2025-05-30
BirthdayPresent -5/29/25
4th edition of the 13th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
P. Subramanian, May 29, “Tesla (TSLA) stock is on the rise after two big pieces of news came overnight: a reported start date for robotaxi testing and CEO Elon Musk’s official government departure.
Per Bloomberg, Tesla is targeting a June 12 launch date for its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, according to sources. The start date, which could change, the source added, is earlier than the late-June date Musk had previously announced….” Read more Hmmmm… That’s my birthday!!! Thank you, Elon, for moving up the date for me. What a wonderful present. Thank you and thank you for leaving Washington. This is much easier and much better. 😊 Alain
The Real Case for Driverless Mobility
Narrated by Fred Fishkin, Available now
Published in 2024 (but still relevant)!!! Go to Amazon.com…
SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 389/ PodCast 389 – Tesla, Aurora, Waymo and more
F. Fishkin, May 29 “We’re back with episode 389 of Smart Driving Cars as Alain Kornhauser wraps up his 53rd year teaching at Princeton University. Today, Alain and co-host Fred Fishkin look at the coming launch of Tesla’s robotaxis, Musk’s departure from Washington and the company’s safety report. Plus, Aurora brings back human drivers, a battle over autonomous farm equipment in California, Waymo continues to grow and more. Plus…a tip of the cap to some great senior thesis work by Alain’s students. Tune in and subscribe.
- 0:00 open
- 0:37 Tesla sets June 12 date for robotaxi launch
- 2:24 Tesla hiring humans to control robotaxis
- 4:13 Battle over automated farm equipment in California
- 6:03 Tesla safety report claims autopilot 10 times better at avoiding crashes
- 12:03 Aurora putting humans in driver seats again
- 13:40 NY Times reports driverless trucks are here with big promises
- 17:46 Waymo expanding to San Antonio and Houston
- 21:10 Warren Buffet asked about insurance shift with self driving cars
- 29:27 Senior Thesis work highlight in Smart Driving Car newsletter
- 0:00 F. Fishkin, Feb. 25 “Keeping cars out of cities? The parking meter is turning 90 this year. We learn more about that and more from The Dispatcher publisher Michael Sena. Plus ..self driving cars, AI, the Black Hawk tragedy and more. Join Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for episode 387 of Smart Driving Cars. open 1:10 Michael Sena on parking meters turning 90 and what they are being used for now 8:15 The Pope and a cautionary approach to AI 13:05 For now…at least…the last edition of The Dispatcher 16:57 There’s another book on the way 18:30 Henry Ford…and the road today to driverless mobility 29:35 AI and Deep Research 37:10 the Black Hawk – American Airlines tragedy. What we’re learning.
- 0:00 Open 1:21 AI code editor, DeepSeek and more 6:22 HandyRides Inc. now exists 7:05 From NY Times: Women on motorcycle taxis giving rides in Kenya and a piece on driving in Vietnam 14:36 Timothy Lee piece…speculating DeepSeek not responsible for crashing NVIDIA stock 16:50 Waymo expanding to more cities including Las Vegas and San Diego 19:58 More DeepSeek discussion 25:16 new edition of The Dispatcher out from Michael Sena 26:17 The work that lies ahead to provide mobility to those who need it 29:15 Why are there still rear ending crashes 29:35 New Tesla Model Y will have front bumper camera
- 0:00 F. Fishkin, Dec. 22 “With GM putting an end to the Cruise robotaxi venture, Waymo reaching 5 million rides and NHTSA proposing new rules for driverless vehicles, there’s plenty of news to end the year. The Dispatcher publisher Michael Sena joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for a look at those stories and more on episode 385 of Smart Driving Cars! Tune in and subscribe. open 1:17 Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to Princeton’s John Hopfield. Alain’s tribute. 1:54 GM shutters Cruise robotaxi venture 13:26 Waymo has now delivered over 5 million driverless rides 26:49 NHTSA proposes new rules for self driving cars 34:55 The Dispatcher Musings…back to Scranton
- 38:14 Closing out the year with long time friends and kudos to Alain’s students
- 0:00 open
- 0:55 From The Dispatcher -a look at the presidential election and the process
- 10:01 Princeton’s Bob Vanderbei maps out the electorate one again
- 14:30 The involvement of Elon Musk, pre-election and post-election and Michael’s look at the Robotaxi event.
