Archinect - News

BIG creates mirrored installation for Audi at Milan Design Week

2024-04-25T11:46:00-04:00

Bjarke Ingels Group has designed an installation for the car brand Audi, installed at Milan Design Week. Titled ‘Reflaction,’ a play on the words “reflection” and “action,” the installation seeks to convey how “our actions in the world reflect the very essence of our existence,” according to Audi.

Image credit: Audi House of Progress

The installation is configured as a ‘plus’ symbol when viewed from above, dividing the site into four spaces constructed from a minimal selection of materials. The walls of the installation are formed of 33 x 28-foot mirrors, which, according to Audi, “creates an immersive spatial illusion, highlighting the brand's continuous effort to overcome the limits of innovation.”

Image credit: Audi House of Progress

Each space is grounded in a particular theme, namely Community, Knowledge, Performance, and Digital. The Community section features a ‘circular forest’ of Japanese maples to provid...

Henning Larsen’s ‘forest canopy-like’ World of Volvo opens in Sweden

2024-04-16T11:52:00-04:00

The Henning Larsen-designed World of Volvo has opened in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Housed under an expressive timber canopy, the 237,000-square-foot building will serve as an experience center for the car brand Volvo, designed around “Scandinavian values of freedom of movement, access to nature, and openness and inclusion.”

Image credit: Rasmus Hjortshoj

The main timber structure is formed of glulam and cross-laminated timber, designed as three tree-trunk-like columns that fan out to carry the entire load of the roof while “enveloping visitors in a welcoming forest-like canopy.” The center’s round structure is intended to encourage visitors to create their own journeys through the building’s interior and exterior.

Image credit: Rasmus Hjortshoj

Inside, a series of spaces are contained to host cultural events, talks, and conferences, accommodating up to 1,100 people. Anchoring the structure is a 485,000-square-foot exhibition space...

Celebrated Italian design and automotive magnate Paolo Pininfarina passes away aged 65

2024-04-09T19:07:00-04:00

Paolo Pininfarina, the Italian business leader credited with expanding his family’s automotive enterprise into architecture and other areas of the design field, has died in Turin at the age of 65. The Pininfarina Chairman was known as a visionary who designed more than 600 cars after completing his engineering studies at the Polytechnic University in his home city.

"On behalf of the Board of Directors, the Board of Statutory Auditors, and all Pininfarina employees, I express deep sorrow and condolences for the loss of our dear Chairman," Pininfarina's CEO, Silvio Angori, said in a press release.

Light Towers by Pininfarina in Mérida, Mexico. Image courtesy Pininfarina

"We are all extremely grateful to Eng. Pininfarina for his extraordinary contribution to the company and for always passionately advocating for our history and corporate identity both in terms of style and ethical and behavioral choices," his statement continued. "I am personally grateful to him for confirming me in th...

The Motorist Won: Envisioning a vehicle-centric UK with Archinect Generative Futures finalist Kyle Branchesi

2024-02-13T19:32:00-05:00

Designer Kyle Branchesi has shared images from his latest creative experimentation with generative AI tools, a visual commentary touching on the debate over pedestrianism and motor vehicles happening currently within the UK.

For 'The Motorist Won,' Branchesi imagined a far-off dystopia plagued by vehicle traffic where historic streets and all visible landmarks are besieged by the hum of engines and blur of lights, making cities like London or Edinburgh the all-too-unfortunate casualties of what PM Rishi Sunak says is a "war" against cars.

The Motorist Won by Kyle Branchesi

Branchesi describes: "Amidst a political landscape where the 'war on motorists' is wielded as a populist tool, this series captures a future where this rhetoric has prevailed. The transformation of UK landmarks like Stonehenge into vast vehicular realms underscores the absurdity and danger of prioritizing short-term political gains over sustainable urban planning. These images mirror the contentious debates in the ...

Noise-disrupting fountains? Belgian cities are leading the world in anti-noise pollution urban strategy

2023-11-10T13:26:00-05:00

Noise pollution often underestimated but significantly impacting our lives, has become a pressing concern in major cities worldwide. From the bustling streets of Brussels to the vibrant ambience of Paris, urban dwellers are increasingly raising their voices against incessant noise.

