[log in to unmask]" _mf_state="1" title="null" src="cid:part4.P5dOmwqY.rEhRRq0C@princeton.edu" class="" width="44" height="44" border="0"> The SmartDrivingCars eLetter, Pod-Casts, Zoom-Casts and Zoom-inars are made possible in part by support from the Smart Transportation and Technology ETF, symbol MOTO. For more information: www.motoetf.com. Most funding is supplied by Princeton University's Department of Operations Research & Financial Engineering and Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (PAVE) research laboratory as part of its research dissemination initiative
Dirty Tesla, "..." Read more Hmmmm... Step through and watch from t=272 to about t=286.
(Disregard that the display is delayed by possibly a
half a second
(hopefully
this is
because Dirty
Tesla did not
properly
synchronize
his camera
footage with
that of FSD's
in-car
display; else,
what is taking
so much time
in the display
pipeline?)
Note that the 1st crossing vehicle is not displayed @ t=278 when it is tiredly
in front of
Dirty Tesla's
car. This
display
behavior
happens again
with the
pickup
crossing @ t =283 , and again at t=286 with another
pickup. Why
is it
consistently
unimportant
for a crossing
object (one in
which its
relative speed
in the cross
direction is
non-small and
its relative
speed in my
heading
direction is
very similar
to my speed)
to not be in
the display
pipeline when
that object is
directly in
front of my
car? Yet that
object is
displayed if
it is to the
left or to the
right of my
heading. Is
this
symptomatic
that FSD
disregards
objects dead
ahead whose
relative speed
in the heading
similar to my
speed?
Stationary
objects in the
lane ahead
have this
characteristic!
@ t=347
the driver is
puzzled as to
why FSD is
braking for a
very short
while... Well
it got spooked
by the
approaching
car in the
opposite
direction. I
might have
also tapped
the brakes or
lifter my foot
off the gas
(electric...
sorry) at that
time.
It is surprising that overhead signs and overpasses are not displayed. @ t=429. I'm sure these objects are detected. They are directly in the lane ahead. Their relative speed in the heading direction is very similar I'm sure that somewhere in the code these objects are tagged as being "pass under-able" and are thus disregarded. Again @ t=481, @ t=484, I sure hope that tagging process has extremely few false positives; else, a parked firetruck might be tagged as "pass under-able". Yipes! Alain
R. Bellan,
Nov. 3,
"Employees of
Cruise, the
self-driving
subsidiary of
General
Motors, will
be the first
to jump inside
one of the
company’s
autonomous
vehicles that
operate in San
Francisco
without a
human driver
in the front
seat. Certain
members of the
public will
also be able
to ride, but
they won’t be
charged a
fare.
Cruise
co-founder,
CTO and
president Kyle
Vogt was
reportedly the
first to ride
the driverless
AV, and he
gushed about
it all over
Twitter. ...
My
first fully
driverless
pickup!
(LONGER) ..."
Read
more Hmmmm...
Congratulations Kyle
and Oliver. A totally non-trivial
accomplishment.
First Waymo in
Chandler, then
Cruise in SF.
Hopefully
you'll accept
our invitation
to come to
Trenton where
you'll be able
to deliver
real
improvement in
the
quality-of-life
of many.
Alain
R. Bellan, Nov. 5,"... “Our fourth-generation compute platform will be based on our in-house custom silicon development,” said Basu. “This is purpose-built for our application. It enables focus and improves processing capability, while significantly reducing piece costs and power consumption. Compute is a critical system from a safety perspective, and has redundancy built into it. Add to that an AV system that is processing up to 10 gigabits of data every second, we end up consuming a fair amount of power. Our MLH chip allows us to run our complex machine learning pipelines in a much more focused manner, which in turn helps us to be more energy efficient without compromising on performance.”...
“To truly cross the chasm from research and development to a beloved product requires more than just artificial intelligence and robotics,” said Oliver Cameron, Cruise’s VP of product, at the event. “A safe self-driving vehicle alone is insufficient and simply the first step on a long, long journey. To truly build and scale a competitive product that is adopted by millions into their daily lives, you need to build a host of differentiated features and tools atop a safe self-driving foundation..." Read more Hmmmm... You also need to address the societal challenges by coming and delivering the Equitable, Affordable, High-quality Mobility services in the Trentons of this world. Alain
B.
