2020-04-03
year of SmartDrivingCars
Via raises Series E financing to expand access to efficient, sustainable, and equitable public mobility across the globe
Press release, Mar. 30, “Via, the company that provides digital infrastructure to power public mobility in cities around the world, announces today that it has raised a Series E financing led by EXOR. The financing values the company at $2.25B and will enable Via to advance its vision of efficient, accessible, and equitable public mobility.
Via’s technology powers the next generation of public transportation, helping cities move beyond a system of rigid routes and schedules to a fully dynamic network. Via’s algorithm efficiently combines, in real time, multiple passengers or packages headed in the same direction, significantly reducing urban congestion and emissions while providing a high quality and lower cost mobility service. Available in more than 70 cities in 20 countries, and growing rapidly…“ Read more Hmmmm… Ride-sharing may not be dead. Listen to PodCast 150, watch VideoCast 150 Alain
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 150 - Andrei Greenawalt
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F. Fishkin, April 3, “Coronavirus devastates transportation and mobility. How does it recover? Matthew Daus, former NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission chairman, joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that and much more. Watch, subscribe, and find us at “Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!”. Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay … Alain
Smart Driving Cars VideoCast Episode 150 - Andrei Greenawalt
Video version… Watch episode 150 with Andrei Greenawalt…. Alain
Tesla soars on delivery numbers – company delivered 88,400 vehicles in Q1
L. Kolodny, April 2, “Tesla reported on Thursday that it delivered approximately 88,400 vehicles in the first quarter of 2020, beating expectations. Analysts had expected about 79,900 as of Wednesday, according to a survey by FactSet.
Tesla stock rose more than 17% after hours on the news.
Breaking it down by model, Tesla reported combined
deliveries of 76,200 Model 3 sedans and Model Y
cross-over SUVs, and combined deliveries of 12,200 of
the older and more expensive Model S and X vehicles.
..." [Read more](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/02/tesla-tsla-1q-2020-production-and-delivery-numbers.html)
Hmmmm... Wow!!! I guess the Shanghai plant is
really humming!
Congratulations! It is a
shame that more of these cars aren't being built
in the US of A. Alain
Engineer Says Uber Owes Him $180 Million for Run-In With Google
J. Rosenblatt, April 1, “A star Silicon Valley engineer who defected from Google to Uber Technologies Inc. – only to be fired, tagged as the villain in a trade-secret theft dispute and driven into bankruptcy – says the ride-sharing company owes him more than $180 million for travails and lost time.
Anthony Levandowski, hailed by both companies as a
prodigy of driverless car technology, contends Uber
didn't keep its promise to cover his legal bills when it
aggressively recruited him in 2016. Google later accused
Levandowski of poaching its engineers in violation of
his contract and clawed back a $120 million bonus it had
paid him, plus about $60 million in interest and
attorneys fees.
In his arbitration demand against Uber, Levandowski says
he was warned by none other than Larry Page that he'd
face "negative consequences" if he left to compete with
Google. But he was reassured by Uber's agreement to
indemnify him against Google's anticipated retribution,
and Uber paid for his defense for almost three years.
Until, that is, Google won. Levandowski says that in
April 2018, days before the final hearing in Google's
arbitration, Uber told him it wanted to be repaid..." [Read more](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/engineer-says-uber-owes-him-180-million-for-run-in-with-google/ar-BB121GcC?ocid=FinanceShimLayer)
Hmmmm...Is this a April Fool's joke; although,
Uber likely does owe him. Details do matter in
contracts; although, Anthony better collect
quickly. :-)
Alain
Special Report: Impact of COVID19 on California Traffic Accidents
F. Shilling, April 1, “… We estimate that since the order went into effect, collisions and especially injury and fatality collisions have been reduced by half, from ~1,000 collisions and ~400 injury/fatal accidents per day to 500 and 200 per day, respectively. We also found that animal-related incidents did not experience the same reduction. We found that traffic volumes were up to 60% lower on certain highways after the order compared to a similar period prior to the order, which may account for the reduced number of collisions….” Read more Hmmmm…Must be even greater reduction in NJ because there seems to be no one on the roads. Small silver lining along with substantial reduction in CO2 from reduced consumption of gasoline. Glad that the trucks are still moving because store shelves need to be filled; else, it gets really UGLY!!! Alain
Tesla is shipping FDA-approved ventilators to hospitals around the world for free during the coronavirus pandemic
B. Gilbert, April 1, “Tesla is offering to pay for and ship a crucial medical component being used in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
CEO Elon Musk announced as much on Tuesday: "We have
extra FDA-approved ventilators. Will ship to hospitals
worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. Device &
shipping cost are free. Only requirement is that the
vents are needed immediately for patients, not stored in
a warehouse," he said .... " [Read more](https://www.pulselive.co.ke/bi/tech/tesla-is-shipping-fda-approved-ventilators-to-hospitals-around-the-world-for-free/je70xw8)
Hmmmm... In December, I was sedated and strapped
down with a ventilator down my throat for 11
days. It saved my life. Thank you, Elon. These
are going to save lives. Alain
Public Transit Cuts Hurt ‘Essential’ Workers Who Need It Most
A. Marshall, Mar. 30, “…To protect its workers and conserve supplies, Metro has closed 19 of its 91 stations until further notice, without providing shuttle buses to fill in the gaps….
“Essential” workers who are still toiling at grocery stores, drug stores, and health care facilities face the same dilemma. Los Angeles has cut bus service by 15 to 20 percent and is running fewer trains. The Bay Area’s BART system has seen ridership plunge by 90 percent compared with this time last year, and has cut three hours of night service amidst a projected $25 million monthly loss. New York City’s MTA has modified its schedule. The agency that runs Seattle’s buses is cutting service and has stopped collecting fares to reduce interactions between workers and riders.
Smaller systems, like the ones in Great Falls, Montana, and Green Bay, Wisconsin, have canceled service altogether …“ Read more Hmmmm… As if conventional public transit wasn’t a complete mess before this pandemic. If this doesn’t motivate conventional transit to embrace driverless on-demand shared ride mobility then Transit should use this opportunity to simply disappear gracefully. Big, bulky, inflexible and labor intensive are not good attributes to have for any business. Alain
Tesla becomes the best-selling car brand in Iceland
F. Lambert, April 1, “There have been Tesla vehicles in Iceland for years, but the automaker officially launched in the market in September of last year and now Tesla has already become the best-selling car brand in the country. Iceland is perfect for massive adoption of electric vehicles. The island’s electricity generation is already almost 100% renewable, which makes EVs super clean, and being a remote island, petrol is expensive.” Read more Hmmmm… Also, there is no range anxiety in Iceland… Not far to go… Can this also be an April Fool’s joke? :-) Alain
Recent trends in gasoline prices
M. Sivak, April 2, “This brief note analyzes the changes in the price of gasoline during the first 13 weeks of 2020 and compares them with the changes during the first 13 weeks of 2019. The raw data (the average retail price of regular gasoline) came from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The results are shown in the table below….
During the first 13 weeks of 2020, the price of gasoline decreased by 22.2% (from $2.578 to $2.005). Furthermore, during this time of the year, gasoline prices typically (but not always) tend to go up because of the usual increase in driving in the spring compared with driving in the winter. As an example, the above table also includes the analogous data for the first 13 weeks of 2019. Indeed, during the same time period in 2019, gasoline prices increased by 20.3%. Thus, in comparison with the trend in 2019, gasoline prices during the first 13 weeks of 2020 decreased by 35% (77.8 is 65% of 120.3)….” Read more Hmmmm… A very tiny silver lining, but a silver lining all the same. Alain
It took a coronavirus outbreak for self-driving cars to become more appealing
S. Lekach, April 1, “Suddenly, a future full of self-driving cars isn’t just a sci-fi pipe dream. What used to be considered a scary, uncertain technology for many Americans looks more like an effective tool to protect ourselves from a fast-spreading, infectious disease.
With COVID-19 — the name for the disease caused by the
new coronavirus — keeping most of us housebound, it's
harder to get around or bring in supplies safely. Forget
about socializing, just stocking up on groceries,
toiletries, and basic medicines and products is a risky
challenge. Suddenly having robots and computers help us
out doesn't seem so far-fetched. All that money that's
been funneled into testing self-driving cars — [$27.5 billion in 2018, according to data company Statista](https://mailchi.mp/statista/autonomous_cars_20200206?e=145345a469)
— is starting to look more and more worthwhile...." [Read more](https://mashable.com/article/autonomous-vehicle-perception-coronavirus/)
Hmmmm... Probably deserves being in ClickBait or
is this another April Fool's joke? Alain
Underwriters Laboratories publishes autonomous vehicle Standard
Press release, April 1, “ANSI/UL 4600 Standard for Safety for the Evaluation of Autonomous Products encompasses fully autonomous systems that move such as self-driving cars, along with applications in mining, agriculture, maintenance, and other vehicles including lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It seeks to specifically address the ability of autonomous products to perform safely and as intended- without human intervention- based on their current state and sensing of the operating environment. Reliability of hardware and software necessary for machine learning, sensing of operating environment and other safety aspects of autonomy is also addressed. It is envisioned that future end-product standards will tailor UL 4600 to address specialized applications….” Read more Hmmmm… https://ul.org/UL4600, not another “SAE” standards organization charging for the documentation for their standards developed by ???? Where is Washington when you need it? Or is this April fools!! Alain
Roman"">
[Draft](https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7t7fwkm1wu9n3g/ProgramDraft1_4thAnnualPrincetonSDC_Summit.pdf?dl=0)Princeton
SmartDrivingCar
Summit
Postponed
until Evening Oct. 20 through Oct. 22, 2020 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
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
Calendar of Upcoming
Events:
until Evening Oct. 20 -> Oct 22.
SmartDrivingCar Summit
Princeton University Princeton, NJ
On the More Technical Side
http://orfe.princeton.edu/~alaink/SmartDrivingCars/Papers/
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Recent Podcasts
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 149 - Matt Daus
F. Fishkin, Mar. 26, “The Smart Driving Cars podcast with automated driving strategy consultant Richard Bishop joining Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Is automated trucking dead? Also…Covid-19 puts Waymo in park, the latest on Tesla and more. listen and subscribe!” “Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!”. Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay … Alain
Smart Driving Cars VideoCast Episode 149 - Matt Daus Video version… Watch episode 149 with Matt Daus…. Alain
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 148 - Richard Bishop
F. Fishkin, Mar. 26, “The Smart Driving Cars podcast with automated driving strategy consultant Richard Bishop joining Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Is automated trucking dead? Also…Covid-19 puts Waymo in park, the latest on Tesla and more. listen and subscribe!” “Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!”. Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay … Alain
Smart Driving Cars VideoCast Episode 148 - Richard Bishop Video version… Watch our first attempt…. Alain
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 147 - Michael Sena
F. Fishkin, Mar. 14, “From Sweden…The Dispatcher editor Michael Sena joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin as Covid-19 takes a toll on Waymo, Uber and more. Plus Saving the Car Industries in the U.S. and the EU… the latest from Future Networked Car 2020 in Geneva and more.” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 146
F. Fishkin, Mar. 14, “Will the Coronavirus speed the move to driverless mobility? Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin tackle that plus the latest on Waymo, Tesla, new IIHS safety tech recommendations and more in this edition of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast. Tune in and subscribe!” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 145 - L. Walker
F. Fishkin, Mar. 5, “Tackling the issues of children in autonomous vehicles, Lorrie Walker of Safe Kids Worldwide joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Plus the latest from Waymo, Tesla, GM, Uber, Lyft and more.” “Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!”. Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay … Alain Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 144 - L. Shinohara
F. Fishkin, Feb 27, “How a new generation of affordable LiDAR can make autonomous vehicles smarter and safer. RoboSense VP Leilei Shinohara joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus..the Tesla investigations, California’s latest autonomous reporting, Waymo, Michigan’s initiative and more.” “Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!”. Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay … Alain Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 143 - T. Bolat
F. Fishkin, Feb 20, “Declining roadway deaths and injuries may have something to do with safe vehicle technology says Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser. And new tech from companies like WaveSense mean it is just getting started. Join Kornhauser, co-host Fred Fishkin and WaveSense CEO Tarik Bolat for that plus the latest on Tesla, Subaru, Jaguar Land Rover and more.