Exposure to noise pollution above an annual average of 53 decibels has been shown to shorten lifespans for city dwellers. Brussels, where 70% of residents are at-risk, has begun experimenting with pleasing “soundscapes” among other, more practical interventions that include lower speed limits, added greenways, and pedestrianization strategies. Antwerp is also planning to test out a new “noise-disrupting fountains” concept this spring. Ghent, finally, is attempting to limit maximum facade noise to 65 decibels using a combination of traffic reduction and improvements to road surfaces.

FIAT unveils new La Pista 500 project, now Europe's largest public rooftop garden

2022-06-21T20:13:00-04:00

The mantle of international rooftop garden design might have a new crown jewel following Camerana&Partners’ completion of the La Pista 500 project for legendary Italian automaker FIAT in the country’s motorsports capital of Turin.

Promoted by the Pinacoteca Agnelli as a “manifesto of sustainability and inclusivity as well as a suspended public art project”, the project also serves to showcase FIAT’s new 500 model EV design while playing host to a series of art installations filled with approximately 40,000 plants. It is located atop the company’s historic 1923 Lingotto factory building (later converted into a mixed-use space by Renzo Piano) and retains, as a symbolic feature, the site’s original 1.1 km (.683 mile) long test track that starred in the 1969 crime caper The Italian Job.

Image: Marco Schiavone courtesy of Benedetto Camerana

That track is now the exclusive domain of electric cars (and other non-combustion engine vehicles...

Norman Foster says he still hasn't lost that old, familiar feeling

2022-04-05T12:03:00-04:00

If I enjoy doing what I do, why would I change it? Of course, at any point with any of us, there’s always the other side of the coin […] I get the same buzz from designing buildings, working with people, educational workshops, working with the UN heading their Forum of Mayors, engaging with civic leaders, writing, drawing, sketching. I’m privileged to have many such opportunities […] I think they’re my lifeblood, yes.”

Norman Foster, who will turn 87 this year, was at the Guggenheim Bilbao to talk to The Guardian’s Tim Lewis about his lifelong love of cars and upcoming exhibition there titled “Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture.” Foster told the writer he sees the exhibition as “almost like the requiem for the age of combustion,” adding that, at this point in his career, “I feel as young as the people that I’m working with and engaging with and sharing passions.”

Foster also discussed his reaction to some of the changes in worklife necessitated by the coronavirus, and the ability of his office to get back on its feet following a year of economic downturn.

Earlier on Archinect: Norman Foster on the impact of pandemics on our cities

“We were all surprised by the way in which the technology has worked,” he said. “And the energy and resourcefulness of the team. But I guess it’s also made us acutely aware of the importance of physically coming together. The lessons of history are that an event like that ...

Utah’s vaunted 'walkable city' still has tens of thousands of parking spots

2022-04-04T19:04:00-04:00

“It’s not that no one has a car,” said Peter Kindel, an urban design and planning principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill who helped create the framework plan for the site that project overseers approved last year. “We’re suggesting it’s more than possible to live with one car to make that big-box [store] trip or go skiing. But for families and young people that are going to be part of the community, they won’t need that on a day-to-day basis.”

The 600-acre The Point development in Draper, Utah, will replace an aging prison complex and will include some 40,000 parking spaces — a typical figure for a community of its planned size of about 13,000 residents.

Previously on Archinect: A '15-minute' planned community is set to rise in Utah

A forthcoming mobility study to be presented to the Point of the Mountain State Land Authority by the transportation consultancy Sam Schwartz is aiming to reduce that number by half via a high-tech admixture of electric scooters, planned bikeways, car-sharing, and (potentially) a fleet of self-driving buses.

“We want to push the envelope,” Point of the Mountain State Land Authority Executive Director Alan Matheson told Bloomberg, “but we also need to be practical.”

A long-shot referendum has Berliners dreaming about a car-free future

2022-01-19T13:25:00-05:00

Berlin’s regional parliament is considering creating a car-free zone in the German capital in response to a concerted push from a local advocacy group. The car ban would apply to the space ringed by the S-Bahn train line, which circles the city center, an area larger than Manhattan.

Berlin’s mayor called the plan “unrealistic” back in May, aligning herself with the rest of the Social Democrats, who were joined by every other major political party in the country in their lack of support for the measure at the time of the September elections. A small group of German cities has banned diesel engine cars since the end of 2018.

