Autonomous

California began accepting applications April 2 for permits to deploy self-driving cars on public roads without a human backup driver at the wheel.

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U.S. lawmakers have applied a light touch in regulating robot cars. At the national level, the Trump administration has proclaimed that driverless-car guidelines should be “entirely voluntary” for automakers, and bills pending in Congress would clear the way to putting tens of thousands of autonomous cars on the road — orders of magnitude more than the few hundred in the country today — before federal safety regulations are set.

The only engineering facility built expressly to test self-driving vehicles will officially open April 4 at the historic 335-acre Willow Run site just west of Detroit.

Jarrett Cos. has purchased a 53-acre property in Seville, Ohio, that it expects eventually will be used by driverless, autonomous trucks.

Uber Technologies Inc. has found itself isolated a little more than a week after one of its self-driving SUVs hit and killed a pedestrian in Arizona.

Lior Ron, a central figure in Uber Technologies Inc.’s self-driving-truck project, left the company, said people familiar with the matter.

As the global auto industry vies to deploy driverless cars, some contenders may be cutting corners in a bid to get ahead, warned Jack Hollis, group vice president of U.S. sales for the Toyota brand.

Gradient Ventures, an early-stage venture fund within Google, is leading a $6 million investment in a new company that’s building software to let humans control cars remotely.

Two months after crediting Republican tax cuts with fueling new investment in Indianapolis, FedEx has canceled a plan to build a large new project in Greenwood, Ind.