2015-08-29
August 28, 2015
The Trucks Are Killing Us
H. Abramson Aug 21 “ACCIDENTS like the one that critically injured the comedian Tracy Morgan, killed his friend and fellow comedian James McNair, known as Jimmy Mack, and hurt eight others on the New Jersey Turnpike last year are going to continue to happen unless Congress stops coddling the trucking industry….” Read more Hmmm… Unfortunately, I strongly disagree. We know Congress can’t/won’t do anything. So blaming Congress is simply futile. Who we can blame are trucking executives who refuse to invest in available automated collision avoidance systems even though such systems have an attractive Return-on-Investment (RoI) (their cost is less than the liability exposure that they deliver), insurers (for the same reason), labor unions (for not insisting that their members deserve safer working conditions) and regulators, especially OSHA (for the same reason). Alain
Truck Safety Out of the Box from Autonobox
B Simpson, July 19, 2015 “The premise is promising. Develop and market a plug-and-play, forward-avoidance braking system for the heavy vehicle market that can be installed quickly, upgraded regularly, and even transferred from vehicle to vehicle if necessary.
The Autonobox System essentially is a second braking system for heavy-duty vehicles that addresses the long-standing problem of brakes that overheat after intense use like a panic-stop or sustained use while going downhill…. Read more Hmmm… A viable after-market retro-fit opportunity. Alain
Driverless truck meant to improve safety in work zones
Aug 25 “BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Roving construction crews - the kind you see blacktopping a road, painting lines, inspecting a bridge or installing a traffic signal - are often protected from oncoming traffic by a specialized truck outfitted with a crash barrier. The crash trucks, fitted with a device called a truck-mounted attenuator, have been credited with saving lives. But the workers who drive them are inevitably placed in harm’s way, “literally waiting to be struck,” said Robert Roy, president of Royal Truck & Equipment Inc. in Coopersburg.
On Monday, Royal demonstrated its new driverless crash truck that it hopes will some day improve safety at work zones around the country. Two of the autonomous vehicles will make their debut at highway construction sites in Florida by the end of the year under a state Department of Transportation demonstration program… Read more Hmmmm… Interesting special purpose. Alain
In-Flight Wi-Fi Prices Jump as Demand Surges
B.Chen Aug 26, “During a Tuesday-morning flight in April from Los Angeles to New York, Christine Lu’s smartphone web browser loaded an unpleasant surprise: Gogo, the in-flight Wi-Fi provider, wanted to charge her $27 to use its service during the five-and-a-half-hour trip…. Driving the uneven prices on certain routes is Gogo’s reliance on higher fees to ease overcrowding of its network. With passengers packing a growing number of Internet-connected electronics like smartphones, gaming devices and tablets in their carry-on luggage, the amount of bandwidth they consume on popular flights keeps expanding.” Read more Hmmm…. Of course. What else is there to do on a flight? Just think of how the demand for cellular would increase if we had Self-Driving (NHTSA-Level 3), let alone, Level 4. Demand would increase such that Verizon, AT&T, Google, Amazon and the rest could realize attractive RoIs (Returns on Investments) even if they paid for the Level 3 technology. They then would become part of the Safety Solution rather than the source of the problem. :-) Alain
Documents confirm Apple is building self-driving car
M Harris, Aug 14 “Apple is building a self-driving car in Silicon Valley, and is scouting for secure locations in the San Francisco Bay area to test it, the Guardian has learned. Documents show the oft-rumoured Apple car project appears to be further along than many suspected….” Read more Hmmm… Maybe, although I’ve been a skeptic. If they really want testing space, they should come with us to Fort Monmouth! :-) Alain
Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices
G. Bensinger, Aug 26 “Amazon.com Inc. flamed out with critics and consumers last year in its first attempt at a smartphone. Now, rather than forge ahead, as it has with other projects, such as its Kindle tablets, the online retailer is retrenching.