Activists in the country have been pushing for a car-free city since 2019 when a group of lawyers formally drew up a plan known as the Volksentscheid Berlin autofrei. The group has since grown to over 50,000 supporters (enough to trigger the referendum) who believe the forced change of habit is necessary to ward off a lackadaisical state where 37% of the population falls victim to what organizers call the “dictatorship of the car.”

“It’s as much about our immediate environment as it is about the environment at large,” one of the group’s founders told The Guardian in October. “It’s about how we all want to live, breathe, and play together. We...

NASCAR is converting the LA Coliseum into a short-track race venue

2022-01-10T19:22:00-05:00

The track will only have two weeks to set and cure before the February 6 weekend race, which is about half the normal time, but he doesn’t expect any issues. Temporary barriers, like those used on a street circuit, will be installed to define the oval, which was designed with help from simulations conducted on the iRacing platform. A pit lane won’t be required as the Clash will consist of several short heat races and a non-stop main.

The quarter-mile track project cost about $1 million (which is apparently the going rate for a mile of paved road in the US). 1,560 tons of high-performance asphalt was poured to make the track after a protective layer of plywood and other materials was placed over the original natural grass field along with a five-inch thick layer of dirt.

The 2028 Olympics venue recently underwent a $315 million renovation that modernized the 99-year-old stadium. NASCAR has yet to confirm a 2023 edition of the short track race that would coincide with the Coliseum’s centennial celebration. The race could be seen as a success depending on whether or not it draws to the building’s 93,000-seat capacity.

The executive in charge of the installation told the New York Post he was optimistic about the event, although certain fans don't seem to be sharing his enthusiasm.

Rogers Partners is helping one of America's premier folk art destinations expand in Houston

2021-11-18T14:19:00-05:00

One of America’s premier folk art institutions is getting a major expansion for the first time thanks to a newly-unveiled design from Rogers Partners.

The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art opened in 1980 and is dedicated to outsider and folk art.

Orange Show traces its origins to a transplanted local postal carrier named Jeff McKissack, who transformed his East End Houston property into a shrine for the signature fruit of his native Florida over a three-decade span until his death the same year.

Image courtesy of the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, Houston, and Rogers Partners.

The expansion allows for one unified program for the first time in the organization’s 40-year history. A 31,000-square-foot warehouse building adjacent to the center will be turned into a flexible exhibition space and education center with a special feature that will serve as the new centerpiece to one of the city’s most important public art festivals.

Since the mid-80s, the center has hosted Housto...

PAU proposes multi-modal plan for Manhattan streets

2020-07-09T14:41:00-04:00

The Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) has unveiled a plan envisioning how Manhattan's streets might transform to minimize auto dependency while embracing the widespread availability of dedicated bus and bicycle lanes as well as more generous pedestrian infrastructure.

The so-called "Not Your Car" (NYC) proposal envisions a future where private automobile use is drastically reduced in order to create urban fabric "focused on reappropriating public space back to people without the inequities and predation caused by the omnipresence of private cars."

A view of how city streets might change to accommodate new modes of traffic.

The scheme, developed under the leadership of PAU founder Vishaan Chakrabarti with support from Buro Happold, proposes to more or less get rid of on-street parking and private automobile traffic on most city streets, replacing this land-intensive arrangement with new pedestrian and public transit modes. Sidewalks would expand in width, street lanes forme...

Red bus-only lanes are coming to Portland soon

2019-10-12T09:00:00-04:00

Late last month, the Portland Bureau of Transportation received approval from the Federal Highway Administration to use red coloring on bus-only lanes. Since the use of red to designate bus-only lanes hasn’t been fully adopted into the FHWA’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), cities that want to use the treatment have had to “request to experiment”. After going through an application process, Portland is now on the list of cities sanctioned to use the color.

Bus-only lanes are sweeping the nation.

With recent federal approvals in hand, Portland, Oregon is set to become the latest major American city to implement bus-only lanes in its downtown and suburban districts.

View of suburban area bus lane network. Image courtesy of PBOT/Regional ETC Pilot Program Candidate Enhanced Transit Locations.

Portland joins New York City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Seattle, among others, in instituting the lanes. The recent implementation of bus-only lanes in New York City has transformed one of the city's notoriously traffic-choked cross-town streets into a pedestrian paradise.

