10.08 - STOP
8th edition of the 10th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
Motional, Via to start robo-taxi service in Las Vegas
J. White, Feb 24, "Autonomous vehicle venture Motional and ride services company Via said they will launch on Thursday a robo-taxi service in Las Vegas, the latest step by Motional toward commercial deployment of its autonomous vehicle systems.
Via will use vehicles outfitted with Motional autonomous driving systems to offer free rides between several locations in downtown Las Vegas. Motional is a joint venture of Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) and automotive technology supplier Aptiv PLC (APTV.N)...." Read more
Hmmmm... Reuters, please STOP with this kind of reporting! You are being unfair to Motional, Via. They are not offering the equivalent of amusement park rides in an urban setting. They are in fact trying to develop the technology to provide (eventually) a low-cost way of providing a safe and high-quality mobility service.
Please use the correct terms. There is an attendant on-board these vehicles! Motional, Via is therefore NOT "starting robo-taxi" service in Las Vegas, as your headline proclaims. Today, this is a high-cost, heavily subsidized (by venture capital) service that's not significantly different than taxi services that have been available around the world for 100+ years.
[At least you didn't use the term autonomousTaxi, aTaxi for short, as the term encompassing Safe, Equitable, Affordable, Sustainable, High-quality Mobility.]
Motional, Via are taking a next step in the development of the technology that has the opportunity to become a low-cost way of providing a high-quality service, but for now what's "to start" is an enormously expensive demonstration that should NOT be called "robo-taxi service" unless Reuter's objective is to distract, confuse, hype or simply participate in fake news.
I'm sure that Motional, Via sincerely aspire to provide what they've been working on for many years in Las Vegas and elsewhere: a true aTaxi service. But there is one enormous step that needs to be achieved as standard, no problem, of course: a mobility service that readily operates every day without a driver or attendant. What's happening in Las Vegas is a great next step towards achieving that goal, which should be the story, not a carnival-esque offer of free rides with technology bells and whistles.
The real goal is not an amusement park attraction but a Safe, Equitable, Affordable, Sustainable, High-quality Mobility service like the one that works extremely well every day when going up and down... elevators.
Elevators have had it somewhat easy... Competition is the stairwell, so being perceived as High-quality doesn't need many bells and whistles. They've achieved a track record of being Safe-enough (not perfectly safe, nothing is or ever will be). They are largely Equitable to those who can get inside the building, Sustainable because they are inviting to readily share rides whenever demand warrants (door stays open for a little while after I get in), and Affordable because they require only minimal human supervision done collectively not individually, which decreases with increased scale. The accessibility afforded is absolutely required for the floors above to capture any economic value that motivates and justifies free pricing. The key to affordability is minimal human supervision.
Until elevators were able to operate without attendants, and the public became comfortable that they were safe enough, tall buildings had no chance, and "the skyline of Manhattan would resemble that of Paris, if it was lucky!."
To my knowledge, only the Waymo One service in Chandler, AZ comes close to offering horizontal mobility with what is becoming minimal human oversight that some folks perceive as safe-enough. GM/Cruise in parts of SF is close, others, including Motional, Via are still making enormous progress towards that objective and are in the mix. Their hard work and actual achievements should be the story. Reuters would better serve the public by reporting on real milestones rather than potentially mis-represent (at the worst) or distract (at the best).
Rebecca Bellan @ Tech Crunch did a much better job by at least stating "...The autonomous vehicles will have human safety operators behind the wheel...."
What's my point here? These systems have the opportunity to be an incredible asset to our communities, and I implore journalists to spend the time to understand the actual challenges each company is facing as well as the progress they are making in overcoming them. Let's work together to educate and advocate for safe, equitable, affordable, sustainable high-quality mobility systems, not carnival acts. Alain
SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast Episode 2 / PodCast 257 w/ Ciff Winston, Brookings Institute & Marc Scribner, Reason Foundation
F. Fishkin, Feb. 25, "So what about these reports and opinion pieces casting doubt on the future of autonomous mobility? The Brookings Institution's Cliff Winston and Reason Foundation's Marc Scribner join Princeton's Alain Kornhauser & co-host Fred Fishkin to slice and dice. Plus GM Cruise, VW and more.."
