http://SmartDrivingCar.com/7.07-CongestionSurcharge-020819
7th edition of the 7th year of SmartDrivingCars
Feb 1, "The Congestion Surcharge (Tax Law Article 29-C) was enacted on April 1, 2018, with collection of the surcharge scheduled to begin on January 1, 2019. The onset of collections was delayed due to a temporary restraining order (Taxifleet Management LLC, et al. v. State of New York) that was lifted by the Court on January 31, 2019. Accordingly, the Congestion Surcharge must be collected beginning at 12:01 am on Saturday, February 2, 2019....
...
Recordkeeping
Persons or
entities
liable for the
surcharge must
keep records
that are
sufficient to
determine
whether the
surcharge was
properly
applied, and
must
electronically
transmit those
records to the
Tax Department
upon request.
This includes,
but is not
limited to,
the following
for all
transportation
that is
subject to the
surcharge:
Feb. 8, F. Fishkin, , "What's the latest in smart driving cars? Listen in to lively discussions with Princeton University Professor Alain Kornhauser, co-host tech journalist Fred Fishkin and guests. How soon will you be riding in a self driving car? This is the podcast to tune in to for real info without hype or spin. " Hmmmm.... Now you can just say "Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!" . Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay. Alain
Feb. 10, F. Fishkin, , "Special edition with Matthew Daus former Commissioner of NY Taxi & Limousine commission to discuss NYC's congestion pricing and efforts to improve mobility for all in he NY metropolitan region." Hmmmm.... To be published February 10, 2019. Now you can just say "Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!" . Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay. Alain
3rd
Annual
Princeton SmartDrivingCar
Summit
evening May
14 through May
16, 2019
Save the Date; Reserve
your
Sponsorship
Press
release, Feb.
4, "As of this
past weekend,
the State of
New York
requires that
transportation
providers
charge
passengers a
congestion
surcharge for
all trips in
taxis,
liveries,
black cars and
other for-hire
vehicles that
begin, end or
pass through
the borough of
Manhattan
below 96th
street,
including both
individual and
shared rides
arranged via
mobile apps
like Curb®,
Uber, Lyft,
etc.. As a
result, Curb’s
transportation
provider
partners are
required to
add the
applicable
congestion
surcharge to
the fare
you’re charged
for each
qualifying
trip.
The amount of
the congestion
surcharge is:
- $2.50 for
each
qualifying
trip in a
yellow taxi
- $2.75 for
each
qualifying
trip in a
green taxi
- $2.75 for
each
qualifying
trip in a
livery or
black car
(i.e., Uber,
Lyft., etc.)
If you request
a shared ride
by using the
Curb Share™
function in
the Curb® app,
you’ll get a
$0.75
reduction of
the applicable
surcharge,
regardless of
whether you’re
matched with
another rider.
..." Read
more Hmmmm... What this fails to mention are
"pooled trips"
described by "Congestion surcharge..." as "... transportation between two points that is
provided to a
person (or to
a group of
people that
enter and exit
a vehicle
together per a
single request
for
transportation)
in a vehicle
that may also
simultaneously
transport
others in
trips that are
requested and
charged
separately. .
..." These pooled trips owe NY
Stated Dept of
Taxation &
Finance
$0.75 per
pooled trip
(per person or
group that
separately
requested and
are charged
separately (p.
2)). So it
looks like [log in to unmask]"
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width="64"
height="23"
border="0">
is willing to risk $0.75 so that it makes
$4.00 ($3.50)
if one other
person gets in
with you and
$6.00 ($5.25)
if 2 other
people get in
with you or
the other
person. Might
be worth it,
depending on
how Curb
monetizes
whatever other
information/services is captured/delivered by the Curb
app.
"Pooled trips" actually reduce congestion
compared to
the way car
trips are
typically made
in Manhattan
(one person or
group of
people that
enter the car
together), be
they by ride
hailing
services or by
"using my own
car or a car
that I share";
else, they'd
be using
multiple
cars/cabs!
Why aren't
pooled rides paid
what
non-pooled
rides are surcharged???
Wouldn't that
lead to more
congestion
relief than
however NYC
intends to
spend what it
collects in
surcharges???
Also, why
aren't those
using their
own cars or
sharing the
use of one not
charged a
congestion
surcharge if
they don't
pick up and
drop off
anyone not
otherwise
traveling with
them??? Sorry
for asking the
obvious. Alain
M. Gold,
Feb 6,
"Google’s
navigation app
Waze is known
for providing
real-time,
user-submitted
reports that
advise drivers
about
potential
thorns in
their
roadsides.
But one
feature has
Waze in
conflict with
law
enforcement
officials
across the
country: how
the app marks
the location
of police
officers on
the roads
ahead or
stationed at
drunken-driving
checkpoints.
Over the
weekend, the
New York
Police
Department,
the largest
force in the
nation, joined
the fray,
sending a
letter to
Google
demanding that
the tech giant
pull that
feature from
Waze. In
the letter,
which was
first reported
on by
Streetsblog,
the Police
Department
said that
allowing
people to
share the
locations of
sobriety
checkpoints
impeded its
ability to
keep streets
safe...." Read
more Hmmmm... This
was how Waze
differentiated
itself from CoPilot and
the other
turn-by-turn
GPS Nav
systems before
Waze was
bought by
Google. We
at ALK
vehemently
refused to
include such
features.
It
completely
surprised me
that Google
would actually
buy Waze with
that as one of
their
differentiated
"attributes"
and legacies.
I'm even more
surprised that
a company
whose motto
is... "Do no
evil" would
continue
practices that
tend to
facilitate,
legitimize and
glorify excessive
speed and
driving while
impaired; both
of which all
too often lead
to people
dying! I am
thrilled that
the NYPD is
calling them
out on it!