Aston Martin will design its customers' perfect "automotive lair"

2019-08-27T19:15:00-04:00

Marek Reichman, Aston Martin's chief creative officer has been leading a team of designers who have "already produced exquisite interior design work for the 66-storey Aston Martin Residences in Miami." In addition to this, the team has also designed the interiors of many Aston Martin dealerships and "collaborated on the design of Aston Martin's first global brand centre, the House of Aston Martin Aoyama, in Tokyo," according to the Aston Martin website.

Courtesy Aston Martin

Now, the group will help customers create the garage of their dreams. "Imagine a home or luxury retreat built around your car," Reichmen said in an Aston Martin press release. "Picture creating the ultimate space to showcase your own automotive works of art. This is now achievable with this new offering," he continued.

Courtesy Aston Martin

Aston Martin has emphasized its decades of experience and expertise in staging cars "in order to present them at their absolute best." They add that they also understand the v...

Is it time to embrace the “slow city”?

2019-08-13T09:42:00-04:00

Imposing tighter limits on leadfoots is a key part of the Vision Zero campaign for reducing traffic deaths and injuries, because of the dramatic safety benefits associated with reducing vehicle velocity. Does this add up to evidence that fast-paced Americans are ready to embrace the virtues of city life in the slow lane?

How fast is too fast? Cities like New York, Portland, Boston, and Washington, D.C. are initiating ways to regulate traffic speeds and install better signage to aid in pedestrian and bicycle safety. With the high number of reported traffic-related deaths and injuries only rising, cities are starting to realize that lowering urban speed limits doesn’t only benefit non-drivers.

In a recent CityLab article, writer Andrew Small provides detailed information communicating the benefits that reducing speed limits can have for non-drivers, drivers, and the built environment, alike. One detail Small points out is how "perhaps urbanists shouldn't demand slow lanes or slow neighborhoods: They should ask for a slow city."

With the rise of fast-paced micro-mobility on our streets and sidewalks, and the promise of zippy autonomous vehicles transporting products and people supposedly in our the future, it can be hard to imagine how a slow city might be a possibly come to be. However, Small points...

Oslo's city center goes (almost) car-free

2019-07-11T07:30:00-04:00

[Oslo] has just phased out the last on-street parking spaces in the city centre, giving an edge to transit, pedestrians and cyclists without banning cars. The initiative included incentives for cyclists such as new bike lanes, including better lighting and snow removal, along with subsidies for electric bikes and cargo cycles. Council also expanded transit services and lowered fares.

London, Berlin, Paris, Toronto, and an increasing number of cities are aiming to reduce traffic congestion, polluted air, and valuable urban space occupied by parked cars through policy changes that promote walkability, pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly (and in certain cases, car-light or even car-free) city centers, and an overall improved quality of life.

Oslo became a closely monitored model of a hybrid approach: after the proposal of a complete ban of cars in the capital's center was met with fierce opposition from business owners, who feared decreased commerce, the city decided to close off only certain streets to motor traffic but replace the more than 700 downtown parking spots with bike lanes, greenery, and pedestrian-oriented infrastructure.

"Cities, like Oslo, have been built for cars for several decades, and it’s about time we change it," Hanne Marcussen, Oslo’s vice mayor of urban development, told Fast Company. “I think it is important that we all think about what kind o...

What happens when one of YouTube's most popular car reviewers reviews a house?

2019-01-28T11:15:00-05:00

This $2 million house is perched on an ocean cliff. Today I'm showing you the quirks and features of this rather unusual house. It's not a car, but it's still interesting, and quirky, and exciting -- and this house is worth checking out.

What happens when a world famous car reviewer turns his sights towards a house? While on vacation, Doug Demuro of YouTube fame couldn't help but review the 2 million dollar home he was staying in on the island of Nantucket. His insights were impressively thorough and refreshingly unlike those one might expect from an architectural critic or historian.

Video still. "Here's a Tour of a $2 Million House on an Ocean Cliff." YouTube.

Demuro highlighted the "quirks and features" of the custom-built home, just as he does the production cars on his channel to a fan base of over 2.5 million subscribers, including the porthole window in the upper bedroom, the sunken outdoor eating area and its interminable outlet layout.