Technical support provided by: https://www.cartsmobility.com/
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
Companies are racing to make self-driving cars. But why?
D. Zapper, Feb 4, "... What exactly is the point of self-driving cars? The answer, despite more than $100 billion in investment over the last decade, according to McKinsey%20technologies%20and%20smart%20mobility.), remains surprisingly nebulous. And that should trouble us — a lot...." Read more
Hmmmm... Wow! I previously Hmmmed... about the embarrassing cluelessness of McKinsey%20technologies%20and%20smart%20mobility.) on this topic, and now the Washington Post cluelessly extends McKinsey's cluelessness. Cliff Winston and Marc Scribner join Fred Fishkin and me to bring some sanity to this topic in episode 257 of SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast & PodCast above. Alain
It's Finally Here: Real Driverless Cruise Cars Spotted Picking Up Passengers Around the City
A. Tong, Feb 25, "The driverless car revolution's birthplace is the Bay Area, and for years San Francisco residents have borne witness to all its iterations of oddly festooned vehicles roaming the streets with a watchful human babysitter at the wheel.
The training wheels are finally coming off. In the past few weeks, San Francisco has become the first major U.S. city where autonomous vehicles have provided fully driverless rides to members of the public, according to Cruise, the company providing the rides...." Read more
Hmmmm... Simply fantastic. Hopefully GM/Cruise will come to Trenton MOVES. Should be easy to scale after the Frisco start. Alain
AT LAST, A SELF-DRIVING CAR THAT CAN EXPLAIN ITSELF
C. Hori, Feb 23, "For all the recent improvements in artificial intelligence, the technology still cannot take the place of human beings in situations where it must frame its perceptions of the world in words that people can understand.
You might have thought that the many apparent advances in speech recognition would have solved the problem already. After all, Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Amazon's Alexa and Google Home are all very impressive, but these systems function solely on voice input: They can't understand or react to the environment around them.
To bridge this communications gap, our team at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories has developed and built an AI system that does just that. We call the system scene-aware interaction, and we plan to include it in cars.... " Read more
Hmmmm... Very nice. Alain
Tesla, Ford and General Motors Get Some Very Sobering News
L. Olinka, Feb. 24, "Here's news that won't get unanimous support from owners of vehicles that include driver-assistance systems enabling the cars to carry out certain maneuvers by themselves.
The Utah Senate, following the local House of Representatives, has passed a law penalizing drivers who are arrested for driving under the influence even with the systems activated. ..." Read more
Hmmmm... Are all journalist completely clueless? This is a great law. It should exist at the national level, if existing laws aren't sufficient to incarcerate those whose capability to take over the driving function, should it become necessary to avert a crash, has been diminished by the ingestion of alcohol or other substances.
All systems for sale today, and in any foreseeable future, require and will continue to require the driver to remain alert and capable of driving should the need arise. Everyone in this business knows this law is at worse ho-hum if not, "I'll be a co-sponsor because I'm tired of my customers mis-behaving in the use of the products that I've worked so hard to serve them well". No manufacturer, not even Elon, is suggesting that cars today, or in any near future, are looking to promote engagement of the car's automation features while the driver is under the influence". None!! It is very disrespectful of this publication to even suggest that.
As for car owners, it is not new to learn that a few are total jerks; else, there would be essentially no crashes on our roadway systems. >90% of crashes involve human mis-behavior! Alain
GM asks to deploy self-driving car with no steering wheel
K. Houser, Feb 25, "... General Motors (GM) and self-driving car company Cruise have asked regulators for permission to deploy the Cruise Origin — an autonomous vehicle (AV) with no steering wheel, rearview mirrors, or pedals.
If approved, it could be on the assembly line within a year.
