Sunday, July 13, 2026
13th edition of the 14th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
Letter to: Hon. Craig J. Couglin Speaker, NJ Assembly
…, June 23, “
RE: A 3968 – AV Pilot Program
Dear Speaker Coughlin:
On behalf of the undersigned organizations, which include a broad spectrum of companies and associations developing and deploying autonomous vehicles (AVs), we write to respectfully urge you to hold consideration of A3968.
To be clear, we support sensible AV laws that would create a pathway to allow New Jerseyans to benefit from the quality-of-life improvements and safety advancements offered by AVs and to that end, several signatories have provided suggested amendments to improve A3968 either directly or through industry trade associations….” …” Read moreHmmmm… What followed was: Link and Link. Please go to Link if you’d like to help create laws and regulations at the federal, State and local level for all of us to finally begin to capture the quality of life improvements that the technology has promised “50 years from now” but so far delivered so precious little can finally, “after 50 years” really start delivering some quality-of-life improvements to those who really need a ride, which in the end, is everyone of us who gets old and faces the fact that for us, driving is a real safety problem . 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 416/ PodCasts 416 new regulations for driverless, Waymo, Tesla and more
- 0:00 What will be the impact of the latest WP 29 regulations on driverless mobility? Consultant and author Michael Sena joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for episode 416 of Smart Driving Cars. Plus the path forward in NJ for driverless, Waymo, Tesla and more. Tune in and subscribe!open1:15update from Michael Sena on WP 29 regulations to enable driverless cars.14:15Tesla has said it intends to begin selling Cybercab to consumers next year. Where does that fit in?23:00Meaning of supervised when it comes to driverless vehicles34:09Michael on the mission of Waymo to be the most trusted driver50:55Elektrek report on NJ bill that would ban Tesla’s camera only robotaxi59:18Michael on how do you move from testing to deployment1:04:26Waymo calls police on teens misbehaving in vehicle in San Mateo
2026 Automated transportation Symposium (ATS)
July 27-30, 2026, San Diego, CA
8thBridging Transportation Researchers (BTR#8)
Online Conference! August 12 & 13, 2026
New bill would ban Tesla’s camera-only Robotaxi, not Waymo
Fred Lambert, July 9, “ New Jersey lawmakers are advancing a bill that would require driverless commercial vehicles to carry cameras plus two additional sensor types — a mandate Tesla’s camera-only Robotaxi can’t meet.
The proposed law, S1677, would effectively lock Tesla out of the most densely populated US state unless it adds the radar and lidar hardware that Elon Musk has spent years insisting his cars don’t need. …” Read moreHmmmm… C’Mon Fred!!! This is dated July 9 and Senator Zwicker voluntarily pulled this bill on or before June 22, 2026, and the Assembly bill was pulled from consideration by the speaker. You should check your sources. This is total noise or should be marked as “sponsored by ???” Alain
Uber’s Autonomous Vehicle Strategy: Slow Their Adoption
Aarian Marshall,, July 12, “… Now, according to documents viewed by WIRED and another obtained through a public records request, Uber’s lobbyists are pushing to build that strategy into law. The company’s representatives have pressed lawmakers to deploy autonomous vehicles on what it calls “hybrid networks,” where human drivers work alongside robots as the new tech grows.
In New Jersey, a lobbyist representing Uber took the strategy a step further, circulating legislative language that would, for a period of three years, require any platform offering driverless ride-hailing services to have human drivers serve 85 percent of its rides. …
A representative for Uber pitched a version of the proposal to New Jersey state senator Andrew Zwicker, according to his chief of staff, Ayla Rios. Zwicker is the sponsor of a bill currently being considered by the state legislature that would establish New Jersey’s first set of rules governing self-driving cars on public roads. The Uber lobbyists’ proposed language restricting standalone robotaxi-hailing apps is not currently part of the bill, which could come up for a vote this fall…” Read moreHmmmm… C’Mon Aarian!!! This is dated July 12 and Senator Zwicker voluntarily pulled this bill on or before June 22, 2026 and the Assembly bill was pulled from consideration by the speaker. You should check your sources. This is total noise or should be marked as “sponsored by ???” or in this one the ??? might be obvious since Aarian also states: “… The New Jersey bill is the first proposed in the nation that would limit the operation of Tesla’s robotaxis, because it requires AV developers to use multiple sensors to power its software,…“ Could it be the maker of the liDAR???. I guess we are not that subtle here in New Jersey. Alain
A 320-ton driverless truck with 2,700 horsepower just became the 1,000th of its kind to go to …
Luis Reyes, July 12, “ If you follow self-driving cars, you know this week’s scoreboard. Waymo flipped Las Vegas to fully driverless and named Denver, San Diego and Tampa as the next three, running about 3,500 robotaxis and more than 20 million trips to date, according to Electrek. Tesla’s rival service, launched in Austin in June 2025, is still down to roughly 20 driverless cars covering about 245 square miles, per third-party tracking. Waymo has been at this since 2009, and the argument is still about four-way stops…
Meanwhile, there are more driverless haul trucks moving rock around the planet right now than there are Waymos on American streets. They weigh 320 tons each and nobody argues about them….”… Read moreHmmmm… Finally some good news about AVs actually supporting themselves in the economy rahter than being a pawn in pump&dump schemes. It is really nice to learn that the fundamental economics of this application is feuling its growth and success. There are serious lessons to be learned in this article. Luis, thank you! Alain
Milestone for Robotaxis: UN Adopts Global Law for Autonomous Driving
Stefan Krempl, July 12, “… Around a decade after the first euphoric forecasts about self-driving cars, the announced revolution on the roads has quieted down. The technical implementation proved more complex than expected, and the legal hurdles often seemed insurmountable. Now, global regulation is making progress. The World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has adopted the world’s first binding framework for fully automated driving systems.
