2015-04-26

April 26, 2015Newsletter archive →

event on urban road transport automation in La Rochelle

Press Release April 2015 "...The week started with a meeting of urban transport stakeholders, notably city authorities and public transport representatives, to debate the role and expectations of cities regarding road transport automation. A number of key issues emerged from this meeting, including urban planning and design and business model: How can cities plan for road automation? How will road automation change the shape of our cities? What type of business model can be developed to deliver road passenger transport automation? ... Read more Must see the video describing the La Rochelle CityMobil2 Demo. Alain

April 16, 2015 " The EPFL campus hosts from April 16th to June 30th 2015 a fleet of six autonomous vehicles as part of the European project CityMobil2. The CityMobil2 project aims to complement the existing public transport solutions by providing innovative solutions answering the "last mile" problematic...." Read more

April 22, 2015 "If you could have any of the latest technologies in your car or truck, what would you choose? Would it be autonomous capabilities that enable your vehicle to do all the driving? Or maybe something that delivers a higher level of connectivity for sending and receiving texts and e-mails?

Despite all the attention placed on these technologies, a new study by J.D. Power found that vehicle owners are more interested in innovations that will keep them safe, with two of the most-desired ones being blind spot detection and collision prevention systems. Read more

Bension Siebert, April 22, 2015 "Adelaide Airport says it is interested in trialing driverless cars or buses as the State Government works on legislation to legalise the vehicles.... "For example, they could be used as shuttles between our long-term car park and the terminal or incorporated into the development of our new airport business district," ..." Read more

Gabe Nelson April 19, 2015 "...But they do much more. In navigation mode, the glasses project a sweeping line that tells the driver when to turn. In parallel parking mode, they tap into camera feeds from the vehicle to offer an unobstructed view of the curb, helping the driver get as close as possible without scraping the wheels..." Read more

Dominic Basulto April 21, "...While initial stories about these highly experimental AR goggles have been mostly positive, it's also easy to see how these new goggles could transform driving into a video game-like experience for young millennials with potentially hazardous results for road safety..." Read more Yes!! Alain

Steve Brachmann, April 21, 2015 "...We've also noticed a sizable uptick in patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for technologies related to autonomous cars, indicating that there are a number of companies looking to bring a product to market in this sector. Advances in the field have gotten to the point where some companies are now facing regulatory issues over the conducting of research and development in the United States...." Read more Trying to fix what the above are breaking. Alain

Byron Pope, Apr 21, 2015 "...Even when autonomous vehicles are ready for production, getting consumers to accept them will be a challenge, says Myra Blanco, research scientist at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute Center.

"Safety for safety's sake is not going to cut it because research has proven over and over that everyone thinks they're better than the person next to them in terms of driving," she says. "So how do we sugarcoat safety with something else to create that type of user adoption?" Selling the convenience factor of the technology is good way to get consumers to embrace autonomous vehicles, but that won't necessarily work with all drivers..." Read more

Alex Davies April 23, 2015 "Americans want self-driving cars. Not because they'll save loads of time or ease the commute nightmare, but because it will save them money.

Of the 1,500 US drivers the Boston Group surveyed in September, 55 percent said they "likely" or "very likely" would buy a semi-autonomous car (one capable of handling some, but not all, highway and urban traffic). What's more, 44 percent said they would, in 10 years, buy a fully autonomous vehicle...." Read more Yup! Alain

Apr 22, 2015 "...Nokia is seeking more than 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) from a sale of the unit, Bloomberg reported. According to Manager Magazin, the book value of the unit is 2 billion euros ($2.15 billion). A brokerage estimate by Inderes Equity Research values HERE at 4.4 billion to 6.9 billion euros, based on a sum-of-parts calculation...." Read more

Ken Pyle, Managing Editor • April 20, 2015 "Connecting vehicles to each other, to infrastructure, to other modes of transport and even pedestrians will be increasingly important, as in the future, traffic will include a mix of human and self-driving vehicles. There may not be consensus on when autonomous vehicles will be commonplace on the roads and highways of America, but one thing all experts can agree on is that testing, testing and more testing will be required..." Read more

Ken Pyle, Managing Editor • April 6, 2015 "A take-away from TIA's Connected Car Workshop is that opportunity exists for those who manage to shatter the silos of once disparate disciplines surrounding the transport of people and goods... Read more

Larry Dignan April 22, 2015 "AT&T said it added 684,000 connected cars to its network in the first quarter as the company races to find its future growth in the Internet of things..." Read more

Marco della Cava, April 23, 2015 "...Beginning next month in Munich, Audi owners can use their cars' onboard infotainment Connect system to allow temporary authorization to DHL personnel to deliver items ordered through Amazon Prime via one-time keyless access to a vehicle's trunk...." Read more

Angelo Young April 14 2015 "One of Tesla Motors' most bullish supporters in the financial community said Tuesday he expects the automaker to fall short of its goal of 55,000 vehicle deliveries for 2015. ...But one of the most important measurements of the company's ability to reach its target of 500,000 vehicle sales by 2020 is the growth in deliveries over time. If Tesla misses a target, investors start to worry...." Read more Hmmm It has to grow but an order of magnitude in 5 years. Hmmmm?? Alain

William C. Vantuono, Mar 9, 2015 "The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has given the Southern California Regional Railroad Authority—the governing board of Metrolink—the green light to implement Positive Train Control (PTC) in a revenue service demonstration on the San Bernardino rail line. This is the final stage of PTC testing before the FRA gives the go-ahead for similar PTC operations on Metrolink's other regional/commuter rail lines in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and Ventura counties..." Read more

Video in case you haven't seen it. Alain

As appealing as it sounds to go from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a tube running parallel to the I-5 and delivering you in less an hour, Honda argued at the 2015 SAE World Congress -- a conference for engineers in the automotive and transportation industries -- that there's a much more practical and universal way to dramatically increase the speed of our travel.

"[Hyperloop is] a pretty big idea. But here's one that I think is even better because it's centered on the human desire for personal mobility," said Frank Paluch, president of research and development for Honda Americas, at the closing keynote of SAE. "How about a dedicated lane on the I-5 for highly automated, connected vehicles, using swarm technology to travel at speeds upwards of 300kph [180mph]. LA to San Fran in less than two hours. No drive to the train station, and no constraints on when you can come or when you go..." Read more

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

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.

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

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.

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

2015-04-26

Some other thoughts that deserve your time:

Recompiled Old News :

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

Calendar of Upcoming Events:

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: