2018-09-29

6.39 - Nuro

September 29, 2018Newsletter archive →

New

A. Roy, Sept 5, "...THE ORIGIN OF UNIVERSAL BASIC MOBILITY (UBM). UBM is inspired by Universal Basic Income (UBI), which has long been debated as a solution for a variety of societal ills...

Freedom of movement has never been accompanied with a right to mobility. Governments built infrastructure, but you still had to buy your own horse or car. As population density rose and traffic worsened, modern states invested in more roads, more trolleys, more buses and more trains, creating an informal mobility compact between governments and their citizens — we will provide means of transporting you more efficiently than you can transport yourselves. Unfortunately, people move and cities grow faster than governments can build, and people will solve transportation needs as they see fit. Hence, the oldest cities in the United States are dominated by struggling public transit systems, and the newest ones are choking on the cars around which they grew....

Freedom of movement is limited wherever the government/citizen mobility compact is stressed or broken. We see this "mobility underclass" in the public transportation deserts in and around numerous cities. The mobility underclass has few options; if they can afford a car, they contribute to broader traffic and infrastructure problems. If they can't, they are often forced into unregulated private/shared options below the radar of even the largest and most ambitious transportation network start-ups.

A parent who spends four hours a day commuting means a child deprived of critical family time, a worker too tired to be effective, a human being without downtime....

A growing number of the mobility underclass are falling into "structural immobility" — the state in which lack of mobility limits their ability to obtain and keep jobs, access basic services, contribute to society or maintain a reasonable quality of life. The gap between freedom of movement and affordable mobility options creates a self-perpetuating system of economic, social and emotional loss, depriving society of countless productive citizens..." Read more

F. Fishkin, Sept 28 "Basic Universal Mobility? Writer, editor, champion endurance driver and thought leader Alex Roy...joins Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for Episode 59 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast. Plus...Alain's take on Tesla and Elon Musk....Toyota...and more.. Tune in and subscribe!"

Real information every week. Lively discussions with the people who are shaping the future of SmartDrivingCars. Want to become a sustaining sponsor and help us grow the SmartDrivingCars newsletter and podcast? Contact Alain Kornhauser at alaink@princeton.edu! Alain

u/greentheonly, Sept 24, "... So we proceeded to gather a bunch of footage from volunteer cars around the world and certain metadata and then u/DamianXVI found ways to correlate some of the metadata with real world meanings and came up with code to paint internal autopilot state (the parts we understand) on top of camera footage (development firmware the unit came with did not include its own visualizer binary). So keep in mind our visualizations are not what Tesla devs see out of their car footage and we do not fully understand all the values either (though we have decent visibility into the system now as you can see). Since we don't know anybody inside Tesla development, we don't even know what sort of visual output their tools have.

Footage we present has been recorded on firmware 18.34 from the main camera. The green fill at the bottom represents "possible driving space", lines denote various detected lane and road boundaries (colors represent different types, actual meaning is unknown for now). Various objects detected are enumerated by type and have coordinates in 3D space and depth information (also 2D bounding box, but we have not identified enough data for a 3D one), correlated radar data (if present) and various other properties..." Read more

T. Lee, Sept 27, "The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Tesla CEO Elon Musk over an August tweet he made claiming he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420 per share. The SEC says that this and subsequent tweets were false and misleading—and therefore a violation of market-manipulation laws.

The stakes are high. In addition to seeking financial penalties and an injunction against similar tweets in the future, the SEC is also seeking that Musk "be prohibited from acting as an officer or director" of companies that issue shares under Section 12 or Section 15(d) of federal securities laws. Stephen Diamond, a securities law expert at Santa Clara Law School, tells Ars that means Musk would have to step down as Tesla's CEO and give up his board seat..." Read more

M. Sena, Oct 1, "THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION decided it was time to perform an in-depth investigation of the potential impacts of changes that have already occurred or are being proposed to road transport vehicles and the road infrastructure. Ve-hicles have been using mobile communications to deliver data and receive services for over two decades, but vehi-cle-to-vehicle communication and cooperative driving will greatly increase the number and types of applications that can be implemented. Increasing automation of the driving task has been promoted as a way to reduce the numbers of accidents and deaths on the roads, but there will be other impacts as well that need to be address. The JRC was tasked with "analyzing the value at stake for both the economy and society as a result of a transition towards CCAM in Europe. Twelve staff members of the JRC collab-orated in preparing the report: An analysis of possible so-cio-economic effects of a Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) in Europe: Effects of auto-mated driving on the economy, employment and skills..." Read more

A. Frangoul, Sept 27, "...Wincentson was positive about what autonomous cars could bring to Gothenburg. "We think the benefits for the city will be safer and more secure transportation – the flow of traffic will be more even, smooth and efficient." ..." Read more

Sept 26, "The most divisive element of its strаtegy, аrguаbly, is its refusаl to use lidаr sensors, whiсh emit pulses of light thаt bounсe off objeсts to determine where they're loсаted, in its plаnned self-driving system. Lidаr sensors аre seen by Teslа's high-profile сompetitors, like Wаymo, Generаl Motors, аnd Uber, аs а neсessity, but Tesla СEO Elon Musk hаs sаid they're а "сrutсh," аnd thаt Tesla саn build self-driving саrs using just саmerаs аnd rаdаrs....

Αdаm Jonаs, аn аuto аnаlyst аt Morgаn Stаnley who hаs а $299.02 priсe tаrget for the stoсk, sаid Tesla will most likely use lidаr within the next eight yeаrs. "I would be surprised if, by the middle of the next deсаde, they did not hаve some form of lidаr on the саr," he sаid..." Read more

K. Pyle, Sept 29, "The recent announcement from Babcock Ranch – the Florida planned community, which aspires to be an environmentally friendly and technologically advanced city of 50,000 people – regarding its pilot of an autonomous school bus hints at how automation will have an impact on almost all facets of life. It is difficult to see how the Babcock Ranch school bus example could be justified by cost-savings, as an on-board adult will still be needed to ensure the safety of the kids.