- 42:20 Tesla’s quarterly vehicle safety report 47:48 A tribute Alain’s PHD Advisor at Princeton, Paul Michel Lion III.
- 48:28 Waymo is now valued at 45 billion dollars 49:59 Aurora’s Chris Urmson says we are on the brink of a new era in mobility and logistics 52:25 Michael comments further on Waymo and its role at Alphabet (Google)
- 59:54 The Autopian report on Google/Waymo patent application for system to take over automatically if it detects a bad driver behind the wheel.
- 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!
- 0:00 open
- 0:54 Vehicle telecommunications and data privacy battle
- 22:40 What happened to Sweden’s Northvolt
- 27:17 The efforts to stop the importing of inexpensive Chinese vehicles. Is the rest of the world toast?
- 45:55 Tesla prepares for the robotaxi unveiling October 10
- 54:35 Reuters reports Waymo discussions with Hyundai on vehicle platform and remarks from Waymo co-CEO at University of Michigan
- 1:00:35 Two of Alain’s students deliver at the Next Generation Systems Conference
- 0:00 open
- 0:49 Congrats to Alain’s students who took part in the Henley Royal Regatta
- 2:04 Launching of HandyRides continues for affordable mobility
- 3:15 Demo of what GreenVilleMOVES would look like
- 33:30 EU is mandating speed limiters
- 34:15 Tesla update to give parents control over teen driver speed and more
- 39:50 The Drive report on Mercedes engineer criticism of Tesla FSD and its impact on public attitudes toward autonomous driving tech.
- 42:04 The Verge report on Distance Technologies windshield AR heads up display
- 45:00 Ken Pyle’s Viodi piece on Smart Driving Car Summit
- 0:00 July 1st marks the launch of a new mobility start-up! Join Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for details. Plus..GM Cruise pays for crash report delays, Rimac robotaxis and automakers ask for reconsideration of automatic emergency braking rules. open 00:32 July 1 new mobility start-up launch 22:58 GM Cruise to pay California for delaying crash report 25:23 Rimac robotaxis? 26:20 auto industry wants automatic emergency braking rule reconsidered
- 0:00 open
- 0:30 Musk talks robotaxi business, Tesla Semis and more new vehicles
- 15:27 Alain shows how a Brownsville MOVES mobility service could work.
- 36:19 Waymo issues software and mapping recall following telephone pole crash in Phoenix
- 43:10 GM investing 850 million dollars in Cruise and resuming operations in Houston
- 0:00 Pre-earnings / Robotaxi discussion
- 17:37 Earnings & shareholder letter
- 45:48 Financial review
- 1:03:11 Other thoughts and questions,”
- 0:00 Call begins
- 0:49 CEO Elon Musk opening comments
- 21:53 CFO Vaibhav Taneja opening comments
- 28:56 Investor questions
- 54:35 Analyst questions
- 1:05:28 Rob’s review and questions” Read more Hmmmm… Again, interesting and informative to watch Rob report it live. Alain
Farmers fuming over California’s ban on driverless tractors, other robots
M. Shaban, May 28, “From flame-wielding robots to driverless tractors, autonomous technology is fueling a robot revolution across America’s farmlands. While much of the agricultural advancements were produced in California, farmers in the state are frustrated by the fact they aren’t legally allowed to utilize the technology.
“It’s crazy,” said Larry Jacobs, who has been farming in California for the past 40 years. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
When it comes to farming equipment, an operator must be “stationed” at the controls, according to California safety regulations. Those rules were written nearly 50 years ago, long before autonomous tech was developed. While the original intention wasn’t to ban new technology, that is essentially what has happened. Though these agricultural innovations were largely developed in California, farmers across the state are not allowed to fully benefit from them, even though California produces more than 40% of the country’s vegetables and nearly 70% of the nation’s fruits and nuts, according to data from the USDA Census of Agriculture.” Read more Hmmmm… It’s crazy. It Doesn’t make any sense! C’mon California! It is way more dangerous being “at the controls” than at the comfort of a remote oversight location. Can’t OSHA help here? Alain
Santa Monica residents’ battle against Waymo beeping escalates
C. Kisla, May 29, “Santa Monica residents are reportedly stepping up their efforts against driverless Waymo cars.
The vehicles and their beeping have become a nuisance for those who live near the parking lot where the Waymo vehicles charge when not in use.
