2014-09-21

September 21, 2014Newsletter archive →

Patrick Hoge
Sep 15, 2014 "Self-driving cars are bearing down on California's future, and state Department of Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones wants insurers and regulators to prepare now for their eventual arrival.

To that end, Jones hosted a public hearing at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose Monday morning to gather data about what automated vehicle technology will look like. ...

A variety of legal and insurance experts testified, as well as a consumer rights advocate. Alain Kornhauser, a Princeton University professor of operations research and financial engineering, was enthusiastic about the potential for automated driving technologies to improve safety, unburden drivers and lower insurance costs.

Varying levels of the technology will be applied in different settings, he said. Commercial fleets, for example, could be more amenable for fully automated uses, while average drivers might use some sort of hybrid, that allows drivers to assume control when needed, he said.

Kornhauser pointed out that some automated technologies are already in widespread use, notably anti-locking brakes and stability controls that prevent drivers from turning too rapidly.

"What's important is that these systems take over automatically and counter what I am doing wrong," Kornhauser said. "They don't warn. They don't ask for permission. I can't turn them off. They just do it."..." Read more

Sep 16, 2014 by Brandon Bailey, San Jose Mercury News "Google plans to begin testing its new prototype of a self-driving car - which, unlike earlier models, doesn't require a back-up driver - at NASA's Ames Research Center, just a few miles from the tech company's headquarters, space agency officials said this week. Because the testing area is a federal property, Google cars can drive the network of streets that criss-cross the sprawling, 2,000-acre research facility without worrying about California regulations that say a human operator must be able to take control of self-driving vehicles during testing on public roads.

Testing of cars without drivers could begin at early next year, according to a statement from Ames associate director Deborah Feng...." Read more

Sep 18, 2014 "California issued its first 29 permits this week to three companies to test self-driving cars on public roads, state officials said on Thursday.

Google Inc got permits for testing 25 adapted Toyota Motor Corp Lexus SUVs, and two permits each went to Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG's Audi, said Bernard Soriano of the California Department of Motor Vehicles...Read more

September 11, 2014 - By Dena Levitz "...Currently two major pilot programs are happening that Fagnant considers ahead of the pack: Google, the more known of the two, and a European consortium called CityMobil2. Google's version, which it's building from the ground up, is in testing phases and reportedly can detect objects out to a distance of more than two football fields in all directions. What makes CityMobil2's effort unique is that the group is looking beyond single vehicles to fleets of autonomous vehicles that could work take ridesharing up a notch..." Read more

Mark Harris Posted 10 Sep 2014 "... Regulations governing Google's experimental self-driving cars will come into effect on California's roads starting 16 September. They have driven more than 1 million kilometers since the company started secretly developing them in 2009, but they have been tested only once by a government body on open roads—by Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) officials in May 2012. ..IEEE Spectrum has now obtained the driving log of this test, and e-mails referring to it, under Freedom of Information legislation...The world's first self-driving test took place on 1 May 2012 in Las Vegas. Google had previously mapped the area and selected a route for the test, which the DMV agreed to. Chris Urmson, now head of Google's self-driving car project, was in the driver's seat in case anything went wrong. Next to him sat engineer Anthony Levandowski. In the backseats were Nevada's examiners. One was Bruce Breslow, a sportscaster and politician who was then head of the DMV. The other, Nancy Wojcik, is in charge of testing and licensing for the state...." Read more Hmmm Very interesting... but this was 28 months ago! Alain

Joann Muller 9/11/2014 "...There's a difference between fully autonomous cars that drive themselves, and highly automated vehicles, which can take over driving under certain conditions, like stop-and-go traffic, or long road trips. Mercedes-Benz already has a system that let's the driver relax in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and most automakers will have some form of highly automated technology available by 2020, if not before,..." Read more One of the better articles about the ITS WC. Alain

Sep 8, 2014 ".."Right now, you have to have eyes on the road, hands on the wheel and it's going to be that way for a while," Ford said. "Even as we start putting in a lot of these features that will assist you, the driver still has to be vigilant and in control." When the industry evolves to the point where Google's planned technology is feasible, it will not seem a big deal because these new features will have been added gradually over time, he said..." Read more Yup! Alain

Matthew Phenix Sep 10 "...More than a novelty, the Heathrow pod network boasts some impressive environmental claims. The system already meets Kyoto Protocol 2050 projections, delivering a 50% reduction in per-passenger carbon emissions compared with diesel-powered buses and 70% compared with cars. By Heathrow's estimate, the pods replace some 70,000 bus journeys each year. And unlike a shuttle bus, the average wait time for a pod is less than 10 seconds (80% of passengers have no wait at all)..." Read more

Retro Report By CLYDE HABERMAN "....Cars today come packed with so much software that they are routinely described as computers on wheels. Computers are prone to occasional glitches, are they not? One can imagine a latter-day Ralph Nader at some point taking on the modern auto industry with a jeremiad about the potential perils of microchipped cars, maybe in a book titled "Unsafe at Any Click."