In rural America, however, the on-board adult's role could potentially shift from driver/safety-monitor to tutor, while the student experience could change from bus ride to a kind of mobile study hall (e.g. see this ViodiTV interview)...." Read more

K. Pyle, "Sept 25, "We are looking at how we can take the technologies we have developed over many years for road signs and pavement markings and those kinds of humanly visible aspects of the roadway and how we can now address those towards the new drivers of the road; the automated vehicles, the autonomous vehicles," states Andy Dubner, Business Leader of 3M's Connected Roads Program. In the above interview filmed at ProspectSV's 2018 Innovation and Impact Summit, Dubner explains how the goal of the program is to improve safety through better signage.

He indicates that 3M is looking at how they can help sensors, such as cameras, Radar and Lidar, provide supplemental information for the text and graphics seen by a human driver...." Read more

J. Lippert, Sept 19, "Toyota Motor Corp., the world's most valuable automaker, with a market capitalization of $200 billion, is behind in the race to create the vehicles of a maybe-not-so-distant future. Just four years ago, Akio Toyoda, the company's president, was saying his company would pursue self-driving vehicles only after one beat a human driver—for instance, him—in a marathon road race. He's not saying that anymore, because Toyota has too much to lose.

If the company fails to pick up the pace, Toyota could, in one version of the future, face the humiliation of becoming a mere steel-box supplier to upstarts such as Waymo and Baidu. Toyoda himself has singled out tech companies as "our new rivals, with speed many times greater than our own." He added: "A life-or-death battle has begun in a world of unknowns."...

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's most valuable automaker, with a market capitalization of $200 billion, is behind in the race to create the vehicles of a maybe-not-so-distant future. Just four years ago, Akio Toyoda, the company's president, was saying his company would pursue self-driving vehicles only after one beat a human driver—for instance, him—in a marathon road race. He's not saying that anymore, because Toyota has too much to lose.

Toyota is seeking a middle ground with a system it calls Guardian, which would harness the machine-intelligence and sensor capabilities that make full self-driving theoretically possible and bundle them in vehicles designed for human drivers...." Read more

F. Lambert, Sept 28, "Tesla had quite the ambitious Model 3 production goal for this quarter and it was hard to believe it was achievable after months of delays. Now Electrek has learned that Tesla already achieved the goal for a new record production with two days still to go before the end of the quarter....

We have been tracking Tesla's production in the past few weeks of this critical period as the company is attempting to become profitable....

According to a reliable source familiar with Tesla's production, the automaker had a strong week of production and managed to bring the total number Model 3 produced to over 51,000 vehicles...." Read more

Sum{S/wAutoPilot, X/wAutoPilot, CT6/wSuperCruise, Volvo/wIntellisafe, MB/w...} ?! It would be nice if someone compiled and released actual sale figures for cars with these features. Alain

S. O'Kane, Sept 28, "The version of Autopilot that Elon Musk has long promised would make Tesla cars capable of driving themselves is reportedly being handed over to a small group of employees for testing, according to an internal email obtained by Bloomberg. In the email, Musk promised there were about 100 spots available in the testing program, and that he would take volunteers on a "first come, first served basis."

Willing employees have to agree to sharing "300 to 400 hours of driving feedback with the company's Autopilot team by the end of next year," according to Bloomberg. Musk is apparently offering a sizable kickback, though — workers who sign up won't have to pay for the supposedly fully self-driving version of Autopilot, or for a premium interior, if they buy a new car. In total, these features would normally cost $13,000 combined...." Read more

M. Moore, Sept 27, "Ride-hailing accounts for an 83 percent increase in the miles cars travel for ride-hailing passengers in Denver's metro area, according to a study published this week in the journal Transportation by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver. ..." Read more

E. Auchard, Sept 26, "Driverless car features are moving closer to mass-market production, with British chip designer ARM introducing the first in a new line of safety-hardened processors for building features such as automated collision avoidance into vehicles...." Read more

A, Snyder, Sept 21," Welcome to Axios Autonomous Vehicles. As the global AV industry emerges and evolves, we'll deliver news and expert analysis of the technology — including the hype around it — and its intersection with our daily lives.

Situational awareness: I'm steering this newsletter until our AV correspondent Joann Muller arrives next month. Think of me as Level 1...." Read more

J. Rosevear, Sept 24, "Investors have been kicking the tires of Chinese electric-vehicle maker NIO, Inc. (NYSE:NIO) since it went public in the U.S. on Sept. 12. The price was near the bottom of NIO's hoped-for range, but it was enough to give the Shanghai-based company a valuation of about $6.4 billion...

Does NIO have self-driving technology? It's working on it. NIO's vehicles currently come with a proprietary Level 2 advanced driver-assist system, called NIO Pilot. The system is powered by processors supplied by Intel subsidiary Mobileye. NIO plans to add new functionality to the system over time, via over-the-air software updates...

NIO's vehicles also include what the company claims is "China's most advanced in-car AI connected assistant," called NOMI." Read more

C. Neiger, Sept 28, "Autonomous vehicles aren't widespread right now, but in the coming decades, they'll be everywhere. By 2040, it's estimated that more than 33 million driverless cars will be sold annually. That figure will represent 26% of all new vehicles sold globally that year, and it will be a massive increase from the 51,000 self-driving cars that are expected to be sold in 2021...." Read more

D. Welch, Sept 24, "China's homegrown search giant, much like its U.S. counterpart, has a division focused entirely on driverless vehicles. And just like its rival, Google-born Waymo, both efforts are based in Silicon Valley.

It's not only Baidu with a toehold in Northern California. China's self-driving startups are sprouting major R&D outposts 6,000 miles from Beijing. China's congested megacities may have a need for self-driving cars, but the expertise is elsewhere.

Just ask Pony.ai founders James Peng and Tiancheng Lou. When they decided over a drink in Beijing three years ago that it was time to leave Baidu's self-driving car unit, the plan was always to start in California. "Silicon Valley is definitely the place to be," Peng said in an interview. "That's where all the talent is. China has a lot of raw talent, but with hardcore artificial intelligence, it takes years to build up. China has work to do."... " Read more

stuff that probably doesn't deserve your time

M. Prigg, Sept. 25, "...Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University are working on a system that would replace conventional traffic lights with virtual ones – with stop and go signals appearing directly on the windshield or dashboard....'But what if cars could talk to each other, and manage traffic without infrastructure based traffic lights?' ... " Read more

of Upcoming Events:

5th Symposium on

Autonomous & Connected vehicles October 23-24, 2018

Brooklyn, NY

Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit

evening May 14 through May 16, 2019

Catalog of Videos of Presentations @ 2nd Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit Photos from 2nd Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit Program & Links to slides from 2nd Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit

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

PodCasts

F. Fishkin, Sept 22 "In this edition of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast, Alain Kornhauser of Princeton University and co-host Fred Fishkin are joined by the founder of the Superbike School, Keith Code. Keith is an instructor, coach, author and researcher into motorcycle safety...and a champion racer. Beyond that....he's an old high school friend of Alain's! And there's more on BMW, Apple, VW and more! . Tune in and subscribe!"

F. Fishkin, Sept 14, "Uber is investing bigger in self driving research in Toronto, while Apple grows its self driving test fleet in California. Join Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser along with Fred Fishkin for Episode 57 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast. Also...the latest on Mercedes, Volvo, BMW and Nuro. Tune in and subscribe!" Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 56

F. Fishkin, Sept 7, "Waymo and Tesla way out in front in autonomous technology.

Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser weighs in along with Fred Fishkin Episode 56 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast. Plus the latest from Amazon, Aurora Innovation, Ouster, Jaguar Landrover and Fiat Chrysler. Tune in and subscribe!" Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 55

F. Fishkin, Sept 6, "The coming new world of driverless cars! In Episode 55 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast former GM VP and adviser to Waymo Larry Burns chats with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and Fred Fishkin about his new book "Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car and How it Will Reshape Our World"

F. Fishkin, Aug 26, "The impact of the Hitch service murders in China on ride sharing, Toyota's investment in Uber and the issue of who controls data...are the focus of Episode 54 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast. Co-hosts Alain Kornhauser of Princeton University and Fred Fishkin are joined by The Dispatcher publisher Michael Sena."

F. Fishkin, Aug 26, "Ralph Nader weighs in when it comes to safety regulations for self driving vehicles.... but is his focus in the right place? Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser offers up his thoughts on that and more ...from Zoox, to Waymo, Lyft and Drive.AI in Episode 53 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast with co-host Fred Fishkin. Tune in and subscribe!"

F. Fishkin, Aug 18, "Uber's future is linked to it's ability to deploy self driving vehicles. That's what Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser says in Episode 52 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast with co-host Fred Fishkin. Also...the latest from Ford, Tesla, Elon Musk, Kroger and more. Tune in and subscribe!"

F. Fishkin, Aug 11, "Waymo worth 175 billion dollars before it starts charging for rides? Join Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for Episode 51 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast. And the latest on Uber and the battle with New York City, Olli shuttles off to Buffalo, Tesla and BMW."

Aug 3, F. Fishkin, , "Drive.ai gets ready for self driving tests in Texas, Waymo partners with public transit, Tesla's self driving chips and the latest on Uber and Lyft. All that and more in Episode 50 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast with Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Tune in and subscribe!"

F. Fishkin, July 27, "When will we shift from buying cars to buying rides? In Episode 49 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast, entrepreneur, speaker and co-author of "The End of Driving: Transportation Systems and Public Policy Planning for Autonomous Vehicles" ...Bern Grush joins co-hosts Alain Kornhauser of Princeton and Fred Fishkin. That along with the latest on Ford, Waymo, Uber and more."

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 48 F. Fishkin, July 23, "What to make of Waymo as it passes 8 million miles of automated driving on public roads? Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser joins Fred Fishkin for Episode 48 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast. This week... Waymo, Zoox, Embark, Nvidia and new reports from Brookings." Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 47 F. Fishkin, July 14, "Self driving taxis from Mercedes? Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser says, "No thank you". Why? Tune in as the faculty chair of autonomous vehicle engineering joins Fred Fishkin for that and much more in episode 47 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast."

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 45 F. Fishkin, June 15, "Waymo marks the first year of its early rider program. The news is good but Princeton's Alain Kornhauser says it could be better. How? Tune in to Episode 45 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast for that and the latest on GM, Voyage, Ford and more " Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 44 F. Fishkin, June 12, "What is the big mistake California is making in driverless vehicle testing? Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser says the key is to promote ride sharing. Join the professor and co-host Fred Fishkin for Episode 44 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast for more on that, Waymo, Tesla and more.

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 38 F. Fishkin, May 10, "The continuing Uber crash investigation, Waymo and Ohio rolls out the welcome mat for the testing of self driving cars. All that and more in Episode 38 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast. This week Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin are joined by Bryant Walker Smith of the University of South Carolina and Stanford. Tune in and subscribe!"

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 34 F. Fishkin, Apr 13, "Should a brand new regulatory agency be formed to oversee self driving and driverless vehicles? Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser says yes in Episode 34 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast with co-host Fred Fishkin. Also...Uber's CEO calls self driving vehicles are in the student driver phase....and Tesla feuds with the NTSB."

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 33 F. Fishkin, Apr 4, " Waymo is making it real! In Episode 33 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast, hosts Fred Fishkin and Princeton's Alain Kornhauser are joined by Michael Sena, publisher of The Dispatcher newsletter. Take a deep dive into Waymo's deals with Jaguar and talks with Honda.. Tesla, Volvo, Uber and Ambarella. And the Princeton Smart Driving Car Summit is coming up! "

BMW Develops New Insurance Concept, Aims at Future of Car Insurance G. Nica, Sept 17, "With the BMW Group's technical know-how and Swiss Re's expertise as a reinsurer, an algorithm has been developed that is capable of representing the complex effects of driver assistance systems on the safety of BMW vehicles as a score. This score facilitates calculation of an individual vehicle-specific insurance premium...." Read more

Self-driving delivery startup Nuro releases its voluntary safety report Link2Report

A. Hawkins, Sept 13, "Nuro, the self-driving delivery startup founded by a pair of Google veterans, released its voluntary safety reporton Thursday. Titled "Delivering Safety," the 33-page document outlines the technology and procedures Nuro is using to safely deploy its fleet of autonomous delivery robots.

Formed in 2016, Nuro has set itself apart from other companies that are working on self-driving technology by focusing on delivery rather than ride-hailing. The startup recently announced a pilot delivery service in Arizona in partnership with grocery giant Kroger. In its report, Nuro touts what it believes are its competitive advantages....

With no driver or passengers to worry about, our vehicle can be built to keep what's outside even safer than what's inside. It's lighter, nimbler, and slower than a passenger car, and is equipped with state-of-the-art software and sensing capabilities that never get distracted. With its smaller size and manufacturing costs, we can make vehicles more rapidly. And because it's electric and fully self-driving, our vehicle can deliver life's needs at an affordable price...." Read more

Self-Driving Cars Will Keep Getting Better Forever D. Silver, Sept. 4, " Evans raises a particularly interesting question about autonomy: "what winner takes all effects apply?"

Waymo, which recently surpassed 9 million miles driven autonomously, started working on autonomous vehicles in 2009, years before many current competitors. That head start has allowed them to rack up far more autonomous miles than other companies (the next closest program appears to be Uber's now-paused Advanced Technology Group, with 2 million autonomous miles)....

Similarly, Tesla has sold hundreds of thousands of Autopilot-enabled semi-autonomous cars. Collectively, Autopilot-enabled vehicles have driven approximately 1.5 billion miles, providing Tesla with a dataset no other company has.

With those kinds of leads, a question arises of whether Waymo and Tesla have already won the market? ...." Read more

Customers Died. Will That Be a Wake-Up Call for China's Tech Scene? L. Yuan, Aug. 29. "Huang Jieli, who ran a Chinese ride-sharing business called Hitch, was invited to a wedding in March. One of her drivers was getting married to a woman who had once been his passenger. Thanks, the invitation said, for getting them hitched. Didi Chuxing, Hitch's corporate parent and one of the world's most successful and valuable start-ups, once cheered these stories of young love. Like so many other Chinese internet companies, Didi explored all kinds of ways to bring in new users, including social networking.

So through suggestive ads hinting at hookups through driving, Didi pushed Hitch's romantic possibilities. In a 2015 interview with the Chinese online portal NetEase, Ms. Huang compared Hitch cars to cafes and bars. ...

In the aftermath of the two assaults, Chinese media has uncovered dozens of others over the years. It also found past advertisements for Hitch that featured lewd double entendres and other language that could suggest a female passenger might welcome an advance from her male driver. ..." Read more

Waymo's Big Ambitions Slowed by Tech Trouble A. Efrati, Aug 28, "HANDLER, Ariz.—Alphabet's Waymo unit is a worldwide leader in autonomous vehicle development for suburban environments. It has said it would launch a driverless robo-taxi service to suburban Phoenix residents this year. Yet its self-driving minivan prototypes have trouble crossing the T-intersection closest to the company's Phoenix-area headquarters here.

Two weeks ago, Lisa Hargis, an administrative assistant who works at an office a stone's throw from Waymo's vehicle depot, said she nearly hit a Waymo Chrysler Pacifica minivan because it stopped abruptly while making a right turn at the intersection. "Go!" she shouted angrily, she said, after getting stuck in the intersection midway through her left turn. Cars that had been driving behind the Waymo van also stopped. "I was going to murder someone," she said.

The hesitation at the intersection is one of many flaws evident in Waymo's technology, say five people with direct knowledge of the issues in Phoenix. More than a dozen local residents who frequently encounter one of the hundreds of Waymo test vehicles circulating in the area complained about sudden moves or stops. The company's safety drivers—individuals who sit in the driver's seat—regularly have to take control of the wheel to avoid a collision or potentially unsafe situation, the people said....

In reality, the vast majority of Waymo's test cars continue to use safety drivers. Typically, the cars that drive without a person at the wheel have been in relatively small residential areas of Chandler, Ariz., where there is little traffic, according to people familiar with the program. And these vehicles are monitored closely by remote operators that can help the cars when they run into issues. (Waymo last week told the Verge that its first driverless taxis would include a "chaperone" from Waymo who would sit in the cars.)..." Read more

Augus26, 2018

T. Wolverton, Aug 22, "The CEO of Zoox has left in a management shake-up at the the high-profile, well-funded, and idiosyncratic self-driving car startup.

Zoox has already started searching for a replacement for Tim Kentley-Klay, who cofounded the Silicon Valley-based company, a source close to Zoox told Business Insider. In the meantime, it has named board member Carl Bass as its executive chairman and cofounder Jesse Levinson as its president, the source said. Bass is the former CEO of Autodesk.

