Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022

37th edition of the 10th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter

The Long Run to Autonomous Vehicles

K. Pyle, Oct. 13, “Autonomous vehicles (AV) provide the opportunity to correct government transportation failures is how the Brookings Institution’s Clifford Winston characterized the potential opportunity provided by autonomous vehicles. Winston spoke to the possible economic impact of autonomous vehicles in an online media briefing (YouTube video) that also included speakers from Princeton and the Reason Foundation who touched on the technology and the role of public policy and regulation. A lively question and answer period followed the briefing….” Read more Hmmmm… Ken, thank you. Excellent. Alain

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 28 / PodCast 28 Special Edition: The ABCs of Autonomous Vehicles: Technology, Economics and Policy

F. Fishkin, Oct. 12, “A special webinar edition of Smart Driving Cars: From the Reason Foundation, The Brookings Institution and Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering, welcome to the ABCs of Autonomous Vehicles: Technology, Economics and Policy. Join Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser, Cliff Winston of Brookings and Marc Scribner of Reason and moderator Fred Fishkin.

Techstination

fishkin@techstination.com

732-928-4691

Technical support provided by:

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

Removing Roadblocks for Others – Stephen Still

K. Pyle, Oct. 7, “Stephen Still’s memorial to Heyward Patterson at the 5th Annual SmartDrivingCars Summit provided a tragic example of why better mobility options are needed for the people in countless neighborhoods and regions of the U.S.

As background, Heyward Patterson was the so-called jitney driver providing rides to the grocery store for people in Buffalo without a car or the ability to drive a car. This was just one of the many volunteer roles that Deacon Patterson performed through his Church. As his cousin said,

“He did the little, small things, which became the very big things. By taking people to the grocery store, by looking out for people who are getting a job, just giving the extra step to make sure that our people are good.”

Tragically, along with nine others, Patterson’s life was cut short last May while doing his essential volunteer work….” Read more Hmmmm… Excellent, read and watch video. Alain

Launching the Waymo Accessibility Network

Waymo One, Oct. 6. “Since our founding, Waymo has partnered with and listened to advocates for people with disabilities. As we continually improve our technology, we will strive to put individual passengers – with their diverse needs and experiences – at the center of our product to co-create the Waymo One ride-hailing service together.

Today, we’re launching the Waymo Accessibility Network to formalize and scale our longstanding collaboration with disability advocates. This will expand inclusion of their crucial voices and valuable perspectives as we work together to shape the future of transportation….” Read more Hmmmm… Very good Waymo. You’ve been in it for people with disabilities from the very beginning. However, I’m surprised that there is no mention of association with groups focused on helping the economically challenged, public/affordable housing advocates or the mobility challenges of Arizona’s indigenous population. Alain

Despite warnings, many people treat partially automated vehicles as self-driving Staff, Oct. 11, “Drivers who use partial automation on a regular basis often treat their vehicles as fully self-driving despite widespread warnings and numerous high-profile crash reports, a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows.

Regular users of Cadillac Super Cruise, Nissan/Infiniti ProPILOT Assist and Tesla Autopilot said they were more likely to perform non-driving-related activities like eating or texting while using their partial automation systems than while driving unassisted. More worrying, 53 percent of Super Cruise users, 42 percent of Autopilot users and 12 percent of ProPILOT Assist users said that they were comfortable treating their vehicles as fully self-driving.

“The big-picture message here is that the early adopters of these systems still have a poor understanding of the technology’s limits,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “But we also see clear differences among the three owner populations. It’s possible that system design and marketing are adding to these misconceptions.”…” Read more Hmmmm… Yes. Alain

MIT Mobility Forum

Credit-based Congestion Pricing for Win-Win Traffic Solutions

Oct. 21 @ noon EDT, Kara Kockelman, “Credit-based Congestion Pricing for Win-Win Traffic Solutions”. Please register at Zoom beforehand. Read more Hmmmm… An absolutely excellent lineup, every Friday, which started on Friday, Sept. 16th with Prof. Susan Handy’84, UC Davis. Alain

How California’s Bullet Train Went Off the Rails

R. Vartabedian, Oct. 9, “Building the nation’s first bullet train, which would connect Los Angeles and San Francisco, was always going to be a formidable technical challenge, pushing through the steep mountains and treacherous seismic faults of Southern California with a series of long tunnels and towering viaducts.

But the design for the nation’s most ambitious infrastructure project was never based on the easiest or most direct route. Instead, the train’s path out of Los Angeles was diverted across a second mountain range to the rapidly growing suburbs of the Mojave Desert — a route whose most salient advantage appeared to be that it ran through the district of a powerful Los Angeles county supervisor.

The dogleg through the desert was only one of several times over the years when the project fell victim to political forces that have added billions of dollars in costs and called into question whether the project can ever be finished……” Read more Hmmmm… See also by Reason Foundation’s M. Welch “We Told You Why and How California’s High-Speed Rail Wouldn’t Work. You Chose Not To Listen” . Thank goodness Driverless cars & trucks don’t need any infrastructure! :-) Alain

A tweet launched an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot software

M. McFarland, Oct. 12, “Green, an influential Twitter account with a track record of revealing insights about Tesla from software analysis, made an observation about some of the company’s latest software that has piqued the interest of a European car safety organization.

Green tweeted that Tesla recently added the name of an Australian and Asian vehicle testing ground to its software. There are other vehicle testing grounds also listed in the code, he said, located in Europe, China and Korea. Important tests that benchmark vehicle safety happen at these sites, which have government and industry support. This curious inclusion of testing ground names in the code, Green suggests, could indicate that Tesla vehicles are designed to perform differently in testing grounds. That could undermine the quality of test results.

Now Euro NCAP, Europe’s government-backed organization that evaluates vehicle safety, is investigating Tesla following this suggestion.

So far regulators have found no evidence of any wrongdoing, Euro NCAP program director Aled Williams told CNN Business in an email last week. (NCAP stands for new car assessment program.) The agency performs tests and assigns new vehicles a safety rating from zero to five stars. It’s highly respected in Europe.

“The integrity of its star-rating scheme is of utmost importance to Euro NCAP and we will continue to do all we can to ensure the rating reflects the safety which consumers can expect from their vehicles,” Williams said. “So far, Euro NCAP’s investigations have not revealed any evidence of an attempt to ‘cheat’ the tests by Tesla.”…” Read more Hmmmm… Great. Alain

Tesla slips, but still owns two-thirds of the US EV market

F. Lambert, Oct 6, “Tesla’s market shares slip in the US, but the automaker still owns two-thirds of the rapidly growing market.

For years now, Tesla has dominated the electric auto market in its home country. It is expected that Tesla’s hold on the market will erode as more EV options hit and help grow the US market, but for now, the US EV market is still extremely dependent on Tesla’s production and deliveries.

For the entire year of 2020, Tesla vehicles accounted for 79% of new electric vehicles registered in the United States. In 2021, that number went down to 69.95%, but that’s still impressive with EV delivery volumes significantly increasing throughout the year along with Tesla’s prices…. “ Read more Hmmmm… Hmmmm… Remains impressive. Alain

Gatik Goes Driverless In Canada For Grocery Giant Loblaws

E. Garsten, Oct. 5, “…Narang pointed out the company also worked closely with the Ontario government to win the proper approvals to operate driverless over provincial roadways….” Read more Hmmmm… Ontario’s “Driverless testing conditions requires “… have signs on the automated vehicle clearly showing that the vehicle is a driverless automated vehicle being tested….”. The truck shown in the article does not have such a sign. Why?

