2015-04-19

April 19, 2015Newsletter archive →

March 26, 2015 "SAE International has created the first-ever safety guidelines for on-road testing of prototype models of fully automated vehicles.

J3018 Safety Guidelines for the On-Road testing of Prototype Models of Fully Automated Vehicles is an important document as more fully automated vehicles with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) will be tested on public roads. Read more

AJ Swaboda '15 April 2015, Using the NYC T&LC file of all taxi trips taken in NYC in 2013, the casual ride-sharing potential of NYC's taxi patrons is computed under various levels of service consisting of initial departure delays of up to 5 minutes (waiting for ride-share opportunities) and the number and geographic scope of ultimate destinations.

For the 5 most active departure locations the casual ride share potential is high (45% reduction in loaded taxi miles and a 54% reduction in dispatched taxis throughout the year, if departures are delayed 5 minutes). The spatial and temporal diffusivity of the rest of NYC's taxi trips is so large that a departure delay of 5 minutes enables the taxi miles saved to be only 23% and dispatched taxis are reduced by only 34%.

Note: while expanding the ridesharing analysis to all trips would substantially increase the ridesharing; however, since these trips are currently taken by walking or conventional bus or subway, there is no societal benefit associated with enticing them to share taxi rides. They are sharing only with other existing conventional mass transit users. Alain

Kyle Douglas '15 April 2015 "The thesis outlines a series of naive empty vehicle repositioning and fleet-sizing policies before providing a formal and detailed mathematical model for the empty vehicle repositioning problem specific to an autonomous taxi system. It then provides policies for empty vehicle repositioning and fleet-sizing based on the model. Read more

By Ryan Bubear: Columnist on 16 April, 2015 "...Of more immediate concern is the shockingly low level of basic safety still displayed by so many of today's cars on sale in low-income markets. Indeed, a recent Global NCAP report revealed just how worrying things are, with chairperson Max Mosley stating that "crash test standards introduced twenty years ago for cars sold in Europe are yet to be met by many new cars, and even brand new models, being sold today in leading middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America"...." Read more Absolutely!! Even worse in trucks and buses. Alain

Judge David Langham 04/16/2015 "... If software decreases the need for attorneys, is there a marked effect on non-lawyers? If a hamburger churning machine replaces three employees at the local fast food joint, is there a significance to the consumer? ..." Read more Surprised that I included this one. Attorneys Adapt??? :-) Alain

Alex Robbin 18 Apr 2015 The self-driving version of the Audi A7 Sportback is only a prototype at the moment, and there are numerous legal issues to be overcome before it can go on sale. However, the technology feels remarkably close to being production ready. In fact, the car is so competent at changing lanes and accelerating and braking as needed that it isn't long before I feel completely comfortable taking my eyes off the road. Read more Just watch the video and the comments by the driver Alain

AP April 17, 2015 To improve airline safety, maybe we need to remove the pilots.

That radical idea is decades away, if it ever becomes a reality. But following the intentional crashing of Germanwings Flight 9525 by the co-pilot, a long-running debate over autonomous jets is resurfacing. At the very least, some have suggested allowing authorities on the ground to take control of a plane if there is a rogue pilot in the cockpit.

There was a time when riding an elevator without an operator seemed unimaginable. Today, we don't think twice about stepping into an empty elevator. Airports around the world have trams without drivers, as do some subways systems. Even cars are starting to take some of that control away from us: the latest models will automatically brake if there is a sudden hazard...."Read more Yup! Only difference is that the way our current system operates is mass transit-ish: Big vehicles, each with many passengers that jointly pitch in to pay for the expensive pilots. Which is why we all have to scramble to get to/from major airports and change planes in order to aggregate enough of us to be able to pay for the pilots. (We really don't need the stewardesses. We've now learned to bring our own brown-bag lunch). However, if automation replaced the pilots, then the economics of smaller planes would change substantially leading to more frequent point-to-point services which actually match where we are coming from and going to, when we want to do it. Think about it... Air travel breaking out of its conventional mass transit mode of operation and becoming more autonomous Taxi-like!

I love it! Maybe I should do an "Uber" soliciting the participation of recreational pilots in preparation for the aPlane market. ;-) Prof. K.

