10.12 - Responsibility
March 25, 2022
12th edition of the 10th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
Mercedes Drive Pilot Beats Tesla Autopilot By Taking Legal Responsibility
M. Hogan, March 20, "Mercedes' new Drive Pilot seems, in operation, like many "traffic jam assistant" technologies already on sale today. On certain highways, below 40 mph, a Drive Pilot-equipped S-Class or EQS will take control of the car's speed, steering, and brakes to move you along in traffic. But there's one key difference: Once you engage Drive Pilot, you are no longer legally liable for the car's operation until it disengages. You can look away, watch a movie, or zone out. If the car crashes while Drive Pilot is operating, that's Mercedes' problem, not yours...." Read more
Hmmmm... Wow!!! I'm searching for the fine print. If there isn't any, then this is really wow!!! It means it works!! At least in its Operational Design Domain... Probably only on a divided highway and not on 5th Avenue in Manhattan or on the Champs Elysee in Paris, but only where it lets itself be turned on. That is actually one of the easiest ODDs because the car is lolloping the car ahead (much easier to flow than to lead) and there are no kids chasing balls or pedestrians or all the really tough stuff associated with driving down some street with people around. All that is fine, it is at least somewhere on public roads in the midst of conventional cars without an entourage. That's fantastic!!
Brilliant of Mercedes to lead in this way. Reminds me of when Mercedes led with being the first to offer an airbag on the steering wheel of a car that could be bought in a showroom in 1984. I actually took a cab to the Mercedes dealer in St. Louis (Not from Princeton. I was already there for a conference.) because they had one of the first in the US. I bought it and had it shipped to Princeton š. True story. Once Mercedes offered the airbag, Lee Iacocca picked up the concept as a way to differentiate Chrysler coming out of bankruptcy and the rest was history wrt airbags. Here will be the same. Level 3 in very narrow ODDs, will become the standard in "all" cars. Over-the-air updates will enable improvement through evolution. The key is "... that's Mercedes' problem, not yours..." This is major!!!
There is talk about enabling legislation that may or may not be necessary. Fine, but that legislation should be careful to not limit the liability exposure of this feature. It has to be made as safe as possible and it is important that only those capable of achieving that level of safety be offering this feature.
Link to segment in ZoomCast 261. Alain
SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast Episode 2 PodCast 2 w/ Sven Beiker & Dick Mudge
F. Fishkin, March 25, "Where autonomous mobility vehicles operate matters. But why does too. And Mercedes takes a leap. That and more as Sven Beiker of Silicon Valley Mobility and Dick Mudge of Compass Transportation join Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for episode 261 of Smart Driving Cars."
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.
To our fellow San Franciscans
T. Mawakana, March 21, "Our mission at Waymo is to make it safer and easier for people and things to get where they're going...." Read more
Hmmmm... Very nice. Congratulations, Tekedra!
We invite you to expand your mission and really put it in high gear towards profitability by coming to Trenton and join our MOVES initiative where you'll have the opportunity to enable many to substantially improve their quality-of-life by delivering to them "Safe, Equitable, Affordable, Sustainable, High-quality Mobility". Sure, you'll improve safety, but more importantly you'll improve access to opportunity to each member of the 70% of the households that have access to one or fewer cars. While the Trenton Transit Center does provide access to arguably the best commuter rail system in the nation, it doesn't have cable cars, automated subway or surface trolley lines. For many Trentonians, if that destination is not walkable, it doesn't get a chance to improve their personal utility.
While, like everyone else, Trentonians want everything, they'll be thrilled if you start by providing this life-enhancing opportunity between 50, or so, locations throughout Trenton. This enables short walks to connect everybody to everything throughout Trenton.
Doing it only during 95% of the time that Trenton has OK weather would be fantastic. We'll gladly take a break when there is snow on the streets (we'll shovel it quickly), fog or the rain is too heavy. We've learned to live with it. Those aren't the times that we're desperate for the kind of mobility improvements that we're certain that you can readily deliver to us in New Jersey. What you've demonstrated in Chandler and San Francisco seems great to us even if it is only when our weather cooperates.