While there may not be anyone “behind the wheel”, the article does not explicitly state there is no one inside the cab. Why wasn’t that stated explicitly? Alain

The Dreadful Toll of Wildlife-Vehicle Collisions — and What We Can Do About It M. Skroch, Oct. 4, “Most people might be surprised to learn that the combined distance of paved roads in the United States could encircle the Earth more than 160 times. While these roads and highways make up critical infrastructure, there are significant downsides to all that asphalt and concrete, including wildlife-vehicle collisions. These accidents lead to some 200 human deaths and 26,000 injuries each year, resulting in more than $8 billion in property damage, health-care costs and lost workdays, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Collisions are, of course, a losing scenario for wildlife as well, and not just because of the immediate toll they take on animals’ lives. In Wyoming, for example, the mule deer population, which supports more than $300 million in annual hunting-related spending in the state, has decreased by 40 percent since 2000, due in large part to habitat fragmentation caused by roads and development. But there is good news: Recent advances in science and policy have given us the tools to help solve this problem, starting with an understanding of how and where wildlife move…” Read more Hmmmm… I’ve “killed” 7 deer in my life yet have never gone hunting. All “unavoidable” car strikes on local roads New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Otherwise, I’ve been very lucky to have only one minor “my fault” crash and a couple “other guy’s fault” minor fender benders. I and the deer population could really use some help here. I’m clueless. Alain

Previous SmartDrivingCarsZoomCast/PodCasts

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/ provided technical support

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 28 / PodCast 28 F. Fishkin, Oct. 9, “The biggest take-away from Tesla’s 2022 AI Day? Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser says it’s the massive compute power. Why? Join Alain and co-host Fred Fishkin for episode 286 of Smart Driving Cars. Plus Kodiak Robotics, Mobileye, Uber, Motional and an upcoming webinar on The Present and Future of Autonomous Vehicle Technology. ”

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 28 / PodCast 28 w/Michael Sena, Editor of the Dispatcher

F. Fishkin, Sept 27, “Will the world be facing a Mad Max scenario for battery components as electric vehicles fill the roadways? The Dispatcher publisher Michael Sena has some advice for decision makers on episode 285 of Smart Driving Cars with Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. And more on the EV tax credits, tire pollution, a tech solution to railroad crossing dangers and some hood ornament nostalgia. Or listen.. ”

0:00 Intro

1:18 Battle over batteries

15:53 Electricity generation and electric vehicles

22:28 Tech to solve ungated railroad crossing dangers

26:11 Pollution from tires

32:23 Sean Connery’s Aston Martin

34:08 Some hood ornament history

40:00 South Korean wants half of all cars autonomous by 2035

43:22 Why don’t you have a self driving car yet? Brad Templeton writes in Forbes

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 28 / PodCast 284 w/Danny Shapiro, VP Automotive, nVIDIA F. Fishkin, Sept 22, “What will NVIDIA’s DRIVE Thor mean for companies looking to deliver autonomous mobility? VP of Automotive Danny Shapiro joins us for episode 284 of Smart Driving Cars. Plus the Biden administration is funding Smart Transportation Technology, GM Cruise aims to develop chips for self driving and the NTSB pushes tech to combat impaired and reckless driving.” SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 28 / PodCast 283 F. Fishkin, Sept 11, “The strategy for survival at Aurora, new Detroit testing for Mobileye, NVIDIA’s coming virtual developer conference and another AI upcoming for Tesla. Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin share the latest on those stories and more on episode 283 of Smart Driving Cars.”

https://youtu.be/nBl1pD2BFcI Open

https://youtu.be/nBl1pD2BFcI?t=80 Aurora

https://youtu.be/nBl1pD2BFcI?t=762 Mobileye

https://youtu.be/nBl1pD2BFcI?t=872 NVIDIA

https://youtu.be/nBl1pD2BFcI?t=948 MIT Mobility Forum

https://youtu.be/nBl1pD2BFcI?t=1031 GM BrightDrop

https://youtu.be/nBl1pD2BFcI?t=1072 GM Cruise

https://youtu.be/nBl1pD2BFcI?t=1446 Uber Nuro

https://youtu.be/nBl1pD2BFcI?t=1589 Lucid Nikola

https://youtu.be/nBl1pD2BFcI?t=1648 Tesla AI Day

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 28 / PodCast 28 w/ Michael Sena, Editor of The Dispatcher

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F. Fishkin, Aug. 31, “Is there really a battle over building and maintaining roads? “The Dispatcher” publisher Michael Sena on the history and outlook on episode 282 of Smart Driving Cars with Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Plus… the Saudi linear city plan, GM, #Tesla, Baidu, Waymo and more.”

https://youtu.be/F1qDhRqAA5c?t=106 Michael Sena ..battle over roads

https://youtu.be/F1qDhRqAA5c?t=2004 Michael Sena Saudi linear city plans

https://youtu.be/F1qDhRqAA5c?t=2456 Aluminum makes cars…China makes aluminum

https://youtu.be/F1qDhRqAA5c?t=2759 Teslas banned from Chinese Communist Party retreat

https://youtu.be/F1qDhRqAA5c?t=2951 GM’s mandatory OnStar option

https://youtu.be/F1qDhRqAA5c?t=3333 Gatik partners with Pitney Bowes

https://youtu.be/F1qDhRqAA5c?t=3416 Waymo reported seeks to withhold trip level data in SF

https://youtu.be/F1qDhRqAA5c?t=3538 GM president on autonomous vehicle strategy

https://youtu.be/F1qDhRqAA5c?t=3619 Baidu says autonomous EV rides in China have surpassed one million

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 281 / PodCast 281

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F. Fishkin, Aug. 28, “A new step for Tesla FSD with Beta 10 69 release and the company’s “Occupancy Network”. Princeton’s faculty chair of autonomous vehicle engineering, Alain Kornhauser, weighs in on that plus oversized EVs, Toyota’s view of autonomous mobility, Pittsburgh’s Guaranteed Basic Mobility Program and some excitement surrounding SpaceX and NASA and more.”

00:42 new Tesla FSD Beta

15:37 Tesla AI Day coming

19:07 Space X Launch

21:06 NY Times Essay on oversized EVs

24:18 California to ban gasoline cars by 2035

25:43 Toyota Research Institute says AVs not imminent

31:35 Tesla acts against Dawn Project and O’Dowd

32:19 Pittsburgh Guaranteed Basic Mobility

38:24 Waze shutting carpooling service

41:09 NASA readies Artemis

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 280 / PodCast 280 w/Cade Metz, NY Times

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F. Fishkin, Aug. 22, “How can Tesla data help with the understanding of car crashes? NY Times reporter & author Cade Metz joins Alain and Fred to explore the latest Tesla news, including the new higher price for FSD. Plus NHTSA reports a continuing rise in traffic deaths, Lyft in Vegas, Cruise and Waymo. And Princeton and NBA great Brian Taylor joins us to remember legendary basketball coach Pete Carril.”

