FILE PHOTO: The logo of Hyundai Motor is seen during the 2017 Seoul Motor Show in Goyang, South Korea, March 31, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co and Chinese technology firm Tencent Holdings have signed a preliminary deal to develop software for driverless vehicles, South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper reported on Saturday.

Both companies plan to conduct joint research and development on safety and security systems for self-driving cars, which Hyundai seeks to roll out commercially by 2030, the report, which cited unnamed industry sources, said.

The agreement was signed on the sidelines of a business forum held in Seoul on Thursday by the South Korean government and China’s Guangdong province, it said.

Hyundai and Tencent did not offer any immediate comments on the report.

The two companies are also exploring ways to utilize Tencent’s popular WeChat messaging app in developing China-targeted car models, the newspaper said.

Hyundai, the world’s 5th largest automaker together with affiliate Kia Motors, has been fostering partnerships with self-driving tech and social media firms as it aims to introduce highly automated vehicles by 2020 and fully autonomous vehicles by 2030.

Hyundai Mobis, another affiliate of the car maker, clinched an agreement last month with Russia’s largest internet search engine Yandex to jointly develop control systems for driverless vehicles.

Shenzhen-based and Hong Kong-listed Tencent has also ventured into self-driving tech and had advertised to recruit engineers in Silicon Valley last year.</s>Both companies plan to conduct joint research and development on safety and security systems for self-driving cars, which Hyundai seeks to roll out commercially by 2030, the report, which cited unnamed industry sources, said.

The agreement was signed on the sidelines of a business forum held in Seoul on Thursday by the South Korean government and China's Guangdong province, it said.

Hyundai and Tencent did not offer any immediate comments on the report.

The two companies are also exploring ways to utilise Tencent's popular WeChat messaging app in developing China-targeted car models, the newspaper said.

Hyundai, the world's 5th largest automaker together with affiliate Kia Motors, has been fostering partnerships with self-driving tech and social media firms as it aims to introduce highly automated vehicles by 2020 and fully autonomous vehicles by 2030.

Hyundai Mobis, another affiliate of the car maker, clinched an agreement last month with Russia's largest internet search engine Yandex to jointly develop control systems for driverless vehicles.

Shenzhen-based and Hong Kong-listed Tencent has also ventured into self-driving tech and had advertised to recruit engineers in Silicon Valley last year.</s>SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co on Sunday denied a report that it had signed a preliminary deal with Chinese technology firm Tencent Holdings to develop software for driverless vehicles.

Hyundai’s comments come a day after South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper cited unnamed industry sources on Saturday saying that the two companies planned to conduct joint research and development on safety and security systems for self-driving cars, which Hyundai seeks to roll out commercially by 2030.

Both companies had not offered any immediate comments on Saturday.

Hyundai said in a statement on Sunday that its cooperation with the Chinese tech giant was focused on infotainment. Modern cars have so-called infotainment systems on a screen below the dashboard to provide services such as navigation and music.</s>The European Union commissioner for transport expects full self-driving capability by 2030, she said this week at City as a Lab conference in Slovenia.

That’s an important part of her “vision zero” to reducing traffic fatalities to none.

“By 2030 we believe we will have the new generation of vehicles that will be fully automated,” EU commissioner Violeta Bulc said. “This year auto manufacturers added 15 new [safety and automation] features to all cars of all price levels.”

Those mandated features on new cars include lane-keeping technology, driver distraction sensors, external sensors, intelligent speed assistance, and a "black box" recorder which can be accessed to help determine causes of accidents.

Some of them could aid in making vehicles more autonomous.

As commissioner Bulc has overseen and stimulated about 230 billion Euros of investment into European transport initiatives over the past four years. Most of that has gone to mass transit, with 70 percent to railways alone, while private companies have been investing in autonomous driving technology.

But Europe is working towards an integrated transport system that incorporates both private and public, personal and mass transit.

“Autonomous mobility will not only be about cars,” Bulc said. “It will be about drones, about ships, about trains, about airplanes … my dream is that we bring all this together.”