Video still. "Here's a Tour of a $2 Million House on an Ocean Cliff." YouTube.

Watch below for the full review, and consider whether we might anticipate a future in which architecture is the subject of study on YouTube in the same fashion as we have normalized car reviews and...

The world is filled with perplexing designs, parking garages are one of them

2019-01-10T19:11:00-05:00

The infamous parking garage. These monumentally sized structures have plagued city infrastructures across the globe. As the automobile still remains the most popular choice of transportation, it's no question we have so many parking garages. Often described as monolithic and bulky many architects and developers, depending on the project, see the parking garage an unfortunate expense. However, despite the many qualms people have about these massive structures, not all parking garage's are alike.

Below are 12 of the most intriguingly designed parking structures found all over the globe. Scroll down to view each car park and their descriptions below. *Structures are listed in no particular order.

Charles Street Car Park Image © Alamy

#12 Charles Street Car Park
Location: Manchester, UK
Designed by: Allies and Morrison
Description: "The structure consists of precast concrete columns, walls and floors. The external envelope is finished in natural anodized aluminum panels, painted green on...

Unbuilt highway schemes — and the traces they left behind

2018-01-08T15:00:00-05:00

The postwar passion for highway construction saw cities around the world carved up in the name of progress. But as communities fought back many schemes were abandoned – their half-built traces showing what might have been

Faraday Future's $1 Billion electric car factory in Nevada stopped in its tracks

2017-07-11T13:25:00-04:00

This is the second and likely final time construction will be halted on the one million square foot plant, which according to The Verge, was going to be Faraday Future's way of competing with fellow electric car manufacturer Tesla.

Faraday Future's "FFZero1 Concept Prototype." Image: Wikipedia

As the article notes:

It was just five months ago that FF was claiming that it was finally restarting construction of its proposed factory in North Las Vegas, almost 11 months after construction was first halted amid the company’s ongoing financial woes. Now it looks like that factory will never be built, as FF is reportedly looking into pursuing less ambitious (re: cheaper) options.

Pittsburgh disappointed with Uber's self-driving car experiment

2017-05-23T11:58:00-04:00

When Uber picked this former Rust Belt town as the inaugural city for its driverless car experiment, Pittsburgh played the consummate host. [...] Nine months later, Pittsburgh residents and officials say Uber has not lived up to its end of the bargain. [...] The deteriorating relationship between Pittsburgh and Uber offers a cautionary tale, especially as other cities consider rolling out driverless car trials from Uber, Alphabet’s Waymo and others.

"Starting later this month," wrote Bloomberg less than one year ago, "Uber will allow customers in downtown Pittsburgh to summon self-driving cars from their phones, crossing an important milestone that no automotive or technology company has yet achieved." Since then, Pittsburgh appears to have fallen out of love with the ride-sharing giant's promises for the city.

A vending machine for luxury cars

2017-05-15T12:53:00-04:00

Forget about soft drinks and potato chips - a "vending machine" in Singapore is offering up luxury vehicles, including Bentleys, Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Used car seller Autobahn Motors opened a futuristic 15-story showroom in December, with vehicles on display in 60 slots, billing it as the "world's largest luxury car vending machine".

Check out the massive new car elevators inside the Porsche Design Tower in Miami

2017-03-24T12:28:00-04:00

“What does [the Porsche] brand have to do with real estate?” It’s a good question, poised by the Miami developer Gil Dezer, who helped create the brand-new, 60-story, Sieger Suarez Architects-designed Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach, Miami.

Their answer? An elevator for cars. You know, for “car lovers and people who enjoy having their car next to them in their apartments”.

Not surprisingly, this demographic is also defined by their access to at least $5 million, the starting price for one of the tower’s 132 condos. The crowning jewel, a $32 million penthouse apartment, comes with a “car gallery” for seven of your eleven automobiles.

Driven by three high-tech hydraulic lifts, the elevators weight 30,000 lbs. and carry up to 8,000 lbs. Cars zoom up the black-glazed tower at 800 feet a minute.

h/t Miami Herald

How does one design against "magic" used to trap self-driving cars?

