2014-04-06
April 4, 2014
Webinar on the 3DV product
Thursday, March 27, 2014 Video of Webinar. Excellent presentation by Prof. Alberto Broggi Alain
Our Ultimate Driverless Car Report Card
By Chuck Tannert "...According to a recent poll by market research firm Harris Interactive, nearly 9 out of 10 American adults fear these advances, citing hardware and software failures, as well as security issues stemming from mischievous malware and hackers hell bent on causing chaos as primary concerns. So who's doing the best job of overcoming such considerable obstacles? Take a look--then take a spin.
Honda Grade: C
Acura Grade: C+
General Motors Grade: B-
Ford Grade: B
Google Grade: B+
Toyota Grade: B+
BMW Grade: B+
Audi Grade: A
Volvo Grade: A
Mercedes Grade: A
[NOTE: Any company not listed here--most notably the Chrysler Group--needs to considerably increase innovations in order to be included in this group.] " Read more
Hmmm.... Go get 'em Fast Company! Alain
The Practical Path to Driverless Cars
Richard Morgan, Apr 01 "... Bittner is into "trip-chaining," he says, in his personal life as well as his professional one. His job is director at the University of South Florida's Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR, pronounced cutter, not cuter) — home, Bittner says, to the largest collection of full-time faculty studying public transportation in the country. That's 43 faculty researchers and about as many student-researchers, working on 180 projects, as well as a new division devoted entirely to driverless cars called the Autonomous Vehicle Institute, which Bittner was integral in developing. This is how far ahead CUTR plans: there are 23 saplings planted on the front lawn...." Read more
Will a World of Driverless Cars Be Heaven or Hell?
Robin Chase Apr 03 "...When my city-raised son was two, he'd scream bus! with full-bodied delight whenever he saw one. It's quite possible that his yet-to-be-conceived youngest child won't learn that word, nor ever ride in a "taxi," "shuttle," or "vanpool." These fine gradations for types of shared vehicles will disappear much like telephone booths from city streets — and not to be replaced by the likes of Zipcar, Car2go, or Lyft. Rather, it is the fully autonomous car that is going to be game-changing. But it is a future with two trajectories: heaven and hell.
Let's start with the hell scenario, in which we all own driverless cars that do all our errands for us...
Now for the transportation heaven scenario, in which shared FAVs are used for on-demand origin-to-destination public transport. ..." Read more
Hmmm... I like heaven! :-) Alain
U.S. Must Make Safer Cars, Not Wealthier Lawyers
by Drew Winter in Road Ahead "... But the trend toward billion-dollar settlements and criminal charges for almost any automotive safety failure is disturbing. What kind of a country will the U.S. become if trial lawyers can easily win billion-dollar settlements for make-believe defects and in the process become even more influential politically than they are already?
What auto CEOs will sign off on an autonomous car if they know there is a good chance they could be hauled from retirement and thrown in jail if one accidentally kills someone 10 years after it is introduced, due to defects real or imagined? Yes, autonomous cars and many other automotive innovations are coming, but if current trends continue, they might not be coming to the U.S." Read more
NHTSA Announces Final Rule Requiring Rear Visibility Technology
March 31, "...issued a final rule requiring rear visibility technology in all new vehicles under 10,000 pounds by May 2018..." Read more
Hmmm.. . not impressed that NHTSA will be requiring 4 years from now what essentially all new cars have today because of consumer demand and very inexpensive components. What is most surprising is that NHTSA doesn't say anything about also requiring automated back-up collision avoidance technology. How irrelevant can NHTSA be in the collision avoidance space? Alain
U.S. DOT Launches First-Ever National Distracted Driving Enforcement and Advertising Campaign
April 3 "...Foxx today announced the Department of Transportation's first-ever, national advertising campaign and law enforcement crackdown to combat distracted driving. As part of the effort, television, radio and digital advertisements using the phrase U Drive. U Text. U Pay. will run from April 7-15, which coincides with a nationwide law enforcement crackdown in states with distracted driving bans... Read more
Hmmm.. . even less impressed. If NHTSA was really interested in "CarCrash" it would: "require "Level 3 lane keeping & collision avoidance" technology on all new vehicles under 10,000 pounds by May 2018 that included any distracting device"...Now that would demonstrate some leadership"! My opinion... that's the only way to appropriately address distracted driving. C'mon NHTSA! How can we have any HIGHWAY SING-A-LONGS unless NHTSA require "Level 3..." Alain
Reader Comments
Use of Public Transit in U.S. Reaches Highest Level Since 1956, Advocates Report
From Eric Bruun:
"I really need to take both you and Alan Pisarski to task for your comments. First of all, the article "Transit Use remains Disappointing" by David King, Michael Manville and Michael Smart that you chose to put in your "half baked" section does give a proper interpretation of the data. They say that ridership has gone up but population has gone up even faster so there really isn't a transit boom. Don't you agree with this? Furthermore, Alan Pisarski claims that APTA's "hyperbole is being picked up without questioning by most of the press." If so, why are articles like the one by King, Manville and Smart being published and reprinted?