If automotive experts are right, safety imperatives are leading inexorably, and rapidly, to the ultimate computer on wheels: a supersmart car that drives itself, with humans just along for the ride. The rush toward this future has Retro Report's attention, though in a manner consistent with its mission of first examining where we have been, the better to see where we may be headed. The heart of this week's video documentary is the long struggle over a car safety feature that everyone now takes for granted. That would be air bags. As the video shows, America's major automakers, for decades, heaped scorn on them and resisted making them standard equipment. In the past, dismissiveness tended to be Detroit's reflexive attitude toward many new ideas, whether for improving passenger safety or increasing fuel efficiency. Even recently, the board of directors at General Motors — the "new GM" — was slow to react to revelations about safety failings that have led this year to the recall of nearly 30 million vehicles.." Read more

John R. Quain Sept. 12, 2014 "...High-speed 4G wireless connections have come to the car. ...General Motors has included 4G LTE in the 2015 Chevrolet Malibu, and more than 30 other G.M. models are to follow by year-end.

How will 4G benefit a driver or passenger? One conspicuous improvement will be the ability, on G.M. vehicles, to "download directions while OnStar is talking to you," Chris Penrose, AT&T's senior vice president for emerging devices, said in an interview. (CoPilot stores the maps on your smartPhone and only the pertinent real-time traffic needs to burden the comm system. Hello OnStar!)... Read more

Matt Richtel Sept. 13, 2014 "...People know they shouldn't text and drive. Overwhelmingly, they tell pollsters that doing so is unacceptable and dangerous, and yet they do it anyway. They can't resist. So safety advocates and public officials have called for a technological solution that does an end run around free will and prevents people from texting in the first place..." Read more

Kevin Chupka Sep 8, 2014 "Despite all their troubles of late, GM is touting the planned release of "super cruise control," the next (first?) step toward a truly driverless car for the average consumer...The concept depends a lot on other cars on the road being equipped with the same technology and the proper set-up of the road itself. In short, this is not the driverless car of science fiction but rather an "in between" phase before whatever turns out to be the reality of a driverless auto fleet..." Read more

08 Sep 2014 "...Experts say autonomous features will reduce motor claims, with AEB alone credited for a 20% drop in the number of accidents. All new cars manufactured for the EU must be fitted with the emergency braking technology..." Read more

Alexis C. Madrigal Sep 8 2014 "...A researcher has $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation to investigate the many ways hackers could disrupt autonomous vehicles. ..."Auto manufacturers always maintain the proper spacing in adaptive cruise control. You might get interesting effects if [someone] crafted certain inputs or misbehaved in a certain way so they create a very large traffic jam." Read more

Nathan Bomey, Detroit Free Press Sep 8, 2014 "Southeast Michigan will lead the nation in drastically improving traffic safety and flow because of an expanded public-corporate project..." Really... "...drastically improving...." This is a bad article. Alain

James Amend Sep 9 "...Delphi said Friday its wireless vehicle communication technology will extend the range of existing advanced driver-assistance-system functionality, using radio signals to transmit traffic data from vehicle to vehicle to alert drivers of potential road hazards.

"The ability to detect and signal to the driver of danger ahead is a significant leap toward improving driver safety and traffic management," Jeff Owens, chief technology officer at Delphi, said last week announcing the rollout. "This technology also strategically positions Delphi to help automakers meet potential government regulations related to V2V communications for automated driving."

But Delphi already provides the vision and radar systems, such as lane-keeping and adaptive cruise control, that warn drivers of a threat..." Read more

Carolyn Bandel Sep 15 "Swiss Re Ltd. (SREN) said the cost from liability claims, which in recent years have been lower than expected, could rise because of new risks such as from cyber-attacks, hydrofracking and autonomous cars, boosting demand for cover. ... Jayne Plunkett, Swiss Re's head of casualty" Whew! Self-serving fear mongering? Whew! C'Mon Bloomberg. HOWEVER: Swiss Re is holding a conference this week... The autonomous car: Risks and opportunities for the re/insurance industry Alain

Invitation ONLY

Bringing together the Region's Decision Makers to Cooperatively Accelerate the Research, Certification and Commercialization of SmartDrivingCars Trucks & Buses

Organized by Tony Kuczinski, CEO, Munich Re, Alain Kornhauser, Prof., Princeton U., Bruce Steadman, Exec. Dir. Ft. Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA)

Save the date (Invitation only)

October 3, 2014 in Ft. Monmouth, NJ

Invitation ONLY

Thanks to the hard work of Richard Bishop and many others we had a VERY fruitful meeting and I will link the presentations in SDC once they are available. We look forward to the 19th meeting in Bordeaux. Alain

September 6th, 2014 in Detroit

Mark Svenvold "...Tomorrow's transportation solutions will be about learning to share...