Templeton,
Nov. 4,
"Cruise, a
startup funded
by GM and
Honda, has
received a lot
of attention
due to that
relationship
but has not
previously
revealed deep
details on
their plans
and
technology,
but today they
held a video
session to
reveal a lot
of new
details. The
session was
aimed at
recruiting new
staff, but was
made available
to other
outsiders. A
recording will
be available
the morning of
Nov 5 for the
public...." Read more Hmmmm... See especially the Cruise
video Cruise
Under the Hood
2021 (FULL
EVENT) and
Brad's
article about
the 1st ride.
Alain
Waymo Team,
Nov. 3, "The
Waymo Driver
has tested in
dozens of
cities
spanning a
diverse range
of climates
and
topographies.
Starting
tomorrow,
we’ll build on
these
learnings as
we begin to
map in New
York City for
the first
time.
New York City
is the most
densely
populated city
in the
country, ..."Read
more Hmmmm...
And probably
the last place
in the US that
needs Waymo's
driver.
Driving in
Manhattan is
all about
avoiding
moving
objects, none
of which will
be in the maps
of stationary
objects that
Waymo will be
building. Bad
enough Waymo
is quagmired
in a market
where they are
at best a
novelty item
or Disneyland
side show.
Now they come
to Manhattan
that is
walkable,
bikeable and
scooterable.
Yellow cabs
and Black cars
abound.
Bus-only lanes
everywhere and
a great 24/7
subway. Good
luck at
thinking that
you'll be
greeted with
open arms. Fuhgeddabudit!
Alain
S. Wilmot,
Nov. 5,
"Driverless
vehicles have
a new public
face: Aurora
Innovation.
AUR 4.06% Its
stock will be
a barometer of
investor
sentiment
toward a
technology
that seems
likely to
change the
world, albeit
slowly.
The company,
which is
working on a
package of
hardware and
software to
automate
driving, made
its
stock-market
debut Thursday
following the
closure of its
merger with a
special-purpose acquisition company. The deal raised $1.8 billion before
fees, slightly
less than
hoped when it
was announced
in July, to
fund Aurora
through the
final two
years before
its targeted
commercial
launch. The
stock fell 3%
on its first
trading day
but rebounded
at the open
Friday....
Scalability
seems
to be a
problem
with
driverless
taxis. ... "
Read
more Hmmmm...
Congratulations Chris on getting a $10.6B valuation at the launch. A
non-trivial
accomplishment.
But given
all of the
build-up and
promises, it
hasn't been a
spectacular
debut for any
of you.
"Scalability" is not the only a problem. The spark that
might ignite
it hasn't even
been
achieved.
Chandler may
be fizzling
for lack of
customer
demand. Motorless
trucks rolling
downhill,
and driverless
trucks
operating on a
yet-to-open-to-the-public highway don't seem to be be invigorating
the public
marketplace.
This
technology
desperately
needs to
deliver to
someone some
tangible
societal
benefit other
than being an
NFT.
Hurling driverless 18 wheelers next to me down some
interstate may
be fine after
we've all
grown
accustomed to
some forms of
SmartDrivingCars but this seems to be an unlikely candidate for an
initial
spark. Alain
G. Gastelu, Nov. 5, "... The production version hews closely to the original ID.Buzz concept that debuted in 2017 and remains on track for a debut in Europe next year, followed by U.S. sales in 2023...
VW plans to
have Level 3
autonomy
available for
retail models,
while a fully
autonomous
version using
technology
being
developed by
Argo will be
deployed in
ride-hailing
services...."
Read
more Hmmmm...Don't
hold your
breath about
the "Level 3"
version, but a
driverless
version from
Ford/Argo
would be
really
interesting
for
Trenton.😎
Alain
S. Ovide,
Nov. 3, "The
promise of
electric and
driverless
cars is that
vehicles can
become better
for the planet
and safer for
us. Those are
worthy goals,
although there
are
significant
barriers to
getting mass
numbers of
such cars on
the road.
There’s also a
risk that
devoting our
attention to
these
technological
marvels may
give us a pass
from
confronting a
deeper
question: How
can we make
our lives less
dependent on
cars?..." Read
more Hmmmm...Unshareable
personal cars
is the
substantial
root-cause of
most of the
problems while
at the same
time being the
substantial
root-cause of
much of its
success.
