2016-10-20

October 20, 2016Newsletter archive →

M. Gurman, Oct 17, "Apple Inc. has drastically scaled back its automotive ambitions, leading to hundreds of job cuts and a new direction that, for now, no longer includes building its own car, according to people familiar with the project.

Hundreds of members of the car team, which comprises about 1,000 people, have been reassigned, let go, or have left of their own volition in recent months, the people said, asking not to be identified because the moves aren't public.

New leadership of the initiative, known internally as Project Titan, has re-focused on developing an autonomous driving system that gives Apple flexibility to either partner with existing carmakers, or return to designing its own vehicle in the future, the people also said. Apple has kept staff numbers in the team steady by hiring people to help with the new focus, according to another person....

Regardless of Apple's struggles, established carmakers have recognized the threat posed by new entrants and have embarked on a hiring and acquisition splurge to beef up their software capabilities. They are wary of allowing technology companies to own the lucrative software component of new cars..." Read more

U. Berliner, Oct 13, "...And just in case the driverless future arrives sooner than expected, Rush said he's thinking about a plan B. Maybe something in computers, like information technology. Those jobs are safe, right?" Read more

A. Filipowicz, Oct 2016, "...One major technical challenge on the road to that goal is reliable and robust perception of the driving scene. Human drivers predominantly use their eyes to detect lanes, signs, pedestrians, and other cars. They also are able to estimate distances to these objects. Computers have yet to duplicate this capability. Part of the reason why computers cannot extract the same information as humans from a driving scene is a lack of data to train them. While there exists plenty of video footage of driving, videos with appropriate and accurate annotations - such as distances to lane markings in each frame - are rare. These annotations are difficult to obtain in the real world. However, I'm looking into the use of video games to obtain data needed to train computers to drive. Specifically, video games allow automated scene generation, image collection, and measurement of distances.... Read more

M. Lewis, Oct 18, "..."One of the hardest questions to answer is, 'How do these cars compare to human drivers?' " Chris Urmson, then the chief of Google's self-driving car project, told transportation engineers in Washington this year. "And part of the reason why that's hard is we don't actually have a good understanding of how good human drivers really are."

One problem is that the U.S. government keeps no comprehensive database of crashes. That complicates what otherwise might seem to be a simple task: figuring out which vehicles are more likely to crash, human-driven ones or those run by software and sensors.... An annual national tally of crashes relies heavily on those reported to police. It understates the actual total of crashes with injuries by at least a quarter and "property damage only" crashes by anywhere from 60 to 84 percent, they concluded. And they consider those numbers conservative, given the mishmash of state reporting requirements and holes in the local data used by federal agencies.

"It is crazy," said Myra Blanco,..." Read more

I. Lunden, Oct 11, "When it comes to self-driving cars, the public tends to focus on developments for private vehicles for individuals, but there are also some significant advances underway in other categories such as shuttle buses.

In the latest piece of news, Navya, a startup out of France that makes driverless shuttles, has raised $34 million (€30 million) in funding to build out its team, technology and sales. The funding is coming from two strategic backers, public transportation provider Keolis and automotive parts group Valeo, along with Qatari investors Group8.

Navya is not disclosing its valuation but one report from Funderbeam estimates it at $222 million after this round. Navya prior to this round had raised $4.5 million (€4.1 million) from French investors Gravitation, CapDecisif, and Robolution Capital (an investment fund focused only on robotics investments)...." Read more

K. Stock, Oct 11, "It all comes down to safety,...The math is as straightforward as it is compelling. Consider a left turn on an American road: A vehicle turning across a lane of opposing traffic has little to do with the bike rider, but is one of the most dangerous things in motorcycling. When motorcyclists die on the road, this is how it happens one out of five times, according to crash statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

This year, about 1,000 riders in the U.S. will lose their lives to the left turns of others. Cars traveling in the same direction as the motorcycle often don't notice the bike overtaking on the left. Cars making a turn while coming from the opposite direction either fail to see the oncoming bike, or misjudge its speed...." Read more

T. Warren, Oct 17, "...In the next five years, Ford says it will transform from a company that sells fastback Mustangs to building fleets of autonomous vehicles and launching car-sharing ventures. And as design chief, Callum has the daunting task of determining what Ford's future will look — a future in which the car could one day be smarter than the driver.... I love driving cars, but I can still see the benefits of the fully autonomous car. I think there will be drivable cars for a long time..." Read more

