Great Lakes region sees record cruise ship season in 2022
The 2022 Great Lakes cruising season is at an end - and it was a banner year. It was also a record season for Detroit, which had 52 cruise ship dockings, according to a news release from Cruise the Great Lakes, a regional marketing program. That was more than double the number from 2019, which was the last time cruise ships were on the Great Lakes. RELATED: A video tour on board the largest cruise ship ever to sail Great Lakes“The broader regional success of Great Lakes cruising is represented right here in Michigan,” said Dave Lorenz, vice president of Travel Michigan and chair of Cruise the Great Lakes. RELATED: Marquette to Muskegon: Cruise ships bring big tourism dollars to the Great LakesThis year, Conde Naste recently named cruising the Great Lakes one of the best places to go.
mlive.comPolice find mummified body in bathtub of burglarized Arizona home
Authorities are trying to identify a mummified body found by police in the bathtub of a northwestern Arizona home as they investigated a burglary. Officers discovered Christine Walters rummaging through items inside the house on Saturday.
news.yahoo.comHouse Republicans on Oversight Committee request Hunter Biden's financial information
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are requesting more information about Hunter Biden and his associates. CBS News has obtained 14 letters sent by ranking member Rep. James Comer to numerous banks and the Tresury Department. CBS News senior investigtive correspondent Catherine Herridge has the latest.
news.yahoo.comMotor City Cruise clinch G League playoff spot
The Motor City Cruise, the G League affiliate of the Detroit Pistons, have clinched their spot in the playoffs. Former Michigan guard Derrick Walton Jr. has led the Cruise, averaging 16.9 points, 5.7 rebounds, and a league-high 9.5 assists in 20 games. Pistons center Luka Garza and guard Saben Lee have also had a strong season with the Cruise as assignment players. Garza is averaging 20.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks in 14 games, while Lee is averaging 24.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 7.1 assists in 14 games. Motor City concludes its regular season on Saturday, April 2 against the Cleveland Charge at Wayne State Fieldhouse.
mlive.comPistons sign Derrick Walton Jr., Cassius Stanley to 10-day hardship contracts
With five players in the NBA’s health and safety protocol, the Detroit Pistons have brought in a couple of re-enforcements. The Pistons called up guards Derrick Walton Jr. and Cassius Stanley from their G League affiliate on Saturday. Detroit signed the two guards to 10-day contracts using the COVID-related hardship allowance. He went undrafted in 2017 out of Michigan, where he averaged 11.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 31.9 minutes in 127 career games. He has three years of NBA experience, where he has averaged two points and 1.7 assists in 9.4 minutes over 42 NBA games (one start).
mlive.comCEO of GM's autonomous vehicle branch Cruise is leaving the company
A robot car of the General Motors subsidiary Cruise is on a test drive in 2019. Dan Ammann, CEO of General Motors autonomous vehicle branch Cruise, is leaving the company, GM announced Thursday. Cruise's President and CTO Kyle Vogt will take over as interim CEO, the company said. Additionally, Cruise will gain a new board member: Former Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman Wesley Bush, who is also a GM board member. GM said the leadership change comes along with plans to accelerate a strategy it laid out at its most recent Investor Day, with Cruise playing a key role in building out its autonomous vehicle platform.
cnbc.comMotor City Cruise round out basketball operations staff
The Detroit Pistons G League franchised rounded out its basketball operations staff including four assistant coaches, two front-office executives and training staff. The Cruise added Jamaal Benjamin, Xavier Silas, Brian Boyle, and Marcus Stout will all work under new head coach DJ Bakker. Benjamin, Silas, and Boyle all have previous experience as assistant coaches in the G League. Silas comes to the Cruise after spending the last two seasons as an assistant coach for the Delaware Blue Coats. In addition to the four new assistant coaches, the team added Jillian White as its equipment manager and assistant director of basketball operations.
mlive.comMotor City Cruise to hold tryouts for local players Sept. 15
DETROIT -- Basketball players in the city of Detroit, as well as the state of Michigan could be the members of the Motor City Cruise. The Detroit Pistons new G League affiliate is hosting open tryouts for prospective players in three weeks on Wednesday, Sept. 15. Members of the Cruise and Pistons front office and coaching staff will also be running operations while performing full evaluations of all participating players. The open tryout is limited to the first 105 people who complete the required registration forms and submit the tryout fee. The registration deadline for the tryout is Friday, September 10, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. EST.
mlive.comGM-backed Cruise to buy self-driving start-up Voyage
Cruise Chief Technology Officer Kyle Vogt (left) with Voyage CEO Oliver Cameron, who will join Cruise as part of an acquisition of the company. General Motors' majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise has agreed to acquire Voyage, a self-driving car start-up that operated in retirement communities. The companies, which didn't disclose the terms of the deal, announced it Monday in a blog post by Voyage CEO Oliver Cameron, who will join Cruise as vice president of product. It's unclear how long Cruise will continue operating in the retirement communities. A majority of Voyage's 60 employees are expected to join Cruise, Wert said.
