8.36-UberSafety-082920

;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px”> F. Lambert, Aug. 26, “A Tesla driver in North Carolina admitted to watching a movie on his phone while using Autopilot during a crash with a police vehicle.

Earlier today in Nash County, North Carolina, a Tesla Model S vehicle crashed into a Nash County police vehicle. The vehicle was reportedly stopped on the road helping a Highway Patrol trooper respond to a previous crash.

The impact was forceful enough to push the police cruiser into the Highway Patrol trooper’s own car. This in turn pushed the two law enforcement officers to the ground. Fortunately, no one was injured….. ” Read more Hmmmm….. How many times do we have to repeat it in the SDC eLetter… The Tesla Automated Emergency Braking Systems(AEBS) does NOT function properly. It explicitly disregards stationary objects in the lane ahead! It is time that NHTSA force Tesla to use their over-the-air updating to fix their AEBS to prevent these types of crashes. (See Daimler’s system in action.) To encourage Tesla to do this, NHTSA should require Tesla to permanently disengage AutoPilot until the AEBS is fixed. That will get Elon’s attention! Alain

Draft Program 4th Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit Postponed until Evening Oct. 20 through Oct. 22, 2020 (But will likely need to be completely Virtual, possibly in “Second life“)

A. Kornhauser, Feb 6, “The focus of the Summit this year will be moving beyond the AI and the Sensors to addressing the challenges of Commercialization and the delivery of tangible value to communities. We’ve made enormous progress with the technology. We’re doing the investment; however, this investment delivers value only if is commercialized: made available and is used by consumers in large numbers. Demos and one-offs are “great”, but to deliver value that is anywhere near commensurate with the magnitude of the investment made to date, initial deployments need to scale. We can’t just have “Morgantown PRT Systems” whose initial deployment has been nothing but enormously successful for 45 years (an essentially perfect safety record, an excellent availability record and customer valued mobility). Unfortunately, the system was never expanded or duplicated anywhere. It didn’t scale. It is a one-off.

Tests, demos and one-offs are nice niche deployments; however, what one really needs are initial deployments that have the opportunity to grow, be replicated and scale. In 1888, Frank Sprague, successfully deployed a small electric street railway system in Richmond, Va. which became the reference for many other cites. “… By 1889 110 electric railways incorporating Sprague’s equipment had been begun or planned on several continents…” Substantial scaled societal benefits emerged virally from this technology. It was eventually supplanted by the conventional automobile but for more than 30 years it delivered substantial improvements to the quality-of-life for many.

In part, the 4th Summit will focus on defining the “Richmond” of Affordable Shared-ride On-demand Mobility-as-a-Service. The initial Operational Design Domain (ODD) that safely accommodates Driverless Mobility Machines that people actually choose to use and becomes the envy of communities throughout the country. ” Read more Hmmmm… Draft Program is in flux. Consider all named individuals as “Invited yet to be confirmed”. Alain