Alain
Date Change: Thursday evening, May 5,
through
Saturday May
7, 2022. Live
in Trenton,
New Jersey.
"Everything" was going well wrt the 5th Summit Nov 18->20; however...
Time is very short, we must focus on the election and the realities of where we remain with Covid really put cold water on some aspects of our vision for November.
Consequently. I've become convinced that it is very much better, that we take our time and reschedule for the first week on May 2022 rather than rush for what isn't as good as could be.
By May we will have received responses to our upcoming RfI for "Equitable ... Mobility in Trenton". We will thus have a better idea on "Who", from the "What & How" communities, "Want & Can" Deploy "Equitable ... Mobility" starting in Trenton with real expectations of scaling throughout New Jersey.
In May the 5th Summit can better achieve its fundamental purpose by allowing all of us in New Jersey to better learn from others around the world the "Whats & Hows" and have the possible "Whos" get a better appreciation of the "Equitable ... Mobility" desires of Trentonians and other New Jersians.
Rescheduling the Summit to be between the RfI and the RfP steps of our Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) Deployment Process, will better enable our Community Engagement initiative to shape our ultimate deployment. We'll thus deliver even better mobility equitably and best improve quality-of-life in Trenton and throughout New Jersey.
Please pencil into your calendar the new dates of May 5 (Thursday evening) though May 7 (Trenton Mobility Festival Saturday). 😎 Please let me know if these dates work for you.
Sorry about the delay, but many will be relieved by this change. Plus, early May is really nice in NJ.😁
Alain
This
5th
Summit is
inspired by
the many
levels of
public-sector,
community and
neighborhood
welcoming and
support that
now exists in
New Jersey for
the deployment of
equitable,
affordable,
high-quality
mobility. This
is now made
possible by
automated
driving
technology
that is
especially
targeted to
serve
those who, for
whatever
reason, don't
have access to
their own
personal
car.
The
Princeton SDC
Summits were
initiated in
2017 to
provide a
venue for the
open
discussion of
how
technology, in
particular
automation,
can be shaped
to improve
mobility of
people and
goods between
and within
cities. Early
on, we
realized that
this form of
mobility could
easily provide
yet another
alternative to
those who are
fortunate
enough to
enjoy one or
many high
quality
mobility
options.
But, more importantly, it became obvious that substantial improvement in quality-of-life and equitable mobility can readily be made available to the un-served and under-served. Those who cannot drive themselves, cannot afford the transport alternatives that exist for them, or who live in areas where, for either economic or other reasons, neither public nor private desirable forms of transport are offered. Furthermore, such initial Operational Design Domains (OODs) can be readily expanded and replicated to allow the vast investments continuing to be made in this technology to actually yield their envisioned societal and financial benefits.
The
recently
completed 4th
Summit set the
groundwork for
these initial
deployments to
benefit under-served communities. Communities with many households
having access
to one or
fewer cars and
with
challenged
transit
alternatives.
We concluded
the 4th Summit
by envisioning a deployment throughout Trenton, NJ, a
community
where 70% of
the households
have access to
one or fewer
cars.
We
believe that
Trenton is a
perfect ODD to
begin to
deliver Equitable,
Affordable,
High-quality
Mobility,
in addition to
being
environmentally
responsible,
safe and
comfortable.
The
opportunity to
expand
throughout
Mercer County
and replicate
this
deployment
scenario
throughout the
State exists.
This
deployment
will serves
as a blueprint
for the future
for many other
"Trentons" of
this world.
The
groundwork set
by the 4th
Summit and the
NJ Autonomous
Vehicle Task
Force has
enabled us to
create a "most
welcoming
environment"
in New Jersey
for creating a
Public-Private
Partnership to
deliver this
enhanced
mobility to
the residents
of Trenton and
all New
Jersians. The 5th Summit will
focus directly
on deployment in Trenton and will take place in Trenton. We also
envision its
expansion
throughout
Mercer County
and its
replication in
and around New
Jersey's other
major
cities.
H. Poser'77, Sept 13, 2020. "Creating Value for Light Density Urban Rail Lines" . See slides, See video Hmmmm... Simply Brilliant. Alain