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 279 / PodCast 2 w/Scott Painter, CEO Autonomy

F. Fishkin, Aug. 11, “After announcing it will spend 1.2 billion dollars on EVs and rapidly expand its vehicle subscription service, what does the future hold for Autonomy. Serial entrepreneur & CEO Scott Painter joins us for episode 279 of Smart Driving Cars. Plus Tesla, Argo AI and more …”

Timing Index:

@ Autonomy CEO Scott Painter

@t=2485 Tesla, Ralph Nader

@ Anti-Tesla ad campaign

@ Pittsburgh Post Gazette

@ Argo AI

@ Congressional push for AV legislation

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 278 / PodCast 2 Tesla 2022 shareholder’s meeting

F. Fishkin, Aug. 7, “Elon Musk talked about his vision for Tesla robo-taxis and more during his Q&A following the 2022 shareholders’ meeting. Weighing in on that and more is Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser on episode 278 of Smart Driving Cars with co-host Fred Fishkin. Plus TuSimple, GM Cruise, Lucid, Argo and more.”

Timing Index:

@ t=55 Musk vision for autonomous taxis

@ t=728 When and where first robo-taxis will be deployed.

@ t=1177 What about the role of Musk’s Boring Company?

@ t=1530 Musk responds to Autopilot suggestion

@ t=1941 Alain on automatic emergency braking

@ t=2230 California acts against Tesla for using terms Full Self Driving and AutoPilot

@ t=235 TuSimple blames human error for crash

@ t=2456 Barron’s reports When the Lawyers Come for Autonomous Vehicles

@ t=2552 GM President talks safety

@ t=2722 Losses at Lucid

@ t=3071 Alex Roy talks elevators!

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 277 / PodCast 2 w/Michael Sena, Editor of The Dispatcher

F. Fishkin, July 30, “A look at cities & mobility, turmoil at VW, the cash problem at Cruise & more. “The Dispatcher” publisher Michael Sena joins Alain Kornhauser & Fred Fishkin for another spirited discussion on episode 277 of Smart Driving Cars.”

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast Episode 276 / PodCast 2 w/R. Mudge, President, Compass Transportation

F. Fishkin, July 25, “Following the TRB gathering in California, what was accomplished? Compass Transportation & Technology President Dick Mudge joins us for a look. Plus the latest on Tesla, Cruise, Baidu, Zoox & more. Smart Driving Cars episode 276 with Alain Kornhauser & co-host Fred Fishkin.”

Link to 275 previous SDC PodCasts & ZoomCasts

Recent Highlights of:

’

Tesla AI Day 2022 Tesla Staff, Sept. 30, “Streamed live…” Read more Hmmmm… I’m not much of a fan of humanoids so you may skip the first hour; however, starting @ 0:58:00 - FSD Intro, the next hour and a half is substantive and a must watch. My takeaway remains driverless “everywhere” is so enormously challenging that the near-term opportunity (next 10 years) to sell such a vehicle to a consumer is simply unthinkable. The terms & conditions would need to be so onerous making the total addressable market essentially null.

That said, I suspect that there exist some, possibly many, societally beneficial Operational Design Domains (ODD), where “FSD 69.2.2” or near term releases can deliver safe driverless mobility. This deployment strategy is what I with the technical support of CARTS, Inc. have decided to focus on. Alain

Batteries: Theme of the Next Mad Max Dystoposeries Sept 28, M. Sena, “IN THE PAST, when a country believed it was not receiving enough of a resource that it felt it needed and deserved, it went to war to take it. Gold, silver, tea, spices, cotton, cod, coal, grain, oil and many other commodities have been the causes of nations attempting to steal land and seas from other nations. There are countless numbers of movies that show us the horrors of war, but the postapocalyptical MAD MAX film series gives us a glimpse of what it could look like after all the big wars have been fought and lost. Warlords and their gangs prey on survivors of the wars that caused societies everywhere to collapse. They battle each other over gasoline, water and food. Are we trading wars over oil for wars over lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth metals, jumping from one frying pan into another? As governments continue with their policies to dramatically increase demand for these commodities, the chances for expanded conflicts increase. In many areas, they have already begun. …” Read more Another excellent issue. Enjoy! Also watch or listen: ZoomCast 28 / PodCast 28 Alain

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Thor for Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, Medical Instruments and More

J. Huang, Sept 20, “…In today’s vehicles, active safety, parking, driver monitoring, camera mirrors, cluster and infotainment are driven by different computers. In the future, they’ll be delivered by software that improves over time, running on a centralized computer, Huang said.

To power this, Huang introduced DRIVE Thor, which combines the transformer engine of Hopper, the GPU of Ada, and the amazing CPU of Grace.

The new Thor superchip delivers 2,000 teraflops of performance, replacing Atlan on the DRIVE roadmap, and providing a seamless transition from DRIVE Orin, which has 254 TOPS of performance and is currently in production vehicles…” Read more Hmmmm… Watch Jenmsen’s keynote @ 2022 GTC. Watch: Nvidia Explains Self-Driving Car Vision at GTC 2022. See how the XPeng G9 utilized nVIDIA. Watch the G9’s version of “FSD” called X Alain

Self-Driving Tech Company Floats Possible Sale to Apple or Microsoft

D. Welch, Aug. 30, “Aurora Innovation Inc.’s chief executive officer recently laid out a range of options for the self-driving company to respond to worsening market conditions and partners pushing out timelines, including a possible sale to Apple Inc. or Microsoft Corp., according to a document seen by Bloomberg.

Chris Urmson, who co-founded Aurora after running Google’s self-driving car project, also outlined cost cuts and floated measures including taking the company private, spinning off or selling assets and pursuing a small capital raise in a memo labeled “board discussion pre-read” and dated Aug. 3. Urmson inadvertently sent this to staff and asked them on Aug. 9 not to open it, the document shows. …” Read more Hmmmm… Realistic but not good news. With revenue at zero all of these companies are struggling. The annual addressable market of new class 8 trucks in the US is about 275,000 units. Given the large number of competitors addressing a limited market that has yet to yield any revenue for any of them suggests that this is a really tough business, especially if first revenue remains a year or more in the future.

What may be even more daunting is competition from a TeslaSemi with “FSD.Class8”, not to mention the Waymo Via initiative. They both can cross subsidize their driverless Class 8 initiatives with their driverless people movement investment.

I still contend that there is a substantial near-term revenue opportunity Advanced Professional Driver Assistance focused on improving Professional Driver workplace. OSHA should be mandating such technology. Aurora could be generating revenue from it today. CEOs of trucking companies could be paying for it today and pocketing extremely attractive RoIs. Professional Drivers would be happier campers. So much so that the driver shortage might disappear. Alain

Funding Roads: Pay for the Effect or Pay for the Cause

M. Sena, Aug. 30, “The September 2022 Issue in Brief

Funding Roads: There was a time when the main problem with roads in the U.S. and Europe was that there were not enough of them to keep drivers from getting stuck in traffic. Then, environmentalism, NIMBYism, anti-federalism and anybody-with-a-beefism put the breaks on all infrastructure. They shifted the debate to how to pay, rather than what do we need to stay competitive with the countries where the rulers decide what gets built where and how. Is there a way forward for democracies to have a functioning infrastructure, or must we look on with envy at countries where totalitarian governments build infrastructure like it’s the 1950s in the West?