Shame on you
Google! Alain
Jeff Bezos,
Feb 7,
"Something
unusual
happened to me
yesterday.
Actually, for
me it wasn’t
just
unusual — it
was a first. I
was made an
offer I
couldn’t
refuse. Or at
least that’s
what the top
people at the
National
Enquirer
thought. I’m
glad they
thought that,
because it
emboldened
them to put it
all in
writing.
Rather than
capitulate to
extortion and
blackmail,
I’ve decided
to publish
exactly what
they sent me,
despite the
personal cost
and
embarrassment
they
threaten...."
Read
more Hmmmm....
While one may
initially
think that
this is
off-message,
it is VERY
important.
Jeff, thank you for standing up. It would
have been so
easy for many
us to simply
cave.
As
a long-time
member of the
Princeton
faculty I'm
very proud
that you
are a member
of the great
class of '86.
On an other note, please treat with as much
concern the
information
that you and
Alexa gather
on me.
And, I'll work hard to make sure that all of
the data
collected by
SmartDrivingCars
are used to
only get you
to where you
want to go,
when you want
to go, safely
and
efficiently.
Alain
W.
Vantuono, Feb
8, "Henry
Posner III,
Chairman of
the Iowa
Interstate
Railroad and
Railroad
Development
Corp. and a
Posner
Foundation
trustee, said
the Foundation
was proud to
support the
work of OLI in
its
traditional
goals of
reducing
fatalities and
injuries at
highway-rail
grade
crossings and
on railroad
rights-of-way,
and in the
emerging field
of suicide
prevention.
Railroad
Development
Corp. has
supported OLI
over the
years, ranging
from Iowa
Interstate
employees’
service as
community
outreach
volunteers, to
Estonian
Railways’
support of
Operation
Lifesaver
Estonia....
OLI will
work with
outside
experts to
understand,
and
appropriately
communicate,
suicide
prevention
initiatives.
The goal is to
effectively
communicate
about the
sensitive
subject with
the public,
partners and
the media. The
nonprofit will
leverage the
Federal
Railroad
Administration’s
Trespass and
Suicide
Dashboard to
target
locations
throughout the
U.S. and
tailor
prevention
messages to
those
communities...."
Read
more Hmmmm....
Henry, so kind
of you and I
have always
been so very
proud that you
are a member
of the great
class of '77.
Alain
L.
Davidson, Feb
8, "“It is
going to
change our
lives,” said
Rep. Robert
Spendlove,
R-Sandy,
sponsor of HB101,
which was
endorsed
unanimously by
the House
Transportation
Committee.
It aims mostly
to allow
developers of
self-driving
cars to move
testing away
from closed
tracks and
onto public
roads — and
Spendlove said
several
companies are
interested in
doing that as
soon as his
bill is
enacted. Such
testing
already is
occurring in
states such as
Arizona,
California and
Pennsylvania...." Read
more Hmmmm.... Congratulations Utah. FYI... made
substantial
progress in
New Jersey
this past
week. NJ is
close to also
being in play
on all of
this. Alain
F. Lambert,
Feb 8, "Tesla
is trying to
sell and
deliver as
many Model 3s
as possible
this quarter
in China
before the
temporary
relief on
import tariff
ends in April.
It is now
making an
unusual move
to help:
making the
Enhanced
Autopilot
package
standard.
...Now Tesla
is also
including
Enhanced
Autopilot as
standard on
all orders
instead of
selling it as
a 46,000 RMB
(~$6,800)
option:... "
Read
more Hmmmm.... Whatever the reason, there may
well be a very
hefty profit
margin in that
~$6.8k that
take the bit
out of this
promotion. It
really hasn't
taken all that
long to have
AutoPilot be
"standard" on
some car
model,
somewhere.
Heck,
turn-by-turn
navigation
isn't yet
standard on
all that many
models. Given that it also enhances safety without a
"NHTSA/government mandate, this is really monumental. Alain
R.
Mitchell, Feb
8, "Although
European
safety
regulators
approved the
Model 3
vehicle for
sale in Europe
in January,
they have not
approved
Autopilot —
the
controversial
driver-assist
mode that
offers
automatic
cruise
control, lane
keeping and
lane changing
— The Times
has learned.
“At this
moment the
autopilot is
not part of
the original
Type Approval
of the Tesla
Model 3,” Joke
Willemsen,
spokesman for
RDW, the
Netherlands-based
organization
in charge of
the Model 3
approval
process for
Europe, said
via email....
RDW did not
say why
Autopilot has
not been
approved, when
it might be,
or why the
Model 3
version falls
short while
Model S and
Model X Teslas
are available
in Europe with
Autopilot..."
Read
more Hmmmm.... Win some, lose some... I wonder
how many net
European
deaths will
ensue. Maybe
European
betting
parlors will
establish an
over/under.
Alain
Y.
Chernova, Feb
4, "After a
fun,
inexpensive
ride on an
electric bike
or scooter,
some consumers
are getting
hit with
unexpected
fines by
startups that
accuse them of
hoarding
equipment or
parking
missteps.
Jump, Lime and
other
companies
offering the
two-wheel
transportation
have begun
experimenting
with punitive
fees to
discourage
unwanted
behavior by
users. But
some customers
are crying
foul, saying
they’re
confused by
the charges
and by the
rules
themselves.
“I felt like
they put me in
a position
that was
really
unfair,” said
Ben Terrell,
after
incurring a
$100 charge
from Lime for
supposedly
holding on to
a scooter
after he used
the service in
Los Angeles
three times in
November. “I
did what they
told me to do,
and even
though I
followed the
rules, I was
still being
punished.”...
