http://SmartDrivingCar.com/7.15-ValuePricing-040519
15th edition
of the 7th year of SmartDrivingCars
M. Daus, Esq, April 1, "Over the weekend, the New York State legislature agreed to pass congestion pricing legislation as part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget bill for FY 2020. The legislation was finalized in the early hours today, and the Governor is expected to sign the bill into law immediately. The toll is intended to reduce traffic congestion while raising $15 billion between 2020 and 2024 to fix NYC subways and commuter rails. Starting no sooner than December 31, 2020, motorists will be charged a toll to drive into Manhattan south of 60th street, excluding the FDR Drive and the West Side highway....
Only two categories of vehicles are specifically exempt
from the law: emergency vehicles and qualifying vehicles
transporting a person with disabilities. The law does not
specify what qualifies as a “vehicle transporting a person
with disability,” leaving any such determinations to the
TBTA. A recent Bloomberg article discusses exemptions for
people with disabilities (click here to review full
article)..." Read
more Hmmmm...
Congratulations NYC!!! I've never understood why this isn't called
"Value
Pricing". Was
it the SAE???
or is it just
that I don't
seem to ever
like the
semantics used
by others?
This has been
a long time
coming and is
a tribute to William Vickery,
the
Canadian-born
Columbia
University
Professor of
Economics and
Nobel Laureate
who tragically
passed away
shortly after
being
announced as
the winner of
the 1996 award
in Economics.
Alain
April 5, F. Fishkin, "Here comes congestion pricing in New York City...but what will it mean? Former city Taxi and Limousine Commission head and transportation expert Matthew Daus joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Also...Tesla, VW and even Brexit! All on Episode 98 of Smart Driving Cars." Just say "Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!" . Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay ... Alain
Press release, March 29, "Daimler Trucks, a division in the
Daimler Group, the inventor of the truck and world’s largest
manufacturer of heavy and medium trucks, and Torc Robotics, a
pioneer in autonomous driving solutions, are joining forces in a
one-of-a-kind combination to commercialize highly automated
trucks (SAE Level 4) on U.S. roads. Going beyond an OEM/supplier
relationship, the companies signed an agreement today for
Daimler AG’s subsidiary Daimler Trucks and Buses Holding Inc.,
to acquire a majority stake in Torc Robotics for an undisclosed
sum. Closing of the acquisition is subject to approval from U.S.
authorities...." Read
more Hmmmm...
Congratulations Michael!! This makes a lot of sense. Alain
P. Lewis, April 1, "This report updates Eno’s 2017 Beyond
Speculation publication and discusses the current and future
state of AVs, as well as the existing, proposed, and expected
implications for federal, state, and local policy. It does not
intend to summarize all the research nor provide new analysis of
the potential implications of AVs. The goal is to provide an
overview of the current policy arena and posit concrete and
substantive recommendations for policymakers to responsibly test
and deploy AVs on public roads...." Read
more Hmmmm... Read the
full report.
It is an
update but
continues to
fail to
realize the
fundamental
difference
between
Safe/Self-
driving cars
and Driverless
Cars (and
continues the
separable
Connected Car
issue). Safe
&
Self-Driving
cars are
essentially
cars as we
known them but
with some
additional
technology
that allows
them to be
safer and
provide
comfort and
convenience
(allows you to
text).
Ownership, use
and regulatory
oversight
doesn't really
change.
Driverless is a
whole
different
story both in
terms of
opportunities
and
responsibilities.
I'll claim
that
Driverless
cars will not
be owned by
individuals,
either because
of the
enormous
responsibility
burden or
because of
regulation.
These vehicles
will be
"mobility
machines", not
personal
toys.
Consequently
there is a
completely new
regulatory
oversight that
is needed to
enable society
to make best
use of these
"mobility
machines".
This report
simply does
not address
this view of
the future of
Automated
Vehicles &
Public
Policy. I
guess we'll
have to wait
for version
3.0 Alain
R. Mitchell, April 3, "Electric-car maker Tesla Inc. delivered sharply fewer vehicles to customers in the first three months of the year, raising questions about the strength of demand for its product lines as it ramps up assembly of the newest sedan....
The first-quarter numbers were partly affected by the decreasing federal tax credits available for electric-car purchases, which pulled deliveries into the fourth quarter, Tesla said. But the decline also came despite the company cutting prices and offering incentives on some models.
The numbers were “shockingly bad,” said Mark Spiegel of hedge
fund Stanphyl Capital Management, which holds a significant
short position in Tesla, meaning the firm is betting on the
company’s stock price falling. ...Totally self
serving!!!!...
Totally
disregard....