Dispatch Central: A new city in the desert is an old idea - The de facto head of the Saudia Arabia government has designed a city with one stroke of the pencil. One very long stroke.

Aluminum: Another brick in the Wall of China – Governments required higher fuel efficiency. OEMs lowered car weights to comply. China cornered the market on the material that was needed to make it happen: aluminum. Sound familiar?

Some countries actually do something about Tesla – China (again) seems to be the only country that can tell Tesla to “Heel?”, and Tesla heels. We don’t wonder why this is so.

GM looking for money in all the wrong places – Making something like OnStar a ‘standard option’ is like telling parishioners they need to put money in the collection basket in order to get into mass. …” Read more Hmmmm… Another fantastic issue. See ZoomCast 282/PodCast 282 for a discussion of the content. Alain

Tesla Releases FSD Beta 10 69 With New Occupancy Network

Tesla Daily, Aug. 22, “Looking at first impressions from Tesla’s release of FSD Beta 10.69…” Read more Be sure to watch Ashok Elluswamy’s“Occupancy Networks” keynote presentation at CVPR on June 20, 2022. Very impressive, especially the use of training videos and it realization in FSD 10.69

Also pertinent are video demonstrations of:

My takeaway from the above is that FSD 10.69 is impressive but not near “Full” anything, especially if put in the hands of some individual who themselves may well be a menace on the road.

While not being near “Full” anything, FSD may be nearing the point in which it is FSD within some useful Operational Design Domain.

It is one thing to be able to safely negotiate a trip segment: safely drive straight down a well marked lane in clear weather, safely make an unprotected left, safely stop behind a stop line at a stop sign, … Each is an important achievement.

It is a whole other challenge to be able to safely go from some origin to some destination thus delivering useful mobility to some person or some thing safely without any disengagements. The ensemble of these origin-destination pairs would define the ODD for FSD. To date that ODD has been essentially null. The challenge for subsequent releases of FSD may well be to begin to explicitly identify FSD’s ODDs and assess the extent to which these ODDs have emerged from the null state to begin to safely provide some useful mobility to the general public. Alain

Asking FSD to be “Full” everything, everywhere to everyone is simply a naive unachievable objective. To me a better question may well be in which Operational Design Domain is FSD indeed Full Self-Driving?

Once that ODD is determined, restrict FSD to operate ONLY in that ODD.

Tesla must accept the responsibility allowing FSD to be engaged ONLY when the car is operating in Operational Design Domain where Tesla has certified that FSD drives safely. Else, FSD safely pull over, stop disengage and turn the responsibility of continuing on to the human driver. It should be Tesla’s responsibility to allow FSD to be turned on and the determination of when and where it ceases to move because Tesla must be held responsible and liable if something bad happens when it is driving. If I’m driving I’m responsible and liable. Not my passenger who may or may not be paying attention to what is going on. If FSD is driving it must accept that responsibility and not expect the passenger to help out. The word “Self” implies “Full”; else the product should be called Partnership-driving or Team-driving or ??? Alain Can Tesla Data Help Us Understand Car Crashes?

C. Metz, Aug. 18, “Shortly before 2 p.m. on a clear July day in 2020, as Tracy Forth was driving near Tampa, Fla., her white Tesla Model S was hit from behind by another car in the left lane of Interstate 275.

It was the kind of accident that occurs thousands of times a day on American highways. When the vehicles collided, Ms. Forth’s car slid into the median as the other one, a blue Acura sport utility vehicle, spun across the highway and onto the far shoulder.

After the collision, Ms. Forth told police officers that Autopilot — a Tesla driver-assistance system that can steer, brake and accelerate cars — had suddenly activated her brakes for no apparent reason. She was unable to regain control, according to the police report, before the Acura crashed into the back of her car.

But her description is not the only record of the accident. Tesla logged nearly every particular, down to the angle of the steering wheel in the milliseconds before impact. Captured by cameras and other sensors installed on the car, this data provides a startlingly detailed account of what occurred, including video from the front and the rear of Ms. Forth’s car.

It shows that 10 seconds before the accident, Autopilot was in control as the Tesla traveled down the highway at 77 miles per hour. Then she prompted Autopilot to change lanes…” Read more We’ve been calling for an independent analysis of the Tesla data for some time. Privacy is easy to protect. There is no need to know who owns or was operating each Tesla. Also see ZoomCast 280 Alain Tesla, GM Score Biggest Share of $1.2 Billion EV Order From Startup Autonomy

D. Hall, Aug. 9, “Tesla, GM, Volkswagen and Ford are among the automakers set to get big orders from Autonomy, a startup offering drivers the option of subscribing to an electric vehicle instead of buying one outright.

Autonomy plans to announce Tuesday that it’s ordering nearly 23,000 EVs from 17 different automakers for a total outlay of $1.2 billion. With chip shortages limiting production capacity at most automakers, it’s unclear how soon such a fleet could be amassed. The order represents 1.2% of the projected US electric vehicle production through the end of next year… .” Read more Hmmmm… While this is a very interesting play for an individual to acquire a subscription to have a “Drive-it-Yourself” (DiY) electric car that gives the individual anywhere & anytime mobility. The subscription is acquired using a simple anywhere & anytime mobile phone app (the “autonomy” of the concept) that bundles, insurance, maintenance, taxes, the vehicle,… Essentially everything except the electricity. Just DiY it and get from where you are to where you want to go when you want to “Just do It” (JdI). All at an attractive monthly subscription charge when you consider all that is bundled. This is DiY/MaaSS (Mobility as a Subscription Service) for those that can DiY.

See the Bloomberg Video and well as SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 279 / PodCast 279w/Scott Painter, CEO Autonomy

I can readily envision the extension of Autonomy’s DiY/MaaSS to MOVES/MaaS where “MOVES Mobility, Inc.” places a $n.m Billion RoboTaxi order with Tesla, (and/or GM, Toyota, VW, Benteler, Zoox, Baidu, Alibaba, AutoX, …) to deploy safe, equitable, affordable, sustainable, high-quality mobility for all 24/7/350+ throughout Trenton, Perth Amboy, Patterson, Newark, Camden, Atlantic City, Edison, New Brunswick, Scranton, Greenville, Newburg, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, .. and their environs’ Operational Design Domains (ODD). 😁 Alain

Tesla’s 2022 Shareholder Meeting with Elon Musk

E. Musk, Aug. 4, . “Read more Hmmmm… Watch the Q & A portion starting about an hour in from the start. Watch especially the comments about his vision of the Tesla RoboTaxi (aka driverless cars, what I prefer to call autonomous Taxis or a Taxis, the new “Modern Transit”). The key visions are:

@ t=6375 … the issue of how he sees these driverless vehicles being operated (deployed).

While I don’t agree with the option of owning your own and renting it out “AirB&B-style where B&B = Mobility”. It is easier and more likely to begin by having a Professional entity managing a fleet of Tesla RoboTaxis that provide mobility to everyone in the community. This will be the “Modern Public Transit”. An example being Trenton MOVES using a fleet of Tesla RoboTaxis.