Locals have been raising concerns in recent months, but the Los Angeles Times reports the battle has escalated beyond simple words…..” Read more Hmmmm… Called it! Focus on giving rides to folks who have more personal mobility than “Carter’s got Little Liver Pills” and want a Selfie instead of a Ride and you get this. Waymo, your business case may well be terribly flawed! Alain
Report shows Autopilot is 10x better than humans
J. Klender, April 29, “Tesla has officially released its Vehicle Safety Report, which shows data on the number of miles traveled between crashes for vehicles using and not using its Autopilot.
Tesla releases this data every quarter, and this quarter, it continued a somewhat consistent trend, revealing vehicles using Autopilot are 10 times less likely to be involved in crashes compared to the national average.
Q1 2025 Safety Results
Tesla reported one crash for every 7.44 million miles driven in which drivers were using Autopilot technology. This is a far cry from the 3.35 million miles it first reported back in late 2018.
It is also a big improvement from the 5.94 million miles it recorded between accidents in Q4, but it is important to note that the last quarter of each year has shown to have lower numbers than others. This can mostly be attributed to weather conditions.
Tesla backtracked slightly compared to Q1 2024, when it recorded a crash once for every 7.63 million miles.
This past quarter, the company also saw one crash every 1.51 million miles for cars not using Autopilot technology. Even drivers that do not utilize Autopilot are seeing tremendous safety improvements compared to the national average, which was one crash every 702,000 miles….” Read more Hmmmm… Even if discounted because “Elon” or whatever reason, these are pretty impressive numbers. If public policy was really interested in safety, use of Autopilot would be encouraged, if not mandated. Alain
Humans step up as Texas steps back from autonomous trucking
J. Borras, May 24, “Texas technology firm Aurora made headlines earlier this month by launching the first fully autonomous freight service in the US – but those celebrations may have been premature. According to the company’s CEO, human operators are back in the saddle.
In a blog post written by Aurora CEO, Chris Urmson, the company said the decision to put a human operator back behind the wheel of its tech-boosted Peterbilt Class 8 semi trucks was a result of pressure from the truck manufacturer’s parent company PACCAR. PACCAR apparently wanted a human in place, “because of certain prototype parts in their base vehicle platform.”
In Urmson’s own words:
A core part of our strategy has always been building a strong ecosystem of partners across the industry — from OEMs to logistics providers to regulators. These partnerships are essential to delivering a safe, scalable, commercial product.
One of those partners, PACCAR, requested we have a person in the driver’s seat, because of certain prototype parts in their base vehicle platform. We are confident this is not required to operate the truck safely based on the exhaustive testing (covering nearly 10,000 requirements and 2.7 million tests) and analysis that populates our safety case. PACCAR is a long-time partner and, after much consideration, we respected their request and are moving the observer, who had been riding in the back of some of our trips, from the back seat to the front seat. This observer will not operate the vehicle — the Aurora Driver will continue to be fully responsible for all driving tasks, including pulling over to a safe location if required. And we’ve shown we can do that safely, with the Aurora Driver operating for more than 6,000 driverless miles along our commercial launch lane between Dallas and Houston. This change has no impact on our near, mid and long-term development plans.
CHRIS URMSON, AURORA CEO
The re-introduction of human operators comes just as Texas State lawmakers are reviewing House Bill 4402 – a proposed law just passed out of the Texas House Committee on Transportation and would require trained human operators in autonomous vehicles, effectively banning fully self driving semi trucks in Texas.
….” Read more Hmmmm… One step forward and 2 back. Unbelievable when your partner throws you under the bus (truck). Aurora Driver is safer thus will deliver liability saving, but the real substantive productivity opportunity comes from its driverless operation capability. Just think if Texas would have required a horse in front of every motor car 125 years ago and PACCAR stayed with the buggy whip. Hopefully one the other truck manufacturers who might be looking over their shoulder (Tesla Semi Testing FSD/Autopilot?) will give Chris a call. Alain
Driverless Semi Trucks Are Here, With Little Regulation and Big Promises
T. Balk, May 27, “The semi truck rumbled down the congested, five-lane Texas highway, letting a small sedan pass on its right, then accelerating past another semi on its left.