Disorganized delivery in Europe and China hurt sales, analysts
said. But Tesla skeptics believe the fundamental problem is
flagging demand...." Read
more Hmmmm... This
points out how
enormously
challenging it
is to go
against Big
Oil and Big
Auto. Technically,
Teslas are
enormously
better cars;
however, Range
Anxiety and
Fill 'er up
Anxiety are
killers!!!
Alain
C. Riley, April 3, "Five electric Volkswagen cars fitted with
the latest in autonomous technology are now driving a section of
Hamburg's streets.
The carmaker announced Wednesday that its first tests of
vehicles with Level 4 automation in a major German city are
underway.
The e-Golf cars Volkswagen is testing are designed to handle
complex urban traffic patterns without help from drivers,
although they must be ready to intervene. Level 5 automation,
the only higher category, requires the vehicle to perform all
tasks, turning every rider into a passenger.
The cars are driving three kilometers (1.9 miles) of urban
Hamburg roads where new signals and other traffic management
systems have been installed to facilitate autonomous
driving...." Read
more Hmmmm... Seems
like what has
been going on
in several US
cities for
some time.
Attendants are
on-board so it
is
Self-driving
and we'll see
to what extent
these are
focused on
creating
Driverless
mobility
machines to
enhance
mobility for
all or just
new toys for
traditional VW
customers (for
which the
number of
LiDARS and
gizmos is
totally
over-done.
Seems like
this is all
about
justifying the
sale of
Traffic
Control
gizmos. Alain
A. Marshall, March 28, "So for the public sharing the roads
with these things, a few long lurking questions are now more
pressing than ever: How do we know these things are safe? The
companies say they are, but how can they prove it to us?
One thing is for sure: The way we certify human drivers ain’t
going to cut it. Just because software can pull off a
three-point turn once doesn’t mean it will be able to do it
every time, in variable conditions. Or that the people who built
it even know why it worked. Algorithms are black boxes;
developers can see whether a computer is doing something right,
but they can’t necessarily tell if the computer understands why
it’s right. If something goes wrong with self-driving software,
though, researchers are going to need to understand how it
works—so they can fix it.
A different sort of test, then, is in order. One made not for
people, but for machines. That’s why some people in the
self-driving space are talking about setting a new kind of
standard..." Read
more Hmmmm... Seems
like one needs
to begin with
a simulator.
(Yes, not the
real world,
but breadth
has value.)
Alain
N. Cohen, April 4, "Imagine a city where subway cars connected to each other, synchronizing transfers based on average transport time between arrival of one train and the departure of another; where streetlights varied in brightness based on ambient light and population presence, saving the city millions of dollars and decreasing energy requirements; where your phone could direct you to the nearest parking spot to your next meeting....
For years, smart city vendors, engineers of many stripes, and
thought-leading urbanists have been telling us a wonderful story
about the smart cities to come. These stories are filled with
efficiencies and savings, targeted and personalized services,
frictionless interactions and payments, and infrastructure that
learns and adapts to changing usage and needs. We are not there
yet—important technologies required for this vision at scale
remain just over the horizon. And some of the challenges are as
much political and cultural as technical—how to deliver last
mile fiber effectively in many places, for example, is still an
open question, as is the challenge of automating or
computerizing aging and poorly maintained infrastructure...." Read
more Hmmmm... Read,
but read with
an even more
critical eye.
True, Smart is
not enough,
but neither is
this paper.
This is
largely a
continuation
of a 1984
techno-view of
life which
seems to
equate a
monolithic
digital
technology
with
intelligence.
One beauty of
cities/communities is diversity, which is non-existent in these
optimized
enclaves.
Where is any
semblance of
enhancement of
the
individual's
quality-of-life
according to
the
individual's
own perception
of his/her
quality of
life. As
opposed to
some
"imagined"
quality of
life of some
(hopefully)
benevolent
central
planner's
optimal
orchestration
of everyone
else. Yuk!!!
No thank you.
Maybe this is
good for the
Chinese or
"San
Francisco/Silicon
Valley". No
thank you for
New Jersey.
We have home
rule.
Worth the
cost! Alain
B. Cramer, March 28, "American motorists set another record in
2018, driving 12.2 billion more miles than they did in the
previous year, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
reported last week. Think Uber, Lyft, Amazon deliveries and a
whole lot more. U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is
connecting the dots from higher utilization to safer,
well-maintained roads.
“Record-setting vehicle miles traveled reflects a robust
economy, lower gas prices, and is another reason to ensure that
America’s roads and bridges are well-maintained and modernized
to improve safety,” the Secretary said in a release..." Read
more Hmmmm...