Essentially, this is mobility as a service (MaaS) at continent scale.

The vision she outlined doesn’t really have an equivalent in North America.

It involves seeing transportation as a service with many integrated components, where a traveller might initiate a trip involving multiple modes of transit with just one digital interface. For example, someone might use a small ride-sharing vehicle to get to a tram, which might then take them to a larger train station. After riding the train close to their final destination, the traveler might use a bus or another ride-share to get to his or her final destination.

Many if not most of those components will be self-driving or autonomous, Bulc said. That most likely includes aircraft.

Built into this vision is decarbonization: a complete transition to electric or other non-polluting engines by 2050. That’s a second leg of Bulc’s “vision zero” strategy: zero pollution. Transport is currently the second-largest contributor to pollution in Europe, Bulc said. (Zero paper in the entire transportation industry, including commercial shipping, is a third.)

Bulc knows, of course, that this transition will not happen easily or automatically.

“We will achieve nothing without strong ecosystem behind us,” she said, adding that innovation cannot flourish without investment.

Ultimately however, Bulc said that achieving mobility as a service requires a focus not on technology or modes of transport but on people.

“Don’t get trapped in a small story,” Bulc said. “The big story is about people. It’s not about computers, cars, roads, or drones … it’s about people.”</s>Hyundai's comments come a day after South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper cited unnamed industry sources on Saturday saying that the two companies planned to conduct joint research and development on safety and security systems for self-driving cars, which Hyundai seeks to roll out commercially by 2030.

Both companies had not offered any immediate comments on Saturday.

Hyundai said in a statement on Sunday that its cooperation with the Chinese tech giant was focused on infotainment. Modern cars have so-called infotainment systems on a screen below the dashboard to provide services such as navigation and music.</s>Although numerous automakers and technology companies continue to test and push toward the goal of deploying self-driving cars, safety standards and regulations are nearly inexistent. With a new partnership between Ford, Toyota, General Motors and SAE International, the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium hopes to change that.

Announced on Wednesday, the goal of AVSC is to help ensure Level 4 and Level 5 self-driving cars develop in safe environments. On the SAE autonomy scale, Level 5 is the highest with zero input required from a human in any given scenario.

The AVSC believes it fills a gap in the budding self-driving car space in that it will create a framework for safety guidelines that it can use to work with governing bodies and other agencies. Ultimately, governments need to enact laws to make self-driving cars acceptable for public roads, especially if future autonomous vehicles do not feature typical steering wheels or pedals for human drivers.

At the organization's announcement, the AVSC also produced its first proposal: a roadmap of priorities of where it will focus attention. To start, the group wants to make development and regulations accessible to any developer, manufacturer or technology integrator. Further, the focus will initially be on sharing data, self-driving vehicle interactions with human drivers, and a set of safe testing guidelines.

Ford, General Motors and Toyota each said it realizes self-driving cars need to be deployed with respect to the public and realize companies need to show the technology is trustworthy.

The group plans to share more of its vision and discuss more details throughout the year and will speak during SAE International’s World Congress Experience that begins April 9.</s>Elon Musk has come up with a clever way to drive Tesla sales: Tell potential buyers, if they get Tesla cars, they're investing in their own Uber fleet.

The Tesla CEO said Tesla cars could one day make money for their owners as self-driving, for-hire cars. They'd be able to autonomously transport people when their owners are not using them, and the best part is, Tesla cars already have the hardware they need to do so. There’s a small camera above the rear view mirror so that owners can watch what happens inside their car when they're not around.

Its “there for when we start competing with Uber/Lyft and people allow their car to earn money for them as part of the Tesla shared autonomy fleet. In case someone messes up your car, you can check the video,” Musk tweeted on 5 April. ”Just a matter of finishing the software and going through regulatory approval,” Musk added, when someone said this concept was hard for them to imagine.

Another user told Musk that figuring out the software needed for a shared autonomy fleet would "fundamentally change car ownership as we know it" - to which Musk said, "Yes, instead of someone needing to drive their car personally, they can manage a fleet of self-driving cars."

