Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022

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Wednesday, June 21 2023

24th edition of the 11th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter

A Driverless Contest for Mid-Size Cities

K. Pyle, June 14, “A benefit of travel is the random conversations with strangers that cause one to look at the world in a slightly different way. For instance, standing in the airport security line this week, a lady from Little Rock, AR explained that Uber and Lyft no longer serve the hometown of the Bill Clinton Presidential Library.

Fact check, according to its website, Lyft and Uber, as well as other local providers serve the Clinton National Airport.

She said their apps indicated that their respective services were not available. She believes this happened as a result of the pandemic.

Fact check; Perhaps there still is a dearth of drivers as reported in 2021.

She described the taxi service in the Little Rock area as “awful”. It takes an hour and a half to get one. She also doesn’t feel safe in a taxi especially compared to Uber/Lyft…

If her perception of the limited mobility choices is representative of the population, perhaps Little Rock would be a great use case for a driverless service. I forwarded this question to Princeton Professor Kornhauser and Michele Lee of Cruise for them to ponder and look forward to any feedback they might have (Kornhauser comments about this in the latest SmartDrivingCars podcast).

As background, the three of us serendipitously converged at CES2023 and talked about mobility challenges. In a soundbite from that interview, Lee explains the challenges and opportunities for improving mobility and questions whether she could make the journey to Alain’s house. There are glimpses of her entering and securing her wheelchair in the Cruise, driverless Origin vehicle….” Read more Hmmmm… Check out ZoomCast322 below. Be sure to also look at Ken’s embedded video with Michelle. Alain

SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 322 / PodCast 322 w Ken Pyle & Bryce Rasmussen’25
Investigate MOVES-style deployments anywhere in US

F. Fishkin, June 20, “What were the takeaways when a Nissan Leaf owner picks up a Model 3 from a Hertz rental counter? Ken Pyle, managing editor of Viodi, tells us first hand. Plus more on Tesla, Mobileye, Cruise and Waymo and an interactive data visualization demo on mobility demand from Princeton student Bryce Rasmussen. Episode 322 of Smart Driving Cars.

  • 0:00 open
  • 0:50 Ken Pyle…a Nissan Leaf owner…on experience with Tesla Model 3 rental
  • 21:29 Mobility needs unmet in Little Rock, Arkansas?
  • 26:00 Princeton student Bryce Rasmussen demos software he has worked on that can show mobility logistical needs on the fly. A MOVES Interactive Data Visualization.
  • 1:10:33 Mobileye blog post on new taxonomy for automated driving
  • 1:12:24 Brad Templeton Forbes piece.. Is the Personal Self Driving Car for City Streets a False Early Dream?
  • 1:14:03 Fleet News.. Connected and Autonomous Vehicles are Here..but What Does That Mean for Fleets?
  • 1:14:50 More Tesla news.. Supercharger Monitoring System… Hyundai looking at Tesla charging standard.. and Model Y second only to Ford 150 as best selling vehicle overall in U.S..
  • 1:20:25 Waymo brings customer to Costco.

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Friday, January 27, 2023

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Tuesday, January 24, 2023

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Friday, January 13, 2023

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Sunday, January 8, 2023

  • SafeDrivingCars: Those in which the automated function are explicitly designed to not only substantially reduce driver misbehavior by constraining the performance characteristic such as incorporating speed governors that only permit excessive speeds in geofenced locations such as Watkins Glen International and stretches of the German Autobahn, but also automatically intervene to prevent crashes; thus, extending what is done today with anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control.

  • SelfDrivingCars: Those which allow the driver for some extended period of time to be “feet-off” the brake & throttle, delivering to the driver substantial comfort & convenience, but also “hands-off” the wheel for shorter periods of time providing a little more comfort & convenience. Absolutely required are “eyes & brain” focused the human task of driving, ready to intervene should the automated driver begin to fail.

  • DriverlessCars: Those which serve only passengers and/or goods from trip start, through finish. Luckily, the notion that individuals might own such vehicles for personal use and/or be able to “AirB&B” them for others to get from A to B is now realized by essentially everyone as exceedingly naïve. The Mercedes booth at this year’s CES showed no sign of its [Mercedes Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion LIVE PREMIERE CES 2015](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eftN0lwNk88). Yea!

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Friday, December 30, 2022

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Sunday, December 25, 2022

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Saturday, December 17, 2022

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Sunday, December 11, 2022

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Friday, December 2, 2022

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Sunday, November 27, 2022

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Saturday, November 19, 2022

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Monday, November 14, 2022

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Sunday, November 6, 2022

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Sunday, October 30, 2022

  • Hawkins, Oct. 27, “When Ford announced yesterday that it was pulling its support for Argo AI, the autonomous driving startup it had financed since 2017, it cited as one of its reasons a belief that driver-assist technology will have more near-term payoffs…..” Read more Hmmmm… I agree with Andrew, as I stated above. Alain

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Sunday, October 23, 2022

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Friday, October 14, 2022

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Saturday, October 08, 2022

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Thursday, September 29, 2022

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Saturday, September 10, 2022

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Thursday September 1, 2022

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Sunday, August 28, 2022

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Monday, August 22, 2022

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Saturday, August 6, 2022

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Saturday July 30, 2022

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Monday July 25, 2022

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Saturday July 16, 2022

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Saturday June 11, 2022

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Saturday June 18, 2022

  • These systems 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 under counting

  • 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.

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Saturday June 11, 2022

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Saturday May 28, 2022

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Sunday May 15, 2022

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Friday, April 30, 2022

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Thursday, April 15, 2022

  • 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.

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Thursday, March 31, 2022

PersonTripLength (90%tile): 10 miles

Cost:

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Friday, February 4, 2022