In recent weeks Amazon has dismissed dozens of engineers who worked on its Fire phone at Lab126, its secretive hardware-development center in Silicon Valley, according to people familiar with the matter. … Read more Hmmm… Will this be Apple wrt self-driving cars? Alain
Tesla Hands Self-Driving Technology to Select Customers
P. Ross Aug 14 “Tomorrow, Tesla is to begin uploading the latest version of its Autopilot software to a select group of its Model S electric cars. The owners of these vehicles will act as beta testers, putting their cars through wringers never imagined by the company’s pros. If all goes well, a wider roll out will come later in the year….Tesla’s beta testers will indeed be drivers, not merely passengers, because Autopilot 7.0 represents only a small step up from the previous package of driver assistance systems. It will manage lane-keeping, mind the gap to the car in front and behind, and handle much of the braking and acceleration. But testers will still have to oversee all operations and register their alertness—if only for legal purposes—by hitting the turn signal indicator every so often. Read more Hmmmm… And if you don’t hit the turn signal??? Do all of Autopilot 7.0’s functions all of a sudden turn off and the car fails to continue around the turn and goes into the other lane and off the road; even though Autopilot 7.0 could have kept the car in the lane. Seems like a harsh penalty for not being Pavlov’s Dog and hitting the left turn signal every so often. :-( Alain
Driverless vehicle takes historic ride at UW
T. Pender, Aug 19 “A self-driving golf cart rolled around the University of Waterloo campus Tuesday and into the record books as the first autonomous vehicle to drive itself over a publicly accessible roadway in Canada…” Read more Hmmmm… Excellent, but overstated. To my knowledge, we still haven’t gone the first foot empty on a conventional roadway without local supervision or accompanyments. Alain
CarPlay, Android Auto Bashed in JD Power Study
Aug 26, “JD Power released a study claiming that many drivers don’t want Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in their next car.
Specifically, 37 percent said they don’t want CarPlay and 38 percent said they don’t want Android Auto in their next vehicle.
A whopping 58 percent of those polled saying they don’t want rear-seat entertainment in their next vehicle. Also on the “unwanted” list were massaging seats, in-vehicle concierge and automatic parking…. Read more and Also the JD Power announcement. Hmmm… But what about Self-Driving? Alain
Recompiled Old News:
Tracy Morgan Crash Largely Result of Truck Driver’s Fatigue, Regulators Say
B. Mueller, Aug 11, 2015, “Federal transportation regulators on Tuesday cited a Walmart truck driver’s fatigue as the chief cause of a crash last year that killed the comedian James McNair and critically injured Tracy Morgan, a star of the television series “30 Rock.”… “ Read more Hmmm…. Why didn’t regulators cite the fact that the Walmart truck wasn’t equipped with Automated Collision Avoidance when such systems are available in the marketplace????? Such a system would have stopped the truck! What a shame! Alain
Car Hacking Stunt Exaggerates the Risks
July 23 “..This article strikes me as a sensationalized stunt which amounts to only slightly more than clickbait..Here’s the thing that hasn’t changed since Henry Ford: if somebody has unfettered access to your car, they can mess with it, add remote detonators, cut brake lines, disable systems, etc. Anybody who has watched a spy thriller knows this…” Read more Hmmmm… Or plant a bomb as in The Godfather. Plus if these so-called “white hats” were only interested in doing good, why didn’t they use their newly found access to the car’s controls and have it run autonomously down the road. Why the fake crash. Why not something good???? Alain
Half-baked stuff that probably doesn’t deserve your time:
Autonomous Vehicle with Reconfigurable Seats… Read more Hmmm… Really, this is patentable?? Mercedes already demonstrated one. Isn’t there prior art??? What do I know??? Alain
Self-Driving Cars Compete With The IoT For The Title Of Most Hyped Technology; Big Data Out
G. Press, Aug 18, “Gartner released today its 2015 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report. It’s our most reliable buzz bellwether, annually defining what’s in and what’s out. At the peak of inflated expectations just two years ago, Big Data was dethroned by the Internet of Things last year (but it was still estimated to be five to ten years from the Plateau of Productivity), only to completely disappear from Gartner’s hype radar this year. Big data is out. So what’s in?