Essentially
all drive with
an average
vehicle
occupancy
(excluding
people who are
just riding
along on a
family outing)
of 1.0 . We
so desperately
need casual
ride-sharing
so that we can
continue to
enjoy the
quality-of-life
afforded by
the Personal
Miles Traveled
but achieving
it in many
fewer Vehicle
Miles
Traveled.
Alain
J. Holmes March 29, "Automotive technology company Aptiv wants
to help advanced research into computer vision and
autonomous-driving technologies by sharing some of the
information it has already gathered in the real world. Aptiv
announced this week it will share what it's calling the largest
public dataset to date of autonomous driving data. The data is
open-source and free to use.
The data-sharing project is called nuScenes and consists of data
that Aptiv gathered in the real world on roads in Boston and
Singapore, meaning both left- and right-hand-drive traffic is
covered. nuTonomy, an Aptiv company, has operated self-driving
test cars in both Singapore and Boston, which is most likely
where the data comes from.
The database consists of 1,000 scenes each 20 seconds long, with
a total of 1.4 million images, 390,000 lidar scanner outputs and
1.4 million human-annotated objects. Aptiv says it gathered the
data from six cameras, five radar units and one lidar unit on
each car, giving a 360-degree field of view around the
vehicle...." Read more Hmmmm... This is
good. Alain
R. Stumpf, March 31, "As cars continue to become more advanced
and stuffed full of technology, they’ve begun to catch the
attention of security researchers. One analyst in particular
recently purchased a salvaged Tesla
Model 3 in order to conduct a
series of tests, ultimately determining that the vehicle
stores massive amounts of unencrypted personal data, accessible
to any individual who has physical access to the car.
A researcher and self-proclaimed white hat hacker who goes by
GreenTheOnly often takes advantage of Tesla's advantageous
bug bounty program. The mutually beneficial strategy helps
Tesla to patch serious security bugs while rewarding the
researchers who find them with thousands of dollars in reward.
Recently, the researcher spoke with CNBC
under the condition of anonymity, showing just how much personal
data he was able to extract from salvage vehicles....
Collected information also serves to benefit the automaker directly, protecting it against false claims of Autopilot crashes. Tesla has provided information regarding fatal crashes to the public, which allowed it to both dispel rumors and calm public opinion... Read more Hmmmm... Seems like the simple fix is encryption., but privacy is not an simple issue. Capturing data leading up to a crash is so fundamentally valuable to improving safety that maybe it should be treated as self-incriminating and therefore not admissible in legal proceedings?? Alain
T. Lindsay, March 30, "The blockbuster college admissions
scandal continues to make headlines: The rich and powerful are
being charged with engaging in fraudulent practices (bribery and
fixing test scores) to get their academically unqualified kids
into a number of elite colleges. As many have noted, this is
far, far worse than the age-old practice of rich parents making
sizable donations to a university to grease the skids for their
kids’ admission. This is blatant and widespread illegality.
But this scandal, as devastating as it is, has depended for its
success on the “other” college scandal: rampant grade inflation.
As one writer wondered, “Wouldn’t admission under false
pretenses result in the kids flunking out? Wouldn’t their lack
of merit be revealed by the simple pressure of the schooling is
virtually no pressure at all.
Consider these facts: A 50-plus-year nationwide study of the
history of college grading finds that, in the early 1960s, an A
grade was awarded in colleges nationwide 15 percent of the time.
But today, an A is the
most common grade given in college; the percentage of A
grades has tripled, to 45 percent nationwide. Seventy-five
percent of all grades awarded now are either A’s and B’s. The
National Association of Colleges and Employers reported in 2013
that “66
percent of employers screen candidates by grade point average
(GPA).”..." Read
more Hmmmm...
And
we thought
that
SmartDrivingCars
had
challenges.
The system is
BROKEN! Alain
M. Hawes, April 2019, "...Win the global race to
widespread CAV adoption and the economic and social benefits
are dramatic. Over the coming decade, today’s driver
assistance technology and the next generation of autonomous
systems are set to save 3,900 lives and create 420,000 new
jobs across automotive and adjacent sectors – with an overall
annual £62 billion economic benefit to the UK by 2030.
Grasping this prize, however, will not come easy. To
capitalise, innovation in Britain must continue. Favourable
regulations, investment into infrastructure and ensuring
public acceptance of new technologies are just three
priorities..." Read
more Hmmmm...
.
Maybe.
