2015-04-05

April 05, 2015Newsletter archive →

04/04/15

"Delphi Automotive PLC (NYSE: DLPH) has completed the longest automated drive in North America, traveling from San Francisco to New York in the first coast-to-coast trip ever taken by an automated vehicle. Nearly 3,400 miles were covered with 99 percent of the drive in fully automated mode. Read more See also CBSNews

April 2, 2015 Newark, NJ "...because it isn't an accident if a collision can be avoided." Read more See Video

Alexander LaCasse March 29, 2015, "...Announced last week by Ford's European subsidiary, the "Intelligent Speed Limiter" can recognize speed limit markers through a mounted camera on the windshield. Beginning in August, the company plans to install the feature in its S-Max minivans, which it sells in Europe.

A press release from Ford of Europe describes how it works. When the speed limit is reached, the system "does not apply the brakes but smoothly controls engine torque by electronically adjusting the amount of fuel delivered." Drivers can set the system to a tolerance of 5 miles per hour over the speed limit. Read more

3/31/2015

"Honda today announced that it has commenced testing of its automated and connected vehicle technology at the Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Under the terms of an agreement reached with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) in conjunction with the City of Concord, Honda will use the newly branded "GoMentum Station" test-bed site at the CNWS to advance its technologies. Honda also plans to participate in a consortium committed to making Contra Costa County home to a premier testing facility for automated drive technologies.

GoMentum Station, a 5,000-acre facility, is the largest secure test-bed of its kind, located at the CNWS. The CNWS was officially closed in 2007 and is currently in the process of being transferred to the City of Concord. GoMentum Station contains 20 miles of paved, city-like roadway grids, buildings and other urban infrastructure, providing a realistic environment that will help accelerate the development of automated and connected vehicle technologies. The public will not have access to the test-bed site, and the automated vehicle testing will be restricted to GoMentum Station. Read more

March 31, 2015 "... Working to create a stronger economic future for Contra Costa..." Read more GoMentum site.

3/31/15

"Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, said Tuesday it is pushing to commercialize autonomous driving "in phases" from 2020, which is expected to improve safety and provide more convenience to customers.

Hyundai Motor said it will adopt the so-called highway driving assist system in its vehicles in the second half of this year. This would mark the first time that a local carmaker has used the feature. The HDA system is designed to keep a vehicle within the lane, maintain a safe distance from the car ahead, and provide a navigation-connected system that gives warnings of maximum and minimum speeds on highway sections. Read more

26 March 2015 "Russian commercial vehicle manufacturer KAMAZ is proposing to create an artificial city as a testing ground for unmanned vehicles. The project will cost about 5 billion rubles (US$87 million). In it, trucks without drivers will test out moving through traffic and navigating complex intersections and pedestrian crossings. Models of cars, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians will be placed on the testing ground...." Read more

Mar 27, 2015 "Volvo Car Group's groundbreaking technology for putting self-driving cars in the hands of real customers by 2017 was demonstrated to media and important decision makers in the Chinese capital Beijing today – with the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven joining the event..." Read more

David Lampe, Mar 26, 2015 "U-M's Mobility Transformation Center—a major research partnership of industry, government and academia that is laying the foundation for a commercially viable system of connected and automated vehicles—has launched its Affiliates Program with 27 initial members from a wide range of industries. Read more

Hans Greimel Mar 30, 2015 "Toyota is trying to jump ahead rivals by offering a suite of advanced safety features at unusually affordable prices.

The automaker said today it will begin offering automatic braking, lane departure alert technology and other safety electronics later this year in a package priced at about $300 in its compact cars. A slightly more advanced version will be priced at about $500 for midsize and larger models. The Lexus brand will have the most advanced suite of technologies, with prices from about $500 to $635, the automaker said... Read more

March 24, 2015 "If Marty McFly had a transportation upgrade between his skateboard and his hoverboard, it might look something like this. The Sidewinding Circular Skates consist of a pair of 10-inch rubber wheels with foot platforms. Apart from riding with a sideways stance, the gadget appears to be a futuristic take on roller skates. Read more and see video. Interesting! Certainly more portable. Alain

Hazel Sheffield, Mar 27, 2015 "A campaign protesting the advance of driverless technology is projecting the faces of London cab drivers on city landmarks.