The Internet of Things is still at the top of the list, with self-driving cars (“autonomous vehicles”) ascending from pre-peak to the peak of the hype cycle. But there is an intriguing new category—”advanced analytics with self-service delivery”—sharing with them top billing. I guess one could hype all three in one emerging technology package of “The Internet of Autonomous Vehicles Delivering Advanced Analytics” as the solution to all our transportation problems…. Read more See Also: Gartner Report Hmmm… Yup!! Alain
C’mon Man! (These folks didn’t get/read the memo)
Calendar of Upcoming Events:
http://www.automatedfl.com/our-efforts/florida-automated-vehicles-summit/
Recent Versions of:
Self-Driving Cars Could Destroy Fine-Based City Government. What’s the Downside?
S. Shackford, July 15 “One of the propelling concepts behind self-driving cars isn’t just innovation for the sake of innovation, leading us to our sci-fi Jetsons future. If successfully implemented, it will make ground travel safer, …Local governments have become increasingly dependent on human screw-ups as a way to raise money. Speeding tickets. DUI citations. Parking violations. Those are all big money-makers for municipalities that could very well go away under a regime of self-driving cars….On top of that, if the theory that self-driving cars will lead people to own fewer cars holds up, revenue from registration fees will drop as well…. Read more Hmmm… No downside here! These have to be one of the most regressive tax systems, just behind lotteries and gambling. Governments deserve it, but will save because they will need way police who now waste way too much of their time enforcing traffic laws. Police have much better things to do. Wins all around; No Downside! Alain
Lipinski Continues Efforts to Keep Cars and Other Transportation Safe from Cyber Attacks in Wake of Fiat Chrysler Recall
July 28 “…These vulnerabilities pose great risks and the federal government must do more to help protect Americans from these risks.”
Late last year, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, originally introduced by Congressmen Lipinski, was signed into law. The Act increases the security of federal networks and information systems, improves the transfer of cybersecurity technologies to the marketplace, trains a cybersecurity workforce, and coordinates and prioritizes federal cybersecurity research and development efforts. Read more Hmmm… Besides protecting we must also prosecute. There has to be bad consequences and not notoriety to those that do the nasty deed. Alain
Center for Automated Road Transportation Safety @ Fort Monmouth is Launched
Monday, July 20, 2015 – “After more than three years of planning and several major meetings the substantive launch the Center for Automated Road Transportation Safety @ Fort Monmouth (CARTS@FM) occurred this week with the establishment of the not-for-profit. (501(c)(6)), New Jersey Corporation. The mission of this Center is to substantially improve safety on our existing conventional roadway infrastructure through the use of inexpensive automated collision avoidance systems installed on individual vehicles operating harmoniously with conventional vehicles throughout most, if not all, existing roadways. The scope of CARTS’s mission is across all modes that utilize the nation’s conventional road system: trucks, buses and cars. ..” Read more
Automatic Cars Or Distracted Drivers: We Need Automation Sooner, Not Later
D. Norman 6/4/15 “Imperfect automation, continually getting better? Or distracted drivers, continually getting worse? Choose.
I am fearful of the rapid rush toward full automation and have published numerous articles about the difficulties we will face because of the mismatch of the automation and human behavior. However, I am even more fearful of the rapid rise of distracting devices installed in automobiles, mounted on dashboards, worn on the wrist or body, or carried on seats, pockets, and laps of drivers…Each day seems to bring a new distraction. Heads-up displays (HUDs) that once were aids to minimizing distraction by making it easier for the driver to see navigation aids and speed, are now catching featuritis, that deadly disease which corrupts products….” Read more
Hmmm…. Yup!! Plus more comments from Don… “You might also want to add your traditional sarcasm saying “He saw the light!” or something because up to now, I have been arguing for caution (including my keynote at last years automated Vehicles conference (where I met you) – it’s about to be published in the proceedings. And I have a tech review article about to come out arguing the same caution (except I was just able to add a paragraph saying that all my words of caution are correct, but we still should switch to automation quickly).