"Cars arrived and waited for riders," Minett wrote of the Oakland commuters he observed. "Riders came and got into their cars, usually two per car on a first-come first-served basis. I saw partners arrive with partners, kiss, and part. Some waited to make sure that their partners got off safely; others left without a backward glance." He noted that more than half of the people commuting that morning were female. Two women were walking their dogs. "One got a ride, the other carried on with the dogs." The scene he was describing, in other words, was completely quotidian: "I saw an original VW Beetle, and a lady who got into it with a huge suitcase, and they still took a second passenger." Later on, in a coffee shop, Minett was able to conjure his quarry in greater relief. "I'd witnessed," he says in a YouTube video about that moment, "a community of unconnected people who share a solution to their real need and are not afraid to share their trip with a different driver or rider each day." It was, he says memorably, "a silent transit system that is based on trust."... Read more

"This document initiates rulemaking that would propose to create a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS), FMVSS No. 150, to require vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication capability for light vehicles (passenger cars and light truck vehicles (LTVs)) and to create minimum performance requirements for V2V devices and messages.. "

August 18, 2014

Keith Barrow 08/12/14 "...Northern Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation (CNR) has been awarded a contract to supply a fleet of 60 driverless trains for the first metro line in Beijing to be equipped for Unattended Train Operation (UTO).

The 10-station Yanfang Line will run for 15.2km from an interchange with the Fangshan Line at Cheliangduan station to Raolefu, where the line will divide into two branches serving Zhoukoudianzhen and Yanhua. Commercial services are expected to begin in December 2015...Read more

August 7, 2014

Gabrielle Coppola Aug 4, 2014: "...Mobileye NV (MBLY), which makes software to avoid car accidents, overcame the worst global stock-market sell-off in almost five months to raise $890 million last week, a record for an Israeli company going public in the U.S...." Read more Congratulations!!

The shares soared 48 percent to $37 in New York on their first day of trading on Aug. 1 after the company and existing shareholders sold 35.6 million shares for $25 each, according to a Mobileye statement. That was above the high end of the $21 to $23 marketed range. July 21, 2014

last week's Automated Vehicle Symposium, Professor Alain Kornhauser announced that Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (PAVE) has created a new Research Center for Automated Vehicles @ Fort Monmouth. The announcement was made as part of a Wednesday hospitality session sponsored by PAVE. The aim of the Session was to begin to formulate the vision for collaboration on automated vehicle research, certification and commercialization that will be conducted at the unique facilities available at "The Fort".

PAVE's new Center will re-purpose designated Fort facilities to establish a demonstration technology municipality with automated vehicle technology and new forms of mobility as its priority.

PAVE's Center will be located on a 25 acre parcel containing over 100,000 sq. ft. of class A office space as well as two major garage facilities that can support transit bus and class 8 truck activities.

The site includes an 80-acre parcel containing a network of streets and buildings that can be configured for closed-course testing of urban and suburban driving situations. We are proud to announce that Michael Sena, a renowned transport technology architect/planner, residing in Sweden, has agreed to take the lead to properly configure this test facility. Also available to the research team will be the network of streets serving the remainder of the two square mile facility that can be managed to provide "half-way house" testing of automated driving in a mixed environment with conventionally driven vehicles operating under normal conditions. Read more

On Wednesday, October 3, 9:00am -> 1:00pm an Automated Vehicle Summit will be held at the newly created Center for Automated Vehicles bringing together those interested in joining together to crystallize the Center's vision, mission, plans and agenda related to automated vehicles. The Summit is by invitation only. For more information, please email Dr. Alain L. Kornhauser alaink@princeton.edu

Alain July 08, 2014

Jack Roberts July 3 "...Speculation about autonomous — or "driverless" — vehicles has been commonplace in the trucking industry for years. Now, Daimler has made this concept a reality...

The truck, a specially-equipped Mercedes Actros tractor-trailer, is fitted with front-facing radar sensors and cameras to scan the road ahead. Both systems are tied into a Lane Keeping Assist system. Additional sensors track areas to the sides and rear of the truck to provide the system with a complete view of the vehicle's surroundings.