cnbc.comSummer events ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ after coronavirus cancellations, Jackson officials say
JACKSON, MI -- Jackson officials are feeling bullish about having some “normal” events this summer. After a year of canceling summer programming that attracted people downtown, like Food Truck Tuesdays and Cruise In nights, because of the coronavirus pandemic, things are starting to look up, the city’s Downtown Development Authority officials said. Events will follow whatever restrictions or requirements are in place at the time, as set by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. But with declining cases and increasing vaccinations, Mays said the DDA is optimistic events can happen in some form, even if it means more street closures to ensure adequate spacing, or requesting drivers at the classic car events park further away. “We’re looking forward to helping everyone feel like the world is not such a gloomy place,” Mays said.
mlive.comCruise And GM Team Up With Microsoft To Commercialize Self-Driving Vehicles
(CBS DETROIT) – Cruise and General Motors on Tuesday announced they have entered a long-term strategic relationship with Microsoft to accelerate the commercialization of self-driving vehicles. “Microsoft, as the gold standard in the trustworthy democratization of technology, will be a force multiplier for us as we commercialize our fleet of self-driving, all-electric, shared vehicles.”To unlock the potential of cloud computing for self-driving vehicles, Cruise will leverage Azure, Microsoft’s cloud and edge computing platform, to commercialize its unique autonomous vehicle solutions at scale. Microsoft will join General Motors, Honda and institutional investors in a combined new equity investment of more than $2 billion in Cruise, bringing the post-money valuation of Cruise to $30 billion. GM will explore opportunities with Microsoft to streamline operations across digital supply chains, foster productivity and bring new mobility services to customers faster. About Microsoft:Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge.
detroit.cbslocal.comStocks making the biggest moves midday: Roku, Peloton, DraftKings, American Express and more
American Express — Shares of American Express jumped 3.5% in midday trading after JPMorgan issued an upbeat note on the payments company and advised investors to buy the stock. The Wall Street firm said it sees an upcoming surge in dining out post coronavirus. DraftKings – Shares of DraftKings dropped more than 4% after Berenberg initiated coverage on the sports-betting company with a sell rating. The Wall Street firm said investor expectations on the company are "overoptimistic" and shares are priced for perfection. State Street — Shares of State Street edged up nearly 1% after the company reported better-than-expected revenue for the fourth quarter.
cnbc.comGM teams up with Microsoft on driverless cars
This image provided by General Motors shows the new company logo. (General Motors via AP)DETROIT – General Motors is teaming up with Microsoft to accelerate its rollout of electric, self-driving cars. “Microsoft is a great addition to the team as we drive toward a future world of zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. It wants to be seen as a clean vehicle company, rather than a builder of cloud-spewing gas-powered pickups and SUVs. GM scrapped its old square blue logo for a lower case gm surrounded by rounded corners and an ‘m’ that looks like an electrical plug.
Microsoft is investing and partnering with GM's Cruise on self-driving cars
Microsoft has entered into a long-term strategic relationship with General Motors and Cruise, the automaker's majority-owned autonomous car unit, to accelerate the commercialization of self-driving vehicles. In its announcement Tuesday, the companies said Microsoft will become the preferred cloud provider for GM and Cruise. The companies said they will work collaboratively on software and hardware engineering, cloud computing capabilities, manufacturing and partner ecosystem. "As Cruise and GM's preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale and make autonomous transportation mainstream." Cruise will leverage Azure, Microsoft's cloud and edge computing platform, to commercialize its unique autonomous vehicle solutions at scale.
cnbc.comGM's Cruise founder expects consolidation for makers of lidar self-driving vehicle sensors
"Their value is based on *projected* revenue that comes from *entirely overlapping* potential customers, with very little discount applied to future projections. The first three companies have announced SPAC deals but have not yet gone public. "Of course, it's certainly not unusual for startups to be valued based on future revenue projections, even in a highly competitive space," Vogt tweeted. "But I typically see private markets put a much larger discount on these future projections than what we see with these SPACs." Luminar went public last month through a SPAC deal with an enterprise value of $2.9 billion.
cnbc.comGM’s Cruise hires ex-Delta chief operating officer Gil West
Cruise, General Motors' majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary, has hired former Delta Chief Operating Officer Gil West as its first COO, the company said Friday. West retired at the end of September after 12 years at the Atlanta-based airline. West started shortly before Delta's 2008 merger with Northwest and was named Delta's COO in 2014.
cnbc.comMiami Herald: Cruise industry "secretly funded disinformation campaign"
Miami Herald: Cruise industry "secretly funded disinformation campaign" New reporting from the Miami Herald reveals an association of cruise lines funded a "dark money" campaign to sway voters in Key West with alarming claims about referendums that would affect the cruise industry. Miami Herald reporter Taylor Dolven joins CBSN with the details.
cbsnews.comGM's Cruise to deploy fully driverless cars in San Francisco
The move announced Wednesday by GM-owned Cruise come two months after the company received California's permission to fully driverless cars in the state. “You’re seeing fully driverless technology out of the (research and development) phase and into the beginning of the journey to being a real commercial product," Cruise CEO Dan Amman said Wednesday. California regulators also recently approved new rules allowing ride-hailing services to pick up passengers in self-driving cars, but Cruise isn't going down that road yet. Instead, Ammann pledged the company will move cautiously while dispatching up to five fully driverless cars into parts of San Francisco initially. Amman declined to provide a timeline when asked if Cruise planned to use its driverless cars in ride-hailing service within San Francisco next year.