For these RoboTaxis to be attractive to a fleet operator, they will need to be styled differently than consumer versions that are sold to individuals. The RoboTaxi will need to be easy to get in and out and interface well with wheelchairs. They’ll need to accommodate ride-sharing (person Trips are the source of the revenue, not vehicle sales). They should have 4-wheel steering so they will never need to back up in stub-end operation. He has reimagined the pickup truck. Certainly, he can re-imagine a car focused on providing safe, equitable, affordable, sustainable high-quality mobility throughout a community.

At the end of addressing the future of Robotaxis he states …” assuming we do all these things, I think, probably, Tesla will be the most valuable company in the world.”

@ t=7057 Elon is asked “when will Tesla launch the first pilot city for the RoboTaxi business?

Elon dodged the question by stating that he is focused on doing driverless everywhere, even in every imaginable simulation of the real world. Consequently, once achieved, it could be released everywhere all at once.

While a great vision, this is simply not realistic. He started selling Teslas in California, not throughout the whole country. He fully understands that one must crawl before one walks, before one runs.

As you might suspect, I have the ideal “California” for him to first deploy his RoboTaxis and it’s not California or Arizona. It is New Jersey: Trenton, NJ or Perth Amboy, NJ or Patterson, NJ or many other cities in New Jersey where the mobility offered by Tesla RoboTaxis would be life changing to many while becoming an interesting alternative to everyone else. DoJo can more readily regress the coefficients to deliver safe driverless operation within any one of these Operational Design Domains (ODD) rather than trying to do them all simultaneously. Coefficients can/should be tied to ODDs rather than having one “magical” set that works in all ODDs. It is trivial for the Operating system to load the coefficients that work best in the RoboTaxi’s current ODD. This should allow RoboTaxis to demonstrate their technical, economic and societal virtues much sooner in these communities. Market success will fuel expansion and replication in the delivery of safe, equitable, affordable, sustainable, high-quality mobility so that it spreads beyond New Jersey to California and beyond just like the purchase of the first Teslas spread from California to New Jersey and beyond.

@ t=7417 Elon is asked about the Boring Company.

True, if one could bore tunnels inexpensively, it would be great for longer distance travel. Certainly, all of the freeways in and around cities would be placed underground. High Speed rail on the NorthEast Corridor can only go underground for long stretches. Bringing the Dinky to a Nassau Street terminus must be done underground. By the way Washington Road should be underground eradicating the cancer that it is as a surface street severing the Princeton Campus. Then there is Rt. 29 that devastated Trenton by barricading the western part of Trenton from the Delaware River and Rt. 129 that severed neighborhoods; a scenario that was repeated in essentially every city to accommodate through-moving surface travel. They should all go underground. There is much good that could be done. The challenge is the above if.

@ t=6665 “when disengaging autoPilot with the wheel, the accelerator stays on. Please fix it!”

Maybe… touching or not touching the steering wheel has little in common with acceleration (and braking) which is (are) controlled by the feet. The steering control should be readily overcome by input of a torque on the steering wheel; however, the steering control should revert to dominance if the driver ceases to exhort a torque on the wheel. Moreover, torquing the steering wheel should not disengage the brake or the throttle.

With respect to the driver actions on the brake and throttle:

Driver input from the throttle should have precedence over “intelligent cruise control (ICC)” input to the throttle and brake and should NOT turn off the system simply because the driver touched the accelerator pedal.

For the brake, it is a little different. Tapping the brake should turn off the acceleration function of the ICC. Acceleration should remain off until the driver explicitly re-engages it. Moreover, driver input to the brake, if less than what the ICC calls for, should always be dominated by the ICC’s desire to brake. Tapping of the brakes should not turn off the braking function of the ICC. That intelligent braking function should continue to keep me from getting too close to the vehicle in front of me. The acceleration function has been turned off so I won’t accelerate into the back of the car ahead of me and the braking function should continue to do its best to keep a proper separation between me and the vehicle ahead. Turning the whole system off placing me completely in control should require an explicit action by me that indicates I’m knowingly usurping responsibility.

I believe ICC should be on all the time. Driver sets the speed and separation (or it is done automatically relative to the speed limit, weather conditions and road curvatures). Driver can choose to override the throttle and override the braking at any time; however, in the absence of overrides, the ICC is in charge. Alain

GM’s Cruise robotaxi unit drives deeper into the red Reuters, July 26, “General Motors Co (GM.N) has lost nearly $5 billion since 2018 trying to build a robotaxi business in San Francisco, and now as the automaker’s Cruise unit starts charging for rides, the losses are accelerating.

GM said on Tuesday it lost $500 million on Cruise during the second quarter - more than $5 million a day - as it began charging for rides in a limited area of San Francisco. … that may be the case for the last quarter, but the chart below from GM’s 6/30/222 10-Q Shows ($800M) for the last 6 months or $4.38/day when divided by 182.625 Whew!😅…

Cruise’s costly effort to transform autonomous driving technology from a long-term research project to a profit-spinning business comes as investors are backing away from riskier bets on technology, and reassessing how soon robot vehicles of any kind will be deployed in large scale on public roads.

Shares of autonomous vehicle technology company Aurora Innovation Inc (AUR.O), for example, are down 80% for the year to date. Shares of robo-trucking company TuSimple Holdings Inc (TSP.O) have lost more than 70% of their value. Some automakers, including Ford Motor Co (F.N), have scaled back investments in automated vehicle units, or taken on partners to share the costs….

Cruise’s losses for the first six months of the year deepened to $900 million from $600 million during the same period in 2021 - when Cruise was not charging for rides. Higher compensation costs to keep staff on board after putting aside plans for an IPO were one factor in the results, GM executives said.

Chief Executive Mary Barra said on Tuesday she is still bullish on Cruise, and reaffirmed a forecast that the unit could generate $50 billion a year in revenue from automated vehicle services and technology by 2030. .” Read more Hmmmm… Nice optimism. The source of the reality check above comes from GM’s 6/30/222 10-Q. Start reading from page 41. then on page 43:

Whoa! The only nice thing that can be imagined is by assuming that they’ve had essentially zero revenue, the operating costs have “only” been $800M for the last 6 months. That is non-small.

I’d like to suggest that the strategy of trying to create a profitable driverless mobility service for folks that already have 2 or more cars in their garage, have excellent public transit service or travel on expense accounts when wanting to go to between the airport and “downtown” may not be the wisest way to launch such a mobility service. There is little opportunity to be substantially better or even equivalent to what those potential customers already have. Little opportunity to get loyal and repeat customers. The focus to date has been too heavily weighted on getting the technology to work for folks who already have more mobility options than they know what to do with. Great for click-bait; challenging for the 10-Q. What must Waymo’s 10-Q Cash Flow chart look like?

Capturing loyal and repeat customers is really tough when the competition is excellent and entrenched. While pricing can be high, volume is almost non-existent even with nominal pricing. Except for the novelty, the marketplace in the Chandlers and SFs is essentially non-existent. To date those markets have been quiet, at best. What must Waymo’s 10-Q Cash Flow chart look like?

It astonishes me that to date none of the leading driverless companies have spent any money trying to serve the needs of folks that don’t own cars, aren’t traveling using someone else’s money, nor have access to a good public transit system focused on their mobility needs.

These folks definitely can’t pay as much for a ride as those that are being chased by Cruise & Waymo, but there are more of them. Moreover, it’s almost trivial to provide them with a mobility option that is substantially better than what they have today for many, if not most, of their daily person Trips.