2017-03-21T12:45:00-04:00

As if the challenges of politics, engineering, and weather weren't enough, now self-driving cars face another obstacle: purposeful visual sabotage, in the form of specially painted traffic lines that entice the car in before trapping it in an endless loop. As profiled in Vice, the artist behind "Autonomous Trip 001," James Bridle, is demonstrating an unforeseen hazard of automation: those forces which, for whatever reason, want to mess it all up. Which raises the question: how does one effectively design for an impish sense of humor, or a deadly series of misleading markings?

No more personal cars will be allowed in Madrid's city center

2017-01-10T19:03:00-05:00

Madrid's mayor, Manuela Carmena, is serious about kicking personal cars off the road in the city center. On a November 5 show on Spanish radio networkCadena Ser, she confirmed that Madrid's main avenue, the Gran Vía, will only allow access to bikes, buses, and taxis before she leaves office in May 2019, as noted by CityLab.

Are people in love with not having to drive to dense urban locales? (Answer: for the most part, yes.) Following the lead of numerous cities that are seeking either to reduce car traffic or obliterate it altogether, Madrid's mayor actually outlawed personal vehicles from the city's main thoroughfare during the crucial days before Christmas (and later discovered that merchant profits were up over the previous year).

The latest updates in global car culture:

Pave paradise? American cities are rethinking parking spaces

2016-10-03T18:28:00-04:00

The US has long been the world leader in building parking spaces. During the mid 20th century, city zoning codes began to include requirements and quotas for most developments to include parking spaces. The supply skyrocketed. A 2011 study by the University of California, estimated there are upwards of 800m parking spaces in the US, covering about 25,000 square miles of land.

Increasingly, cities are rethinking this approach. As cities across the world begin to prioritise walkable urban development and the type of city living that does not require a car for every trip, city officials are beginning to move away from blanket policies of providing abundant parking.

For more on pedestrian-friendly initiatives, follow these links:

Pollution-plagued Paris to ban cars from the side of the Seine

2016-09-27T13:49:00-04:00

In an effort to curb air pollution, the city council of Paris has approved a controversial plan to pedestrianize the 3.3 km road that runs along the Right Bank of the Seine River. Stretching from the Tuileries Gardens to the Henri-IV tunnel near the Bastille, the road is currently used by some 43,000 cars a day. The plan would replace the roadway with wooden walkways and landscaping, and cost an estimated €8 million.

The plan is supported by the Socialist government and faces opposition from the country’s conservative faction, who argue that it will increase traffic in a city already jam-packed with cars. Nearly 55 percent of Parisians support the plan, according to the Independent.

Air pollution in Paris can rival cities like Beijing, and is responsible for over 2,000 deaths per year.

For more urban initiatives intended to combat air pollution, follow these links:

Uber lets you hail its self-driving cars in Pittsburgh later this month

2016-08-19T14:54:00-04:00

Starting later this month, Uber will allow customers in downtown Pittsburgh to summon self-driving cars from their phones, crossing an important milestone that no automotive or technology company has yet achieved. Google, widely regarded as the leader in the field, has been testing its fleet for several years, and Tesla Motors offers Autopilot [...] But none of these companies has yet brought a self-driving car-sharing service to market.

Related stories recently in the Archinect news:

Would self-driving cars be useful to people living outside urban cores?

2016-06-07T18:47:00-04:00

So a lot of us own or lease cars...But when the talk turns to autonomous cars – and it always does – I sigh. Our overcrowded highways really could use a break from human stupidity, and that human factor is behind nearly all of the fatalities and injuries and property damage we see strewn across our roads every day. Get rid of the human behaviour to save the human body! This is where autonomous cars make sense; but not all the world is a crowded, urban highway.

U.S. says computers qualify as drivers in Google's autonomous vehicles; won't even have to go to the DMV

2016-02-11T12:54:00-05:00

U.S. vehicle safety regulators have said the artificial intelligence system piloting a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law [...] "NHTSA will interpret 'driver' in the context of Google's described motor vehicle design as referring to the (self-driving system), and not to any of the vehicle occupants" [...] Google told NHTSA that the real danger is having auto safety features that could tempt humans to try to take control.

The technological and legal impediments to making self-driving cars a reality on U.S. roads seem to be falling away – and as the regulatory market opens for business, so may more competition, with Google and California (which legalized self-driving cars in 2012) leading the way.

More on the development of autonomous vehicles: