2015-03-21

March 21, 2015Newsletter archive →

Aaron Kessle, March 19, 2015 "For many drivers who commute long distances, the prospect of owning a self-driving car — where a driver takes his hands off the wheel and feet off the gas — has been an elusive dream. But on Thursday, Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, took a big step in that direction when he announced that the maker of high-end electric cars would introduce autonomous technology by this summer. The technology would allow drivers to have their cars take control on what he called "major roads" like highways.

Mr. Musk said that a software update — not a repair performed by a mechanic — would give Tesla's Model S sedans the ability to start driving themselves, at least part of the time, in a hands-free mode that the company refers to as autopilot..."

Dee Ann Durbin, Mar 13, 2015 "...An autonomous car developed by Michigan-based auto supplier Delphi Automotive will soon be making a 3,500-mile journey across the U.S.

A person will sit behind the wheel at all times but won't touch it unless there's a situation the car can't handle. The car will mainly stick to highways...." Read more

Eric Johnson, March 17, 2015 "...A developer kit for Nvidia's self-driving car platform, the Drive PX, will go on sale in May for $10,000, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said today at the company's GPU Technology Conference.

The platform is powered by two of Nvidia's Tegra X1 chips and was first teased at CES earlier this year. Huang claimed it's 3,000 times faster than DAVE, the autonomous vehicle technology developed by DARPA..." Read more

Mar 19, 2015 "...At a defunct naval base here this week, the luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz put on a display of how it sees that future, in 2030 and beyond, with test runs of its F 015 concept car...." Read more & Watch video

Also the version of the video: Take a Ride Inside the Fully Autonomous Mercedes-Benz F 015

BDV26 977 ‐07 Jan 2015 "...Many car manufacturers already offer limited AV technology in some of their models. For example, Acura, Lexus, Audi, Mercedes, Volkswagen, BMW, and Infiniti all currently offer lane keep assist, advanced collision warning, and adaptive cruise control. However, it remains to be seen what the transit industry will do in regards to AV technology. Read more

Carolyn Said Jan. 14, 2015

Jay L Zagorsky 3/17/15 "...McKinsey, however, missed one of the key ways in which self-driving cars will dramatically alter society: They will have a tremendous impact on police forces around the world, potentially cutting the need for them in half...." Read more Especially the Department of Justice report: Police Behavior during Traffic and Street Stops, 2011. Alain

Bryan Logan Mar. 5, 2015 Conflation of some old videos in case you missed them Alain

R. Janssen, et. al. Feb. 2015

By Stu Robarts, March 13, 2015 "...This is accompanied by a 3D holographic display and two 3.5-in screens on either side that display video feeds from cameras mounted on the exterior of the vehicle. Images from a rear camera are shown on the central screen during maneuvers...." Read more

Michael Gorman March 15, 2015 "AeroMobil has been around for five years, pursuing the dream of building a functional and (somewhat) practical flying car. Its third-gen prototype was revealed last October, and today at SXSW, AeroMobil CEO Juraj Vaculik revealed a bit more about the company's past and future and the challenges that remain to go from prototypes to fully fledged consumer vehicles - which the company plans to accomplish in 2017. Read more

Doug Newcomb 3/20/2015 Mark Rosekind is still unabashedly pushing V2V and V2I. In his Prepared Remarks "...We continue our years of effort to deliver one of the next great automotive safety innovations: vehicle-to-vehicle communications...this one is the real game changer....will help deliver warnings... (If it is so good why does it only warn?)

