Anthony Levandowski announces Pronto AI and makes a coast-to-coast self-driving trip

Anthony Levandowski is back in the self-driving space with a new company. Pronto AI. This Tuesday, he announced on a blog post on Medium that he has completed a trip across the country in a self-driving car without any human intervention. He is also developing a $5,000 aftermarket driver assistance system for semi-trucks, which will handle the steering, throttle, and brakes on the highway.

https://twitter.com/meharris/status/1075036576143466497

Previously, Levandowski has been at the center of a controversy between Alphabet’s self-driving car company Waymo and Uber. Levandowski had allegedly taken with him confidential documents over which the companies got into a legal battle. He was briefly barred from the autonomous driving industry during the trial. However, the companies settled the case early this year. After laying low for a while, he is back with Pronto AI and it’s first ADAS ( advanced driver assistance system).

“I know what some of you might be thinking: ‘He’s back?’” Levandowski wrote in his Medium post announcing Pronto’s launch. “Yes, I’m back.”

Levandowski told the Guardian that he traveled in a self-driving vehicle from San Francisco to New York without human intervention. He didn't touch the steering wheel or pedals — except for periodic rest stops — for the full 3,099 miles. He posted a video that shows a portion of the drive, though it's hard to fact-check the full journey. The car was a modified Toyota Prius which used only video cameras, computers, and basic digital maps to make the cross-country trip.

In the medium blog post, he also announced the development of a new camera-based ADAS. Named Copilot by Pronto, it delivers advanced features, built specifically for Class 8 vehicles, with driver comfort and safety top of mind. It will also offer lane keeping, cruise control and collision avoidance for commercial semi-trucks and will be rolled out in early 2019.

Alphabet’s Waymo to launch the world’s first commercial self-driving cars next month

Apex.AI announced Apex.OS and Apex.Autonomy for building failure-free autonomous vehicles

Uber manager warned the leadership team of the inadequacy of safety procedures in their prototype robo-taxis early March, reports The Information

Anthony Levandowski announces Pronto AI and makes a coast-to-coast self-driving trip

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