In the back seat of the truck’s sun-drenched cabin, a middle-aged man watched YouTube videos on his phone. Behind him, a 53-foot refrigerated trailer carried nearly 25,000 pounds of pastries.
Nobody was in the driver’s seat.
Last month, Aurora Innovation, based in Pittsburgh, became the first company to operate a driverless 18-wheeler on an American highway, ushering in an era that could dramatically change how cargo moves across the United States…..” Read more Hmmmm… Unfortunately, the rest of the article is about imaginary fear. So disappointing. Alain
Waymo to begin testing self-driving cars in San Antonio, Houston - Spectrum News
K. Garrett, May 28, “The wave of self-driving cars doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Google’s Waymo revealed they will begin testing their self-driving cars in Alamo City.
In a post on Instagram, the company announced a road trip with stops in San Antonio, Houston and Orlando.
“These vibrant cities will provide unique and interesting learnings as we bring autonomous mobility to more communities. Get ready, the future is on the move!” the post said.
While Waymo only mentions testing and refining their technology with no mention of bringing their self-driving technology to San Antonio, this could be a sign of more to come.
…” Read more Hmmmm… OK!, Great! (Note… Uber is a RideHailing not a RideSharing company. They essentially never Share rides.) Alain
Tesla Is Hiring Humans To Control Its ‘Self-Driving’ Robotaxis
S. Kothari, May 27, “After promising self-driving cars nearly every year for the past decade, Tesla is now preparing to launch its much-hyped fleet of driverless ride-hailing Model Ys in Austin, Texas, by the end of June. But will they be truly autonomous, or will remote human operators quietly keep things on track from afar?
The latter appears to be a more likely outcome, at least during the early stages of the rollout.
Adam Jonas, an equity analyst at investment bank and research firm Morgan Stanley, said in a note that he visited Tesla’s Palo Alto office recently and learned that the company would be relying on “plenty of tele ops” to ensure the service is safe for public use…..” Read more Hmmmm… This isn’t news. These aren’t autonomous vehicles. They are automated vehicles that are told what to do, when, and closely monitored to ensure the safety of the systems as a whole. That is true of all automated systems, past, present and every foreseeable future. Humans are always “in the loop”! Somebody has to be where the buck stops. Alain
Legislation aims to jump-start rollout of driverless vehicles
J. Gallaher, May 27, New legislation introduced in the Senate attempts to spring the U.S. Department of Transportation into regulatory action that will lead to commercial rollout of driverless cars and trucks.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have initiated rulemakings to establish a regulatory framework for driverless cars and trucks but have yet to issue final rules.
“For nearly a decade, Washington has talked about autonomous vehicles without meaningful action,” remarked Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., when she introduced her bill, the Autonomous Vehicle Advancement Act of 2025, earlier this month….” Read more Hmmmm… Lots of legislation is introduced and never passed. At least this is aimed to support driverless rather than kill it like the Texas legislation aimed at killing it! Alain
I. Grace, May 25, “As self-driving cars inch closer to the mainstream, one of the biggest unanswered questions isn’t just how they’ll navigate traffic—but how they’ll reshape risk. If there’s no driver behind the wheel, is it still “driver error”? And if the software crashes, will the insurer or the carmaker pick up the tab?….
“There’s no question that insurance for automobiles is going to change dramatically once self-driving cars become a reality,” he said.
“Most of the insurance that is sold and bought revolves around operator errors… To the extent these new self-driving cars are more safe and are involved in fewer accidents, that insurance will be less required. Instead, it’ll be substituted by, as you mentioned, product liability.”… “ Read more Hmmmm… What is interesting is that the “product liability” replaces the “personal liability” that currently exists. Since crashes are reduced by the driverless technology, the “product liability” will be less than the existing “personal liability” so that the cost to the rider will/should be less! Your local driverless car dealer will now become your insurance agent, providing you with product liability insurance which will be required to be purchased instead of personal liability! Of course, your driverless car (or its dealer) will monitor your use of the driverless car and require that it be properly used and maintained; else, you’ll need personal liability in case you misuse or fail to properly maintain your driverless vehicle.