" Read
more Hmmmm.... And my dog ate my homework. The
SegHoles &
GlassHoles
may now be
joined by the
ScootHoles.
Such a shame;
however this
could happen
to Driverless
Cars (Trucks
& Buses)
If they are
not designed
and operated
so that they
are welcomed
and respected.
Alain
Staff,
March, 2013,
"Citing that a
majority of
Americans are
irresponsible,
easily
distracted
people who
have little
regard for
other human
beings, a new
Department of
Transportation
report
revealed
Wednesday that
it’s “actually
kind of crazy”
that U.S.
citizens are
allowed to
drive
automobiles.
“Americans
make millions
of
mind-boggling,
idiotic
mistakes every
day, and when
taking into
consideration
the sheer
amount of
lives that
could be lost
due to just
the slightest
human error
while driving,
it’s actually
pretty goddamn
shocking that
we let
citizens
operate
4,000-pound
machines
capable of
going 200
mph,” the
report read in
part, later
adding that if
one truly
thinks about
who their
neighbors,
friends, and
children are
as people, the
absolute last
thing one
would be
comfortable
with would be
them merging
onto a busy
highway with
cars traveling
85 mph.
“Consider the
average
American on
Facebook who
says things
like ‘first’
or makes a
bizarre Monica
Lewinsky
reference out
of nowhere.
Now think of
somebody
dumber than
that. That
person’s
allowed to
drive, too.
Pretty nuts,
right?” The
report
ultimately
concluded that
only 62 total
Americans are
intelligent
and thoughtful
enough to
operate a
motor
vehicle... "
Read
more Hmmmm.... I know, its old but it is The Onion. Alan
L.
Parnass,"No
car. No go.
That's long
been the deal
for people in
rural Western
Massachusetts,
where life is
all but
impossible
without owning
a vehicle.
When it comes
to rural
transportation,
past looks
like prologue,
two recent
studies
suggest. Amid
talk of
renewed rail
travel to and
from the
Berkshires,
public
transportation
is thin or
nonexistent
outside urban
centers.
And when
"self-driving"
cars come of
age, expect
rural regions
to fall
further
behind,
officials
caution.
Hundreds of
country roads
in Berkshire
County will be
off-limits to
autonomous
vehicles,
unless
telecommunications
gaps are
plugged and
roads
themselves
improved.
..." Read
more Hmmmm.... Again, mixing up
SmartDrivingCars...
Driverless shared-ride aTaxis can operate
even in the
Berkshires and
even though
the trip
density is
low, there are
opportunities
for
ride-sharing
(like to
school,
church, any
gathering).
Operating on
low density
roads isn't
that tough.
While
Shared-ride
aTaxis may not
be as
productive as
they can be in
Mercer County,
they certainly
can be much
more
productive
that the 4 or
so trips made
by each
private car in
the Berkshires
that never
share rides.
Think about
it.Alain
3rd
Annual
Princeton SmartDrivingCar
Summit
evening May
14 through May
16, 2019
Save the Date; Reserve your Sponsorship
Catalog
of Videos of
Presentations
@ 2nd Annual
Princeton
SmartDrivingCar
Summit
Photos
from 2nd
Annual
Princeton
SmartDrivingCar
Summit
Program
& Links to
slides from
2nd Annual
Princeton
SmartDrivingCar
Summit
[log in to unmask]"
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Feb. 1, F. Fishkin, , "The National Transportation Safety Board unveils the 2019-2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements. Put down the mobile device, stop speeding and make new safety technology standard equipment. NTSB Office of High Safety Project Manager Dr. Ensar Ecic joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin to discuss. "Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!" . Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay. Alain
Feb. 1, F.
Fishkin, ,
" New York
begins data
collection on
Uber and Lyft
rides,
AutonomouStuff
continues to
grow, another
arrest in
alleged theft
of Apple self
driving
secrets...and
more in
episode 87 of
Smart Driving
Cars. Join
Princeton's
Alain
Kornhauser and
co-host Fred
Fishkin and
subscribe!"
F. Fishkin, Jan. 25, "Here come Amazon's autonomous delivery vehicles! Amazon, Waymo, GM, Apple, Aurrigo, Argo, Boeing, Uber and even MacLaren are up for discussion in Episode 86 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin."
F. Fishkin, Jan. 18, "Ride Systems and Double Map combine to form Journey ..providing real time transit information. CEO Justin Rees chats with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Also in this episode VayaVision's technology to fuse sensor data for self driving with CEO Ronny Cohen."
F. Fishkin, Jan. 18, "In this episode from CES 2019, Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin welcome guests Michael Fleming, CEO of TORC Robotics, Regulus Cyber CEO Yonatan Zur and Arbe VP Bill Latino. Tune in to the Smart Driving Cars podcast and subscribe!"
F. Fishkin, Sept 6, "The coming new world of driverless cars! In Episode 55 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast former GM VP and adviser to Waymo Larry Burns chats with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and Fred Fishkin about his new book "Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car and How it Will Reshape Our World"
A.
Marshall, Jan
31, "In 2007,
New York
City’s Taxi
and Limousine
Commission, in
a belated
embrace of the
21st century,
required that
every taxi
plying the
streets of the
five boroughs
start taking
credit card
payments....
For the TLC,
they made work
more
interesting,
because along
with those
readers came
GPS trackers
that became a
cornerstone of
the agency’s
growing data
operation....axis
provided
insight into
the city’s
transportation
ecosystem. Are
cabs speeding
along a
certain
stretch of
street? Time
to review the
street design.
Getting stuck
at the same
intersection
every rush
hour? Maybe
rethink the
traffic light
timing.
And starting
Friday, New
York will
start clawing
in the same
kind of data
from the
ride-hailing
companies that
have stormed
its streets in
recent years.
