12.30 - Wow
Click or tap if you trust this link.
Sunday, October 13, 2024
30th edition of the 12th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
SpaceX Launches Starship Flight 5 (and Catches A Booster)
J. Beyer, Oct. 13, "SpaceX is preparing the launch of the fifth Starship flight test. The window for the launch opens at 7 a.m. local time on Sunday. The company has confirmed on its website, and X, that it is targeting a potential catch of the Super Heavy test vehicle, if flight parameters allow for it…. "Read more
Hmmmm… See also SpaceX feed Worth watching from the very beginning. Especially watch the NasaSpaceFlight link near the end where they play the views from their many cameras. Absolutely marvelous what can be accomplished when you have very good people working together. Also really good is having the public oversight (the FAA) grant permission to enable really good work to be realized. Hopefully, a similar public oversight will allow and welcome driverless vehicles to give safe, affordable, high-quality rides to people who really need a ride. Alain
The Real Case for Driverless Mobility
Narrated by Fred Fishkin, Available now
Just Published!!!
Go to Amazon.com…
SmartDrivingCars
ZoomCast 382 /
PodCast 382 – SpaceX, Cybercab and John Hopfield.
Space X wows with catch, Tesla's Cybercab event and the potential impact on mobility, and Princeton's John Hopfield captures 2024 Nobel Physics Prize. Join Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for the takeaways from the latest headlines and more. Tune in and subscribe!
- 0:00 open
- 0:30 SpaceX wows with landing
- 8:38 Tesla's Cybercab event-Alain's take on the ups and downs
- 18:22 Elon uses the elevator analogy!
- 21:12 Forbes piece- Can't Get a Cybercab? Wave Down a Waymo.
- 22:40 AutoEvolution: 5 Polarizing Facts from Tesla's We Robot Cybercab Unveiling Event
- 26:26 Presentation from Alain's students on shared mobility at Next Generation Systems Conference
- 27:45 More on Cybercabs and questions about insurance
- 39:02 Princeton's John Hopfield wins Nobel Physics Prize!
SmartDrivingCars ZoomCasts
News conference with Princeton professor John Hopfield, laureate of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics
C. Eisgruber, Oct. 9, "Nobel Physics Prize Awarded for Pioneering A.I. Research by 2 Scientists…"
Watch video
Hmmmm… Wow!!! Elizabeth and I are so blessed to have John and his wife Mary as good friends of ours. We play golf together and discuss neural nets in his back yard. So deserving as is Goeff Hinton. This has been a fantastic past 7 days. Wow!!! Alain
Tesla RoboTaxi Event October 10, 2024
Tesla Press Release, Oct 10, "Tesla Unveils 2-Seater Cybercab That Drives Itself, Price Expected To Be Under $30K: Also Shows Off 20-Seater Robovan To Rival Uber Shuttle - Read more
Hmmmm… I should have been there, but wasn't invited. I'm disappointed, but not surprised. Unfortunately, they haven't read (or listened to) all of The Book. They sort of got the elevator analogy correct, but it is hard to believe that they stayed with the 4 year-old 2-seater version, which is OK for most of the day, but doesn't enable enough ridesharing opportunities to efficiently, effectively, environmentally or affordably address daily recurring peak-hour demand.
"The RoboToaster" is OK, but high volume A2B demand is handled well today by driven buses, as has been occurring on the XBL by professionally driven express buses since John C. Kohl created that corridor more than 50 years ago. If demand exists such that a RoboToaster can be at least half-full, then one has enough customers to pay for a human driver, and the value of the "unsupervised FSD" RoboToaster becomes marginal at best but not at all disruptive. Thus, the RoboToaster can be a nice stretch limo for the well-heeled, but most-likely just an expensive toy that can't possibly contribute anything substantive to Tesla's bottom line.
What is encouraging is that they included "the RoboModelY' in their list of platforms for unsupervised FSDs, and that mention was made of supporting organizations that wished to acquire fleets to give rides. Our analyses indicate that many cities across the country could benefit greatly from such fleets that could provide safe, affordable high-quality rides equitably. We've analyzed many such communities and can help. Please contact us via email if you are interested in investigating driverless mobility opportunities for your community. Alain
Can't Get A Tesla Cybercab? Wave Down A Waymo
B. Crothers, Oct. 13, "The Tesla Cybercab won't arrive until 2026. But Waymo's driverless service is here today.
Tesla here and now — FSD: But let's back up for a minute and address what Tesla is offering now and in the foreseeable future. It's not a Robotaxi. But you can get Tesla's Supervised Full Self Driving, aka FSD, for $99 a month on a Model Y or Model 3 or Cybertruck — or any Tesla. It is not full autonomy, however. FSD requires intervention, i.e., you have to take back control of the car — sometimes frequently, sometimes not so frequently. But in either case, it's Level 2 autonomy. That is, you never completely surrender control of the car….
I recently took a 30 minute drive in a Waymo driverless vehicle in Beverly Hills and it was amazing. … The only downside to Waymo is that it's geofenced, i.e., it is only available in a geographically bounded part of Los Angeles. (I would love to be able to take Waymo to LAX but currently that's not possible.)…"Read more
Hmmmm… Neither Waymo nor Crothers have read The Book. Few in Beverly Hills need a ride; they all have so many options that are better than Waymo and the 2-seater selfie entertainment value. This article never even comes close to suggesting how driverless technology could actually be used to give rides to people in LA who really need a ride. Alain
5 Polarizing Facts From Tesla's "We, Robot" Cybercab Unveiling Event
C. Agatie, Oct. 12, "….This sealed the transformation of Tesla from a highly vertically-integrated carmaker into an artificial intelligence and robotics firm for which vehicles are an afterthought….
-
Fully autonomous Tesla EVs versus dedicated robotaxi…
-
If Tesla doesn't allow buyout at the end of the lease, why would it allow purchasing the robotaxi?...
However, considering that complying with regulations and the rollout would take time, why would Tesla sell these robotaxis to third parties? After all, it plans to start its own robotaxi business and give Uber, Lift, and even Waymo a run for their money. Why share this revenue stream with others?...
- FSD regulatory hurdles and scaling up robotaxi…
However, Tesla will have to prove that its FSD software is safe with human supervision before being allowed to try unsupervised driving…."
Read more
Hmmmm… Tesla is going to need help if these are to give rides to anyone other than their owner and their family members and friends. Some of us believe that Cybercabs/RoboTaxis are supposed to give safe, affordable, high-quality rides to customers who really need a ride. Alain
Using Autonomous Taxis to Create Shared Mobility: An Overview and a Dive into Data Management
T. Mwangi'26 & S. Navaratnam-Tomayko'26, Sept. 22, "Presentation made at Next-Generation Transport Systems Conference (NGTS-4) @ Purdue University.".
Read more
Hmmmm… So proud of them and they won one of the two "best paper" awards. Alain
Click or tap if you trust this link.
Monday, May 27, 2024