Kentley-Klay confirmed his ouster in a statement posted on his Twitter account. Zoox's board fired him "without a warning, cause or right of reply," he said in the statement. "Today was Silicon Valley up to its worst tricks," he said. "Rather than working through the issues in an epic startup for the win," he continued, "the board chose a path of fear, optimizing for a little money in hand at the expense of profound progress for the universe."

Along with his statement, Kentley-Klay posted a pair of charts comparing Zoox to its chief rivals — Google spinoff Waymo, Uber, and GM-owned Cruise. The charts essentially assert that Zoox has made more progress with its technology for less money than its rivals... A native of Australia, Kentley-Klay had no background automobile engineering or artificial intelligence before starting Zoox, according to a recent Bloomberg profile. Instead, he had worked in online advertising.." Read more

The argument against selling the autonomous unit would be that Uber needs to have a way to develop self-driving cars if other companies won't partner with it. Long term, self-driving cars could help Uber's ride-hailing network reduce costs from not having to employ drivers. If Uber doesn't develop the cars itself, it will need to figure out how to get other car developers to agree to use their vehicles to pick up Uber's passengers...." Read more

A. Ohnsman, Aug 7, "Waymo, Alphabet Inc.'s multibillion-dollar self-driving vehicle bet hasn't yet launched commercial operations but that's not stopping Morgan Stanley from predicting massive potential for the company that's emerged as the leader in the autonomous tech race.

A year after his initial estimate that Waymo was likely a $75 billion startup, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas raised it to a staggering $175 billion, citing greater revenue potential from passenger ride services and licensing of its tech. The biggest source of future revenue, however, is likely to come from autonomous trucking and delivery services, which Jonas thinks could generate as much as $90 billion....." Read more

K. Wiggers, July 30, "It's been almost a year since Waymo, the autonomous vehicle division of Google parent Alphabet, became the first company to operate autonomous cars on public roads without drivers behind the wheel. Now Drive.ai intends to follow suit. This month, the Silicon Valley startup will set loose a fleet of self-driving Nissan NV200 vans in Frisco, Texas. They won't be completely autonomous — a small army of safety drivers and remote operators will ensure rides go off without a hitch. And the vehicles will be contained in a geofenced area.

But Drive.ai's six-month test will be one of the largest of its kind so far. When all is said and done, the company hopes to transport over 10,000 people in its driverless cars.

Here's how it'll do it...." Read more

Friday, July 27, 2018

Ford is taking on Waymo and GM's Cruise by creating its own standalone self-driving division M. deBord, July 24, "... The division will be called Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC and will be overseen by Sherif Marakby as CEO; Marakby had been a vice-president of Ford's self-driving and electrified initiatives.... Ford CEO Jim Hackett said in a statement. "Now is the right time to consolidate our autonomous driving platform into one team to best position the business for the opportunities ahead."

According to Ford, the new company will be "structured to take on third-party investment," an indication that the 115-year-old company is paying close attention to the competition....

General Motor's Cruise division recently announced a $2.25-billion investment from Japan's SoftBank, which paired with an additional $1.1-billion investment from GM gave Cruise an $11.5-billion valuation. (GM acquired Cruise for a total of around $1 billion in 2016.)

Alphabet's Waymo unit (formerly the Google Car project) is also heading toward a commercial rollout in the next 12 months, launching a fully autonomous fleet of vehicles in a ride-hailing framework. Standalone valuations for Waymo have been estimated at more than $50 billion. ... not bad given that they've likely spent less than $1.5B to create that "valuation" which is likely to be low. Which would you prefer to own for $50B, Uber or Waymo? Talk about a no-brainer!..

The carmaker said that Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC will include an "ownership stake in Argo AI, the company's Pittsburgh-based partner for self-driving system development," in which the company "expects to invest $4 billion in its AV efforts through 2023, including its $1 billion investment in Argo AI."j..." Read more

".... Krafcik was equally non-committal to Sandoval's query about when he might be able to purchase his own car with Waymo technology. While Waymo and Fiat Chrysler are in talks about utilizing this virtual driver system on cars for retail sale, Krafcik said it's going to be some time yet. The emphasis for now is the ride-hailing service, trucking and logistics and working with transit authorities. Supplying systems for personal use cars is last on the timeline...." Read more

Daimler is calling its service an "automated shuttle," but it's not referring to some blobby, slow-moving van. It's going to start out using a fleet of S-Class luxury sedans and B-Class hatchbacks, with long-term plans for vehicles designed for autonomous driving, like the F 015 "Luxury in Motion" concept it showed off a few years back..." Read more

Uber car's 'safety' driver streamed TV show before fatal crash: police H. Somerville, June 22, "The safety driver behind the wheel of a self-driving Uber car in Tempe, Arizona, was streaming a television show on her phone until about the time of a fatal crash, according to a police report that deemed the March 18 incident "entirely avoidable." ...The report said police concluded the crash, which has dealt Uber Technologies Inc a major setback in its efforts to develop self-driving cars, would have been "entirely avoidable" if Vasquez had been paying attention.

Vasquez could face charges of vehicular manslaughter, according to the report, which was released late on Thursday in response to a public records request....

