8.38-ConsumerReport-091120

;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, Sept. 11, “Tesla is facing new claims of cars accelerating by themselves after several accidents in China — especially a recent one that resulted in two deaths and several people injured.

Earlier this year, we reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that it is looking into claims that Tesla vehicles have a defect leading to “sudden unintended acceleration” after receiving a petition citing 127 claimed incidents.

As we stated at the time, several claims of sudden unintended acceleration involving Tesla vehicles have been made public over the years. The most publicized one involved a South Korean celebrity claiming his Model X accelerated on its own into his garage.

However, in every case, including that one, Tesla claimed that the car’s log showed that it was a user mistake due to pedal misapplication, meaning that the driver pressed on the accelerator instead of the brakes.

In one case, Electrek was able to have Tesla’s log verified by a third party, and it supported the automaker’s claims that it showed the driver pressed on the accelerator…… ” Read more Hmmmm….. Each of these accusations needs to be either corrected or debunked in court. 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

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

Sunday Supplement

Half-Baked

Click-Bait

New AAA Study Finds Names Of Self-Driving Features Has Impact On Drivers’ Expectation Of System

Staff, Sept. 10, “MIAMI (CBSMiami) – What’s in a name? A lot, according to new research on the technology in some of today’s vehicles.

A number of new cars have some self-driving capabilities, all with different branding, from GM’s Super Cruise to Nissan’s ProPILOT Assist.

A new study from AAA finds those names can be important. “The way in which a system is characterized, which includes the name, does have an important impact on drivers’ expectation of the system,” said William Horrey from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety….” Read more Hmmmm…Wow, the sun sets in the West!. Tell us something that hasn’t been a fundamental truth in the auto industry for a very long time. Alain