This is
another one of
these
traditional
views on AVs
about the
lives saved
(as opposed to
the crashes
avoided) with
a continuation
of the
traditional
personal-car-centric
mobility
business
model. In
that model, it
is hard to
argue that
cars will
consume more
of the
household
personal
income than it
does now, so
I'm not
particularly
sure where the
62B comes
from, except
being a
transfer from
what can be
saved from
whatever
crashes are
actually
avoided.
Also, since
the business
model doesn't
change, why
the new laws,
etc... ??
You'll still
have adult
supervision
behind the
wheel.
If
the technology
goes beyond
traditional
business model
to a Mobility
as a Service
model with
fleet-owned/operated
driverless
vehicles, then
there is more
disruption and
improvement in
quality-of-life but not a substantial net increase in economic benefit.
I must be
missing
something.
(Same thing
that I am
missing when I
think that if
I buy an EV
I'll be using
coal as its
energy
source. Had I
bought a
traditional
car, I'd be
using
gasoline.)
Alain
T. Brewster, April 1, "Elite hackers from China have found a
way to trick a Tesla Model S into going into the wrong lane by
strategically placing some simple stickers on the road.
Keen Labs, widely regarded as one of the most technically
ingenious cybersecurity research groups in the world,
developed two kinds of attack to mess with the Tesla
autopilot’s lane-recognition tech...." Read
more Hmmmm... This
must be April
Fools...
"technically
ingenious
cybersecurity".
Talk about an
oxymoron. By
not painting
stripes, NJ
DoT has been
able to create
fake lanes to
cause me to go
off course all
of my life.
With at least
a half a
billion people
still in
poverty in
China don't
these
"ingenious"
folks have
something
better to do?
And, of
course, all of
the Chinese
products that
I buy never
break, ...
NOT! Alain
3rd
Annual
Princeton SmartDrivingCar
Summit
evening May 14 through May 16, 2019
Apply to Participate; 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]" alt=""
class="" width="89" height="52">
March 21, F. Fishkin, "NVIDIA unveils Constellation Drive and more at the company's GPU Technology Conference. NVIDIA's Director of Automotive Danny Shapiro joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for a special edition of the Smart Driving Cars podcast!"
March 18, F. Fishkin, "Autonomous vehicles and a new world of mobility for those who need it most. That plus a new poll from AAA, the grounding of Boeing's Max 8 aircraft, Lyft's IPO and more in this edition of the Smart Driving Cars podcast with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. " Just say "Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!" . Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay ... Alain
March 10, F. Fishkin, "What was missing from the Geneva Auto Show? Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser takes aim on that, plus, Volvo, Waymo Tesla and more along with co-host Fred Fishkin. Tune in and subscribe! "
Feb. 22, F. Fishkin, " Should Elon Musk stop promising truly self driving cars next year? That plus more on Waymo, Apple and a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists in this edition of the Smart Driving Cars podcast with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin."
Feb. 15, F. Fishkin, , "What can autonomous vehicle companies learn from the Amazon HQ2 cancellation in NY? Plenty, says Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser. That and more in Episode 91 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast with co-host Fred Fishkin. "
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."
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. 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 t
he 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"
E. Niedermeyer, March 18, "he single most important moment in the world of self-driving cars was around 10 PM on a Sunday evening, one year ago today. On that fatal evening, Elaine Herzberg stepped out into Mill Avenue in Tempe, Arizona and was struck and killed by a Volvo XC90 that was testing Uber's self-driving car technology. Herzberg's death has cast a pall over what had been a white hot race to develop world-changing technology that promised to both save lives and create billions in value for the winners, changing public perceptions of autonomous vehicles and internal practices at the firms developing the technology alike. Though this shameful moment won't stop the march toward autonomous vehicles, it does provide an important opportunity to stop and reflect on how it happened and what lessons must be learned to prevent it from happening again.
Lesson #1: This Is Not A Race...