Police obtained records from Hulu, an online service for streaming TV shows and movies, which showed Vasquez's account was playing the TV talent show "The Voice" for about 42 minutes on the night of the crash, ending at 9:59 p.m., which "coincides with the approximate time of the collision," the report said." Read more

One year in, our early rider program and our extensive on-road testing is helping us build the world's most experienced driver. In fact, our fleet of cars across the U.S. is now driving more than 24,000 miles daily; that's the equivalent of an around the world road trip! Here's a quick report on how our riders use Waymo, what we've learned, and what's next....As some of the first people in the world to use self-driving vehicles for their everyday transportation needs, our early riders are helping shape this technology. Thanks to their feedback, we're refining the rider experience to make sure that: ... nobody wants to carry grocery bags a block down the street... " Read more

New Roman"">Tuesday, June 12, 2018 CPUC AUTHORIZES PASSENGER CARRIERS TO PROVIDE FREE TEST RIDES IN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES WITH VALID CPUC AND DMV PERMITS Press Release, May 31, "...Today's decision also allows TCP permit-holders that hold a "DMV Manufacturer's Testing Permit – Driverless Vehicles" to operate autonomous vehicles without a driver in the vehicle, subject to certain restrictions. Authorization to provide this service is available only to TCP permit-holders with driverless autonomous vehicles that have been in DMV-permitted driverless operation on California roads for a minimum of 30 days. Entities seeking to participate in the pilot program are not allowed to operate from or within airports; must limit the use of the vehicle to one chartering party at any given time (i.e., fare-splitting is not permitted); must ensure that the service can only be chartered by adults 18 years and older; and may not accept monetary compensation for the ride. Participants are also required to continuously comply with all DMV regulations, and to report certain data to the CPUC on a quarterly basis that will be publicly available...." Read more

Alain Kornhauser, head of the autonomous car engineering program at Princeton University, said the NTSB and Tesla have plenty of questions left to answer....Read more

E. Griffith, May 31, "GENERAL MOTORS, THE 10th-largest company by revenue in the US, is eager to lay the groundwork for future growth by developing self-driving technology. But its shareholders are dubious of too much spending as revenue declines—it fell 5.5 percent last year.

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has the opposite problem: a giant pile of cash but not enough opportunities to spend it. The company's Vision Fund does not make investments smaller than $100 million, and there are only so many startups worthy of such a large check. That's why the firm has taken a loose interpretation of its artificial-intelligence-focused investment thesis, including aspects of human needs that won't be replaced by technology.

It also helps explain SoftBank's $2.25 billion investment in GM's self-driving car unit, Cruise, announced Thursday. The move further complicates the tangled web of connections among startups, automakers, big tech companies, and venture investors angling for a piece of the market for autonomous vehicles—a market that doesn't yet exist but is expected one day to generate trillions of dollars in revenue.

The overlapping investments and alliances have become so prevalent that they border on conflicts. And SoftBank sits at the center.

To wit: SoftBank invested in Uber after it had already backed Uber competitors in India (Ola), Singapore (Grab), Brazil (99), and China (Didi). Didi, which also invested in Ola, Grab, 99, and Lyft, eventually merged with Uber's China business. Uber continues to compete with Ola in India and 99 (which Didi acquired) in Brazil. Meanwhile SoftBank's Vision Fund has taken investment from Apple, which has its own autonomous vehicle program, and Uber has taken investment from the venture arm of Alphabet, owner of autonomous competitor Waymo, which recently settled a nasty lawsuit against Uber and received a small slice of equity in its rival. Oh, and SoftBank portfolio company Alibaba has invested in Uber rival Lyft, along with Ford, GM, and CapitalG, the late-stage investment arm of Alphabet...." Read more

A. Hawkins, May 31, "The size of Waymo's fleet of self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans just got radically bigger. The Alphabet unit announced today that it struck a deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), one of Detroit's Big Three automakers, for an additional 62,000 minivans to be deployed as robot taxis."

Moreover, the two companies have also begun discussions about how to eventually sell self-driving cars to customers as personally owned vehicles..." Read more

New Roman"">Thursday, May 31, 2018

AI Winter Is Well On Its Way F. Piekniewski, "Deep learning has been at the forefront of the so called AI revolution for quite a few years now, and many people had believed that it is the silver bullet that will take us to the world of wonders of technological singularity (general AI). ...We have now mid 2018 and things have changed. ..By far the biggest blow into deep learning fame is the domain of self driving vehicles ..

But by far the biggest prick punching through the AI bubble was the accident in which Uber self driving car killed a pedestrian in Arizona. From the preliminary report by the NTSB we can read some astonishing statements:..." Read more

May 25, 2018 PRELIMINARY REPORT: HIGHWAY: HWY18MH010 (Uber/Herzberg Crash)

KMay 24, "About 9:58 p.m., on Sunday, March 18, 2018, an Uber Technologies, Inc. test vehicle, based on a modified 2017 Volvo XC90 and operating with a self-driving system in computer control mode, struck a pedestrian on northbound Mill Avenue, in Tempe, Maricopa County, Arizona.

...The vehicle was factory equipped with several advanced driver assistance functions by Volvo Cars, the original manufacturer. The systems included a collision avoidance function with automatic emergency

braking, known as City Safety, as well as functions for detecting driver alertness and road sign information. All these Volvo functions are disabled when the test vehicle is operated in computer control..."Read more

K. Pyle, May 9, "Safety and, as importantly, the perception of safety could be the pin that pricks the expectations surrounding the autonomous vehicle future. Recognizing the importance of safety to the success of this still nascent industry, autonomous taxi start-up, Voyage, recently placed their testing and reporting procedures in an open source framework. ...Oliver Cameron, Voyage Co-Founder and CEO, is excited to see participation and says, "We can't wait to have all of these contributions from companies from around the world; contribute to build the actual standard in autonomous safety." Read more,

May 10, 2018

A. Efrati, May 7, "Uber has determined that the likely cause of a fatal collision involving one of its prototype self-driving cars in Arizona in March was a problem with the software that decides how the car should react to objects it detects, according to two people briefed about the matter." Read more

"The car's sensors detected the pedestrian, who was crossing the street with a bicycle,

R. Mitchell, Apr 30, "...A schism is developing in the driverless-car world — but not between fans and foes of robot cars.

Instead, on one side are driverless-car advocates who believe data transparency will lead to safer deployment of driverless vehicles and help alleviate public fears about the strange and disruptive new technology. On the other are some automobile and technology companies that, for good commercial reasons perhaps, prefer to keep their workings cloaked in mystery.

