permit, Baidu's Apollo service will deploy 10 fully autonomous vehicles in a technology park developed by the government of Beijing, it said in a statement. The permit marks a step forward from December, when Baidu said it had been granted a license to test the service. Baidu will now operate driverless robotaxi services in three Chinese cities including Wuhan and Chongqing. The Beijing-headquartered company, which generates most of its revenue from its internet search engine, has been focused on self-driving technologies over the past five years as it looks to diversify.

☆ Baidu says it can now operate robotaxis in Beijing with no human staff inside
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Chinese tech company Baidu announced Monday it can sell some robotaxi rides without any human staff in the vehicles. BEIJING — Chinese tech company Baidu announced Friday it can now operate robotaxis in a part of the capital city of Beijing with no human staff or driver inside. The government approval initially covers 10 vehicles in the Beijing suburb of Yizhuang, which is home to many corporations such as JD.com. The suburb is the primary site of Baidu's robotaxi public road testing and operation in Beijing city. Public transport users can book heavily subsidized robotaxi rides through the companies' apps.

☆ GM's Cruise to focus on cost cuts as it ramps up robotaxis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Abhirup Roy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) last fall announced they would shutter their Argo AI self-driving unit and focus on driver-assistance technology that provided more immediate returns. Cruise's rival and Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) self-driving technology unit, Waymo, has this year laid off over 8% of its workforce. The company is also developing a fully autonomous vehicle called Origin from scratch without a steering wheel and with subway-like doors for rideshare and deliveries. "This is a really pivotal year for us that will really transform not just Cruise but the whole perception of autonomous vehicles." Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. auto safety regulators said Monday they are opening a probe into Amazon (AMZN.O) unit Zoox self-certification in 2022 of a robotaxi without traditional driving controls. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in September directed Zoox to answer questions about its basis for certifying the vehicle and that review is ongoing. NHTSA said Monday it is opening an audit query to determine whether the Zoox "certification basis depended upon unilaterally developed test procedures or determinations that certain standards were inapplicable due to the unique configuration of the vehicle." Reporting by David ShepardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Experts ranked the leading self-driving companies. Tesla didn't even crack the top 10.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Research firm Guidehouse Insights regularly ranks companies developing automated driving tech. Tesla didn't make this year's top 10, and ranked last of 16 companies assessed. That's despite CEO Elon Musk's confidence in his Full Self-Driving tech. Moreover, of the 16 companies recently ranked by research and consulting firm Guidehouse Insights (which ranks some of the biggest names working on automated-driving technology each year), Tesla came in last. Tesla ranked last in similar lists in 2021 and 2020.

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