In the end, you’ll probably not bother buying such a contraption and simply buy rides from your local driverless mobility company, HandyRides 😊. Alain
Exploring the Benefits of Multimodal Sensor Fusion in Autonomous Driving:
A Comparative Study of Camera and LiDAR Using Transformer Architectures for Object Detection
Samantha Doniger, May 2025, “Accurate and robust object detection is critical for advancing autonomous driving systems. In recent years, transformer-based architectures have shown significant promise in this domain, offering improved performance over previous state-of-the-art technologies, largely due to their ability to handle long-range dependencies. This thesis explores the potential benefits of multimodal sensor fusion in autonomous driving by evaluating three transformer-based architectures for object detection tasks, each trained on the nuScenes dataset. The first model, TransFusion, integrates camera and LiDAR data within a unified transformer framework. The second model is a LiDAR-only variant, adapted from the TransFusion implementation to isolate the contribution from the LiDAR sensors. The third model, FCOS3D, is a camera-only model that isolates the contribution from the camera sensors.
The primary goal of this research is to identify scenarios in which single-modality models (camera-only or LiDAR-only) produce conflicting detections and to analyze how the fusion-based approach handles these discrepancies. By closely examining these instances, the study evaluates whether LiDAR offers critical advantages over camera-only systems in consumer vehicles. Given the higher cost and complexity associated with LiDAR sensors, understanding whether these advantages justify the integration of LiDAR is vital for automotive manufacturers and researchers seeking to optimize safety, reliability, and system efficiency under cost constraints.
Through extensive experimental evaluations, this thesis contributes insights into how multimodal fusion impacts object detection, revealing that while the LiDAR-only variant yields higher overall detection metrics in limited training environments, the camera-only approach excels at identifying near-range objects, and the fusion model effectively refines extraneous predictions. This synergy underscores trade-offs between cost and detection coverage, providing guidance for future sensor design and deployment strategies in the pursuit of a fully autonomous driving system. Read more Hmmmm… This is a really good senior thesis. Alain
An Analysis of MOVES Style Transportation in New York City
Koby Ginder, May 2025, “Today, we stand at a critical moment in the evolution of automotive technology. Driverless technology has made tremendous progress over the past decade, and driverless vehicles have begun to permeate our society. The growth of this technology and the path it takes is sure to redefine how we think about mobility. This exploration aims to introduce, simulate and test an innovative transportation style that has only recently been made possible by the strides in automotive driverless technology. This network, known as MOVES style transportation, will be analyzed in America’s city: New York City. This paper will first analyze the current patterns of transportation systems in the city; by inspecting public transportation data it will show the current movement patterns of New Yorkers and visualize it. It will introduce and describe the MOVES style autonomous driving network as it will be implemented in this specific use case. It will then model and simulate the performance of this system using specialized software developed by the Princeton Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering. Financial performance will also be discussed based on the simulated results. Read more Hmmmm… This is a really good senior thesis. Alain
Tyler Barretta, May 2025, “This thesis aims to explore the feasibility of data centers in Northern Quebec using machine learning models to determine feature importance of site selection factors. Specifically, Random Forests are used to learn feature importance on a large, multi-source dataset of hyperscale data centers and corresponding, important features captured across national and regional levels through 2006-2024. SVMs, LASSO regression, and XGBoost models are used to corroborate the feature importance results of the Random Forest. Installed Solar PV Power Capacity and Internet Adoption as the fraction of a country’s population using the internet are determined to be robust predictors for the existence of data centers at a given location in a given year. Quebec and Canada show favorable internet adoption metrics but low solar PV power capacity, when compared to the average metrics across locations with hyperscale data centers. Thus, the model does not show Canada, and specifically rural northern Quebec, to be a likely site for a hyperscale data center. However, the model does not provide a comprehensive set of feature importance weights, and it has limitations in the simplification of complex features to simple data points, a weakness to collinearity in the determination of feature importance, and a time-stagnant nature which fails to capture an evolving set of optimal feature weights. Qualitative research shows that Canada is well poised to become a data center hub. Read more Hmmmm… This is a really creative senior thesis. Alain
Draft… Orf467F24: Investigation of MOVES-Style Mobility Deployments… Draft
Alain Kornhauser, Dec. 19, “An updated note to the readers of the SDC eLetter: Read more Hmmmm… We had an excellent class this Fall. This is a compilation of their investigations of MOVES-style mobility opportunities in their “hometowns”. This is a compilation of drafts submitted in lieu of a final exam. The class will make the document more suitable for publication during the January intersession. Alain
May 27, 2024