This is the market that we’ve found in New Jersey; in Trenton & Mercer County, Perth Amboy & Middlesex County and Patterson & Passaic County. We haven’t even begun looking in Newark, Camden, Atlantic City and the rest of New Jersey.

The excuse seems to have been that it would be too expensive to deal with NJ’s bad weather, even though, we’ve made it clear that New Jersey is not interested in a 365.25 days/yr. mobility solution. We’d be more than pleased with a 350 days/yr. operation. New Jersey has more than 350 good days a year. We aren’t so entitled that we can’t wait for the hurricane to blow through, the snow to be shoveled or the fog to lift before we go about our normal business. We enjoy the “snow day” at home. We are convinced that is actually easier and cheaper to capture recurring and loyal NJ customers.

The rule-of-thumb for a Trenton-MOVES style operation is: a vehicle needs to serve at least 100 person Trips/day. With slightly better ride-sharing and time-of-day pricing, one might be able to get to 150 person Trips/day. To cover a fleet of 100 vehicles, ridership needs to be about 10k to 15k person Trips/day. This kind of utilization leads to per person Trip capitalization costs of less than $1/person Trip for vehicles costing upwards of $150k @ interest rates upward of 7.5%. That is to say, $1/person Trip readily covers the vehicle capital costs even at moderate scales.

Given that trips on average are less than five miles, vehicle operating costs are less than $1/person Trip.

Management costs are largely fixed. With volume the per person Trip burden decrease enormously, and can’t be more than $0.50/person Trip.

Break-even fare is thus roughly $2.50/person Trip.

An average market fare of $3.50/person Trip delivers a profit of >$1.00/person Trip, >$100/vehicle-day.

A fleet of 100 vehicles delivers a profit >$10k/day, >$3.0M/yr. in the Trenton ODD serving 10k person Trips/day.

From where do these 10k person Trips/day materialize?

Essentially all the riders of NJ Transit rail would love a simple reliable convenient way to get to & from the train. By on-demand service within the community around the train station, loyalty upwards of 80% could be achieved for anyone wanting to go to NYC or within walking distance to any other NJ train station. For Trenton that represents a marketplace of 8,000 person Trips/day that currently drive to & from the station every day and those that currently don’t use the train that would if it was easy and reliable to them to get to AND from the station, when they wanted to get to and from there. Half of the 10k would easily come from serving the Trenton Train Station.

Trenton Central HS has 1,800 students. More than 1,500 live more than a 10 minute walk to the TCHS. Truancy is proportional to how far a student has to walk to school. Trenton MOVES could readily serve 1,250 of these students every day. That’s 1/4 of the needed 10k.

We only need another 2.5k person Trips and we haven’t even begun dealing with getting people to & from work in Trenton, doctors, shopping visiting friends, etc. needed by the 70% of Trenton households who have access to one or zero cars. 100 vehicles serving 10k person Trips/day making >3.0M/year @ an average fare of $3.50/person Trip is just the start of a profitable business. Employing 200 vehicles costing at most $100k at interest rates of less than 7.5% serving 150 person Trips/day at fares of $3.00/person Trip makes way more than $5M per year.

Expanding Trenton MOVES throughout Mercer County giving the opportunity to increase average fare (because of the longer person Trips) to maybe $5/person Trip keeping utilization @ 150 person Trips/vehicle-day of a fleet of 1,000 vehicles and doing a little better on interest rates and cap costs can lead to profits of >$10M/year for Trenton/Mercer MOVES. There are at least 10 replications of Trenton/Mercer MOVES that could be done in NJ by 2030 utilizing a fleet of at least 10,000 vehicles leading to a profit of >$100M/year.

This kind of success leads to having many more people leave their cars at home and frequenting NJ-MOVES as their mobility system. This could lead to a NJ-Moves fleet of >100,000 vehicles generating a profit of >$1B.

If Mary expects this to be achieved by 2030 and replicated in the 50 other states (on average) as the Universe she expects to exist in 2030, I’m hopeful but skeptical. My point is that starting with Trenton MOVES as the big bang that achieved her vision seems to me to be a lot clearer than where Cruise/Waymo have chosen to try to create a Big Bang. Seems as if she and Kyle should be taking Trenton and New Jersey much more seriously. Please call me! Alain

Baidu unveils autonomous vehicle without steering wheel Reuters, July 16, “China’s search engine giant Baidu Inc on Thursday unveiled its new autonomous vehicle (AV) with a detachable steering wheel, with plans to put it to use for its robotaxi service in China next year.

Cost per unit will drop to 250,000 yuan ($37,031.55) for the new model, compared with 480,000 yuan for the previous generation, Baidu said in a statement.

“This massive cost reduction will enable us to deploy tens of thousands of AVs across China,” Baidu’s chief executive Robin Li said at the Baidu World conference. “We are moving towards a future where taking a robotaxi will be half the cost of taking a taxi today.” Read more Hmmmm… Really?? See video. Where do I buy 10 for immediate delivery to New Jersey with option to buy 100 more by EoY’22 and 1st inline to buy 1,000 more by EoY’23. eMail me!!!

While the design is certainly not ideal for “Trenton MOVES” or “Perth Amboy MOVES” they would be good enough to get started with addressing the “Sociology Challenges” of MOVES-style deployments. And the price is right if this isn’t total click-bait. But… that is a really big if. 🙁 Alain

MAY MOBILITY CLOSES $111 MILLION SERIES C FUNDING, BEGINS PRELIMINARY DEVELOPMENT ON TOYOTA’S NEXT GENERATION MOBILITY PLATFORM Press release, July 12,”May Mobility, a leader in the development and deployment of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology, today closed a $111 million Series C round of funding. Additionally, the company plans to continue to pursue its deployment programs using the Toyota Sienna Autono-MaaS vehicle platform while beginning development on another vehicle design centered around mobility, Toyota’s e-Palette, signaling the next potential milestone as it seeks new ways to bring equitable mobility solutions to the masses….” Read more Hmmmm… Hopefully this will enable May Mobility to take seriously Trenton MOVES and other MOVES-style deployment initiatives in New Jersey and beyond. Alain

U.S. agency probing self-driving Cruise car crash in California D.Shepardson, July 7, “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a special investigation into a recent crash of a Cruise self-driving vehicle in California that resulted in minor injuries, the agency said on Thursday.

The auto safety agency did not identify the specific crash, but a Cruise vehicle operating in driverless autonomous mode was involved in a crash involving minor injuries on June 3 in San Francisco, according to a report filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles. … “ Read more Hmmmm… The police report indicates that the Cruise vehicle stopped while making a protected left turn, yielding to avoid being T-boned by a speeding Prius that might run its red. Instead the Prius changed to its left turn lane and broadsided the Cruise vehicle. I can’t wait to see the Cruise 360 video of that crash. Hopefully the Prius’ insurance company will reimburse the Federal Government for its expenses incurred in its special investigation of the crash that it caused. Alain

THE DISPATCHER

Princeton Fifth Annual SmartDrivingCars Summit June 24, M. Sena “THE DISPATCHER, July 2022

IN THIS ISSUE

Princeton Fifth Annual SmartDrivingCars Summit ………..