…At its core is a “safety case approach” coupled with a comprehensive safety management system. Manufacturers will henceforth be obliged to demonstrate audited safety regulations throughout the entire lifecycle of a vehicle. From development to later operation in real road traffic, they must provide evidence that the systems do not pose an unreasonable risk to the public…“ Read more Hmmmm… What Michael Sena has been talking about. Please pay attention. Go to the links above (repeated here). Alain
AXM Congress: S05 Panel “Evolution from Testing to Deployment”
M. Sena, July 8, “ 1- In our book – affordability – tangible benefit – freedom of mobility
In our book, The Real Case for Driverless Mobility, Alain Kornhauser and I made the case for affordability, not improved safety, as the real case for driverless mobility. That book was released in January 2024. We said that the tangible benefit for removing a human from the driver’s seat was reducing the cost of delivering a ride to occupants of the vehicle, the riders. A person who is physically able to drive a car, and can afford to drive and own a car, even one that is more expensive than a non-driverless car because of the technology necessary to make it driverless, gains nothing economically from a driverless car. The benefit to that person is the comfort of having a silent chauffeur. A person who is not physically able to drive, but can afford alternatives, gains convenience. Removing the driver but charging the same price or more for delivering a ride benefits the ride deliverer, but not the rider. However, for a person who cannot drive, or who cannot afford to buy and own a car or take a taxi, and does not have a public transit option available, it is freedom of mobility that is the benefit of a car without the cost of a driver, and without the cost of the replacement for a human, a robot driver, making the ride just as expensive. This freedom of mobility has not been accessible to him or her before. That is the promise of driverless mobility.
…” Read moreHmmmm… A MUST read. Alain
Tesla X Post
@Tesla, July 11, “ …she’s now able to drive herself to appointments…” Read moreHmmmm… No!!!! “…she’s now able to Supervise herself to appointments..”
Getting from A to B in a car today requires the person behind the wheel perform two (2) tasks
- Place the steering wheel at the correct angle and depress the brake or the throttle the right amount. This must be done every 20 milliseconds or so during the entire journey with the primary objective being “don’t crash” and numerous secondary objectives such as get to B at a reasonable time, don’t run out of gas, try not to break too many traffic laws, be nice to your fellow road users, …. Let’s call this the “20 millisecond” task, and
- Make some command decisions, such as traffic is really bad, should I turn around and go back home”, or the road is closed ahead, should I go through the gap in the barricade since I am inside the closure or my ultimate destination is short of the blockage, or no, I’d better turn around and find another way to B, It’s raining really hard and the road ahead is likely to flood so I’d better stop or go another way, or there’s a hose across the road and let me figure out the better of two bad options that I face, or, I’m involved in a fender bender, should I leave the car where it is or ask it to pull over to the side, or… Let’s call this the “Supervisor” task.
We have reached a point that some of our “Level 2+” systems, such as (Supervised) FSD perform the millisecond task while still challenged to perform the supervisor task as well as some of us would like.
It also turns out some/many people can perform the supervisor task as well as ever but are really challenged in performing the millisecond task as well as they once did and really shouldn’t be driving because they are a substantive safety problem.
Society currently deals with these situations by revoking the driving privilege that these folks have enjoyed “since they were 16 years old”. That is NOT anything any society likes doing, and society has been paying a heavy safety price balancing that “rock & hard place”
We in New Jersey have begun to work on looks to be a much more elegant solution… a staged operators licenses … reversing the process use for going from not driving to driving by passing through a “learners” stage. In this case, creating an intermediate “supervisor” while transitioning from driver to the final revoking of all operating privileges.