... " Read
more Hmmmm... It will be very interesting to
observe the
real behavior
of Lyft &
Uber,
especially in
the outer
boroughs. To
date, the Lyft
& Uber
data have not
divulged {O,
oTime, D,
dTime} of
individual
trips to the
level of
precision that
the T&LC
has been for
years
collecting
from Yellow
(and Green)
cabs . Can't
wait to look
at precise
individual {O, oTime, D, dTime} data
of Lyft &
Uber trips and
compare/contrast with conventional cabs. It will be very interesting. Alain
A.
Marshall, Jan
31, "In 2007,
New York
City’s Taxi
and Limousine
Commission, in
a belated
embrace of the
21st century,
required that
every taxi
plying the
streets of the
five boroughs
start taking
credit card
payments....
For the TLC,
they made work
more
interesting,
because along
with those
readers came
GPS trackers
that became a
cornerstone of
the agency’s
growing data
operation....axis
provided
insight into
the city’s
transportation
ecosystem. Are
cabs speeding
along a
certain
stretch of
street? Time
to review the
street design.
Getting stuck
at the same
intersection
every rush
hour? Maybe
rethink the
traffic light
timing.
And starting
Friday, New
York will
start clawing
in the same
kind of data
from the
ride-hailing
companies that
have stormed
its streets in
recent years.
... " Read
more Hmmmm... It will be very interesting to
observe the
real behavior
of Lyft &
Uber,
especially in
the outer
boroughs. To
date, the Lyft
& Uber
data have not
divulged {O,
oTime, D,
dTime} of
individual
trips to the
level of
precision that
the T&LC
has been for
years
collecting
from Yellow
(and Green)
cabs . Can't
wait to look
at precise
individual {O, oTime, D, dTime} data
of Lyft &
Uber trips and
compare/contrast with conventional cabs. It will be very interesting. Alain
R. Redman,
Jan 23,
"Amazon.com
Inc. has begun
field-testing
a compact,
self-driving
delivery
vehicle dubbed
Amazon Scout.
The e-tailing
giant said
Wednesday that
six of the
autonomous,
all-electric
vehicles —
about the size
of a small
cooler and
emblazoned
with the Prime
logo — are now
making package
deliveries in
a neighborhood
in
Washington’s
Snohomish
County.
In the pilot,
Amazon Scout
will deliver
packages
Monday through
Friday during
daylight
hours. The
six-wheeled,
self-guided
vehicles roll
along their
delivery route
at a walking
pace but
initially will
be accompanied
by an
employee,
according to
Amazon. The
company said
it developed
the device at
its
research-and-development
lab in Seattle
to ensure the
vehicles can
safely
navigate
around
pedestrians,
pets and other
objects in
their
path...." Read
more Hmmmm.... See
video
Makes so much
more sense
than drones.
Very
beginning. So
potentially
valuable to
Amazon. Of
course they
are in it to
win it. Alain
A.
Chottani, Dec.
2018, "...What
is happening
is fairly well
understood, if
initially
underestimated.
Digitization
and other
technological
advances are
exposing the
vulnerabilities
in every
industry,
particularly
retail. And
now, logistics
companies are
starting to
feel the heat.
Our new
research has
turned up five
trends that
offer
startling
indicators of
impending
change for the
trucking,
rail,
warehousing,
and logistics
companies that
move America’s
merchandise.
Start with
autonomous
trucks (ATs),
which will
change the
cost structure
and
utilization of
trucking—and
with that, the
cost of
consumer
goods.
Sixty-five
percent of the
nation’s
consumable
goods are
trucked to
market. With
full autonomy,
operating
costs would
decline by
about 40
percent,
saving the US
for-hire
trucking
industry
between $85
billion and
$125 billion.
The big
question is
how this
savings will
be
distributed.
How will
shippers and
carriers
divide the
lower costs of
logistics? Or
will most of
the surplus
move to
consumers, in
the form of
lower
prices?..."
Hmmmm.... This is a serious in-depth report on the
Logistics
industry and
the potential
implications
of automation
and
digitization
throughout the
industry for
not only
trucks but
also
railroads.
Although, the
report fails
to consider
that railroads
may themselves
have an
opportunity
with
automation to
effectively
compete with
long-haul
trucking.
Short-fast
"engineerless
trains" with
driverless
drayage could
seriously
impact
long-haul
trucking.
Think about
it. Alain
Oct 16, Establishes
fully
autonomous
vehicle pilot
program A4573
Sponsors:
Zwicker (D16);
Benson (D14)
Oct 16, Establishes New
Jersey
Advanced
Autonomous
Vehicle Task
Force AJR164
Sponsors:
Benson (D14);
Zwicker (D16);
Lampitt (D6)
Waymo
team, June 13,
"Ariel rides
after school.
Neha hops to
the grocery
store. Barbara
and Jim zip
around town
while kicking
back.
They’re all
part of the
Waymo early
rider program
we launched
last April.
Today, over
400 riders
with diverse
backgrounds
use Waymo
every day, at
any time, to
ride all
around the
Phoenix area.
Their feedback
helps us
understand how
fully self
driving cars
fit into their
daily lives.
One year in,
our early
rider program
and our
extensive
on-road
testing is
helping us
build the
world’s most
experienced
driver. In
fact, our
fleet of cars
across the
U.S. is now
driving more
than 24,000
miles daily;
that’s the
equivalent of
an around the
world road
trip! Here’s a
quick report
on how our
riders use
Waymo, what
we’ve learned,
and what’s
next....As
some of the
first people
in the world
to use
self-driving
vehicles for
their everyday
transportation
needs, our
early riders
are helping
shape this
technology.
Thanks to
their
feedback,
we’re refining
the rider
experience to
make sure
that: ...
nobody wants
to carry
grocery bags a
block down the
street... " Read
more Hmmmm....