The 'Face to Faceless' campaign has been organised by Hailo, a taxi app, to protest against the £100 million investment in driverless technology promised by George Osborne in his budget. Hailo said that the knowledge and experience of the traditional cab driver is something that can't be replaced with technology. "Cabbies have been a part of this city for hundreds of years and the move towards driverless cars is killing not only an entire profession, but a huge part of Britain's heritage," said Hailo chief marketing officer Gary Bramall... Read more

EMILY BADGER March 31, 2015 "A historian argues that we're basing our decisions about the future of the automobile on a faulty back story..." Read more

Larry Dignan April 1, 2015 "NEW YORK -- Ford is embarking on an experiment binge around the world as it aims to become a mobility company and harness all the data it can to keep in front of the auto pack. CEO Mark Fields is betting that data science, curiosity, and a passion for the customer experience will make those experiments pay off.... Read more

April 2 "PLANO, TX—Describing the prototype as a major technological breakthrough for autonomous vehicles, engineers at Toyota unveiled the first driverless car Thursday capable of committing a hit-and-run.

Members of the design team told reporters that the innovative autonomous car, which relies on a system of sensors and sophisticated algorithms to provide it with a split-second reaction after being involved in a collision, has successfully demonstrated the capacity to immediately flee the scene of an accident to avoid legal repercussions without any human intervention.

"With this step forward, we are closer than ever to having road-ready self-driving cars that are proficient at assessing vehicular damage, analyzing surroundings, and performing complex maneuvers to effectively dodge responsibility after clipping another automobile," said head engineer Stephen Graham, adding that throughout numerous crash tests on a closed course, the driverless car perfectly executed evasive actions to frantically peel away before observers could record the license plate number. "Very soon, there could be a fleet of self-driving cars specifically designed to eliminate the possibility of human error when making a break for it following a fender bender." Read more Just for laughs... Alain

Thursday, April 16, 2015 Newark, NJ

Heavy Duty Electric Brake Systems and Soterea, Inc. will be hosting a private Presentation and Demonstration of the AutonoBox™ and Electromagnetic Drive Shaft Retarder system (EMDSR) for heavy duty motor vehicles

April 22, 15:00 GMT

discussed will be the key aspects of assessing whether advanced transit systems such as personal rapid transit (PRT) and group rapid transit (GRT) are a fit with the application's requirements and characteristics. Featured expert speakers represent ARUP, Lea+Elliott and PRT Consulting.

Recent Versions of:

By Matt Richtel, March 25, 2015 "Memo to parents: Distracted driving by teenagers is riskier than previously thought, particularly when it comes to multitasking with a cellphone. This is one finding of research being published on Wednesday that provides sobering video evidence of the extent and nature of the problem.

The study entailed putting video cameras in the cars of drivers ages 16 to 19, allowing researchers to watch the excruciating moments before nearly 1,700 crashes. Time and time again, teenagers in the videos — which will be made available to the public — lose themselves in their devices and then are jarred back to reality when they slam into another car or careen off the road.

The study, published by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, found that distraction was the cause of roughly 60 percent of moderate and severe crashes. The study says this is four times as many as some previous government estimates..." Read more and watch video!!

This is why AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Comcast, Samsung and Apple should all be investing in SmartDrivingCars. They are the root-cause of the problem. If their services to be available while the car is moving, they are going to have to invest to make the car drive itself! Else, they should withdraw from that business segment! Alain

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..." Read more

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

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 autonomous Taxis (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 aTaxi 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
January 4, 2015

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

2015-04-05

Some other thoughts that deserve your time:

Calendar of Upcoming Events:

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