Friday, April 17, 2026
8th edition of the 14th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
A Dialog with Chris Urmson, CEO of Aurora #175
J. Zhao, April 17, “ Until recently, no driverless truck had hauled commercial freight on U.S. public roads. Today, Aurora is running them daily across Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, over 250,000 miles without incidents. What does the evolution from “theory and promise” to “practicality and delivering” actually look like, and what does it mean for the future of freight systems? …”. Read moreHmmmm… Another excellent session. I made my comments live in the chat. He can own the 1,000-3,000 mile truck long-haul market. Just haul it with your cabs & attendants! 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 411/ Podcasts 411- Aurora, LeCun, Uber, AI & more
In this edition, Aurora’s Chris Urmson fields questions at the MIT Mobility Forum, AMI’s Yann LeCun on campus in Princeton, Uber commits 10 billion to robotaxis, Axios reports mobility’s new big three and more. Join Alain and Fred for the latest and subscribe!
- 0:00 open
- 0:48 MIT Mobility Forum with Aurora’s Chris Urmson
- 3:51 AMI Co-Founder Yann LeCun at ORFE Princeton University- Enabling the Next AI Revolution
- 8:24 Uber Commits 10 billion dollars to robotaxis
- 12:01 more on Aurora
- 18:52 8 years now since the Uber crash that killed Elaine Herzberg
- 20:45 Axios reports Mobility’s New Bit Three: Tesla, Waymo and Uber
- 23:52 How to AI: The New Claude Charts
- 28:15 Alain starts each class with map of the market
- 30:43 NY Times piece headlined The Choking of Hormuz
- 33:03 NY Times: Where Did All the Affordable Cars Go? And the need for high quality affordable
2026 Automated transportation Symposium (ATS)
July 27-30, 2026, San Diego, CA
8thBridging Transportation Researchers (BTR#8)
Online Conference! August 12 & 13, 2026
Enabling the next AI revolution
Y. LeCun, April 7, “…” Read more Hmmmm… Fantastic ORFE Optimization Seminar last week. Enjoy the slides. I concur. Alain
Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind AI
T. Levin, March 12, end of chapter 7, page 271… “John Hopfield, a physicist, was looking to work on something big. He could not have imagined the changes he would inspire! …” Read more Hmmmm… What a tribute (written before John won his 2024 Physics Nobel. You can’t believe how great it makes me feel since John is such a good friend. While giving him an attended-driverless ride down Nassau Street in Princeton last year, one of the changes that he inspired, he said to me…” Alain, I never thought that what I’ve focused on during my life would end up helping me”! John has health challenges which precludes him from driving himself around. He really needs a ride. By virtue of his inspiration, he can now get effortlessly, safely and soon, affordably. How so very nice! Alain
Uber commits $10bn to robotaxis in strategy shift
R. Uddin, April 144, “ Uber has committed more than $10bn to buying thousands of autonomous vehicles and taking stakes in their developers, breaking from its asset-light “gig economy” business model to avoiddisruption from robotaxis.
The ride-hailing app has aggressively increased its dealmaking over the past year, announcing partnerships with more than a dozen providers, including China’s Baidu and US-based Rivian, as well as plans to launch robotaxi services in at least 15 cities in 2026.…” Read more Hmmmm… How will their gig workers react when Uber underprices them in order to compete with other driverless mobility operators? Yips!! Uber needs to be careful what it wishes for (or invests in). It is creating something that “the more it is better, the more it devastates itself. Yipes!”) Alain
Mobility’s new Big Three: Tesla, Waymo and Uber
J. Miller, April 15, “As the race toward autonomy unfolds, a new U.S. “Big Three” in mobility is emerging: Instead of GM, Ford and Chrysler, it’s Waymo, Tesla and Uber.
Why it matters: Automotive and tech giants, along with many well-funded startups, are vying for a slice of the self-driving future.
The big picture: Autonomous driving technology is no longer science fiction. It’s here.
…” Read more Hmmmm… Before it is all over, Axios is going to have to throw HandyRides in there since it will be giving rides to people who really need a ride. Alain
Where Did All the Affordable Cars Go?
[B. Pemberton, Mar. 27, “America is a car country.
For decades, millions of families relied on inexpensive cars to get from home to work and school……”](https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsimplywall.st%2Fstocks%2Ffr%2Fautomobiles%2Fepa-rno%2Frenault-shares%2Fnews%2Frenault-v2x-trial-in-bordeaux-puts-connected-mobility-story&data=05%7C02%7Corfe-lists%40princeton.edu%7Ce61d11d526d9424eea0108de9d0b3038%7C2ff601167431425db5af077d7791bda4%7C0%7C0%7C639120868779869279%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=0QyrAnq1x1MyWwpRFYMNU2GMfF%2FawY33g9DlkGm5f4o%3D&reserved=0)Read moreHmmmm… They’ll be able to get high-quality affordable rides from HandyRides. 😊 Alain
R. Hassid, Mar. 14, “Claude is launching a new feature every single day.
But I cover only the ones that matter.
And this one does matter: create interactive charts, right inside your chats.
- Save this guide to try all of the copy-paste prompts this weekend.
- Send it to your team’s Slack or Teams channel to get them on board…..” Read more Hmmmm… This may be really good and very helpful. Alain
Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First
Staff, April 12, “The drive to understand has always powered human progress—creating a flywheel from science to technology, from technology to discovery, and from discovery onward to more science. That inexorable forward movement led us to melt sand, add impurities, structure it with atomic precision into computer chips, run energy through those chips, and build systems capable of creating increasingly powerful artificial intelligence….Read more Hmmmm… Seems to be exceedingly self-serving. Alain
L. Gamio, March 25, “Where oil and gas normally travel by tanker ship from the Persian Gulf. …” Read moreHmmmm… This is a really great graphic representation of the implications, but my student’s (Anany Kotawala’27 & Caleb Rosenfeld’26) creation is even better because it highlights the magnitude of the implications on those impacted. Alain
HandyRides Update
Alain Kornhauser, April 4, “My Cousin Vinny” went to Atlanta (and DC & Greenville) and an Old Guy giving ride to an Old Guy who needed a ride.” Hmmmm… . Our mission:
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