Friday, Oct. 3, 2025
15th edition of the 13th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
MOBILITY INDUSTRY INSIGHTS In silos without windows: That’s where driverless mobility research and development is done
M. Sena, Oct. 1, “AT THE BEGINNING of the 20th century, people were not asking for cars. They were asking for a way to travel that did not require them to own and care for a horse. They were asking for a way to travel that allowed them to cover distances farther than they could walk in a day without having to provide their own motor power. They were asking for the possibility to travel where and when they desired, rather than according to a schedule devised by someone else. They were asking for a way to travel that they could master both physically and mentally. They were asking for a way to travel which they could afford. …
To repeat, no one is asking for driverless cars. …
There was no one in Los Angeles at the time of the riots, not the mayor or council members, not the social welfare organizers, not the state or federal members of congress, and definitely not Waymo and its parent Alphabet, who stood up and said, “Wait! The purpose of these self-driving cars is to give rides to people who cannot afford other transportation alternatives. Leave them alone!”…
There is a third vision….” Read more Hmmmm… Whew! What a read! 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 400 / PodCast 400 – Driverless development in windowless silos?
w/Michael Sena
F. Fishkin, Oct. 3, “ It is episode 400 of Smart Driving Cars and Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin are joined by Michael Sena, co-author of The Real Case for Driverless Mobility. And hist Mobility Industry Insights asks is driverless research and development being done in windowless silos? Tune in for that and an ending courtesy of TJ Smith! “
- 0:00 open
- 1:30 Mobility Industry Insights- In Silos Without Windows- where driverless mobility research and development is being done.
- 8:13 With driverless cars…has anyone asked why they are needed? What are we trying to accomplish?
- 10:19 Alain: Nobody is getting it…the reason why
- 15:05 Now we are layering over AI
- 24:30 The concept of latent demand for rides has mostly been ignored
- 29:10 Recalling the navigation episode of “The Office”
- 32:00 The reason for developing standards
- 34:37 The focus needs move to making driverless mobility work for all riders
- 41:20 Affordability is really important
- 47:08 Main value of automobiles? They don’t poop in the street?50:50Is safety the question?
- 3:18 MIT Mobility Forum sessions continue
- 54:00 Business Insider -Ashok Elluswamy is the most powerful Tesla exec you’ve never heard of.
- 54:45 InsideEVs report on woman posting a party from Tesla driver seat…and Alain recalls TJ Smith online posting of his Buttercup California drive from a dozen years ago!
| November 3-6, 2025 | Tempe, Arizona |
Cities Are Not Prepared for Autonomous Vehicles. —Here’s How Should They.
K. Kockelman, R. Chase & J. Zhao, Oct. 3, “Ten years ago, cities were energized by the promise of autonomous vehicles. In 2015, the buzz was loud. Cities ran pilots, hosted workshops, and published white papers. But the tech wasn’t ready. Cities grew disillusioned. Now the tech is here, and at scale. But most U.S. cities are not prepared. How should they?” View more Hmmmm… Register to watch live if you read this before noon Oct. 3. Paper. Excellent! Alain
What Excites Larry Burns Today? Future of Living and Future of Access
L. Burns & J. Zhao, Sept. 29, Join us for a discussion with Larry Burns (former head of R&D at General Motors) on 5 aspects of mobility and urban planning that keep him excited, after an illustrious 50-year career. From autonomous vehicles to connected vehicles, EVs, defining access and design innovations, Larry will spend 20 minutes explaining why he is excited by these topics, after which we will move to the discussion and Q&A part. Larry is also the author of Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car—And How It Will Reshape Our World and a co-author of Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century.…. “ View more Hmmmm… Excellent! Alain
Ashok Elluswamy is the most powerful Tesla executive you’ve never heard of
G. Kay & J. Newsham, Oct. 2 , “In 2022, Elon Musk made a gamble that rattled his top engineers. The Tesla CEO scrapped the ultrasonic sensors that helped power the company’s self-driving technology, and its vehicles began relying entirely on cameras.
No other self-driving car company had attempted anything like it. Complicating matters was the recent departure of Andrej Karpathy, Tesla’s director of AI at the time. That left Ashok Elluswamy, then Tesla’s head of Autopilot software, to carry out one of Musk’s biggest bets.
Lewey Geselowitz, a former Autopilot engineer, said the team spent months training the software to run without the sensors. He recalled Elluswamy huddling inside a Tesla with a group of engineers, driving around the office parking lot. They were testing the system to see whether it would recognize objects in its path, intentionally almost slamming into walls in the process.
It was an example of Elluswamy going all-in to bring Musk’s vision to fruition. A year later, the sensors had been removed from all new Tesla builds, leaving the driver-assist tech running solely off a suite of cameras. “It took courage to know that we would be able to figure that out,” Geselowitz said….
“Without him and our awesome team,” Musk wrote on X last year, “we would just be another car company looking for an autonomy supplier that doesn’t exist.”“ Read more Hmmmm… Very interesting! A must read. Alain
San Francisco Woman Has Solo Dance Party In Her Tesla While In The Driver’s Seat. How Safe Is That?
Adrienne Hunter, Oct. 1 , The rising popularity of self-driving cars has caused many to question just how safe these vehicles are. These concerns were highlighted when one woman posted a video of her dancing in her self-driving Tesla with no hands on the steering wheel.…
On Sept. 25, San Francisco resident Vanessa Lim (@vanesssalim) posted a video of herself dancing in a Tesla, with text overlay that says, “when you can have solo dance parties bc your car drives itself.” The video has received over 10,500 views as of Tuesday..” Read more Hmmmm… So bad… Old-school Click-Bait. Hasn’t everyone seen how people really drive in California. TJ Smith has 15M views of HIGHWAY SING-A-LONG: Build Me Up Buttercup Edition. Now that’s good and it was done 12 years ago! Alain
Dave Ferguson: From Waymo to Nuro and the Future of Self-Driving Cars
S. Christensen, Oct 1, “Stan is joined by Dave Ferguson, Co-Founder and President of Nuro. In this episode, Dave discusses his transition from Waymo to Nuro, the pivotal shifts in their business model, and how they’ve managed to secure a monumental partnership with Uber and Lucid to create robo-taxis. Dave also opens up about the challenges faced during Nuro’s evolution, from team restructuring to investor negotiations, and offers a glimpse into the future of autonomous vehicles. Don’t miss this episode filled with valuable lessons on leadership, technology, and the path to a safer, autonomous future.” View More Hmmmm… Interesting. Alain
HandyRides Update
- Kornhauser, Oct. 2, “Paused operations while we upgrade our AI inspired Real-time Operations Management Information Systems.” Hmmmm… OK! But the “AI inspired” is snake oil. Alain
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