Now, this isn't the first time Tesla has teased Uber-like ambitions. During Tesla’s conference call in October, Musk promised Tesla will operate its own "ride-hailing services and compete directly with Uber and Lyft, obviously" (via CNBC).

To be clear, Tesla offers some self-driving features via its Autopilot function, though they all need a driver to actively supervise. Tesla cars can autonomously match speed to traffic conditions, keep within and change lines, transition to and exit freeways, self-park, and be summoned. But all Tesla vehicles have hardware with “full self-driving capabilities,” according to Tesla's website.

This hardware can be fully activated with a software update, and Tesla has said it will when it has “billions of miles of experience”.</s>The top ten 2014 cars that deliver the biggest bang for your buck may not be the sexiest the cars, but they are the most practical, which has its own kind of sexiness, right Mirage owners? Read more>>></s>Apple remains quiet about any plans for self-driving cars, but it continues to file patents that clue us into what the technology company is interested in.

A new patent revolves around detecting speed and behavior at a self-driving car's tires. Essentially, it's a new process that could give a self-driving car a clearer picture of how fast it is traveling and how much steering input is needed for a particular situation. Think cases where a computer calculates enough steering input to the tires for a regular corner, but in this case, snow or ice means it needs more input.

Apple Insider first reported on the patent this Tuesday, but the patent itself was filed nearly three years ago in July 2016 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The technology company's system works with current technologies such as inertial sensors and GPS, though Apple alludes neither of these two current systems are perfect for self-driving cars. Instead, its patented system proposes two sensors on the bottom of a vehicle that measures reflected electromagnetic waves to understand vehicle speed. These "Doppler slopes" can also measure tire angle and alert the self-driving system to unexpected movements that could be caused due to poor weather or other conditions.

The sensors then feed the information to the self-driving car, which can cross-check the data with inertial sensors and GPS.

The patent includes a second version that also includes sensors that point at an angle ahead of the vehicle. This version would capture data for longitudinal and lateral velocities as well as the data from the sensors underneath the self-driving car. All of the data is once again cross-checked with other data collection methods to make the self-driving car smarter in its input decisions.

As we always say, companies file for numerous patents often, and Apple itself files patents on a weekly basis. We may not ever see a production version of this system, but clearly, Apple has self-driving cars on its mind.</s>United Services Automobile Association lessened its stake in Cars.com Inc. (NYSE:CARS) by 25.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,876 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,346 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association’s holdings in Cars.com were worth $212,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sicart Associates LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cars.com in the fourth quarter worth $3,783,000. Starboard Value LP increased its stake in shares of Cars.com by 10.1% in the third quarter. Starboard Value LP now owns 6,292,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $173,722,000 after buying an additional 575,000 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Cars.com by 167.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 183,646 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,071,000 after buying an additional 114,894 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new stake in Cars.com during the third quarter valued at $325,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Cars.com by 10.2% during the third quarter. MetLife Investment Advisors LLC now owns 87,050 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,403,000 after purchasing an additional 8,075 shares during the last quarter.

CARS has been the subject of several recent research reports. ValuEngine lowered shares of Cars.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 19th. DA Davidson set a $31.00 target price on shares of Cars.com and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 16th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Cars.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 8th. Craig Hallum upgraded shares of Cars.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $25.75 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 17th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Cars.com in a research note on Friday, December 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $27.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Cars.com currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.60.

Cars.com (NYSE:CARS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 28th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $164.35 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $166.49 million. Cars.com had a net margin of 5.86% and a return on equity of 7.78%. Equities research analysts predict that Cars.com Inc. will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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Cars.com Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates as a digital automotive marketplace that connects local car dealers to consumers in the United States. The company offers a suite of digital solutions that creates connections between individuals researching cars or looking to purchase a car with car dealerships and automotive original equipment manufacturers.

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South Korea's Hyundai Motor reaches an agreement with Tencent to partner on research and development of self-driving cars. Hyundai plans to roll such cars out commercially by 2030.