M. Lin, Oct. 19, "A self-driving car and a lorry collided yesterday morning, in what is believed to be the first accident in Singapore involving an autonomous vehicle. No one was injured when the car knocked into the lorry while changing lanes in Biopolis Drive at one-north at around 9.30am. The car belongs to nuTonomy, a start-up software company that is conducting trials of its self-driving vehicles in the one-north business district..." Read more

J. Stewart, Oct 19, "...After being upgraded with a suite of cameras and sensors, Musk says this means his cars will have level 5 autonomy—the highest level, which requires zero interaction from the driver...But not for free. As with Tesla's current "Autopilot convenience features," turning on that functionality comes at a cost—$8000, up from $3000—even though the hardware upgrades will come standard..." Read more

Tesla team, Oct 19, Read more

A. Davies, Oct 18, "..And now, German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt asked Tesla to ditch the term "Autopilot," arguing it can lead consumers to think the car is far more capable than it is..." Read more

Oct 18. "...Of course, the eventual reality will be somewhere in between heaven and hell, probably here on earth. The question is, can civil society influence the extent to which the outcome is more heavenly, rather than more hellish? Would we want to? ..." Read more

London School of Economics, Oct 2016, Executive Summary, "...We aim to measure and understand the level of "openness"' people have towards AVs and, conversely, the situations in which people hope to avoid engaging with these vehicles. We argue that a successful introduction of AVs will ultimately depend on understanding and addressing the complex attitudes that define the public's view of this new technology.... Read more

Oct 1, "...MaaS Global (short for Mobility as a Service) is the startup behind the most ambitious of Finland's schemes. At a tap of a smartphone screen its app, Whim, will show the best way to get from A to B by combining public transport and a variety of options from participating private firms. Whim is currently being tested; it is due to go live in Helsinki this autumn and in two other Finnish cities late in the year.." Read more

F. Pasquale, Oct 18, "... "Read more

http://orfe.princeton.edu/~alaink/SmartDrivingCars/Papers/

https://nrel.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NREL/job/CO---Golden/Transportation-Behavior-Analyst_R1580

https://nrel.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NREL/job/CO---Golden/Transportation-Data-Project-Leader_R1582

https://nrel.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NREL/job/CO---Golden/Postdoctoral-Researcher-Transportation-Data-and-Analysis_R1574

Reuters, Oct 18, "...It is unclear when the trial will start. Earlier this week, Singapore said it would seek information from the industry and research institutes on the potential use of self-driving vehicles for street cleaning and refuse collection..." Read more

ITS International, Oct 19, "...Matt Kendall, telecoms analyst at The EIU, said: "In many respects, connected cars are already an embedded part of the current motoring environment, with many vehicles on our roads utilising connectedness in the form of GPS, infotainment and on-board vehicle diagnostics. However, the end game for the use of connectedness is the self-driving car, which is able to use connectivity to manoeuvre around, and interact with, its environment...." Read more

Myra Blanco, January, 2016 "... This study assessed driving risk for the US nationally and for the Google Self-driving car project. Driving Safety on Public roads was examined in three ways. .." Read more

R. Morgan, Oct 13, "Drivers would embrace the introduction of self-driving cars on our roads especially to take control when we are tired, bored or getting home from the pub. A new study of 5,000 Australians over the age of 18 found that the majority of drivers are happy for an autonomous car to take over the wheel when we are tired or when they have consumed alcohol or drugs..." Read more

D. Victor, Oct. 5, "Traffic deaths in the United States rose 10.4 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2015, maintaining a steady climb....

The numbers were released on Wednesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which noted that Americans drove about 50.5 billion more miles in the first six months of 2016 than in the first half of 2015, an increase of 3.3 percent.... Officials have not identified a specific cause for the most recent increase... " Read more

H. Grabar, Sept 29, "One possibility is that easy mobility—driverless cars, on-demand deliveries, and the like—will dull the pains of suburban life. The long commute, the wasted driving time, the difficulty of running out for a carton of milk—the inconvenience and expense of the subdivision will be melted away by hot new technology. Milk by drone, what a concept!