Daimler says the new sensors are so precise they can not only recognize the road edge by marker lines, but even identify the course of the road surface by detecting guardrails or vegetation. Read more Watch Video

1, 2014

Mark Chalon Smith, June 26, "...A CarInsurance.com survey of 2,000 licensed motorists found that only about 20% would happily switch to autonomous cars if they became readily available. The other 80% said they just don't feel comfortable with the technology.

But what if insurance rates would drop significantly in a world with much fewer accidents caused by hapless drivers? More than a third said an 80% cut in premiums, which has been predicted by some analysts, would make it "very likely" that they'd buy a driverless car, and 90% said they would at least consider the possibility...." Read more Be sure to look at the survey summary. It is 6 month old, but probably still good. Alain June 23, 2014

Ted Sherman/The Star-Ledger June 15 "The Wal-Mart truck that slammed into a chauffeured van carrying comic Tracy Morgan on the New Jersey Turnpike just over a week ago was state-of-the-art.

According to company officials, its high-tech cab was equipped with sophisticated collision-avoidance systems that included forward-looking radar with interactive cruise control — all designed to begin automatically braking the big truck when it sensed traffic slowing down.

It was programmed to notify the driver of any vehicles stopped ahead in the roadway. There was an on-board computer, blind spot sensors, and electronic controls limiting its top speed to 65 miles per hour...." Read more

Hmm...

I wrote last Tuesday as to how the Tracy Morgan Accident needs to be wake-up call to Walmart and other shippers and carriers (see below) to install automatic collision avoidance systems. I will repeat it again here in this special post. While Walmart might feel that it had done all it can by having what it calls a "high-tech cab", its truck was in fact a very low-tech cab. Something like having a PrincessPhone relative to an iPhone5. The "interactive cruise control" only begins to automatically brake when it senses traffic slowing down (doesn't bring the truck to a complete stop if the traffic ahead stops AND it needs to have been actively engaged by the driver to work at all!). Moreover..."programmed to notify the driver of vehicles stopped ahead", but NOT programmed to automatically stop the truck before hitting the stopped traffic ahead.

While subtle, these are VERY important differences between a "PrincessPhone" cab and a "SmartPhone" cab! Walmart's and the trucking industry's focus MUST be on automatic collision avoidance, automatic lane centering and beyond, not simply useless warnings. I applaud Walmart for taking a first baby step, but it needs to up its game substantially!

US DoT also needs to take notice with respect to its V2V and connected vehicle initiatives.

These initiatives have been timidly focused on warnings rather than automatically avoiding the accidents. I understand that the government fears resistance to its efforts to intervene, as it should. And it certainly hasn't wanted to acquire the responsibility.

However, warnings are simply insufficiently effective. Maybe government should step aside and let someone else accept the responsibility, someone like the insurance industry. Accepting responsibility is in fact their fundamental business. Alain April 18, 2014

Wyrough, Alexander Penn Hill Jr.: A National Disaggregate Transportation Demand Model for the Analysis of autonomous Taxi Systems

Included is one synthetic realization for each of the 308.7 Million individuals contained in the 2010 Census and each of the 1.01 Billion trips {oLat, oLon, oTime, dLat, dLon} these individuals were synthesized to have made on a typical weekday in October. Persons are organized in individual Home County Files (All 186,49 persons that lived in Peoria County, Il., or the 1,585,873 persons that lived in Manhattan, for example). Trips are available in files for each person residing in a county (with many trips diffusing into other counties, states and even countries) as well as by oCounty (the 649,781 trips that originate in Peoria County or the 8,085,055 trips that originate in Manhattan, many of which are made by 1.5 million persons that don't live in Manhattan.). For example, one can get all the trips made by the residents of Manhattan or by all trips originating in Manhattan. The user is left with the task of finding all trips that either originate, terminate or go through Manhattan. Note, trips to work where the work place was greater than 200 miles from the home location were routed via the nearest major airports. Alain

Lee, Eileen: Uncovering Systemic Corruption in the ER: An Empirical Analysis of Motor Vehicle-Related Hospital Bill and their Impact on Insurance Companies

Sun, Zhuyi (Judy): Causal Price Discrimination: An Analysis of the Healthcare Costs Associated with Motor Vehicle and Transportation Collisions

Rhodes, Brandon Xavier: An Analysis of Economically Efficient Insurance Schemes for Automated Vehicle Unsubscribe | Re-subscribe

2014-09-21

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

C'mon Man! (These folks didn't get/read the memo):

Calendar of Upcoming Events:

Inaugural Automated Vehicle Summit @ Fort Monmouth

Recent Versions of:

September 8, 2014

C'Mon Man! (These folks didn't get/read the memo):

Newly Available Drafts of Recent Student Theses