Next, it isn't "fraudulent" for APTA to say that ridership is up, as Alan Pisarski claims. Maybe APTA could have added that most of it is in the NYC area. On the other hand, lots of other cities also have record ridership like Seattle, Chicago and Philadelphia, so why would they mislead people by implying that ridership is increasing primarily in NYC? APTA represents all transit agencies in the US of A and NYC isn't the only one suffering from capacity shortages during peak periods..." Read more
From Alan Pisarsky:
Sorry Alain have to disagree re transit. The APTA hyperbole was picked up without questioning by most of the press and printed verbatim from the press release. There has been a strong counter blast to what is basically fraudulent stuff. See the article below (linked). There have been other such commentary. In my interview in USA Today I told them that the share of transit for work in '60 was 12% now under 5%. All of the net growth was in NY. In my new Commuting in America series I note that the share of total national transit in NY metro area continues to rise.
I note that the Wash Metro doesn't recommend using cell phones in metro because of the theft problems. Alan (without the i !) Read more
Hmmm... Alan, I agree, I was painting a very rosie picture. Transit ridership is pathetically low. As I've written its market share is less than the uncertainty in measuring the magnitude of the auto share... Basically it is noise. That said, the ability to bond with a mobile device changes the contribution of time disutility in opposite directions when comparing driving with riding. The issue is to what extent is that substantial. It would be really nice if someone did some basic research on this aspect. Alain (with an i) :-)
Half-baked stuff that probably doesn't deserve your time:
Self-Driving Cars Will Make Accident Claims Easier
Driverless Parking for Tomorrow's Vehicles
Driverless Cars
Calendar of Upcoming Events:
The 21st Century: Now What?
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
8:00 a.m. - 4:15 p.m.
Villa Milano
1630 Schrock Road, Columbus, Ohio 43229
(614) 882-2058
2014 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium
June 8 - 11, 2014, Dearborn, Michigan, USA
Sponsored by the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society
http://www.auvsi.org/avs2014/register
Recent Versions of:
March 28, 2014
Millennials & Mobility: Understanding the Millennial Mindset
"...millennials, with their relative propensity for urban lifestyle components (whether they live in cities or in suburbs), dexterity with technology, while starting careers during economically constrained times can leave a lasting impact on society...." Read more
March 21, 2014
Toyota Is Fined $1.2 Billion for Concealing Safety Defects
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. Read more
Hmmm... As I wrote last week with respect to GM, the industry can not respond in this manner during the evolution of SmartDrivingCars. "Defects" are inevitable, as will improvements to the systems. In fact, instead of a "defect recall", the industry might create a "performance enhancement" recall process where software upgrades and some hardware upgrades may be made to the systems to improve their performance. The industry might/should be able to charge for these improvements. This would be like installing new and better "wiper blades". Not that the old ones didn't work, the new ones work better. And the industry could charge for it. A whole new revenue source. Your SmartDrivingCar could get a real "tune up". :-) Alain
March 14, 2014
303 Deaths Seen in G.M. Cars With Failed Air Bags
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
Hmmm... This is tragic for many reasons; however, we in the SmartDrivingCars world need to learn very clear lessons... More importantly (and as is obvious to the most casual observer) we can't wait for "...303 victims..." of the "we didn't think of that" problem to occur before we fix it.... Alain
March 7, 2014
http://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/
Hmmm. Just what we need in our cars, an easier way to be distracted from driving. Maybe this should be called "Apple CarCrash". Alain
New Jersey Rail Ridership Opportunities If a Taxis Are Available...
A.L. Kornhauser, et al March, 2014 ".... Examined are the rail ridership opportunities that NJ Transit (NJT) might enjoy if autonomous Taxis (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
Automated cars are coming, but has anyone grasped their implications?
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
Google's Project Tango is a smartphone with sensors to map the world around you
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
Imagine: A World Where Nobody Owns Their Own Car
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
Volvo-worldfirst-public-pilot-for-driverless-cars
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
U.S. Department of Transportation Announces Decision to Move Forward with Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication Technology for Light Vehicles
European Commission agreed upon the demonstration schedule Adrianon Alessandrini
By far the BEST Super Bowl Commercial Play video Alain
January 26, 2014
What Will Happen to Public Transit in a World Full of Autonomous Cars?
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
Autonomous Vehicle Technology: A Guide for Policymakers
by James M. Anderson, Nidhi Kalra, Karlyn D. Stanley, Paul Sorensen, Constantine Samaras, Oluwatobi Oluwatola
This report is excellent
January 6, 2014
Self-Driving Cars Moving into the Industry's Driver's Seat
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
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