The most dangerous part of automated vehicles is when they are partially automated: the better the automation, the less able a person is able to take corrective action. This is a point I have argued for since my early work on aviation safety some 20 years ago but has been part of the human factors literature since long before that (Bainbridge Hmmm… it would not be bad to re-read the 1983 paper.). So we have to skip this stage if at all possible. I have long argued that we should have either all or none. it is the mixture that is dangerous.
Basically, we have not solved the human element yet. By this I mean the pedestrians, bicyclists, skateboards, manually driven cars that will always be an issue. Moreover they will game the system: deliberately ignoring the cars under the assumption that they are programmed not to hit them, so they can do anything they want.
This assumption will both stall traffic, create roadblocks, and also occasionally prove to be false (automated cars cannot overcome the laws of physics).
Another complexity is aggression. Drivers have to be aggressive to get through traffic, but the amount and form of aggression is cultural. Pedestrians behave differently on college campuses (they think they own the place) versus the same people just a few miles away in cities, where they are more lawful. Korean drivers have to be aggressive to merge. And in China or Vietnam or India? Wow.
Milan drivers are the most lawful I have experienced recently, but even they lose their patience.” Alain
Rep. Lipinski Introduces Future Transportation Research and Innovation Act
I. Sancken 03/29/15, “Congressman Dan Lipinski (IL-3) has introduced H.R. 2886, the Future Transportation Research and Innovation for Prosperity (TRIP) Act, to support innovative technologies that have the potential to fundamentally alter mobility in America and beyond.
“Surface transportation used to be rather staid and unimaginative, but today the very concept of ‘mobility’ is being reinvented through research, innovation, and entrepreneurship,” said Rep. Lipinski. “Rapidly advancing automation, connectivity, and information technologies are creating incredible opportunities for transportation innovation. We need to develop innovative ways to improve safety, ease congestion, improve personal mobility, and cut energy use…” Read more Hmmm… Excellent! Alain
MOSI debuts nation’s first driverless vehicle open to public
D. Dangerfield, 6/12/15 “Imagine a vehicle that can drive on its own. On Saturday, the public will be invited to take a ride in one. The new driverless Meridian Shuttle is part of an exhibit that opens at MOSI on Saturday. The vehicle allows up to eight people to ride around the first floor of the museum. Read more Hmmm… It is all about starting. Congratulations! Alain
NTSB Calls for Immediate Action on Collision Avoidance Systems for Vehicles; Cites Slow Progress as Major Safety Issue
6/8/15 “WASHINGTON – In a report released today, the National Transportation Safety Board outlined the life-saving benefits of currently available collision avoidance systems, and recommended that the technology become standard on all new passenger and commercial vehicles.
“You don’t pay extra for your seatbelt,” said Chairman Christopher A. Hart. “And you shouldn’t have to pay extra for technology that can help prevent a collision altogether.”… Read more Hmmm Yea!!! Finally some semblance of sanity in Washington. Alain
John F. Nash Jr., Math Genius Defined by a ‘Beautiful Mind,’ Dies at 86
E. Goodmay, May 24 “…Dr. Nash and his wife, Alicia, 82, were in a taxi on the New Jersey Turnpike in Monroe Township around 4:30 p.m. when the driver lost control while veering from the left lane to the right and hit a guardrail and another car, Sgt. Gregory Williams of the New Jersey State Police said.
The couple were ejected from the cab and pronounced dead at the scene. The State Police said it appeared that they had not been wearing seatbelts…. Read more
See also: John, Alicia Nash Remembered After Fatal Crash
A Beautiful Mind Mathematician John Nash and His Wife Killed in N.J. Car Crash
Hmmm… So tragic!!! What a crying shame!!! So preventable!!! We will miss them :-(
Unfortunately, the NYT and others tried but missed the fundamental point by following up with “Deaths of Math Genius John F. Nash Jr. and Wife Show Need to Use Seatbelts in Back, Experts Say “. Why do we so easily put up with crashes in the first place? It is as if it is OK to go around crashing, just put on a seat belt. Technology is available to avoid crashes, but there isn’t sufficient public policy focus on avoiding crashes to accelerate its adoption and enhancement.