Yipes!! The
personal car
isn't bad
enough in its
focus on
private
single-occupant
parkingSpot2parkingSpot mobility? Are we now going to have Waymo
providing it
Door2Door with
zero
opportunity to
share rides
and while
delivering
negative
public
benefits of
increased
energy,
pollution and
congestion
with all of
its empty
vehicle
repositioning.
No wonder the
CPUC voted to
forbid
ride-sharing.
Did Waymo made
them do it
since Waymo
hasn't done
ride-sharing
in Phoenix?
Having 2 or
more people in
the car isn't
ride sharing
if they would
have all gone
together in
their own car
had Waymo not
been there. So
Bad!!! Without
ride-sharing,
this is just
expensive,
energy
inefficient
and
environmentally
challenged
private
chauffeuring
for the
entitled
privileged
class:
See
video Just
like watching
Oszzie & Harriet
or Leave
it to Beaver.
For Waymo to
"Win it",
they'll need
to embrace
ride-sharing
because no
"Blue-state"
PUC is going
to be as
impressionable
as as
California's.
Alain
KMay 24,
"About 9:58
p.m., on
Sunday, March
18, 2018, an
Uber
Technologies,
Inc. test
vehicle, based
on a modified
2017 Volvo
XC90 and
operating with
a self-driving
system in
computer
control mode,
struck a
pedestrian on
northbound
Mill Avenue,
in Tempe,
Maricopa
County,
Arizona.
...The
vehicle was
factory
equipped with
several
advanced
driver
assistance
functions by
Volvo Cars,
the original
manufacturer.
The systems
included a
collision
avoidance
function with
automatic
emergency
braking, known
as City
Safety, as
well as
functions for
detecting
driver
alertness and
road sign
information.
All these
Volvo
functions are
disabled when
the test
vehicle is
operated in
computer
control..."
Read more
Hmmmm....
Uber must
believe that
its systems
are better at
avoiding
Collisions and
Automated
Emergency
Braking than
Volvo's. At least this gets Volvo "off the hook".
"...According to data obtained from the
self-driving
system, the
system first
registered
radar and
LIDAR
observations
of the
pedestrian
about 6
seconds before
impact, when
the vehicle
was traveling
at 43 mph..."
(=
63
feet/second)
So the system
started
"seeing an
obstacle when
it was 63 x 6
= 378 feet
away... more
than a
football
field,
including end
zones!
"...As the vehicle and pedestrian paths
converged, the
self-driving
system
software
classified the
pedestrian as
an unknown
object, as a
vehicle, and
then as a
bicycle with
varying
expectations
of future
travel
path..." (NTSB:
Please tell us
precisely when
it classified
this "object'
as a vehicle
and be
explicit about
the expected "future
travel
paths." Forget the path, please just tell us the precise
velocity
vector that
Uber's system
attached to
the "object",
then the
"vehicle".
Why didn't the
the Uber
system
instruct the
Volvo to begin
to slow down
(or speed up)
to avoid a
collision? If
these paths
(or velocity
vectors) were
not accurate,
then why
weren't they
accurate? Why
was the object
classified as
a
"Vehicle" ?? When did it finally classify the object as a "bicycle"?
Why did it
change
classifications?
How often was
the
classification
of this object
done. Please
divulge the
time and the
outcome of
each
classification
of this
object. In the tests that
Uber has done,
how often has
the system
mis-classified
an object as a
"pedestrian"when the object was
actually an
overpass, or
an overhead
sign or
overhead
branches/leaves
that the car
could safely
pass under, or
was nothing at
all??
(Basically,
what are the
false alarm
characteristics
of Uber's
Self-driving
sensor/software
system as a
function of
vehicle speed
and
time-of-day?)
"...At 1.3 seconds before impact, (impact speed was 39mph = 57.2 ft/sec) the self-driving system determined that an emergency braking maneuver was needed to mitigate a collision" (1.3 x 57.2 = 74.4 ft. which is about equal to the braking distance. So it still could have stopped short.
"...According to Uber,
emergency
braking
maneuvers are
not enabled
while the
vehicle is
under computer
control, to
reduce (eradicate??) the potential
for erratic
vehicle
behavior.
..." NTSB: Please
describe/define potential and erratic vehicle
behavior Also
please uncover
and divulge
the design
& decision
process that
Uber went
through to
decide that
this risk
(disabling the
AEB) was worth
the reward of
eradicating "
"erratic vehicle behavior". This
is
fundamentally
BAD design.
If the Uber
system's false
alarm rate is
so large that
the best way
to deal with
false alarms
is to turn off
the AEB, then
the system
should never
have been
permitted on
public
roadways.
"...The vehicle operator
is relied on
to intervene
and take
action. " Wow! If Uber's
system
fundamentally
relies on a
human to
intervene,
then Uber is
nowhere near
creating a
Driverless
vehicle.
Without its
own Driverless
vehicle Uber
is past "Peak
valuation".
