During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Aptiv, which is a global technology company that develops automated driving technologies, and Lyft will partner to demonstrate a “first-of-its-kind fully automated point-to-point ride-hailing experience” known as the Aptiv-Lyft CES 2018 Automated Experience. Building off of previous CES drives performed by Aptiv, including a 6.3-mile driving loop of city streets and highways in 2017, the Aptiv-Lyft CES 2018 Automated Experience will demonstrate Aptiv's automated system and Lyft's user platform to offer rides to more than 20 destinations throughout Las Vegas.

A research team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed the first unmanned car in Hong Kong. The research team from the Robotics Institute at the HKUST developed an “advanced unmanned passenger vehicle system” made up of several subsystems, ranging from the sensor systems to the dynamic modelling. Among its many capabilities, the unmanned car can avoid obstacles as it travels using LiDAR (laser range finders), which achieves the perception of the obstacles, and can measure the surroundings 100 times per second. The perception system, which is three-dimensional, generates more than 100,000 points per second, “indicating the pose of the vehicle to the surroundings.”

On Oct. 4, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved a bill to help get self-driving cars on the road. While the bill still has to clear a Senate vote, it appears to be on the road to passage. Via Reuters, John Thune, the Republican who chairs the Commerce Committee, says, the bill “underscores the bipartisan desire to move ahead with self-driving vehicle technology.... The safety and economic benefits of self-driving vehicles are too critical to delay.”

Ford and Lyft have announced a new partnership that will “help both companies progress toward a more affordable, dependable and accessible transportation future” using self-driving vehicles, according to Sherif Marakby, Ford Vice President, Autonomous Vehicles and Electrification.