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 142 - J. Hughes
F. Fishkin, Feb 15, “What shifting populations mean for the future of mobility and transportation. Leading expert Jim Hughes of Rutgers University joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus the latest on Tesla, GM, Comma AI’s inexpensive autopilot, Aptiv, Lyft and more. Tune in and subscribe! “
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 141- A. Roy
F. Fishkin, Feb 7, “The latest glossary of BS in mobility, self driving and autonomy from author, podcaster and cannonball driver Alex Roy on Smart Driving Cars with Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Plus the news from Tesla, Nuro, Waymo, GM and more! “ Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 140 - C. Mericli
F. Fishkin, Jan 31, “How self driving tech can increase profits in the trucking industry. Locomation’s CEO joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus Waymo’s partnership with UPS, Tesla’s rocket ride, Hyundai’s Smart Park Super Bowl ad and more. “ Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 139- Randal O’Toole
F. Fishkin, Jan 25, “Adaptive cruise control and self driving tech may lead to more urban sprawl. But the Cato Institute’s Randal O’Toole says maybe that isn’t a bad thing. He joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus Subaru’s tech, GM’s Cruise, Tesla and more on the Smart Driving Cars podcast. This edition is sponsored by the SmartETFs Smart Transportation and Technology ETF, symbol MOTO. For more information…head to www.motoetf.com “
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 138-Nick Zart
F. Fishkin, Jan 18, “The new mobility on the ground and in the air. Nicolas Zart joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co host Fred Fishkin for a discussion on Urban Air Mobility…plus..Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Mobileye, Waymo and more in this edition of the Smart Driving Cars podcast.” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 136
F. Fishkin, Jan 6, “He’s back! Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser…still on the mend …but opinionated as ever…joins co-host Fred Fishkin for a look at the latest from Waymo, Tesla and more in Episode 136 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast. “ Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 135 - with Jim Atkinson
F. Fishkin, Dec 5, “In this special edition… the launch of a new exchange traded fund focused on smart transportation and technology. Guinness Atkinson Asset Management CEO Jim Atkinson joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus..a push by the Coalition for Future Mobility for action in Washington, AutoX wants driverless testing in California and Aptiv grows in Pittsburgh. “
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 134 - With Stephanie Lemcke GoKid
F. Fishkin, Nov.30, “The critical need for ridesharing, another milestone for Waymo, Mobileye in Michigan and sleeping in Teslas. In this edition of Smart Driving Cars GoKid app founder Stefanie Lemcke joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for those topics and more. Tune in and subscribe!” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 133
F. Fishkin, Nov.23, “Florida’s Autonomous Vehicle Summit shows what a state can do to create a welcoming atmosphere. That, plus, Tesla’s Cybertruck, Ford, Waymo and more in the latest Smart Driving Cars with Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin..” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 130 with Dick Mudge & Michael Sena
F. Fishkin, Nov. 1, “An updated outlook for automated vehicles…Tesla, Waymo , Ford, VW and more. Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin are joined by guests Michael Sena and Dick Mudge in the latest edition of Smart Driving Cars!” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 126 - Sturges & Caudill F. Fishkin, Sept 19 , “From the public library in Princeton, NJ… a special edition of the Smart Driving Cars podcast following a public forum conducted by Princeton Future on the potential for transit on demand for all. Join Princeton professor Alain Kornhauser, co-host Fred Fishkin and special guests for that…plus…the latest on Waymo, Tesla, Hyundai, Aptiv and more. “ Pictures from the Princeton Future Public Forum on Driverless Mobility for All. Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 123 - K. Kolodge JD Power F. Fishkin, Aug 30 , “A J. D. Power study finds customer demand for safety technology threatened by overbearing alerts. Lead researcher Kristin Kolodge joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus headlines from Tesla, NVIDIA, GM’s Cruise, Lyft and Ford. “ Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 121 - Ken Pyle F. Fishkin, Aug 22 , “Daimler and Bosch hold a community meeting in San Jose as they ready plans for autonomous vehicle testing. Community board member Ken Pyle joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Plus…Waymo, Tesla and more.” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 118 - Michael Sena’69 F. Fishkin, Aug 1, “Congress seeks help with self driving legislation, an acquisition by Ford, a breakthrough in vehicle data sharing in Europe and more! The Dispatcher publisher, Michael Sena joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin in a new edition of Smart Driving Cars.” Just say “Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!”. Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay … Alain
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 116 - Jerome Lutin F. Fishkin, July 20, “Can technology dramatically improve the safety of bus transportation for pedestrians, riders and drivers? The lead investigator in a national study, Jerry Lutin, joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin on episode 116 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast. Plus…Tesla’s new safety report, the latest from Lyft, Aptiv and a NY Times report on why driverless cars are taking longer than expected. Tune in and subscribe!.”
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 112 - J. Hardiman NJM F. Fishkin, June 9, “Should the insurance industry be pushing more safety and autonomous tech in cars? It’s a win, win says Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser. Joining him in the discussion along with co-host Fred Fishkin is NJM’s John Hardiman, a board member of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Also…Fiat Chrysler, Ford and more.”
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 110 - Lance Elliot F. Fishkin, May 25, “ The untold secrets of driverless car videos. Dr. Lance Eliot joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for a liveley discussion. Plus…Waymo brings back self driving trucks, so will Daimler and is the future driverless for Uber and Lyft. Tune in and subscribe!” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 108 3rd Summit Wrapup
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F. Fishkin, May 18, “Wrapping up the 3rd annual Princeton Smart Driving Car Summit, Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin zero in on mobility for all and more. It’s just getting started. Plus the headlines from Nissan, Tesla, Uber and Lyft. Tune in and subscribe!”
F. Fishkin, May 18, “In this special edition from the 3rd Annual Princeton Smart Driving Cars Summit, Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin are joined by RoboSense VP Leilei Shinohara on the LiDAR’s benefits. And view of autonomous technology from law enforcement with New York State Police
Staff Sergeant Terence McDonnell." [Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 106 3rd Summit David Kidd & Cecillia Feeley](https://soundcloud.com/smartdrivingcar/smart-driving-cars-episode-106)
F. Fishkin, May 18, “From the 3rd Annual Princeton Smart Driving Car Summit, David Kidd from the Highway Loss Data Institute joins Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin and then on site preliminary research results on mobility for all with Cecilia Feeley and Andrea Lubin from Rutgers.”
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 104 3rd Summit Anil Lewis & Katherine Freund
F. Fishkin, May 18,, “From the 3rd Annual Princeton Smart Driving Car Summit, join Professor Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. In this special edition, the summit’s focus on mobility for all with guests Anil Lewis, Executive Director of Blindness Initiatives at the National Federation of the Blind and ITN America Founder Katherine Freund.”