Moreover, it may well be easy for you to pay attention to us. You already seem to be using New Jersey to park some of your cars overnight so they can do who-knows-what in Manhattan, during the day. (Note..Manhattan has a fantastic 24/7/365.25 subway.) I invite you to start by bringing one of those cars to my 5th Summit in Trenton where you can begin to educate Trentonians about the fantastic high-quality mobility system that you've developed and you can begin to appreciate the extent to which what you've created can substantially improve people's lives by coming to Trenton.
Succeed in Trenton and you'll readily be able to scale throughout New Jersey and gain access to profitably serve many of the more than 30 million person trips taken by 9 million New Jersians every day. That's an opportunity for you. Link to 5th Summit segment in ZoomCast 261 Alain
Ford Creates Unit to Develop Autonomous Vehicles and New Technology
Toyota and Aurora test robotaxis in Texas
K. Naughton, March 24, "Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley has reshaped the company's internal operations to accelerate development of autonomous vehicles and foster new technology businesses.
Farley formed Ford Next late last year and put it under the direction of Franck Louis-Victor, a hard-charging specialist in new businesses hired last June from Renault SA. The unit contains Ford's stake in autonomous-auto startup Argo AI and will develop startups in mobility services and other businesses. A joint venture that the automaker struck in January with security specialist ADT Inc. came out of Ford Next...." Read more
Hmmmm... Given the Mercedes announcement above, Ford needs to get serious with real substance. Mercedes substantially increased the height of the bar to entry. Link to segment in ZoomCast 261 Alain
Toyota and Aurora test robotaxis in Texas
J. Finga, March 23, "Toyota and Aurora are bringing their robotaxi partnership to Texas roads. TechCrunch reports the two companies are launching an autonomous ride-hailing test in the Dallas-Fort Worth area using modified Sienna hybrid minivans. The project will focus on highways and other high-speed roads, and is already dealing with challenges like high-speed merges, construction and vehicles stopped on shoulders.
The test is small, and the vans aren't truly driverless. Each vehicle will have both a behind-the-wheel supervisor as well as a monitor in a passenger seat. The Siennas will drive autonomously up to 70MPH, however, and Aurora said it would both grow the fleet and expand testing into more urbanized areas over the months ahead...." Read more
Hmmmm... Very nice to see Aurora seriously back in the "give people rides" game.
Congratulations Chris. My self-serving opinion.... This initiative could be spectacularly successful if you brought it also to Trenton MOVES. š (The Challenge in Texas, as it is in Chandler, is that "everyone" already has a car so it is tough to be more than a side-show. In Trenton, you'd be the main attraction. Think about it. Link to segment in ZoomCast 261 Alain
Tired of waiting for driverless vehicles? Head to a farm
S. Mcfetridge, March 16, "For years Americans have been told autonomous technology was improving and that driverless vehicles were just around the corner.
Finally they're here, but to catch a glimpse of them, you'll need to go to a farm rather than look along city streets.
Beginning this fall, green 14-ton tractors that can plow day or night with no one sitting in the cab, or even watching nearby, will come off the John Deere factory assembly line in Waterloo, Iowa, harkening the age of autonomous farming...." Read more
Hmmmm... Yup! No kids playing with balls in fields. No bike riders. ODD is pretty easy. Alain
'Remote Pod Operator' Would Solve One Of The Biggest Problems With Autonomous Last Mile Deliveries
E. Marquism March 15, A Swedish freight technology company revealed a new job title at SXSW on Monday which may help answer the interminable problem of getting packages to customers' front door.
The last-mile of delivery is the most costly and time consuming portion of any package's journey through global shipping. With more customers expecting free shipping, companies and logistics companies are desperate to cut down on those costs. Autonomous vehicles might be the answer to cutting costs and time, if only we could get them to think like a human when encountering problems. Einride has an autonomous pod that can mostly bumble around the streets on its own, but like all autonomous vehicles in existence today, it needs occasional help.
Enter the "Remote Pod Operator," the first of which is trucking veteran Tiffany Heathcott. It's the operators' job to monitor the self-driving delivery pods and do their best to help them out of any jams or scraps they may come up against. Since the pods are mostly autonomous, one operator can monitor several vehicles at once. ..." Read more
Hmmmm... I don't believe it. Simply doesn't solve enough problems given the number it creates. Link to segment in ZoomCast 261 Alain
Tesla spends the most R&D and least in advertising per car sold
F. Lambert, March 24, "A new report shows that Tesla is spending more in research and development (R&D) per car than any other automaker by a wide margin, and it is spending the least in advertising per car sold.