The fundamental problem was that the taxi was not equipped with available automated stability control, lane keeping and collision avoidance systems. This was not an accident, it was a failed public safety policy that refuses to move beyond crash mitigation and its challenged “V2x” initiatives to embrace forthright automated crash avoidance.
Moreover, there is a failed Taxi regulatory structure that doesn’t even hint that taxis should have electronic stability control, automated lane keeping and collision avoidance. What is the purpose of taxi regulation, to keep “Ubers” out of business?
It is time for the nation’s transportation policy to focus intelligence/automation on the vehicle in support of the driver. Hopefully Congress will restructure the pending transportation legislation to focus automated vehicle technologies that actively assist drivers when they make driving mistakes. We are not perfect. We deserve a public safety policy that is more mindful of our imperfections. Policy that isn’t aimed at just warning and scolding us but actively takes over and does the right thing. We, not the infrastructure, are the cause of most of the highway carnage. It is the driver who needs help and our public policy should focus on delivering that help. Alain
The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car
Chris Urmson May 11, 2015 “After 1.7 million miles we’ve learned a lot — not just about our system but how humans drive, too. The most common accidents our cars are likely to experience in typical day to day street driving — light damage, no injuries — aren’t well understood because they’re not reported to police. Yet according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data, these incidents account for 55% of all crashes. It’s hard to know what’s really going on out on the streets unless you’re doing miles and miles of driving every day. And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing with our fleet of 20+ self-driving vehicles and team of safety drivers, who’ve driven 1.7 million miles (manually and autonomously combined). The cars have self-driven nearly a million of those miles, and we’re now averaging around 10,000 self-driven miles a week (a bit less than a typical American driver logs in a year), mostly on city streets. In the spirit of helping all of us be safer drivers, we wanted to share a few patterns we’ve seen. A lot of this won’t be a surprise, especially if you already know that driver error causes 94% of crashes.
If you spend enough time on the road, accidents will happen whether you’re in a car or a self-driving car. Over the 6 years since we started the project, we’ve been involved in 11 minor accidents (light damage, no injuries) during those 1.7 million miles of autonomous and manual driving with our safety drivers behind the wheel, and not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident. … We’ll continue to drive thousands of miles so we can all better understand the all too common incidents that cause many of us to dislike day to day driving — and we’ll continue to work hard on developing a self-driving car that can shoulder this burden for us.” Read more
Hmmm…. MUST reading; HOWEVER, we need much more information to be released, not just a few examples. Please make your data public! We don’t need to know who but we desperately need to know what so that not only Google, but the rest of us can… “…work hard on developing…” SmartDrivingCars “….that can shoulder this burden for us.” Alain
is the first road-legal big rig that can drive itself Sean O’Kane on May 6, 2015 “Last night, atop the Hoover Dam, Freightliner unveiled the Inspiration Truck — a partially autonomous big rig that could save lives, mitigate driver fatigue and stress, and reduce CO2 emissions up to 5 percent. Daimler, which owns Freightliner, says it has done more than 10,000 miles of testing on the truck. And now it’s street-legal, having been officially granted one of Nevada’s “Autonomous Vehicle” license plates (the first for a commercial truck) by Nevada governor Brian Sandoval at a media event before the unveiling.
The Inspiration Truck and Daimler’s underlying “Highway Pilot” technology isn’t meant to replace truck drivers completely. Instead, it’s meant to solve the problem of fatigued driving, something that plagues truck drivers who have to pull long shifts. According to Daimler, 90 percent of truck crashes result from driver error, and in one out of every eight of those cases driver fatigue plays a role…” Read more See also
Driving into the future: CCJ test drives Freightliner’s SuperTruck, self-driving Inspiration By Jack Robert and
Autonomous Freightliner Inspiration truck makes a splash at the Hoover Dam Alain
This list is maintained by Alain Kornhauser and hosted by the Princeton University LISTSERV.