"The Cruise Origin is among the most innovative vehicles in history: a zero-emission, shared, electric vehicle that has been purposefully designed from the ground up to operate without a human driver," Rob Grant, a senior VP at Cruise, wrote in a blog post...." Read more
Hmmmm... Why is this not a complete no-brainer for US DoT? Is GM also going to need to ask permission to remove the gas pedal and the brake pedal?? Why is this taking so long. Maybe this is another one of these cases that one should just do it and ask for forgiveness if anyone complains. Would anyone really complain? Who would serve the complaint. Speed limits are no longer enforced. Would a cop really pull you over if your car didn't have a steering wheel and it worked better and was safer than one with a wheel? Are they going to come after Elon with his yoke??? With all the hard work ahead, we're stuck with a steering wheel C'mon NHTSA! Alain
Arcimoto unveils radical three-wheel-drive electric leaning trike that it thinks can beat e-bikes
M. Toll, Feb. 25, "Oregon-based Arcimoto unveiled today a radical new full-suspension, three-wheeled electric bike known as the Mean Lean Machine (MLM). The new e-bike employs tilting technology to help it corner more like a two-wheeler while maintaining the stability of a three-wheeler.
Yeah, yeah I know. There's a word for a three-wheeled bicycle. It's "tricycle." But this ain't your niece's tricycle, folks.
Leave it to the maker of 75 mph (120 km/h) three-wheeled electric vehicles to develop one of the most highly engineered electric bikes we've seen in just about… ever...." Read more
Hmmmm... Very interesting, but pricing not announced. Alain
Elon Musk: Tesla is working to make Steam video games work in its vehicles
F. Lambert, Feb. 25, "Elon Musk said that Tesla is working to make Steam's library of video games work on its onboard vehicle computer...." Read more
Hmmmm... This is such a bad idea for so many reasons, unless Elon is simply trying to sell more computers that don't go in cars but rather go in the basement of parent's homes. Alain
Making it Happen: Trenton MOVES... a Framework for the Deployment of Safe, Equitable, Affordable, Sustainable, High-quality Mobility A. Kornhauser, Jan 11, 2022 TRB, "A slide deck describing the framework for a phased deployment of high-quality mobility in Trenton New Jersey that is envisioned to have wherewithal to naturally scale beyond Trenton in a fashion that can be replicated the more than 100 communities across the US that have similar demographic and travel demand characteristics." Read more
Hmmmm... Go through the slides in presentation mode to take advantage of the animations. Alain
4th Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit It is over!!! Now time to actually do something in the Trentons of this world.
Making Driverless Happen: The Road Forward (Updated)
K. Pyle, April 18, 2021, "It's time to hit the start button," is Fred Fishkin's succinct way of summarizing the next steps in the Smart Driving Car journey. Fiskin, along with the LA Times' Russ Mitchell co-produced the final session of the 2021 Smart Driving Car Summit, Making It Happen: Part 2. This 16th and final session in this multi-month online conference not only provided a summary of the thought-provoking speakers, but also provided food for thought on a way forward to bring mobility to "the Trentons of the World."
Setting the stage for this final session, Michael Sena provided highlights of the Smart Driving Car journey that started in late December 2020. Safety, high-quality, and affordable mobility, particularly for those who do not have many options, was a common theme to the 2021 Smart Driving Car Summit. As Princeton Professor Kornhauser, the conference organizer put it....." Read more
Hmmmm.... We had another excellent Session. Thank you for the summary, Ken! Alain
Ken Pyle's Session Summaries of 4th Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit:
15th Session Making it Happen - Part One: Elected Officials' Role in Creating a Welcoming Environment in the Trentons of this World
14th Session What Will Power Safely-driven Cars
13th Session Improving the Moving of Goods
12th Session 3/18/21 Human-centered Design of Safe and Affordable Driverless Mobility
11th Session 3/11/21 Incentivizing Through Regulation
10th Session 3/04/21 Incentivizing Through Insurance
9th Session 2/25/21 Can Level 3 be Delivered?
8th Session 2/18/21 Who Will Build, Sell and Maintain Driverless Cars?