Tesla is now the biggest automaker in the world by market capitalization, despite selling only a fraction of the number of cars that other big automakers are selling. The electric automaker is growing fast, with a capacity to deliver over a million vehicles per year.
In order to keep growing, Tesla aims to maintain its EV technology lead and is investing heavily to do so. A new report from StockApps.com compared R&D spent per car sold from all the biggest automakers and found Tesla to be in the lead:..." Read more
Hmmmm... Impressive! Link to segment in ZoomCast 261 Alain
Uber will feature NYC taxi cabs in its app under groundbreaking new
A. Hawkins, March 24, "Uber, longtime foe of the taxi industry, has made a deal to integrate New York City's iconic yellow cabs in its app. The agreement, which is set to go into effect later this spring, means that roughly 14,000 taxis will be able to receive trip requests from Uber customers. (The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.)
As part of the deal, the city's licensed technology providers, Curb Mobility and Creative Mobile Technologies, will integrate their software with Uber. Yellow cabs, which can be hailed using smartphone apps owned by the two companies, will gain access to Uber's much larger customer base, which could translate into higher trip volumes and more money for beleaguered cab drivers....
Those tensions may be easing under this new agreement. Riders will be able to book trips in taxis that are connected to either Curb or Arro, the two smartphone apps that are owned by Curb Mobility and CMT. Together, those two companies operate the entertainment and payment systems in all of New York City's yellow and green taxis...." Read more
Hmmmm... I guess this is fine, but who regulates the fare??? A major virtue of the NYC cab system is that the rates are set by public oversight.
And there are "medallions" involved. What is really going on here?? Matt Daus, we need to do a PodCast. Link to segment in ZoomCast 261 Alain
2021 Virtual Forum on the Impact of Vehicle Technologies and Automation on Users: A Summary Report 'Remote Pod Operator' Would Solve One Of The Biggest Problems With Autonomous Last Mile Deliveries
C. Yang, March '22, "This report summarizes panel discussions, presentations, and discussion from the 2021 Virtual Forum. Stakeholders from academia, industry and government gathered to discuss and exchange information and ideas about the impact that these emerging technologies are having on road users. This report should be of interest to researchers and practitioners who are involved with work related to vehicle technologies and automation....
Each day, attendees convened for a two-hour session (see Appendix B for program). The first hour was reserved for a panel discussion or virtual presentations from invited speakers. The second hour involved breakout group discussions on pre-defined topics. Each day was oriented around a different (though not mutually exclusive) theme:
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Day 1: Understanding and Perception of Vehicle Automation
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Day 2: Driver Interactions with Vehicle Automation
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Day 3: Education and Training on Vehicle Automation
This summary report documents the panel and group discussions such that the outcomes can be shared with other stakeholders to improve coordination and encourage collaboration...." Read more
Hmmmm... Content pertains to Safe- & Self-driving cars that consumers are going to buy and use pretty much as conventional cars are used today. The "user" in this report is NOT the passenger in a driverless car, even if that driverless car has been purchased by a consumer. For those who prefer to think in "SAE Levels", this report is useful for those addressing Level 1 & 2 issues. Alain
How COVID-19 affected car rentals over the past year
Staff, March 23, "Before the global health crisis, the car rental industry was enjoying a steady, successful climb with more people renting vehicles than in previous years. The pandemic, however, decimated much of the travel industry, the rental car market included. Rental car operators were forced to sell off large chunks of their fleet, and Hertz, one of the largest companies for decades, had to declare bankruptcy.
However, once travel bans and lockdowns were lifted, rental car operators were faced with a new problem: People were starting to hit the road again but companies no longer had enough vehicles to meet the demand. The standard rules for travelingālike leaving early and making reservations even earlierābecame truer than ever as people rushed to leave the confines of their homes to stand in hour-long lines just to get their rental cars.
