Uber’s self driving division has been in the receiving end of a lot of negative press in the past few years. From the horrible accident in 2018 to the recent criminal conviction of its chief Anthony Levandowski, Uber’s self driving division investors are pressuring the CEO to restructure and re-evaluate its self-driving strategy, Bloomberg reported. Not only will the self-driving unit run out of funding in the next year, but they are also lagging behind their competitors. Experts are describing possible (if not probable) scenario where Waymo and Amazon will develop their own networks leading Uber to become irrelevant.

Hawaii is starting to look at autonomous vehicles more seriously. Governor David Ige approved AV testing on public roads effective immediately, StateScoop reported. The move comes just a week after the announcement of a four-year pilot turning the highways of the island into huge data-collection machines. Whether or not the state’s infrastructure is attractive enough to lure in AV developers remains to be seen but talks between the state and various partners have already begun.

The subscription service model is spreading, and has now even reached autonomous vehicles. AV company StreetDrone has launched the first subscription-based self-driving software solution, AutomotiveWorld reported, and is aiming for a specific slice of the market. Their product called Enterprise Aslan is targeting slow driving environments like parking management, campus transports or various types of deliveries and freighting. While the low cost and ease of implementation is appealing, the solution that StreetDrone is offering is open source and could spark interesting developments if we were to see some level of industry adoption.

Two companies have partnered in the hopes of bringing robotaxis to Dubai by 2022. Israeli company Mobileye and the UAE’s Habtoor Group partnership is part of the very recent agreement to normalize relations between the two countries, The Chronicle Herald reported. Mobileye already has similar agreements and partnerships in France, Japan and South Korea, and has declared enthusiasm to bring their technology to such an advanced city like Dubai.

Image Credit: Intel

A Canadian driver was charged with dangerous driving as his Tesla broke the speed limit while he was sleeping, Inquirer reported. The vehicle was traveling at 30km/h over the speed limit on a rural highway when police officers encountered the situation, and both passengers where lying down with the seats completely reclined. This type of usage of these vehicles is not very surprising however, as most people are looking into self-driving car to relieve some of the stress and focus necessary in driving. Autonomous vehicle are marketing themselves a bit too convincingly when the general public might not be receptive to the nuances of the various levels of AI.