Michael Sena's Slides, Glenn Mercer Slides
7th Session 2/11/21 Finally Doing It
6th Session 2/ 4/21 Safe Enough in the Operational Design Domain
5th Session 1/28/21 At the Tipping Point
4th Session 1/21/21 Why Customers are Buying Them
3rd Session 1/14/21 The SmartDrivingCars We Can Buy Today
2nd Session 1/ 7/21 A Look into the Future 1st Session: 12/17/20 Setting the Stage Kornhauser & He, April 2021 "Making it Happen: A Proposal for Providing Affordable, High-quality, On-demand Mobility for All in the "Trentons" of this World"
Analyzing Ride-Share Potential and Empty Repositioning Requirements of a Nationwide aTaxi System Kornhauser & He, March 2021 "AV 101 + Trenton Affordable HQ Mobility Initiative"
Calendar of Upcoming Events
5th Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit
Thursday (evening), May 5, Welcome Reception (Registration required)
Friday, May 6, Equitable Mobility Innovation Forum (Registration required)
Saturday, May 7, Equitable Mobility Festival (Open to All)
Trenton, NJ
Live in Person
On the More Technical Side http://orfe.princeton.edu/~alaink/SmartDrivingCars/Papers/
K. Lockean's AV Research Group at U of Texas
These editions are sponsored by the SmartETFs Smart Transportation and Technology ETF, symbol MOTO. For more information head to www.motoetf.com
https://www.cartsmobility.com/ provides technical support
SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast Episode 2 / PodCast Episode 256 w/Danny Shapiro, VP Automotive, NVIDIA
F. Fishkin, Feb. 18, "With Jaguar Land Rover signing on to partner with NVIDIA for advanced driver assistance and autonomous capabilities in all of their vehicles starting in 2025, what will the collaboration mean? NVIDIA's VP for Automotive Danny Shapiro joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser & co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus the latest on Waymo, VW, Trenton and more."
SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast Episode 2 / PodCast Episode 255 w/Brad Templeton
F. Fishkin, Feb. 11, "The engaging debate over disengagements. In episode 255 of Smart Driving Cars, Forbes.com Sr. Transportation Contributor Brad Templeton engages with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser over the path to the future of autonomous mobility. The latest data on disengagements from companies testing self driving vehicles in California, Tesla, Cruise, Waymo and New Jersey begins funding Trenton MOVES...are part of the spirited discussion with co-host Fred Fishkin."
SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 254, Zoom-Cast Episode 2 w/Alex Roy,
F. Fishkin, Feb 4, "Why Self Driving Isn't a Race, It's a Game. That's what Alex Roy, Director of Special Projects at Argo AI writes at www.groundtruthautonomy.com. Alex joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for the latest Smart Driving Cars for a wide ranging discussion on that plus the latest on Trenton Moves, FreightWaves, Tesla, Waymo, Cruise, Toyota and more."
SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 253, Zoom-Cast Episode 2 w/Michael Sena, Editor of The Dispatcher
F. Fishkin, Jan. 27, "The Federal Trade Commission looks to level the tech playing field...but "The Dispatcher" publisher Michael Sena has some words of warning. He joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and Fred Fishkin for that plus Tesla, Waymo and more on Episode 253 of Smart Driving Cars."
SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 252, Zoom-Cast Episode 2 /Michael Krauss, Prof. of Law Emeritus & Alexandra Mueller, IIHS
F. Fishkin, Jan. 20, "The IIHS has announced it will rate vehicle partial automation systems. Spearheading is research scientist Alexandra Mueller who joins us. And Professor Emeritus Michael Krauss from the George Mason University School of Law on the manslaughter charges leveled in a Tesla autopilot case in California. Episode 252 of Smart Driving Cars with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin."
SmartDrivingCars Zoom-Cast Episode 2 /A. Kornhauser: Making it Happen: Trenton MOVES... a Framework for...
F. Fishkin, Jan. 15, "In this special edition of Smart Driving Cars, Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and his presentation: Making it Happen: Trenton Moves-a framework for the deployment of safe, equitable, affordable, sustainable, high quality transportation. The focus is on providing autonomous mobility in a place where there is real need. A first. Join the effort." Link to 250 previous SDC PodCasts & ZoomCasts
Recent Highlights of:
February 18, 2022
Jaguar Land Rover says all of its cars will come with NVIDIA's Drive computers by 2025 A. Hawkins, Feb. 17, "Jaguar Land Rover is teaming up with Nvidia to install high-powered computers in its vehicles to enable advanced driver assistance and autonomous driving features. Starting in 2025, all JLR vehicles will come with Nvidia's end-to-end Drive Hyperion platform installed, the companies said.
Hyperion is the latest iteration of Nvidia's Drive platform that allows automakers to customize their own driving features. And Orin is the chipmaker's system-on-a-chip, similar to Tesla's Full Self-Driving chip or Intel's Mobileye EyeQ. This new hardware will form the basis for a new suite of driving features, including advanced driver assistance systems, automated parking, and autonomous driving, the companies said.