To see how much COVID-19 has changed the car rental industry over the past year, RateGenius investigated the current state of the rental car industry and its dramatic resurgence...." Read more
Hmmmm... Even though this is a promo, it does have some interesting content. I invite you to do more fact checking, but, Covid did hit this sector very hard. Alain
China Eastern Airlines flight 5735 crashes
I. Petchenik, March 21, "China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crashed near Wuzhou en route from Kunming (KMG) to Guangzhou (CAN) on Monday, 21 March 2022. The flight was operated by a Boeing 737-800 registered B-1791....
The graph below depicts the final 150 seconds of data from the flight, beginning just before its first descent from 29100 feet...." Read more
Hmmmm... FlightRadar24 data table .. Column K is in ft/minute of altitude change.. At the end it was descending at roughly half of its air speed which would imply an angle of descent (pitch) of about 30 degrees (normal pitch is <10 degrees). Going down fast, but not straight down as implied 20 seconds into this video, which is supposedly capturing the plane going straight down. I think this segment of the video is photoshopped. Whatever. This was tragic. Alain
Clifford Winston is a big fan of deregulation
P. Coy, March 25, "Capitalism and free enterprise might seem synonymous, but Americans don't view them the same way. According to Gallup, only about 60 percent of Americans have a positive image of "capitalism," while 84 percent view "free enterprise" positively.
That distinction makes sense to Clifford Winston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "'Free markets' is an unambiguous term, which implies a lack of inappropriate government intervention as consumers and firms pursue their own interest in a competitive environment," he wrote to me in an email on Friday. "So, I certainly support free markets." In contrast, he went on, "'capitalism' does not necessarily exclude what is known as crony capitalism, where firms take advantage of the government to get an unfair advantage."...
In a 2020 book, "Autonomous Vehicles," Winston and a co-author argued that regulators should not stand in the way of the development of self-driving cars and trucks, which they said could revolutionize transportation. (At the same time, he's not entirely hands-off when it comes to autonomous vehicles. In an essay this year for Barron's, he and Joan Winston, his wife, a technology policy analyst, wrote that Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla, had hurt the reputation of autonomous vehicles by "establishing his own proprietary testing procedures and adoption standards.")... Read more
Hmmmm... Interesting. 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 in 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"
REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST: Trenton MOVES Staff, Dec 6, "The New Jersey Department of Transportation ("NJDOT"), an instrumentality of the State of New Jersey, has issued a Request for Expressions of Interest ("RFEI") to identify experienced firms capable of introducing a safe, equitable, affordable, sustainable, and efficient on-demand automated vehicle mobility systems in and beyond Trenton, NJ.
NJDOT is soliciting written expressions of interest from qualified and experienced vendors to gain valuable insight from the private industry regarding the goals set forth in the Trenton MOVES (Mobility & Opportunity: Vehicles Equity System) potential project and assess its viability. If and when NJDOT elects to proceed with a potential project, NJDOT may issue formal Request(s) for Qualifications or Proposals.
The RFEI is available to be downloaded at https://www.nj.gov/transportation/business/procurement/ems/current.shtm..."
TrentonMOVES-RFEI-replies Staff, March 2, "..." Read more
Hmmmm... Links to the 20 responses to NJ DoT's Trenton MOVES RfEI. Lots of very encouraging and enthusiastic respondents. Thanks to NJ DoT for making the replies available to the public at large on a very timely basis allowing everyone to learn a lot and showing that there is broad and competent interest in deploying Safe, Equitable, Affordable, Sustainable, High-quality Mobility throughout Trenton and beyond. Alain
Calendar of Upcoming Events
5th Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit
Thursday (evening), June 2, Welcome Reception @ Alain's home (Registration required)
Friday, June 3, Equitable Mobility Innovation Forum @ Princeton University (Registration required)
June 4, Equitable Mobility Festival @ Mayor Donnely Homes, Trenton, NJ (Open to All)
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 2
F. Fishkin, March 21, "Apple reportedly has dissolved its car team and why is Alain now eating at McDonald's? Episode 260 of Smart Driving Cars with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin has that plus GM, Cruise, Tesla, Aurora, Polestar and more."-
SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast Episode 2 PodCast 259 w/ Mo ElShenawy, EVP of Engineering, Cruise
F. Fishkin, March 9, "Cruise, with GM and Honda as operating partners, has gone truly driverless in San Francisco and is seeking permission to eliminate steering wheels in the Cruise Origin. EVP of Engineering Mo ElShenawy joins Alain Kornhauser and Fred Fishkin for a special edition of Smart Driving Cars.
SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast Episode 2 PodCast 25 w/ Michael Sena, Publisher, The Dispatcher
F. Fishkin, March 3, "How will electric vehicle charging stations make money? The Dispatcher publisher Michael Sena poses that question and many more on episode 258 of Smart Driving Cars with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Plus Ford creates a distinct EV car business, an update on NJ progress and more. Tune in and subscribe...."
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.."
SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast Episode 2 PodCast 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 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:
Friday, March 18, 2022
Apple Car Project Team Has Reportedly Been Dissolved For A While
T. Lee, March 15, "For a while now, we've been hearing rumors that Apple is apparently developing their own electric car tentatively known as the Apple Car. However, according to a tweet by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, he has heard that the team behind the Apple Car has actually been dissolved for some time now.
Kuo also writes that should Apple want to be able to start mass producing their cars by 2025, a reorganization needs to happen within the next 3-6 months. It's actually a little bit weird to hear that the team has been dissolved, especially since it was last year that there were rumors and reports of Apple seeking out manufacturing partners and were talking to companies like Kia. ..." Read more
Hmmmm...Not at all surprising. Apple's focus seemed entirely on making, what I call, a Self-driving car (~ Level 2) leveraging what Apple does best... Comfort & Convenience... rather than a Driverless (~Level 4) Equitable, Affordable, ..., Mobility Machine, which are not really Apple's strength. Apple must have realized that all OEMs and Elon are now well ahead of Apple and Apple can't leapfrog them. Alain March 9, 2022
GM names Cruise co-founder to once again run the self-driving business after CEO's unexpected departure
M. Wayland, Feb 28, "In naming a new CEO of self-driving company Cruise Monday, majority-owner General Motors is handing the firm back to one of its original founders.
Kyle Vogt, who co-founded Cruise and ran the start-up for years following GM's acquisition in 2016, has once again been named CEO of the company. He announced the appointment Monday via social media, and it was later confirmed by a Cruise spokesman.." Read more
Hmmmm...Congratulations Kyle! Fantastic. Alain March 4, 2022
The Evolving Business of Powering Our Vehicles
M. Sena, March 1, "To all in Ukraine, continue to have courage against the aggressor. Everyone who supports democracy and freedom against tyranny stands with you. At such a time, when a free country has been invaded by a dictatorial power, discussions about automobiles and electricity seem trivial. But, in many ways, the issues of how we obtain our energy and how we use it are central to what is occurring now in the southeastern edge of Europe.
The U.S. federal government, along with many of the States, and the European Union, along with many of its member countries, are throwing money at battery electric cars. They believe the reason everyone isn't rushing out to buy one of these types of cars is because there aren't enough charging stations that drivers who normally charge at their place of residence can use when they are on long trips, or drivers who live in cities and don't have an off-street parking spot can use for their daily charging needs. I disagree. The biggest problem is that those running charging stations have to convince people to pay two-to-four times what they would pay if they plugged their car into their own electric outlet. It's less convenient and more expensive.
There is more in this issue. You can see a brief summary of the contents below. You can read the entire issue in the PDF attached or online by clicking here. Also below is a link to the program for the Symposium on the Future Networked Car 2022 to be held as a virtual event on the 22nd to the 25th of March. Plan on setting aside time to attend.
Enjoy your March issue of The Dispatcher. All comments are welcome, whether you want to take exception to something I have written or you just want to let me know that you got something out of reading it. Horses run on feed; writers run on feedback...." Read more
Hmmmm... I've linked Michael's email. I also need feedback.. Check out the Pod/ZoomCasts below with Michael. 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. on in the Trenton Central High School auditorium. Members of the press will be invited to attend. Read more
Hmmmm... Another real milestone.
The Trenton MOVES RfEI closed February 25, with 20 submittals. Next comes the 5th Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit June 2 - 4, 2022 in Princeton & 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. š Alain
5th Annual SmartDrivingCars Summit: Towards Deployment of Safe, Equitable Affordable, Sustainable, High Quality Mobility throughout New Jersey
New Date: Thursday evening, June 2, through Saturday June 4, 2022. Live in Princeton & 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