The lack of transparency about the workings of sensors, logic processors, mapping systems and other driverless technology, like the debate over robot-car regulation, could shape public perception of the nascent industry, said Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina. "Essentially, [the public will be] looking to see whether these companies are trustworthy," he said...

In the Uber death, a video recorded by a dashboard camera — turned over to and released by Tempe, Ariz., police — showed the driverless-car system failed to brake for the pedestrian. It left open the question of whether the system sensors might have failed to notice the pedestrian at all.

Uber's reaction was to apologize, then dip into some of its $15 billion in investment capital to pay the victim's family in a legal settlement, thus avoiding a public trial.

Uber declined to make a company executive available to discuss data and transparency on the record, as did Waymo, Tesla and Lyft. Other companies — including Zoox, Nutonomy and General Motors, parent of Cruise Automation — agreed to talk.

Even driverless-car advocates are growing concerned about the silence from the industry's major players. Grayson Brulte, a well-known consultant in the driverless industry, worries that recent polls have consistently shown the public is wary about driverless technology, while companies appear reluctant to engage with the public. "They're like Rapunzel up in the tower," he said. "They have to let down their hair and climb down."

Alain Kornhauser, who heads the driverless-vehicle program at Princeton University, said he believes that robot cars will improve safety, reduce driver stress, add productive time to the day and offer the elderly and disabled more independence. But the technology is far from perfect, he said, and some robot-induced deaths are inevitable.

Rather than wall off the lessons learned in fatalities such as the recent Uber and Tesla incidents, Kornhauser said, the companies should be sharing crash data with one another, with outside researchers and with the general public. And not just black-box data, but driverless-system data as well. That would make driverless cars safer and faster, he said.

"Uber should not gain a safety advantage over everyone else because they were involved in this crash," Kornhauser said. "All of the video, radar, lidar and logic trails in the seconds leading up to the crash should be released to the public.

"If this reveals some of Uber's intellectual property, so be it. If they want to protect their intellectual property, they shouldn't crash on public roads." ..." Read more

Hmmmm... Amen! This article addresses what may well be the most important issue facing this industry. Crashes will happen. The industry has been holding its breath knowing that one, two, three, ... deaths are coming. Deaths are associated with every substantial technological advance in transportation. Deaths occurred with cable cars, with electric traction, with steam trains, with airplanes, with conventional cars, with elevators, ..., even with airbags... why do you have yellow stickers affixed to the passenger-side sun visor of your car. That's right... airbags kill children. No one expected that. But when it was "tripped over", then that event was made transparent to everyone. Similarly, total transparency needs to be created. Uber needs to release the data that shows that their system did, in fact "see" Elaine for four (4), or however many, seconds before the crash, but didn't see her reliably enough to convince itself to apply the brakes. The details of that decision logic and the uncertainty/stochastic characteristics of that decision process needs to be divulged. Why wasn't it sure enough that a collision with Elaine was imminent for it to apply the brakes? It is totally disingenuous for Uber to claim that its system never saw Elaine (Uber hasn't said that. They've said nothing. (They'd better not even try to say that. Their system is at least pretty good. it was developed by competent individuals from CMU and other very good places. It saw Elaine, it just didn't see her well enough or it chose to disregard what it saw for whatever reason. The nitty gritty details of those uncertainties MUST be divulged in all of their minute, gory and transparent details. Once made then everyone else in the industry can look at their comparable processes/algorithms and fix them so that the next time an "Elaine" is "seen" she will not be disregarded. It is these situations that deserve the most serious attention. These are infinitely more important and more challenging than the "Trolley (navel contemplation) Problem".

This startup's CEO wants to open-source self-driving car safety testing M. Harris, Apr 24, "... "I had to spend time after [the Uber crash] calming people down, telling folks at our deployments that it was an isolated incident," says Voyage CEO Oliver Cameron in an exclusive interview with Ars Technica. "But the truth is that everyone in the industry is reinventing the technology and safety processes themselves, which is incredibly dangerous. Open source means more eyes, more diversity, and more feedback.".

Starting today, Voyage will begin to share safety requirements, test scenarios, metrics, tools, and code that it has developed for its own Level 4 self-driving taxis. Five Voyage cars are currently deployed carrying passengers within two retirement communities in California and Florida..." Read more

April 12, 2018 The way we regulate self-driving cars is broken—here's how to fix it T. Lee, Apr 10,"...Federal car safety regulation has traditionally been based on a thick book of rules called the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). These regulations, developed over decades, establish detailed performance requirements for every safety-related part of a car: brakes, tires, headlights, mirrors, airbags, and a lot more....

Federal regulations don't say much about how companies develop and test cars before bringing them to market. ... But that approach doesn't work for driverless cars. Companies can do some testing of driverless cars on a closed course, but it's impossible to reproduce a full range of real-world situations in a private facility. So at some point, carmakers need to put self-driving cars on public roads for testing purposes—before a manufacturer is able to clearly demonstrate that they're safe. In effect, this makes the public involuntary participants in a dangerous research project.

But updating the FMVSS is neither necessary nor sufficient for effective regulation of driverless cars.... Read more

Krafcik leaped into the second row and turned to the nearest Ford employee: "Do you have a self-driving version?" The answer was no. "Coming soon," Krafcik said with a laugh." Read more

March 24, 2018 Experts say video of Uber's self-driving car killing a pedestrian suggests its technology may have failed R. Mitchell, Mar 22, "Police late Wednesday released a video that shows an Uber robot car running straight into a woman who was walking her bicycle across a highway in Tempe, Ariz. The woman was taken to a hospital, where she died Sunday night.