GM's Cruise begins testing autonomous vehicles without human drivers in San Francisco
Two self-driving Chevy Bolt EV cars are seen during a media event by Cruise, GM’s autonomous car unit, in San Francisco, California, U.S. November 28, 2017. Cruise, a majority-owned subsidiary of General Motors, has started testing self-driving vehicles without driver monitors in San Francisco, the company said Wednesday. The California-based company plans to begin testing a handful of vehicles, followed by a "very methodical and responsible" ramp-up across San Francisco, according to Cruise CEO Dan Ammann. While the vehicles will not have humans in the driver's seats, Cruise plans to maintain a safety operator in the passenger seat during the beginning of the testing, according to Cruise spokesman Ray Wert. Ammann declined to say when the company plans to launch a commercial autonomous vehicle business for passengers or cargo, citing "there's a lot more to come next year."
cnbc.comGM to run robot cars in San Francisco without human backups
General Motors' Cruise autonomous vehicle unit says it will pull the human backup drivers from its vehicles in San Francisco by the end of the year. Cruise will go neighborhood-by-neighborhood in San Francisco and launch the driverless vehicles slowly before spreading to the entire city, he said. Progress toward autonomous vehicles slowed markedly after an Uber autonomous test SUV ran down a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, in 2018. Both Cruise and Waymo program their vehicles to drive more conservatively than humans, but still need to progress safely, Shladover said. He noted that Cruise will tackle easier areas in San Francisco first before venturing into more complex traffic situations.
GM's Cruise plans to test unmanned self-driving cars this year in San Francisco
Cruise, a majority-owned subsidiary of General Motors, plans to begin testing unmanned autonomous vehicles by the end of this year in San Francisco. The company said Thursday it has received a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to remove the human backup drivers from its self-driving cars. "Before the end of the year, we'll be sending cars out onto the streets of SF — without gasoline and without anyone at the wheel," Cruise CEO Dan Ammann wrote in a Medium post. "Because safely removing the driver is the true benchmark of a self-driving car, and because burning fossil fuels is no way to build the future of transportation." Cruise is not the first company to receive such approval but it's a milestone in taking Cruise's privately operated fleet to a public level without having drivers — a goal of the company.
cnbc.comSelf-driving car companies complain California test data may mislead
(Reuters) - Developers of self-driving cars are amping up criticism of a California reporting requirement on test data, saying the data could mislead, as the state prepares to release the latest results for 2019. The debate is taking on more importance amid delays in the rollout of self-driving vehicles and concerns over a lack of regulation and the prospects for profitability for the companies that make such vehicles. The focus on disengagements when a human driver must take manual control from a self-driving system and the backlash from self-driving companies have been growing since the California Department of Motor Vehicles began releasing annual disengagement reports five years ago. California requires all companies testing self-driving vehicles on public roads to submit an annual report on disengagements and what caused them, written in plain language.In 2018, the companies with the most miles between disengagements were Alphabet Incs (GOOGL.O) Waymo and Cruise. Self-driving companies say the disengagement data can draw unfair comparisons between companies and their self-driving technology.
feeds.reuters.comGM unveils Cruise Origin driverless shuttle
The driverless, electric shuttle, which GM is calling Origin, does not have manual controls such as pedals or a steering wheel. It is a production vehicle," Cruise CEO Dan Ammann said. Tuesday's event comes six months after Cruise delayed the launch of a commercial, self-driving vehicle service in San Francisco, which it had expected to deploy in 2019. Ammann, formerly president of GM, and GM CEO Mary Barra have said the launch of the company's self-driving vehicles would be "gated by safety." On Tuesday, Cruise did not give a specific timeline for start of production for Origin.
cnbc.comHuge cruise ship squeezes through Greek canal to claim record
Cruise passengers held their breath as a 22.5 meter wide cruise liner became the largest boat to pass through Greece's narrow Corinth Canal, according to its operator. (Courtesy Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines)(CNN) - Cruise passengers held their breath as a 22.5 meter wide cruise liner became the largest boat to pass through Greece's narrow Corinth Canal, according to its operator. The Corinth Canal is a tidal waterway connecting the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf, dividing the Pelopnnisos from mainland Greece. "Today Braemar made history as the longest-ever ship to cruise through the CorinthCanal," Fred Olsen cruise liners said on social media. At 6.3km (3.9 miles) long, the Corinth Canal shortens the sea route from Italian ports to the port of Athens.