(1)
Lesson #2: Culture Matters. (3)
Lesson #3: Humans Are Bad At Overseeing Imperfect
Automation. (9)
Lesson #4: Vulnerable Road Users Require Extra Care.(5)
Lesson #5: Regulation Beats The Alternative. (7)
Lesson #6: Legal Liability Must Catch Up With Technology. (10)
Lesson #7: Leaders Need To Listen. (8)
Lesson #8: Infrastructure Matters. (6)
Lesson #9: Autonomy Has Opponents. (2)
Lesson #10: Trust Is The Currency Of Autonomous Drive
Technology. (4)
Lesson #xx: Be totally transparent about what happened leading up to the crash. (3.5)
Lesson #yy: Learn about safety from others and help others learn from you (3.6) Read more Hmmmm... Very worth reading. I've provided my own ranking and added a couple of other lessons. What is being disillusioned is the fairy tale / Sunday supplement aspects of this technology, which no one ever believed anyway. What remains substantive is that Safe-driving car technology is being incorporated into new cars and it is beginning to work. Self-driving technology is being championed by OEM, especially Tesla and Volvo and it is being purchased to the satisfaction of OEMs. And Driverless technology is being tried in goods delivery and, at least at Princeton University, is being focused to serve Mobility Disadvantaged communities whose quality-of-life this technology can most enhance. While this technology is in its infancy with little scale or bandwidth, it is prudent that it focus on delivering mobility to those who can most benefit from the technology, rather than try to convert those that are indifferent or disdain. Alain
Press release, March 19, "To ensure self-driving cars are
safely integrated on New Jersey roads, legislation
sponsored by Assembly Democrats Daniel Benson, Andrew
Zwicker and Pamela Lampitt to establish a task force to
evaluate autonomous vehicles was signed into law by the
Governor Monday.
“As major auto companies explore developing semi and fully
autonomous cars, we need to prepare for the day when we’ll
see only self-driving vehicles on our roadways,” said
Benson (Mercer, Middlesex). “The goal of this task force
will be to assess how we can introduce autonomous vehicles
to our roadways while keeping drivers safe.”
The new mandate (formerly bill AJR-164) creates the New
Jersey Advanced Autonomous Vehicle Task Force, comprised
of eight members. The panel will be responsible for
conducting a study of autonomous vehicles and recommending
laws, rules, and regulations that the state may enact to
safely integrate these vehicles on the roads..." Read
more
Hmmmm....
New Jersey is now started.
Hooray!! Alain
A. Kornhauser, March 13, "The following testimony was provided to the New Jersey State Assembly’s Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee on Monday, March 11....
What we need, what my ask is, that we create in New Jersey a “welcoming environment” for the research, testing and demonstration of this technology and work to focusing it on improving the mobility of the mobility disadvantaged...
While such a demonstration is not prohibited in New
Jersey, it is not permitted.
Consequently, this provides excuses and hurdles to
bringing such mobility to our communities and tarnishes
any other welcoming efforts aimed at enabling New Jersey
to lead instead of follow in what may well address the
fundamental objective of this hearing." Read
more
Hmmmm....Seems
so simple. I have found it
so incredibly hard. Alain
Press Release, March 4, "Volvo Cars, as a worldwide
leader in safety, is sending a strong signal about the
dangers of speeding and will limit the top speed on all
its cars to 180 kph from 2020.
The company’s Vision 2020, which aims for no one to be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo by 2020, is one of the most ambitious safety visions in the automotive industry. But realising that technology alone will not get it all the way to zero, Volvo Cars is now broadening its scope to include a focus on driver behaviour...
Apart from limiting top speeds, the company is also
investigating how a combination of smart speed control
and geofencing technology could automatically limit
speeds around schools and hospitals in future.... " Read
more
Hmmmm....
Bravo Volvo!!! I
appreciate this
ground-breaking initiative
by an OEM. Over the years
Volvo has proven that
"Safety" doesn't sell, now
Volvo is doubling down
against the German Speed
Fantasy. Is Volvo crazy?
I applaud you. Hopefully, this is just the first step Why not 135 kph (~90mph). Or "9 over" with ability to "buy a '24 over'" at an exponentially increasing higher price. Alain
March 1, "Improve people's lives with the world's best transportation. ...44% of rides start or end in low income areas.... Just think what that number could be if the rides were even cheaper and you didn't have to deal with driver apprehensions... . 30.7M Riders, 1.9 M Drivers, $8.1B Bookings, $2.2B Revenue, 1+B Rides, 300+ Markets in US & Canada...
We are laser-focused on revolutionizing transportation and continue to lead the market in innovation. We have established a scaled network of drivers and riders, or users, brought together by our robust technology platform that powers millions of rides and connections every day. We leverage our technology platform, the scale and density of our user network and insights from over one billion rides to continuously improve our ridesharing marketplace efficiency and develop new offerings. For example, we pioneered a shared ride offering, or Shared Rides, providing lower-cost rides to riders traveling similar routes while improving the efficiency of our network. More recently, we were the first to launch a publicly-available commercial autonomous offering in the United States..." Read more Hmmmm...."... A commercial autonomous offering" ... Talk about an "offering" that is un-scalable without a non-trivial pivot.. elimination of the attendant. Oh well... Lots to learn in the filing. The very brief and necessarily shallow CliffNotes are at LYFT’S IPO FILING SHOWS RIDERSHIP IS SURGING—SO ARE LOSSES .. Alain
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:
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
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".
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
"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
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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