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 100 - Andrei Greenawalt’99/Via
April 5, F. Fishkin, “The success of on demand transit company Via is proving that ride sharing systems can work. Public Policy head Andrei Greenawalt joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for a wide ranging discussion. Also: Uber, Tesla, Audi, Apple and Nuro are making headlines”
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 98- Matt Daus
April 5, F. Fishkin, “Here comes congestion pricing in New York City…but what will it mean? Former city Taxi and Limousine Commission head and transportation expert Matthew Daus joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Also…Tesla, VW and even Brexit! All on Episode 98 of Smart Driving Cars.”
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 97 - Michael Sena’69
March 28, F. Fishkin, “The Future Networked Car? From Sweden, The Dispatcher publisher, Michael Sena, joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for the latest edition of Smart Driving Cars. Plus …the Boeing story has much to do with autonomous vehicles and more. Tune in and subscribe.”
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 82 -Intel, Sciarappo & Jitsik, Loeb
F. Fishkin, Jan. 9, “One of the top chip makers in the world and a start up. Intel’s strategic marketing director for autonomous driving Jill Sciarappo and the founder of Jitsik, Dr. Helen Loeb join co-hosts Alain Kornhauser of Princeton University and Fred Fishkin for Episode 82 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast from CES.” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 81 -nVIDIA, Shapiro & Local Motors / Olli, Hodge
F. Fishkin, Jan. 9, “How NVIDIA is paving the way for self driving cars and a new OLLI automated transport from Local Motors. NVIDIA’s Senior Director for Automotive, Danny Shapiro and Kurtis Hodge of Local Motors join co-hosts Alain Kornhauser of Princeton University and Fred Fishkin for another edition of Smart Driving Cars from CES 2019..”
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 75 - PAVE; Nantel, Erlich, Riccobono
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F. Fishkin, Jan. 9, “From CES in Las Vegas, a new industry organization, PAVE, is formed. Partners for Automated Vehicle Education. And some founding members join co-hosts Alain Kornhauser of Princeton University and Fred Fishkin for an on site discussion. Guests include National Safety Council VP Kelly Nantel, Voyage VP Justin Erlich and National Federation of the Blind President Mark Riccobono.” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 71-Nader’55 F. Fishkin, Dec. 13, “When it comes to self driving cars, Ralph Nader says “Not so fast.” The renowned political activist and author takes the government and the industry to task in a super sized Episode 71 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast. Join Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that and more!” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 69 - Chunka Mui
F. Fishkin, Nov 29, “What will it take for driverless vehicles to become a leading form of transportation? Futurist and author Chunka Mui joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for Episode 69 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast. Plus…Waymo, GM, Amazon and more. Tune in and subscribe! “
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 68 - Dick Mudge
F. Fishkin, Nov 22, “The insurance industry hears about the outlook for automated vehicles. Co-author Dick Mudge joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for Episode 68 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast. Plus…Uber, GM Cruise, Waymo, VW and more. Tune in and subscribe!” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 66 - Bishop & Zimmerman
F. Fishkin, Nov 8, “Daimler is partnering with Bosch to bring an autonomous ride hailing service to San Jose next year. In this edition, the Director of Engineering at Bosch joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin to outline how it will work. Plus Richard Bishop joins us fresh from an International Task Force on Vehicle Highway Automation in Denmark. And more!” Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 65 - Bernard Soriano, CA DMV F. Fishkin, Nov 1, “California gives Waymo the green light for fully driverless vehicle testing on public roads and the state’s deputy director of the Department of Motor Vehicles, Bernard Soriano, joins the Smart Driving Cars podcast with the no nonsense details. Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin explore that and more. Tune in and subscribe!”
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 58-Keith Code,Motorcycles
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!”