"Orin is the AI brain of the car, and Drive Hyperion is the central nervous system," said Danny Shapiro, Nvidia's vice president for automotive.
JLR wouldn't say which models would be receiving which features as a result of this deal. But we can guess some of the broad outlines, based on Nvidia's other automotive deals, including Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, TuSimple, Cruise, Zoox, and a host of Chinese EV startups. Whatever they are, they will be befitting JLR's mission to provide a luxury vehicle experience to its customers, said Francois Dossa, executive director of strategy at JLR....." Read more
Hmmmm... Enormous progress in the coming availability in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Alain
11, 2023
Moving Forward with Trenton MOVES K. Pyle, Feb. 9, "Dr. Alain Kornhauser's vision of bringing equitable, sustainable, and affordable mobility to the people of Trenton took another step forward with the February 9th, 2022 announcement (Facebook) of a $5 million NJDOT Local Transportation Planning Fund Grant for the Trenton Mobility & Opportunity: Vehicles Equity System (MOVES) Project (PDF). The significance of this event goes beyond the grant announcement..." Read more
Hmmmm... Ken, thank you for the kind words. Alain
Smart Driving Cars Extra: Trenton MOVES gets moving
Feb. 11, "The New Jersey DOT is providing 5 million dollars to get Trenton MOVES moving. The goal..autonomous, affordable, safe mobility for all. This is a video of the event held on February 9th." Read more
Hmmmm... Fantastic even with challenging audio. Turn on Closed Caption. The substance is in the quality of the words from the Mayor, Commissioner and Superintendent. All from the heart. Very worth absorbing. Alain. February 4, 2022
W. Skaggs, Feb. 3, "We are excited to invite you to join Mayor Gusciora, N.J. Department of Transportation (NJDOT) Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, and Trenton Public Schools Superintendent James Earle to celebrate a $5 million award from the NJDOT Local Transportation Projects Fund for an unprecedented public transportation project right here in the Capital City. The project is called the Trenton Mobility & Opportunity: Vehicular Equity System (MOVES) initiative.
Originally announced by Governor Murphy and Commissioner Gutierrez-Scaccetti in December, TrentonMOVES seeks to provide a safe, equitable, and affordable high-quality on-demand mobility service to Trenton residents. The effort is a collaboration between the Governor's Office, NJDOT, the City of Trenton, and Princeton University.
The $5 million award is a huge milestone for the project. This will be the first large-scale urban transit system in America to be based entirely on self-driving shuttles. Each vehicle will carry four to eight passengers at a time. The AVs will be low-cost to users in underserved neighborhoods. The high school will be one of the central destinations on the first routes.
The event will take place at 11:00 a.m. in the Trenton Central High School auditorium. Members of the press will be invited to attend. ...." Read more
Hmmmm... Another real milestone.
Next comes the close of RfEI (being extended for a couple of weeks), followed by the 5th SmartDrivingCar Summit May 5 -> 7, 2022 in Trenton, NJ. The Summit will be focused on enabling Trentonians to get a first glimpse at technology and mobility systems that can deliver Trenton MOVES' mobility objectives (Safety, Equity, Affordability, Sustainability,..) and, very importantly, enabling technology and mobility companies to learn the market opportunities available to be captured in Trenton, the rest of Mercer County, and throughout New Jersey.
Trenton MOVES is a win-win opportunity for the citizens of New Jersey (The Public) and the shareholders of mobility provider(s) (The Private), who can come together in a Trenton MOVES Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) that will be created through a Request for Proposal (RfP) process commencing shortly after the close of the Summit. 😁 Alain
5th Annual SmartDrivingCars Summit: Deployment of Safe, Equitable Affordable, Sustainable, High Quality Mobility throughout New Jersey
Thursday evening, May 5, through Saturday May 7, 2022. Live in Trenton, NJ.
Alain L. Kornhauser, PhD
Professor, Operations Research & Financial Engineering
Director of Undergraduate Studies, ORFE
Director, Transportation Program
Faculty Chair, Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering
229 Sherrerd Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
alaink@princeton.edu
609-980-1427 (c)
http://www.princeton.edu