The video, shot from the car, is sure to raise debate over who's to blame for the accident. In the video, the victim, Elaine Herzberg, 49, appears to be illegally jaywalking from a median strip across two lanes of traffic on a dark road. But she was more than halfway across the street when the car — traveling about 40 mph, according to police — hit her. The car did not appear to brake or take any other evasive action....

Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor and driverless specialist at the University of South Carolina, said: "Although this appalling video isn't the full picture, it strongly suggests a failure by Uber's automated driving system and a lack of due care by Uber's driver as well as by the victim."..." Read more

March 20, 2018

Robot drivers may be safer than humans, but tech companies are way behind in proving it R. Mitchell, Mar 21, "As long as robot cars roam public streets and highways, they will occasionally kill people. That's an ugly truth that no one in the driverless vehicle industry can deny.

Will those robot cars kill people at significantly lower rates than drunk, stoned, tired or distracted human drivers do now? Automakers, technology companies, politicians and regulators are betting they will, as driverless vehicles are rolling out faster than almost anyone expected as recently as a year ago. But the Sunday night incident in Tempe, Ariz., in which an Uber robot car hit and killed a woman walking her bicycle across the street, makes clear the industry is much further behind in making its case to the public.

"It's likely there will be far fewer deaths with driverless cars," said Marlene Towns, a professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. "But getting to the point where people will be convinced of that will be tough."

Speculation by Tempe's police chief that the robot may not be at fault in the crash may temper any public or political backlash.

Uber was testing the robot car in autonomous mode with a human engineer, who was behind the wheel but not driving. Elaine Herzberg, 49, walking a bicycle, stepped in front of the car from a center median, according to video evidence, police said...." Read more

March 13, 2018 Waymo shows off what it is like to ride in a truly driverless self-driving car G. Kumparak, Mar 13, "...." Read more

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

California to allow testing of self-driving cars without a driver present D. Etherington, Feb 27, "California's Department of Motor Vehicles established new rules announced Monday that will allow tech companies and others working on driverless vehicle systems to begin trialling their cars without a safety driver at the wheel. The new rules go into effect starting April 2 ..." Read more

Friday, February 23, 2018

Friday, February 16, 2018 Billionaire Bets On a World Without Car Crashes

Thursday, February 1, 2018 Waymo strikes a deal to buy 'thousands' more self-driving minivans from Fiat Chrysler Andrew Hawkins, Jan 30, "Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, has reached a deal with one of Detroit's Big Three automakers to dramatically expand its fleet of autonomous vehicles. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced today that it would supply "thousands" of additional Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Waymo, with the first deliveries starting at the end of 2018.

Waymo currently has 600 of FCA's minivans in its fleet, some of which are used to shuttle real people around for its Early Rider program in Arizona. The first 100 were delivered when the partnership was announced in May 2016, and an additional 500 were delivered in 2017. The minivans are plug-in hybrid variants with Waymo's self-driving hardware and software built in. The companies co-staff a facility in Michigan, near FCA's US headquarters, to engineer the vehicles. The company also owns a fleet of self-driving Lexus RX SUVs that is has been phasing out in favor of the new minivans. (The cute "Firefly" prototypes were also phased out last year.)…" Read more

Monday, January 29, 2018 Didi Chuxing looks beyond ride-hailing to help Chinese cities tackle transport challenge Sunday, January 14, 2018

Jan. 9, T. Papandreou & E. Casson. "... Waymo driverless service..." Read more

December 2, 2017

November 26, 2017

November 17, 2017 THE TECH & DESIGN ISSUE: LIFE AFTER DRIVING

November 10, 2017

Waymo will now put self-driving vans on public roads with nobody at the wheel AP, Nov. 7, 2017 "Waymo, the self-driving car company created by Google, is pulling the human backup driver from behind the steering wheel and will test vehicles on public roads with only an employee in the back seat.

The company's move — which started Oct. 19 with an automated Chrysler Pacifica minivan in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, Ariz. — is a major step toward vehicles driving themselves on public roads without human backup drivers. ..." Read more

November 4, 2017 APNewsBreak: Gov't won't pursue talking car mandate October 27 , 2017

October 15 , 2017

Rulemaking Actions, Oct 1The following 3 PDFs are important:

1. Autonomous Vehicles Notice of Modification (PDF) Act

2. Autonomous Vehicles Statement of Reasons (PDF) Act

3. Autonomous Vehicles 15 Day Express Terms (PDF) Act

October 6 , 2017

September 1, 2017

August 25, 2017

August 21, 2017

August 7, 2017

June 25, 2017 NTSB Opens Docket on Tesla Crash The docket material is available at: https://go.usa.gov/xNvaE" Read more

June 19, 2017

May 28, 2017

'pay-as-you-go' ca: Ride hailing, just the start](http://orfe.princeton.edu/%7Ealaink/SmartDrivingCars/PDFs/Rethinking%20Mobility_GoldmanSachsMay2017.pdf)

May 23, 2017

SmartDrivingCar Summit](http://orfe.princeton.edu/%7Ealaink/SmartDrivingCars/SDC_Summit_2017/CommercializationSummit2017_WithLink_052117.pdf)

May 18, Enormously successful inaugural Summit starting with the Adam Jonas video and finishing with Fred Fishkin's live interview with Wm. C Ford III. In between, serious engagementamong over 150 leaders from Communities at the bleeding edge of deployment, Insurance struggling with how to properly promote the adoption of technology that may well force them to re-invent themselves and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the various technologies that are rapidly advancing so that we can actually deliver the safety, environmental, mobility and quality of life opportunities envisioned by these "Ultimate Shared-Riding Machines".

Save the Date for the 2nd Annual... May 16 & 17, 2018, Princeton NJ Read Inaugural Program with links to Slides. Fishkin Interview of Summit Summary and Interview of Yann LeCun. Read Inaugural Program with links to Slides.

April 17, 2017

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