Safe, Equitable, Affordable, Sustainable, High-quality Mobility for Everyone ……………………………………………….2

Dispatch Central……………………………………………………….9

Someone lit a fire under NHTSA …………………………………9

The Economist: Right analysis, wrong solution …………..12

Musings of a Dispatcher: Eyes on the Back Story………..15

The evolution of digital maps and ADAS …………………..15

Digital Maps for the Vehicle – 1970-2022 ………………….24

” Read more Hmmmm… Another great edition and very well written summary of the 5th Summit. Alain

NHTSA Releases Initial Data on Safety Performance of Advanced Vehicle Technologies June 15, Press release, “Today, as part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s efforts to increase roadway safety and encourage innovation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published the initial round of data it has collected through its Standing General Order issued last year and initial accompanying reports summarizing this data.

The SAE Level 2 advanced driver assistance systems summary report is available here, while the SAE Levels 3-5 automated driving systems summary report is available here. Going forward, NHTSA will release data updates monthly…” Read more Hmmmm… This is a good start; however, as NHTSA repeats many times, this is just a start and there are many “data limitations”. The most severe may well be the possibility of substantial “sampling bias”, the most severe of which is that each OEM sourced the reported data very differently. That makes the data between OEMs incomparable.

Also unreported is any measure that would enable a “crash rate” for an OEM to be determined. One only has a numerator value but no denominator value.

Finally, 392 crashes of “Level 2” cars were reported during the “10” month period of July 2021 and May 15, 2022. About 12 million vehicles are involved in traffic crashes every year among the 283 million vehicles that operate in the US. Assuming any one vehicle is unlikely to be involved in more than one crash per year, it means that each vehicle, on average is involved in 12M/283M = 0.0424 crashes per year. Thus, if these ADAS cars were involved in crashes at the average rate, and had their ADAS on all the time, the 500 vehicle crashes per year contained in these data would expect to be generated from a fleet of only about 11,800 vehicles (or 0.0042% of the vehicles (“everything being equal”, ADAS on all the time.).

Consequently, either, …

  • These system outrageously reduce crash probabilities, and/or

  • maybe some, but we’re probably not much luckier.

  • very few of the cars in use during that “10” month period had Level 2 capabilities, and/or

  • unfortunately, the VIN number doesn’t identify these cars and only Tesla announces how many sold (I may have missed the reportings)

  • very few of the drivers of those cars rarely engaged the Level 2 features, and/or

  • likely. Only Tesla releases data on the utilization of its level 2 features but does so only in aggregate terms that don’t allow for correction of sampling bias associated with engagement in “easy” driving conditions versus “challenging” driving conditions.

  • enormous undercounting

  • likely, only Tesla has the opportunity to either “know all” or sample effectively because of their OtA monitoring of its vehicles. Everyone else has conveniently kept their heads in the sand. Mercedes didn’t report any; however, during that period I think my Intelligent Cruise Control and Lane Centering were engaged when I hit a deer. Mercedes must not have been watching me, I didn’t report it and I didn’t get the memo that informed me to do anything.

Anyway. It is a start and at least to me the numbers are not startling.

What needs improvement is sourcing of the incidents. Maybe OtA should be mandated. At minimum, the VIN should specify the existence of these capabilities. Then normal police reportings can begin to “automatically” access the “black box event recorders” (see also Accident data recorder and NHTSA) that are in most cars today. Unfortunately, privacy concerns makes this not-easy. So here we are. It won’t be easy to do much better, but we should continue to try.

What the data do point out is that a substantial number of the crashes involved the rear ending of a stationary object. I have pointed out repeatedly that the source code of these systems explicitly disregard stationary objects in the lane ahead. Justifying this explicit process is that current sensors incur unacceptable false positives when trying to determine if sufficient headroom exists under detected stationary object in the lane ahead. Thus, to avoid braking in response to these rare false positives, stationary objects in the lane ahead are all assumed to be “pass under-able”.

As one drives, one encounters many stationary objects in the lane ahead. These are readily sensed and precisely located ahead. Readily sensed are overpasses, signs, tree canopies, traffic lights, … all of which can usually be readily passed under. (As can vehicles ahead that come to rest in vehicle-follower mode. These are not disregarded because one is in vehicle-follower mode.)

But when one is in vehicle-leader mode and one encounters a stationary object ahead, I believe, most, if not all “Level 2” systems disregard that object and assume the car can pass underneath. So if you are in vehicle leader mode and come over the crest of a hill to be confronted with a stopped object ahead, your system will disregard that object. Similarly, if the vehicle that you are following changes lanes forcing you to become a leader, any stationary object ahead will be disregarded. Alain

3 minute Promo: https://youtu.be/q5Ov_dPuRV4

The 5th Summit: https://www.cartsmobility.com/summit

Summit Preview Tour

Dr. Steve Still’s Tribute to Heywood Patterson

S. Still, June 3, “… Heywood Patterson, 67, He often drove members of his church to Tops, helping them load their groceries into his car and then taking them home. “That’s what he did all the time,” Deborah Patterson said. “That’s what he loved to do”. …” Watch Video Hmmmm… A principal reason for “Trenton MOVES”-like deployments is to do what Heywood Patterson “loved to do” for the many. Alain

The Evolving Business of Powering Our Vehicles M. Sena, May 24, “New Car Assessment Programs (NCAPs) all around the world have created a separate and unequal set of standards for vehicle safety operating in parallel with the Type Approval processes in most countries and the U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and their equivalents in other countries. One standard is enough. In this month’s the lead article, I look at why this has happened, why it is not a good idea, and what should be done to correct the situation.

There is no Musings in this month’s issue. Instead, I have put my musings energies to work in Dispatch Central. You can see the topics below. The section ends with a notable quote from the CEO of Stellantis on the topic of battery electric vehicles.

Enjoy your June 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. …” Read more Hmmmm… Every month, great reading. Enjoy! Alain

From pricing carbon to fighting opioid abuse, ORFE showcased top senior projects A. Nathans, May 11, “When Serena Ren presented her senior thesis on using machine learning for art appraisals last month, she hoped to see her friend, Joyce Luo, present her thesis on fighting opioid addiction. But since all students in the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering present their theses in parallel sessions, this was impossible.

But on May 4, Ren and Luo finally got to see each other’s presentations in a classroom in Sherrerd Hall, thanks to the department’s first-ever event in which selected students present their thesis work to the whole department….” Read more Hmmmm… I’m so proud! Hopefully we’ll be able to release the video so you can enjoy. Keep trying the link:

Princeton ORFE Class of 2022 Senior Thesis Symposium “Best 8”

PAVE VIRTUAL PANEL “AVS AND PUBLIC GOOD: TRENTON MOVES” PAVE, May 4, “Autonomous vehicle technologies offer incredible potential: they could make our highways safer, they could offer new mobility options for people who can’t drive, and they could help create a more equitable transportation system for those who are not well-served by our current system.

During the month of May, we are highlighting places where AVs are in use — today — being deployed, tested, and used for public good. We want to look at examples of the technology being used to serve food deserts, to expand access to rural communities, to offer new accessibility options, and more.