K. Pyle, May 9, "Safety and, as importantly, the perception of safety could be the pin that pricks the expectations surrounding the autonomous vehicle future. Recognizing the importance of safety to the success of this still nascent industry, autonomous taxi start-up, Voyage, recently placed their testing and reporting procedures in an open source framework. ...Oliver Cameron, Voyage Co-Founder and CEO, is excited to see participation and says, “We can’t wait to have all of these contributions from companies from around the world; contribute to build the actual standard in autonomous safety.” Read more, Hmmmm.... See the video that was played at the Princeton SDC Summit which generated substantial positive discussion at the Summit. See also full length video. Alain
A. Madrigal, Mar 28, "On Tuesday, Waymo announced they’d purchase 20,000 sporty, electric self-driving vehicles from Jaguar for the company’s forthcoming ride-hailing service.... But the company embedded a much more significant milestone inside this supposed announcement about a fancy car. With orders now in for more than 20,000 of these vehicles and thousands of minivans that Chrysler announced earlier this year, Waymo will be capable of doing vast numbers of trips per day. They estimate that the Jaguar fleet alone will be capable of doing a million trips each day in 2020. ..." Read more Hmmmm...Yup!! This is HUGE! It will change the city and the key to making it so it doesn't make thing worse is Ride-sharing. If we ride-share we'll reduce energy, pollution & GHG by more than 50% and provide high-quality, affordable mobility indiscriminately for all. It becomes the new high-quality, low-cost mass transit. If it's kept/operated as another alternative for the 1%ers to be chauffeured alone, then the outcome is UGLY. Ride-sharing is KEY! Alain
R. Mitchell,
Mar 22,
"Police late
Wednesday
released a
video that
shows an Uber
robot car
running
straight into
a woman who
was walking
her bicycle
across a
highway in
Tempe, Ariz.
The woman was
taken to a
hospital,
where she died
Sunday night.
The video,
shot from the
car, is sure
to raise
debate over
who's to blame
for the
accident. In
the video, the
victim, Elaine
Herzberg, 49,
appears to be
illegally
jaywalking
from a median
strip across
two lanes of
traffic on a
dark road. But
she was more
than halfway
across the
street when
the car —
traveling
about 40 mph,
according to
police — hit
her. The car
did not appear
to brake or
take any other
evasive
action....
Bryant Walker
Smith, a law
professor and
driverless
specialist at
the University
of South
Carolina,
said:
"Although this
appalling
video isn't
the full
picture, it
strongly
suggests a
failure by
Uber's
automated
driving system
and a lack of
due care by
Uber's driver
as well as by
the
victim."..."
Read more Hmmmm... "..."What
we now need is
for the
release of the
radar and lidar
data,"
Princeton's
Kornhauser
said in an
email. (Lidar
is a sensing
technology
that uses
light from a
laser.)
"Obviously,
the video of
the driver is
extremely bad
for Uber and
probably
implies that
Uber should
suspend all of
its
'self-driving'
efforts for a
while if not
for a very
long while.
"The
'self-driving'
systems are
supposed to
have
'professional'
overseers who
are really
supposed to be
paying
attention
during these
'tests'.
Apparently
Uber didn't
make it clear
in this case."
Kornhauser
questioned the
police
description of
a situation
that would
have been
difficult to
avoid. He said
Uber should
reveal what
its
collision-avoidance software was doing during the couple of seconds
before impact.
"The
front-facing
video suggests
that this
person was
crossing the
lane at a slow
speed and
should have
been noticed
by the system
in time to at
least apply
the brakes, if
not stop the
vehicle
completely,"
he said.
"While a human
may not have
been able to
avoid this
crash, a
well-designed,
well-working
collision
avoidance
system should
have at least
begun to apply
the
brakes."..."
"
... Again, my sincerest condolences to
Elaine
Herzberg's
family and
friends.
The
simple
arithmetic
is: She
crossed more
than a lane
and a half
before being
struck or more
than 15 feet.
Average
walking speed
is about 4.6 ft/sec
which means
that she was
"visible" on
this stretch
of road for
more than 3
seconds.
Uber's speed
of 38 mph =
55.7 ft/sec
means: Uber
was 150 ft
away when she
began crossing
the left-hand
lane and could
have been
visible by an
alert driver.
The car's lidar
and radar
surely must
have "seen"
her beginning
at about that
time. Car
stopping
distance
including
"thinking time
used in The
Highway Code"
@ 38mph is 110
feet. The
driver should
have been able
to stop 40
feet short.
Any Automated
Emergency
Braking (AEB)
system should
have been able
to stop the
car in little
more than the
stopping
distance of 72
feet, half way
to Elaine.
This simple
arithmetic
suggests that
there may be a
very fundamental
fatal flaw in
Uber's AEB.
And
the driver was
not paying
attention. At
3 seconds
prior to
impact, Elaine
was within a
12 degree
field of view
when she began
to cross the
left lane.
While outside
the fovea,
this is well
within a
normal gaze
had the
operator been
looking out
the window.
The
released video
is from a
"dash
cam&qu ot;
and is
unlikely to be
the video
captured by
Uber's
"Self-driving"
system (or
whatever Uber
calls it).
That video may
well be at a
much higher
resolution and
frame rate.
Uber MUST
release that
video (not
just the
dash-cam
video) as well
as the radar
and
lidar
data that was
being used by
their
"Self-driving"
system. Uber
was testing
its system at
the time of
the crash and
therefore MUST
have been
logging those
data in case
something went
wrong. Uber
needs those
recorded data
in order to
have a chance
to learn what
went wrong and
fix it.
Something did
go wrong, very
wrong. Uber
and everyone
else MUST also
have the
opportunity to
learn from
this tragedy.
So Uber MUST
release all of
the data.
Alain
G.
Kumparak,
Mar 13,
"...." Read more Hmmmm... This is
REALLY big news.This
marks the real
beginning of
on-demand
mobility
provided by
vehicles
without a
driver or an
attendant
on-board, only
the passengers
and the
vehicles used
normal public
roadways that
operated in
normal
everyday
manner and
used by
conventional
cars and
trucks. Ng
Waymo
to their o
police
escorts, no
warning signs,
just normal
everyday
operating
conditions.