C'Mon Man! Alain

March 30, 31, 2015

http://www.driverlesstransportation.com/event/automated-vehicles-symposium-2015

Recent Versions of:

Mar 3, 2015 Kimberly Gill, Police say bus driver told officers he fell asleep right before collision Video shows a SMART bus slam into several vehicles Oct. 21, 2014 on Maple Road between Middlebelt and Inkster roads in West Bloomfield. Read more

Feb 19, 2015 "Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition, the Center for Auto Safety and Road Safe America, filed a petition today with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requesting that the agency initiate rulemaking to require forward collision avoidance and mitigation braking (F-CAM) systems on all new large trucks and buses with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 10,000 pounds or more. F-CAM technology uses radar and sensors to first alert the driver and then to apply the brakes when a crash is imminent....Petition for Rule Making (PDF); Petition Crash List (PDF); Press Release (PDF)" Read more

to lead development of driverless car technology

The above review identifies issues that need to be addressed to enable automated vehicle technology testing on UK roads whilst maintaining high levels of road safety. It covers the best and safest ways to trial vehicles where a qualified individual is present who is capable of taking control of the car. It also looks further ahead, to the implications of potential use of fully autonomous vehicles. Read more Plus read speech

Tony Borroz, Jan. 27, 2015 "Germany's Minister of Transport has announced a project that will see a section of the A9 autobahn that connects Berlin and Munich set it up for autonomous vehicle testing.

Hanging digital bells and whistles on the A9 will include infrastructure provisions for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, as well as liberating a chunk of the 700 MHz radio spectrum so the test cars can talk back and forth. The project is expected to get underway later this year...." Read more This is interesting. Alain

Jan 25 "...US Department Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced the addition of two automatic emergency braking systems to the recommended list of safety features under the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP)...

Emergency braking systems are slowly becoming the norm in safety evaluations. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety now requires it for a model to earn a Top Safety Pick + rating, and the tech is a must to score five stars in the Euro NCAP crash test.

"PRESS RELEASE January 22, 2015, WASHINGTON – Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx today announced that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to add two cutting-edge automatic emergency braking systems to the recommended advanced safety features included under its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) – the latest step in a half-century of safety innovations that have saved more than 600,000 lives, according to new research NHTSA released today...." Read more

Serving New Jersey's Personal Mobility Needs with the Casual Sharing of autonomousTaxis (aTaxis): Land Use, Personal Travel Demand, Casual Ride-sharing Potential, Fleet Size Requirements and Empty aTaxi Management. Orf 467F14 Student Reports for each of New Jersey's counties.

Even though these are unedited student reports they contain substantial information and perspectives on the opportunities and challenges for aTaxis to adequately serve the majority of New Jersey's mobility needs. While there are significant causal ride sharing opportunities during peak hours in peak directions, sufficient to eliminate congestion, and aTaxis can substantially increase the utilization (by a multiple of 5) of NJ Transit's rail system by providing efficient and high quality "last mile" mobility to/from rail stations, it is unlikely that average vehicle occupancy (AVO = personTripMiles/aTaxiMiles) for all trips, all day could reach a level of 2.0. Moreover, that is before one accounts for empty aTaxi repositioning that enables the sharing of aTaxis. These reports are the first that begin to address the empty aTaxis problem. It is non-trivial especially if one wishes to have multiple sized aTaxis so as to have the size of the serving aTaxi more closely match the number of shared rides that are being served. The spatial-temporal imbalances of the shared-ride demand seem to impose a great deal of empty repositioning.

It may well turn out that having only four passenger aTaxis may be better than having a fleet consisting of 2 and 6 passenger aTaxis. The reduction in empty repositioning of a uniform fleet of aTaxis may well compensate for the extra energy consumed by a larger aTaxis when a smaller two passenger aTaxi could have done the job and the foregoing of some shared riding when two four passenger aTaxis need to be used because a single 6 passenger aTaxis was not available to serve the six travelers. Alain

MARC SANTORA DEC. 24, 2014 "A Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus driver was arrested on Wednesday after his bus struck and killed a 78-year-old man on Tuesday night in Brooklyn. The driver, Reginald Prescott, was charged with failing to yield to a pedestrian and violation of highway law, the police said.

Mr. Prescott, 57, was driving a B44 bus eastbound on Farragut Road in East Flatbush when he made a turn onto New York Avenue around 6 p.m., according to the police. As he was making the turn, Jean Bonne-Annee was crossing the street and was struck by the bus, the police said..." Read more

2015-03-21

Some other thoughts that deserve your time:

Recompiled Old News :

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:

The pathway to driverless cars: a detailed review of regulations for automated vehicle technologies

Be sure to read the included Foxx's Press Release: