2014-03-23

March 23, 2014Newsletter archive →

By BILL VLASIC and MATT APUZZO MARCH 19, 2014 "Eric H. Holder Jr., the United States attorney general, talked in impassioned tones on Wednesday about Toyota's behavior in hiding safety defects from the public, calling it "shameful" and a "blatant disregard" for the law. A $1.2 billion criminal penalty, the largest ever for a carmaker in the United States, was imposed.

Mr. Holder said the department's four-year investigation of Toyota found that the company concealed information about defects from consumers and government officials, putting lives at risk because of faulty parts that caused sudden, unintended acceleration in several of its models..." Read more

By JON HURDLE MARCH 10, 2014 "More Americans used buses, trains and subways in 2013 than in any year since 1956 as service improved, local economies grew and travelers increasingly sought alternatives to the automobile for trips within metropolitan areas, the American Public Transportation Association said in a report released on Monday. The trade group said in its annual report that 10.65 billion passenger trips were taken on transit systems during the year, surpassing the post-1950s peak of 10.59 billion in 2008, when gas prices rose to $4 to $5 a gallon.

The ridership in 2013, when gas prices were lower than in 2008, undermines the conventional wisdom that transit use rises when those prices exceed a certain threshold, and suggests that other forces are bolstering enthusiasm for public transportation, said Michael Melaniphy, the president of the association...." Read more

by Alexis Madrigal March 04 "... futuristic visions distract us from the ways in which cars are already making decisions for us. Each new generation of vehicles is taking on more and more tasks, proving the vehicles can handle specific situations. By the time Google's cars arrive in your driveway, you'll be acclimated to the idea of an artificial intelligence grabbing the wheel because you'll have handed over control tens of thousands of times.

That's not to say that the transition will be smooth or without consequence. The many technical, legal and personal hurdles that autonomous cars face will be worked out in much more limited settings, like the blacktop of the Candlestick parking lot or in the moment when you drift from a lane.

This is how the future creeps into the present. While it might seem like your main computing device transformed from a Dell desktop into a smartphone overnight, there were thousands of little steps along the way that lead to the moment when you realized the world has changed beyond recognition." (emphasis added) Read more Yup!! Alain

MIT Technology Review Tue, 03/18/2014 "..Within the limits of the approximations and assumptions made, the above estimates suggest that autonomous driving is indeed a transformative technology, with a potential financial benefit to U.S. on the order of more than $3 trillion per year. It is interesting that the benefits due to increased safety and reduced congestion pale in comparison with those due to sharing and increased productivity. In particular, the synergy between autonomy and car sharing is readily apparent.. " Read more

"997 Package" First Impressions: 1. It is a very nice car. 2. The blind-spot monitoring and the intelligent cruise control work very well. 3. The lane-centering feature makes the car substantially easier to drive, especially on "interstates". Much less drifting out of the lane. (I'm not a very good driver.) 4. Luckily so far I haven't tested the real crash avoidance features. 5. It is excellent that the collision avoidance functions are turned on automatically every time the car is turned on, irrespective of what settings were invoked on the previous trip. (I was told this was true. Haven't tried to verify it.) 6. The "virtual reality" enhancement of the rear view camera view with the expected travel path at the current steering angle is an excellent feature. The car is saying "If you continue going backwards at the current steering angle, this is the surface over which you will travel". Fantastic, that is exactly what I wanted to know. (I haven't encountered a situation in which an object was present on that path. I hope the system highlights that object and prevents me from hitting it. I'll assume that it is smart enough to do that.)

Now for the "Challenges":

The available UI informing the driver as to what it "sees" ahead is Spartan at best, substantially worse than what lies behind me if I drive backwards. (Does this mean that the car was really designed to be driven backwards most of the time? Just kidding, but it sure seems that way.).

a. The system does an OK job of locating displaying a car on a simple perspective rendering of a straight road ahead. It sheepishly informs the driver that it has sensed lane markings using a green highlight that is difficult to discern on the perspective rendering. Very unfortunately, it does not offer the user to select a display that superimposes on a perspective view of the road ahead where it currently positions the lane edges, if any. Say, something similar to what it does with the rear view camera. Such a view would go a long way in allowing the driver to understand in what situations the car knows where the lanes are and can perform its lane centering and lane departure prevention functions and where it is clueless. Otherwise, the driver can only assume that the system is clueless and has wasted a ton of money on vaporware.

b. Having only a tiny steering wheel at the very bottom of the display being the only indicator that lane centering is "working" (green or grey) with no warning about the transition from green to grey is "not ideal" (Boy, that is real grade inflation on my part.). Typically, the 997 package knows the lane edges far in advance of any centering point to which it is targeting the current steering angle command. Hopefully it is updating those lane edges at greater than 10 Hz and its ability to recognize an edge becomes better as the car approaches that portion of the edge. Thus, edges don't disappear instantaneously. The car knows as it is approaching a section of the lane for which the markings are "not so good". And it knows this in advance of reaching a location for which it doesn't have a target for the steering feedback control system. The driver should have the option of having that information revealed if he/she so chooses! Keeping it secret serves no purpose except making the customer wonder "why did I buy this?".

c. My opinion is that the driver should have the option to display a view similar to the backup camera: a view of the road ahead with the current lane edge detection results superimposed. The driver would be able to see instantaneously as to how well, or not well, the car can delineate the road ahead.
While we are at it, that UI should also have the ability, should the driver be so inclined, to display a depiction of the objects that the "vision system" is currently tracking and hell bent on not hitting. Google does this effectively in its cars as does every other test system. why this was not included in the production version is an insult to the intelligence of the customer. (I was told that NHTSA didn't approve such a display. If that is true, then shame on NHTSA!)
The lane-centering feedback control system is at best poor. It seems to do OK on perfectly straight road segments and does OK in entering slight curves. Once in that slight curve it wants to under-steer. It wants to go straight. Not good! I can't imagine the actual feedback control settings that are being used, but I sure hope MB improves that portion of the steering algorithm and supplies a software upgrade sometime soon.
I sure hope MB has plans to do software upgrades to the 997 system!!!!
The fact that when the steering wheel icon turns grey the system stops steering (maintains steering angle or reverts to a zero steering angle or???) without warning is "not ideal".
A more troubling issue occurs when the driver fails to grab the steering wheel after being warned. (The system allows the steering wheel to be untouched for 7 (?) seconds if lane-centering is invoked.). Most unfortunately, if the driver doesn't grab the wheel right away after the warning, the lane centering system stops applying any torque to the steering and the car reverts to going straight (I think). So if the car is on the curved portion of a road and it knows that it is on a curved portion of the road, it basically says: too bad... we're going straight now because you weren't fast enough to put your hands back on the wheel. Yipes!!! The Blues Brothers weren't smacked that hard by Sister Mary Stigmata! Isn't there a safer way for MB to motivate the driver to grab the steering wheel?
Very bad... While in intelligent cruise control, touching the brake pedal instantly turns off "Distronic Plus" and the driver is warned by a message. Unfortunately, the nominal braking action of the intelligent cruise control is turned off and the driver is left with the tasks of continuing to apply brakes that Distronic Plus might have been already applying (heaven forbid!). I can understand that the acceleration function of Distronic Plus should be turned off if the driver hits the brake (as was appropriate under conventional cruise control); however, why is the braking function also turned off (which didn't exist under conventional cruise control). My opinion is that only the acceleration function should be turned off and that the braking function should remain active until the driver hits the gas pedal (which places the system into "passive" mode, which is good)!