The supervisor privilege would be granted to those who can perform very well the “supervisory” tasks of operating a vehicle that can perform the “20 millisecond” task. This is not only “life saving” for those who really should not be driving: senior, folks suffering for the early forms of Parkinson’s, infrequent seizures, many if not most, of the blind, me ((Supervised) FSD performs the millisecond task better that I ever did. Just my opinion from my observations).
We look to lead the nation and the world in this elegant initiative. Thank you Bob. Alain
Waymo calls San Mateo police on teens for drinking, shooting toy guns from driverless vehicle
S. Phan, July 8, “ Two 15-year-old boys were detained after San Mateo police said they were drinking and firing gel-based pellets from a driverless Waymo vehicle, prompting the company to alert authorities and stop the ride.
Police said the incident happened Monday afternoon. The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office is now deciding whether the teens will face charges, including underage drinking. …” Read moreHmmmm… Excellent!!! Customers MUST behave!!! If they don’t then they don’t get a ride!!!! No ifs, ands or buts!! Lock ‘em up!!. Alain
Trump speeds rewrite of auto safety rules for the driverless era
Joann Miller, July 1, “ The Trump administration is rapidly rewriting the federal auto safety rulebook for an autonomous future. Its latest move: getting rid of brake pedals in robotaxis.
Why it matters: Decades-old safety standards on the books today were written for cars with human drivers.Several Waymo vehicles had to be towed away after the company said their batteries died while they were stuck in heavy San Francisco traffic amid Fourth of July celebrations. …” Read moreHmmmm… Safety is directly correlated to misbehavior by human drivers. Good automated driving systems don’t misbehave; thus, the good enough ones won’t exacerbate safety, but they’ll only improve safety when they begin to replace misbehaving drivers. Unfortunately that is not likely to be sooner rather than later. Consequently auto rules should focus on AV’s opportunity to improve quality-of-life and treat safety as a constraint rather that what has proven to be an embarrassing failure of a singular focus on improving safety. In New jersey we are finally focused on improving the quality-of-life and safety of New Jerseyans rather than a debilitating and myopic singular focus on safety that crumbles into unwarranted fear, anxiety and phobia. Alain
Tesla expands massive safety feature worldwide in latest update
J. Klender, June 30, “ Tesla has expanded the footprint of a massive safety feature worldwide with a recent Software Update labeled as 2026.20.6. The expansion of the “Blind Spot Warning While Parked” feature represents the more widespread availability of the feature, which aims to prevent “dooring.”. …” Read moreHmmmm… Fantastic!!! NHTSA should require all cars to have this feature. Many years ago someone “doored” me as I was driving down Nassau Street, and I took their door off. Had no chance!! The thought still goes through my mind every time I go down a street lined with parked cars. I try see if anyone is about to “door” me again. So scary! Alain
Waymo cars stranded on San Francisco streets as Fourth of July gridlock drains batteries
D. Romero, July 5, “ Several Waymo vehicles had to be towed away after the company said their batteries died while they were stuck in heavy San Francisco traffic amid Fourth of July celebrations. …” Read more Hmmmm… Not easy to be the one and only; especially when standing out seems to be the design objective. Unfortunately, more clicks are generating by negative standout than positive standout so you get what you didn’t pay for. Plus, if your objective is safety, the best news you’re going to get is silence, so you’d better have a thick skin. Alain
Rideshare drivers rally against autonomous cars
D. Romero, July 5, “ Rideshare drivers are pushing back against self driving cars on metro roads. Drivers say they’re concerned about how AI and automation will impact their business. …” Read moreHmmmm… Yikes! TNCs & Taxis are NOT “Rideshare…” anything. They don’t share rides. They are Ridegivers when they have someone else in the car and otherwise are riding around empty not providing any mobility to anyone in society. That’s fine, they can do that and their “riding around empty” gets them to where I need to be picked up. But they aren’t champions of any of the societal virtues implied by “ridesharing”. They’re private ride companies for individuals and those closely related to them at the time. Media must stop misrepresenting them. Alain
Princeton Professor Alain Kornhauser, Always on the Move, Advances Mobility for All
P. Hersh, March 21, “Alain Kornhauser, professor of Operations Research & Financial Engineering at Princeton University, realized early on in his academic career that his dream of going to Mars was unrealistic in his lifetime.
“So, I had to pivot,” says Alain, who has been on Princeton University’s faculty since 1972.
He moved on to far more down-to-earth dreams. He has achieved an academic and business career revolving around the movement of people and cargo from point a to point b on this earth. Alain obsesses about mobility, just not the kind you might expect for an 81, almost 82-year-old. …” Read moreHmmmm… Thank you Pam! Finished 54; will retire @ 65. Alain
HandyRides Update
Alain Kornhauser, July 12, ”… …” Hmmmm… . Launched in Atlanta @ Spelman College Elizabeth & Alain. 🙂
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