Patrick Smith, April 10, 2015 "...The automation only does what we tell it to do. On the 767 that I fly, there are multiple ways to set up and command any routine climb, descent or change of course. Meanwhile, more than 99 percent of landings, and a full 100 percent of takeoffs, are performed manually..." Read more

Sam Mattera - April 16, 2015 "...For investors, the upside could be equally as impressive. Although the industry remains in its early days, several companies are poised to take advantage of the shift. Below are four stocks that offer exposure to the coming autonomous car revolution.... Read more

March 27, 2015 "Speakers at the recent Nvidia GPU Technology Conference suggested that it would be more efficient to have machines teach themselves how to respond to the infinite changes that occur as autonomous vehicles drive from site to site. Deep learning has been used by companies such as Google and Netflix to help predict what consumers are looking for. Some observers feel various forms of machine learning will be a disruptive technology that changes many fields, possibly including automotive.

"Deep learning is arguably as exciting as the creation of the Internet," said Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia's CEO. "Humans can't code if-then-else statements for all the situations vehicles face. We want to augment today's advanced driver-assistance systems with deep learning systems that will learn the behavior of drivers over time."

Deep learning lets machines program themselves to classify objects. In automotive systems, deep learning can be used to create a database of images and actions to be taken given their position in relation to the vehicle. Read more

"...Morgan Stanley Analyst Adam Jonas says this chart is so important that you need to put it on your wall. .."

Today: certainly conventional cars are in the lower left hand quadrant; however, we are also in the upper right quadrant with APMs at airports, automated metros in cities and elevators in all tall buildings. (I grant you that the scope of the autonomy is limited to their own track systems; however, their scope is much larger than the scope that Uber, Lyft, .. will ever achieve in serving the lower right quadrant)
The extent to which Tesla, ... will ever cover the higher portion (driverless) of the upper left hand quadrant is very questionable because, there is essentially zero consumer demand for driverless with substantial scope, I claim.
To go beyond today in the upper right hand quadrant requires driverless with high scope; neither of which can evolve from the lower right or the upper-left quadrants any better than directly from the lower left. Achievement of the upper right requires not only the technology (wide scope driverless) but also the economic advantage of elimination of the labor cost (properly stated in the Morgan-Stanley report but, which Uber, etc. can't demonstrate, even if they prey on the most disadvantaged in our society). Alain

Doug Newcomb 3/31/15 "Connected car technology faces no shortages of potential roadblocks, including industry standardization, data management, consumer acceptance and government regulation, just to name a few. Central among these are legal issues confronting not only automakers currently building and selling connected cars, but all stakeholders – automotive suppliers, technology providers and also government officials – involved and that view significant benefits to connecting cars to each other and to traffic infrastructure to reduce traffic, fuel consumption, emissions and, most importantly, the number of lives lost in car accidents...." Read more

May 2015 Allyson Versprille "A group of Virginia-based researchers funded by the Defense Department found that it is relatively easy to remotely hack into a driverless car's control system, but said hardening against such an attack can be inexpensive...." Read more

Apr 13, 2015 "Today the space agency decided to show the fruits of its labor, however, posting a video on its YouTube account of the finished product. It is called the Modular Robotic Vehicle, MRV for short, and it can -- among other things -- drive itself when needed...." Read more

Matt Campbell 4/16/15 "...Nokia's $16.6-billion takeover of Alcatel-Lucent will create a leader in building networks for today's smartphones. The companies are betting they can also get an edge connecting millions of intelligent machines that haven't been invented yet...." Read more

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.

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

Nissan Motor Co. will launch a car with self-driving technologies in Japan in 2016, the automaker's CEO, Carlos Ghosn, announced in New York.

"There will be a Nissan product in Japan, which will carry autonomous drive," Ghosn said at a news conference Thursday on the sidelines of the second day of the New York International Auto Show. "Obviously when you have this kind of technology, you want also the Japanese market to enjoy it as soon as possible." Read more

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

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

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.

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
January 29, 2015

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 aTaxi when a smaller two passenger aTaxis 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 aTaxi 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

2015-04-19

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:

April 22, 15:00 GMT

Recent Versions of:

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

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