We are starting with the Trenton MOVES initiative, which is the first large-scale urban transit system in America based entirely on self-driving shuttles. The shuttles, which carry four to eight passengers, serve traditionally underserved Trenton neighborhoods, where 70% of households have limited access to a single automobile, or no access at all. Our panelists will detail the program, describing how it works, the results it has achieved, and their vision for the future……” Read more Hmmmm… Very nice. Be sure to watch video 😁 and see ZoomCast 267 Alain

NJDOT Commissioner Gutierrez-Scaccetti and the Trenton NJ MOVES Program P. Keller, April 29, “New Jersey recently announced a $5 million grant for the Trenton Mobility & Opportunity: Vehicles Equity System or MOVES Project. The grant to the City of Trenton will support the planned start up and eventual deployment of 100 Autonomous Vehicles that will provide an on-demand automated transit system to serve the 90,000 residents of Trenton…..” Read more Hmmmm… Very nice. 😁

Knight Foundation April 21, “CARTS Executive Director Jerry He explains to the audience at #CoMotionMiami that:

Hmmmm… Yup! See ZoomCast265 Alain

Musk promises ‘dedicated robotaxi’ with futuristic look from Tesla H. Jin, April 6, “Electric carmaker Tesla (TSLA.O) will make a “dedicated” self-driving taxi that will “look futuristic,” Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Thursday, without giving a timeframe.

The 50-year-old billionaire, wearing a black cowboy hat and sunglasses, made the comments at the opening of Tesla’s $1.1 billion factory in Texas, which is home to its new headquarters.

“Massive scale. Full self-driving. There’s going to be a dedicated robotaxi,” Musk told a large crowd at the factory….” Read more

Hmmmm… Wow! It was brilliant for Elon to begin focusing his EVs on rich Californians who already have a stable full of cars to go all the way to grandma’s house and back and were really looking for a neat toy.

Elon followed the graceful rollout of his Supercharger infrastructure which enabled the upper-middle class that doesn’t have a backup fleet and needs to have a toy and reliably go back and forth to grandma’s house. Viola!!! No longer just a toy. Seamless evolution to “Massive Scale” scale and Massive Profitability.

RoboTaxis’ evolution to “Massive Scale” is turning out to be different. Starting with rich WesternStaters doesn’t seem to be working sociologically for Waymo. The rides offered seem to be taken for entertainment and side-show purposes rather than valued enablers of enhanced quality of life. Nice for selfies, but not much more.

Recall fundamental value is to provide a safe, high-quality ride from A to B. “Safe” is “safe”, but “high-quality” is relative to what one now has readily available. For the rich, that’s where they’ve already put a lot of money to create for themselves something really nice. The chances someone is going to offer something better to an individual that has crafted something perfect for themselves is slim-to-none. Consequently, the service is used primarily for taking selfies.

For those that don’t have their own car for whatever reason (can’t drive, don’t want to, too young, too old, and/or too poor) their mobility options are simply dreadful. Absolutely trivial for aTaxi service to be viewed as the quality winner and used to provide customer accessibility, improved quality of life, endearment, respect, love, appreciation, loyalty, and use.

Consequently, if Elon is really serious about achieving “Massive Scale” then he should basically flip his Tesla strategy and start by focusing on serving the mobility needs of those that will fully appreciate and gain the most personal value from his market offering;

  • those that don’t already have a stable full of their own personal mobility options.

  • those for which his aTaxi can substantially change their lives for the better.

These are the customers of Trenton MOVES; only about 50,000 of Trenton’s 90,000 population; but 50,000 that will really appreciate you. Start by only serving Trenton’s 8 square mile area with about 100 vehicles and only during the best 350 days out of the year’s 365.25.

They’ll be so appreciative and you will have provided the spark that will allow your aTaxis to go viral! You’ll quickly serve Mercer county, Newark, Camden, Atlantic City, New Brunswick, Toms River, Perth Amboy, all of New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, New York City (except Manhattan), Long Island, …..

That’s the natural road to “Massive Scale” for Mobility for all. Start with those in most need and evolve to convert those that will leave their own cars parked in their driveway.

“Massive Scale” starts with Trenton MOVES. Alain

Taking our next step in the City by the Bay The Waymo Team, March 30, “This morning in San Francisco, a fully autonomous all-electric Jaguar I-PACE, with no human driver behind the wheel, picked up a Waymo engineer to get their morning coffee and go to work. Since sharing that we were ready to take the next step and begin testing fully autonomous operations in the city, we’ve begun fully autonomous rides with our San Francisco employees. They now join the thousands of Waymo One riders we’ve been serving in Arizona, making fully autonomous driving technology part of their daily lives….” Read more Hmmmm… Congratulations! Enormous accomplishment and fundamental expression of confidence in your technology. Please come to New Jersey where we are certain that you can actually deliver “Safe, Equitable, Affordable, Sustainable, High-quality Mobility” that will substantially improve the quality-of-life of many by transforming affordable housing into affordable living and more.

Let’s look at the back-of-the-envelope numbers…

Trenton:

Population: 90,000. PersonTrips/Day (non-walking): 300,000 IntraTrenton: 150,000 PersonTripLength (90%tile): 10 miles intraTrenton (100%tile) 5 miles

Operational Productivity: VehicleTrips/Day: 50 Average Vehicle Occupancy (AVO): 2 PersontTrips/VehicleDay: 100 PersonTrips/VehicleYear: 35,000

100 vehicle fleet productivity: 10,000 PersonTrips/day (1/15th market penetration)

50% market penetration Fleet requirements: 500 vehicles (AVO =2.5) for 60 PersonTrips/VehicleDay).

Cost: Depreciation/PersonTrip @ $200k/vehicle, 4 year life = $200,000/(4*35,000) = $10/7 = $1.43/PersonTrip Electricity + maintenance + management + … = $0.57/PersonTrip Cost = $2.00/PersonTrip

New Jersey:

Population: 9+ Million

PersonTrips/Day (non-walking): >30 Million IntraNJ + NJT/Septa to/from NYC & PHL: 30 Million

PersonTripLength (90%tile): 10 miles

Operational Productivity
VehicleTrips/Day: 60
Average Vehicle Occupancy (AVO): 2.5
PersontTrips/VehicleDay: 150
PersonTrips/VehicleYear: 50,000

10% market penetration (3 Million PersonTrips/Day: Fleet requirements: 20,000 vehicles (AVO =2.5) for 60 PersonTrips/VehicleDay).

Cost:
Depreciation/PersonTrip @ $200k/vehicle, 4 year life = 200,000/(4*35,000)= $10/7 = $1.43
Electricity + maintenance + management … = $0.57
Cost per PersonTrip = $2.00

Revenue: (10% market penetration: 3M personTrips/Day)
10% @ cost + 90% market pricing:
10% @ $2.00/PersonTrip (300,000$2.00 = $600,000/day; $200M/year
90% @ $3.70/personTrip (2.7M3.70 = $10M/day; 3.5B/year (value proposition could have the average market price even higher than $3.70/personTrip (+$1.70 over cost)

Profit: $1.70 *2.7M = $4.6M/day = $1.5B/year

Seems to me that Waymo should have responded to the NJ DoT RfEI and shouldn’t be completely ignoring me. I guess I’m missing something. Maybe someone else will call me? 😎 Alain

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.

Trenton MOVES
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.

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. 😁 Alain

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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)