Except for the
one trip given
to Steve Mahan
in November
2015 in Austin
Texas, this is
the First time
that it kind
of mobility
service has
been delivered
anywhere in
the world. Waymo
has achieved 5
million
vehicle miles
of
Self-driving
(automated
driving on
normally
operating
public
roadway;
however, with
a
driver/attendant
in the car
ready to take
over should
the automated
system begin
to fail. Many
others
including
Uber, Lyft/Aptiv,
GM/Cruise, nVIDIA,
Apple, Tesla,
Nissan and
many others
have also done
many miles of
Self-driving
on normal
roads but each
an everyone
had a
driver/attendant
in the vehicle
ready to "save
the day"
should
something go
bad. Nobody
else anywhere
in the world
is doing what
Waymo
is now doing
in Chandler
AZ. Now that
the first one
has been done,
any community
that is
similar to
Chandler AZ
can now think
seriously
about inviting
Waymo
to provide
affordable
on-demand
mobility to
everyone in
their city.
Be
sure to see
the video.
Congratulations
Waymo!!!!!
Alain
D. Etherington, Feb 27, "California’s Department of Motor Vehicles established new rules announced Monday that will allow tech companies and others working on driverless vehicle systems to begin trialling their cars without a safety driver at the wheel. The new rules go into effect starting April 2 ..." Read more Hmmmm... Even though we have been expecting this, it is a major hurdle for it to actually have occurred. How long after April 2 will Waymo take to begin this type of testing. Again this is only testing and deployment, but NOT commercial service, which may happen first in Arizona, but it is a major step in this r-evolution. Commercial services are regulated by other agencies in California, not CA DMV. It is those other agencies that will need to grant/award the licenses for the various commercial operations where these driverless vehicles would be used. This regulation allows properly licensed commercial operations using CA DMV certified driverless vehicles to have those vehicles use California public roadways in delivering the otherwise licensed commercial activity. Note: CA DMV does not license the commercial transport of people or goods. That is the purview of other CA regulatory agencies. Alain
Andrew Hawkins, Jan 30, “Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, has reached a deal with one of Detroit’s Big Three automakers to dramatically expand its fleet of autonomous vehicles. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced today that it would supply “thousands” of additional Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Waymo, with the first deliveries starting at the end of 2018.
Waymo currently
has 600 of
FCA’s minivans
in its fleet,
some of which
are used to
shuttle real
people around
for its Early
Rider program
in Arizona.
The first 100
were delivered
when the
partnership
was announced
in May 2016,
and an
additional 500
were delivered
in 2017. The
minivans are
plug-in hybrid
variants with
Waymo’s
self-driving
hardware and
software built
in. The
companies
co-staff a
facility in
Michigan, near
FCA’s US
headquarters,
to engineer
the vehicles.
The company
also owns a
fleet of
self-driving
Lexus RX SUVs
that is has
been phasing
out in favor
of the new
minivans. (The
cute “Firefly”
prototypes
were also
phased out
last year.)…”
Read
more Hmmmm...
We’ve all been
wondering”
Who’s going to
make the
cars? How
will that evolve?Will
they magically
appear???
Well….Looks
like it is FCA
for now. We've
gone from a
handful 5
years ago, 2
years ago
added 100,
added 500 last
year,
“thousands”
this/next
year, …
Beginning to
look like
exponential
growth! (A Bit
Coin
Bubble??)
What is also
most
interesting:
no parallel
announcement
that Waymo
was hiring
“thousands of
attendants” to
ride around as
"drivers" in
these
“thousands of
minivans”.
Guess what
that means…
The Kornhauser
Scale is
going to start
really going
up!!! J
While
ultimately
they’ll need
about 35
million of
these to
provide
affordable
mobility to
all in the US,
this is a real
start at
making this
into a
business as
opposed to an
NSF-style
study that
collects dust
on a shelf or,
worse yet, a
digital
manuscript
that is never
downloaded by
anyone outside
a "group of
three". This
is a major
announcement!
From Stan Young: It will be interesting to watch. It probably has the OEMs, Uber and Lyft scared out of their wits. Based on any objective comparison of accomplishment with automated vehicles, there is not a close second to Waymo, despite all the claims to the contrary by trade rags – and the competition knows it. Still a huge unknown concerning the ‘social side’ of riding in an un-attended vehicle, but we will likely get over it like we did with elevators. ‘Thousands’ of vehicles if deployed in one city will put it on scale of Uber and Lyft – an interesting study when/if it comes to that.
...An issue is: where will Waymo choose to deploy (and for Waymo, the word "deploy" is the right word... they make the decision where to place these, in some sense take it or leave it... as opposed to waiting for people to show up at a dealership to buy or have it stay on the lot or have some governmental agency thinking that it actually has a role/power/where-with-all to “deploy”) where, when and how many. They could "flood/concentrate" on Chandler/Phoenix/Tuscon area with scale to be really relevant and substantively demonstrate the evolution of mobility, or they could sprinkle them out nationwide and remain irrelevant everywhere. I like the "flood/concentrate" approach in a state (Arizona) where they seem to be truly welcomed and whose climate, topography and road network are "easy". More importantly it would demonstrate the viability/challenges of the at-scale approach. From our simulations we uncovered that at-scale, one might need to be managing as many as 20,000 aTaxis in a 2.5x2.5 mile area (the extreme in Manhattan, which may be the last place that you want to try this) but it can be large. We’ll drill down in our data and take a look at Chandler/Phoenix and report back as to what we think it would take to provide mobility for all. Alain
Jan. 9, T. Papandreou & E. Casson. "... Waymo driverless service..." Read more Hmmmm... Tim and Ellie made presentation at the Transportation Research Board's Vehicle-Highway Automation (AHB30) Committee meeting on Tuesday in which they gave an update on Waymo's progress to launch "Waymo's driverless service" (slide 11), an app-based ride hailing service to the general public in a geo-fenced area of Arizona. To date Waymo has been testing such a service using volunteer riders in their driverless vehicles in various areas around the country (slide 7): however, to date, except for one ride given to Steve Mahan in Austin, TX, rides on normally operating public streets have always had trained Waymo-authorized personnel (an attendant) in the vehicle capable to intervene in the driving of the vehicle should the need arise. Since October, in Arizona, those personnel no longer sit behind the wheel, but are in the back seat so that Waymo can observe the response of the volunteer riders to riding in a vehicle on normal public streets under normal conditions without anyone in the front seats of the vehicle.
