Waymo and JB Hunt are working together to test autonomous trucks in Texas. The Alphabet company will use its self-driving big rigs to haul freight for one of JB Hunt’s customers in Texas.
In an interview with Germany’s
Manager Magazin, Waymo CEO John Krafcik has said that Tesla’s approach with its Autopilot system is not the right approach to achieve a fully autonomous vehicle. “It is a misconception that you can simply develop a driver-assistance system further until one day you can magically jump to a fully autonomous driving system,” Krafcik said.
Currently, all new Tesla cars come as standard with the necessary hardware for Autopilot and some basic driver-assistance functions, although additional features cost extra to be activated. The latter is part of the company’s Full Self-Driving Capability (FSD), which require an additional USD10,000 (RM40,470) at purchase. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently tweeted the availability of Full Self-Driving Capability (FSD) later this year as a paid subscription service.
On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
1 (ARP Act) into law, which provides approximately $1.9 trillion in financial assistance to individuals and industries impacted by COVID-19. The ARP Act continues certain payroll support programs contained in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act
2 (CARES Act) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
3 (CA Act), and provides an additional payroll support program that includes certain other entities in the aviation industry that were previously ineligible for financial assistance.
Specifically, Section 7202 of the ARP Act establishes a $3 billion payroll support program within the Department of Transportation (instead of the U.S. Treasury) that will provide grants to eligible aviation manufacturers and MROs to compensate “eligible employee groups.” Further, as the funds provided under the CA Act’s Payroll Support Programs were expected to be exhausted and the furlough protect