Another is that easy mobility produces greater advantages in the city. Carless living is better than ever. NIMBY battles don't happen because parking and congestion aren't problems. Wasted auto infrastructure, like lots and curbside parking and garages, is converted towards better uses like housing and restaurants. Maybe a central highway, once evidence of a city's essential unpleasantness, becomes a park.... Read more

September 2016, "Executive Summary... For DOT, the excitement around highly automated vehicles (HAVs) starts with safety. (p5)

...The development of advanced automated vehicle safety technologies, including fully self-driving cars, may prove to be the greatest personal transportation revolution since the popularization of the personal automobile nearly a century ago. (p5)

...The benefits don't stop with safety. Innovations have the potential to transform personal mobility and open doors to people and communities. (p5)

...The remarkable speed with which increasingly complex HAVs are evolving challenges DOT to take new approaches that ensure these technologies are safely introduced (i.e., do not introduce significant new safety risks), provide safety benefits today, and achieve their full safety potential in the future. (p6)

"...we divide the task of facilitating the safe introduction and deployment (...defines "deployment" as the operation of an HAV by members of the public who are not the employees or agents of the designer, developer, or manufacturer of that HAV.) of HAVs into four sections:(p6)

"...1. Vehicle Performance Guidance for Automated Vehicles (p6)..."

"...2. Model State Policy (p7) The Model State Policy confirms that States retain their traditional responsibilities...but... The shared objective is to ensure the establishment of a consistent national framework rather than a patchwork of incompatible laws..."

"...3. NHTSA Current Regulatory Tools (p7) ... This document provides instructions, practical guidance, and assistance to entities seeking to employ those tools. Furthermore, NHTSA has streamlined its review process and is committing to..."

"...4. New Tools and Authorities (p7)... The speed with which HAVs are advancing, combined with the complexity and novelty of these innovations, threatens to outpace the Agency's conventional regulatory processes and capabilities. This challenge requires DOT to examine whether the way DOT has addressed safety for the last 50 years should be expanded to realize the safety potential of automated vehicles over the next 50 years. Therefore, this section identifies potential new tools, authorities and regulatory structures that could aid the safe and appropriately expeditious deployment of new technologies by enabling the Agency to be more nimble and flexible (p8)..."

"...Note on "Levels of Automation" There are multiple definitions for various levels of automation and for some time there has been need for standardization to aid clarity and consistency. Therefore, this Policy adopts the SAE International (SAE) definitions for levels of automation. )

B. Simpson, Aug 25, "Isn't this supposed to be a quiet time for business? ...Not in transportation technology.

For instance, Ford announced it was working to launch fully autonomous automobiles by 2021. BMW, Intel and Mobileye joined to say they will have vehicles in production for the same target date. Ridesharing titan Uber says it will launch this month driverless vehicles in Pittsburgh, though some employees will be in the car to ensure safety.

Forget the 10 years down the road baloney. We'll be Level 4 Autonomous in three to five years.

Yet for all the excitement there's been some downer news.... Lyft was seeking a buyer, despite the $500 million that GM pumped into it ...Earlier this year Lyft pledged... to keep its U.S. losses under $50 million a month.... Uber told its investors it lost $520 million in the first quarter, and more than $750 million in the second. This after losing about $2 billion in 2015.... It's valuable to keep in mind the shaky foundations of Uber and Lyft because the two have been touted as an important foundation for the growth of autonomous vehicles. Read more

N. Boudette, Aug 16, "In the race to develop driverless cars, several automakers and technology companies are already testing vehicles that pilot themselves on public roads. And others have outlined plans to expand their development fleets over the next few years. At a news conference on Tuesday at the company's research center in Palo Alto, Calif., Mark Fields, Ford's chief executive, said the company planned to mass produce driverless cars and have them in commercial operation in a ride-hailing service by 2021....

"That means there's going to be no steering wheel. There's going to be no gas pedal. There's going to be no brake pedal,'' he said. ...." Read more

J. Markoff, Aug 5, "A roboticist and crucial member of the team that created Google's self-driving car is leaving the company, the latest in a string of departures by important technologists working on the autonomous car project. Chris Urmson, a Carnegie Mellon University research scientist, joined Google in 2009 to help create the then-secret effort. ... Read more

M. Ramsey, July 26, "A key supplier of semiautonomous car technology ended a supply agreement with Tesla Motors Inc. following a high-profile traffic fatality in May involving one of the Silicon Valley company's electric vehicles. Read more

7 Crash

Chenyi Chen PhD Dissertation, "...the key part of the thesis, a direct perception approach is proposed to drive a car in a highway environment. In this approach, an input image is mapped to a small number of key perception indicators that directly relate to the affordance of a road/traffic state for driving....." Read more

March 23

2016-10-20

Some other thoughts that deserve your attention

Jobs

Half-baked stuff that probably doesn't deserve your time:

Older stuff that I had missed:

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

Calendar of Upcoming Events:

Recent Highlights of:

October 7, 2016

October 1, 2016

September 23, 2016

September 4, 2016

August 28, 2016

August 19, 2016

August 8, 2016

August 1, 2016

July 21, 2016