Tim said, without providing a specific date, that Waymo will soon launch "Waymo's driverless service" providing mobility to the general public on public roads in a geo-fenced area of Arizona. I asked Tim "Will that service be offered with vehicles that have an attendant in the vehicle?". Tim's answer was "No!". I asked a follow-up question: "Will these vehicle's have telemetry capabilities that enable these vehicles to be closely monitored from a "situation room" or "control center" that would enable remote operation of the vehicle, should the need arise?". Tim's answer was "No!". Another questioner asked if the geo-fenced area included special "connected vehicle" road infrastructure improvement that Waymo's system will be relying on?" Tim's answer was "No!".
While the definition of "soon" was not given, I've taken this as a really big pronouncement that Waymo is actually going to go to launch commercially-viable on-demand mobility to the general public on conventional public roads. This is really big news because this is finally going to enable us to begin to evolve on the "Kornhauser Scale" ( log of (world-wide VMT of Driverless (VMT-D) vehicles without a human attendant/driver on board accumulated while providing mobility to the general public on conventional roadways). So far we are beyond the "undefined value" associated with VMT-D = 0 and are at KS = 1 only by virtue of the one Steve Mahan ride in Austin). :-) Alain
AP,
Nov. 7, 2017 "Waymo,
the
self-driving
car company
created by
Google, is
pulling the
human backup
driver from
behind the
steering wheel
and will test
vehicles on
public roads with only an
employee in
the back seat.
The company’s
move — which
started Oct.
19 with an
automated
Chrysler
Pacifica
minivan in the
Phoenix suburb
of Chandler,
Ariz. — is a major step toward vehicles driving
themselves on
public roads
without human
backup
drivers. ..."
Read
more Hmmmm... Not to be
too critical,
but Waymo
is still just
'Self-driving'
. While they
moved the
'engineer'
with the
ability to
'take over and
drive the
vehicle' from
behind the
wheel to the
back seat,
this is just a
step along the
broad
'Self-driving'
continuum
which is a
vehicle that,
under certain
circumstance,
can drive
itself, but
does that only
if there is a
person ready
and able to
take over if
the unexpected
appears.
The
big-leap/major-step will come when Waymo
removes the
'engineer'
entirely from
the vehicle and
it is
human-less
when it
arrives to
pick up a
passenger and
drives
away
human-less
after the last
passenger(s)
disembark.
That enormous
leap-of-faith
in the
technology
will mark Waymo's
inception of
the Driverless
Era. (or
what Waymo
prefers to
call 'Fully
Self-driving'
era.)
Just
to be clear,
when that time
comes, I'm
sure that
Waymo
will have
telemetry
throughout
that
Driverless
vehicle and
there will be
a room full of
engineers in Waymo's
'Situation
Room'
ready to take
over the
driving should
the need
arise.
However,
until that
time, Waymo
is just like
all the other
wanabes,
they are just
'Self-driving'
without the
'Fully'.
The
reason why
'remote
emergency
driving' is
'Driverless'
is because it
scales. By
that I mean
that it takes
the provision
of horizontal
mobility on
our public
streets from
needing at
least one
human per
vehicle to
needing less
than one human
per vehicle.
Initially the
remote driver
will monitor
one car.
Before you
know it that
person will be
monitoring
two, four,
eight, ...
vehicles and
truly
Driverless
with zero
remote human
oversee-ers
will be
approached
asymptotically.
But just like
the old saw
between the
engineer and
the
mathematician:
engineer and
mathematician
were sitting
on a bench
recalling
their youth...
Engineer said
"Long ago, I
was sitting on
this very
bench with my
girl. We
wanted to kiss
but we were
too far
apart. So we
agreed to move
towards each
other by
halving the
distance
between us on
each move.
The
mathematician
blared "
You're so
stupid! If
you did that,
you never came
together!"
The engineer
just smiled:
"we got close
enough!".
Alain
May 18,
Enormously
successful
inaugural
Summit
starting with
the Adam
Jonas video
and finishing
with
Fred Fishkin's
live interview
with Wm. C
Ford III.
In between, serious engagement among over
150 leaders
from
Communities at
the bleeding
edge of
deployment,
Insurance
struggling
with how to
properly
promote the
adoption of
technology
that may well
force them to
re-invent
themselves and
AI (Artificial
Intelligence)
and the
various
technologies
that are
rapidly
advancing so
that we can
actually
deliver the
safety,
environmental,
mobility and
quality of
life
opportunities
envisioned by
these
“Ultimate
Shared-Riding
Machines”.
Save the Date
for the 2nd
Annual... May
16 & 17,
2018,
Princeton NJ
Read
Inaugural
Program with
links to
Slides. Fishkin Interview of Summit Summary
and
Interview of
Yann LeCun.
Read Inaugural
Program with
links to
Slides. Hmmmm... Enormous thank you to all who
participated.
Well done!
Alain
Video similar to part of Adam's Luncheon talk @ 2015 Florida Automated Vehicle Symposium on Dec 1. Hmmm ... Watch Video especially at the 13:12 mark. Compelling; especially after the 60 Minutes segment above! Also see his TipRanks. Alain
This list is
maintained by
Alain
Kornhauser
and hosted by
the Princeton
University
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