That's enough for a first impression. Alain

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/world/asia/missing-malaysia-flight.html?comments#permid=11374945

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/world/asia/missing-malaysia-flight.html?comments#permid=11379483

The links that those comments point to:

http://orfe.princeton.edu/~alaink/777/777_DebrisLocations.pdf

http://orfe.princeton.edu/~alaink/777/777_SearchLocations.pdf

Alain

noon UTC-5 (EDT)

"Don't miss the opportunity to learn the technical specifications and features of the 3DV, a stereoscopic vision system able to provide the full 3D reconstruction of the scene framed by its two embedded cameras. Thanks to VisLab's proprietary algorithms developed throughout the years, 3DV is able to provide a dense 3D map of the surroundings (a 3D point cloud of up to 3 millions 3D points per second) in real time thus a quick interpretation of the environment detecting and tracking obstacles and estimating the terrain surface and slope.... Read more You should tune into this one! Alain

Sponsored by the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society

http://www.auvsi.org/avs2014/register

March 14, 2014

By DANIELLE IVORY and HILARY STOUT MARCH 13, 2014 "As lawmakers press General Motors and regulators over their decade-long failure to correct a defective ignition switch, a new review of federal crash data shows that 303 people died after the air bags failed to deploy on two of the models that were recalled last month...Read more

March 7, 2014

A.L. Kornhauser, et al March, 2014 ".... Examined are the rail ridership opportunities that NJ Transit (NJT) might enjoy if autonomousTaxis (aTaxis) were available to readily bring customers to or from its rail stations. Such collection and distribution services would not only shower NJT with new customers but they would enable NJT to redevelop its parking facilities to more profitable "Transit Village" uses. Read more

February 28, 2014

Issue 641 Feb 2014 Scott Le Vine, Centre for Transport Studies: "...Autonomous cars, driverless cars, automated cars – whatever you call them (and yes, it does make a difference) they are the hot topic in transport today. Carmakers are investing millions of pounds in research & development, mock towns are being built to test automation concepts, fact-finding hearings are taking place, laws are being passed – even international treaties are being re-opened..." Read more This is a lead/summary of the next item. Alain

February 21, 2014

BY Sarah Silbert @sarahsilbert February 20th, 2014 at 2:25PM ET "Google's just announced Project Tango, a 5-inch Android smartphone prototype equipped with Kinect-like 3D sensors and other components to track motion and map your surroundings. ..." Read more

February 14, 2014

Eric Jaffe Jan 13, 2014 "...The problem with buying the drink today, says Kornhauser, is that the labor cost of on-demand taxi service is enormous. As a result, we buy the bottle just in case we want a drink. Driverless cars change the whole equation. Read more

February 9, 2014

I prefer to call this: Volvo's "Texting Machine" concept video. It demonstrates very clearly that it is the "NHTSA Level 3" feature that will be needed to make the car as good as transit; otherwise everyone is simply going to take transit. Who cares about far the walk, how long the wait and the ride and the crowded conditions. I can be in my own world doing what I want to do during that whole process. Without Level 3 I have to be off the grid focused on keeping the hulk between two white lines and not running into things. Transit wins. Play video Alain

February 4, 2014

European Commission agreed upon the demonstration schedule Adrianon Alessandrini

January 26, 2014

by Emily Badger, Jan 17, 2014 "...The great promise of autonomous cars is not that we could each own one in our own driveway – the 21st century's version of owning your own Model T, or your own color TV, or your own bulky Macintosh – but that no one would need to own one at all..." Read more In fact read the whole thing as well as the 266 Comments.

January 17, 2014

by James M. Anderson, Nidhi Kalra, Karlyn D. Stanley, Paul Sorensen, Constantine Samaras, Oluwatobi Oluwatola

This report is excellent

January 6, 2014

Jan. 2, 2014 "Accident rates will plunge to near zero for SDCs, although other cars will crash into SDCs, but as the market share of SDCs on the highway grows, overall accident rates will decline steadily". Self-driving cars (SDC) that include driver control are expected to hit highways around the globe before 2025 and self-driving "only" cars are anticipated around 2030, according to an emerging technologies study on Autonomous Cars from IHS Automotive, driven by Polk. Read more

December 27, 2013

2014-03-23

I, of course, have to comment on the search for Flight 370.

Half-baked stuff that probably doesn't deserve your time:

Calendar of Upcoming Events:

Thursday, March 27, 2014

June 8 - 11, 2014, Dearborn, Michigan, USA

Recent Versions of:

By far the BEST Super Bowl Commercial Play video Alain