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 55-Larry Burns, Autonomy
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”
Recent Highlights of:
Society of Actuaries Research Brief Impact of COVID-19
D. Hall, Mar 25, “… The result in late March 2020 has been one where a confluence of risks has come together. Additional operational and financial risks may emerge as additional events compound on the current situation. Actuaries will be watching for any additional risk events that layer on to the current environment, especially ones that may cause additional property, mortality and health risks such as catastrophic weather events. Morbidity, mortality, asset/liability management and operational risks are all a part of the initial and evolving story. This update to the Society of Actuaries Research Brief has been constructed to highlight some of the key continuing and new features of the pandemic all around the world and contemplate the risks for the actuarial profession to consider in their work…” Read more Hmmmm… This is one of the best reports that I have seen and will be updated every 10 days or so. A good summary of the materials, podcasts and other good sources are here:
https://www.soa.org/resources/newsroom/covid-19-updates/#research
https://www.soa.org/resources/research-reports/2020/impact-coronavirus/
ECDPC Daily data GitHub Covid19 data
Alain
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Starsky Robotics Failed. Does That Mean Automated Trucking Is Dead?
R. Bishop, Mar 24, “I met Stefan Seltz-Axmacher for the first time in November 2015 at the Florida Automated Vehicles Summit. Not long after, we met at the Blue Danube coffee shop in Alameda, CA so he could tell me about his vision for Starsky Robotics. When he energetically described his remote-driving-for-trucks approach, I was skeptical. “Remote driving is hard,” I said. “The military has struggled with this for years. Its harder than it looks.” On the technical side, latency for secure communications is challenging. On the operational side, re-creating enough on-road reality (situational awareness) for a remote driver is difficult when going for the high levels of safety needed. Seltz-Axmacher remained bullish on the approach and at that time went on to found Starsky Robotics as one of the earliest truck AV startups, later closing a $16.5M Series A funding round in March 2018, and then hauling freight while developing both remote and automated driving ability. Initially, Starsky’s concept was all about remote driving for first/last mile. They later expanded their offering to include fully automated highway driving on limited freight corridors.
Now, Starsky has
become the first
casualty within a
crowded truck
automation space,
and Seltz-Axmacher
has provided us with
an intriguing
post-mortem in a
recent Medium post.
Most of the media
coverage I've seen
has acted as echo
chambers for
Seltz-Axmacher's
perspective. Here I
offer a counterpoint
based on my longtime
involvement in truck
automation plus
discussions with
many others in the
truck Automated
Driving Systems
(ADS) startup space,
many of them irate
at what they see as
unfounded assertions
made in the original
post. My sources
tell me that because
Seltz-Axmacher
hasn't experienced
their technology nor
been briefed on
their
technical/safety
approach, he has no
basis to make
sweeping claims
about the entire
industry...." [Read more](https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbishop1/2020/03/24/starsky-robotics-failed-does-that-mean-automated-trucking-is-dead/#51d50d840c84) Hmmmm... [Listen to PodCast 148](https://soundcloud.com/smartdrivingcar/smart-driving-cars-episode-148).
or/and [Watch us on YouTube](https://youtu.be/VkzPm5GwEz4).
Alain
Waymo suspends robotaxi service except for its truly driverless vehicles K. Korosec, Mar. 17, “Waymo said Tuesday it is pausing operations of Waymo One, a service in the Phoenix area that allows the public to hail rides in self-driving vehicles with trained human safety operators behind the wheel, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Waymo is also halting testing on public roads in California.
However, Waymo will keep
some operations up and
running, notably its
truly driverless
vehicles, which don't
require a human safety
driver, according to an
announcement on its
website Tuesday. These
driverless vehicles are
used in the Phoenix area
as part of Waymo's early
rider program that lets
vetted members of the
public hail a ride..."
[Read more](https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/17/waymo-suspends-robotaxi-service-except-for-its-truly-driverless-vehicles/)
Yippie!!!
Unfortunately, the
latest is not so
good... [Waymo has suspended all services, including the driverless.](https://waymo.com/coronavirus)
Poopie!!! Alain
A. Hawkins, Mar. 13,
"Waymo,Waymo, the
self-driving unit of
Alphabet, says it will
keep operating its fleet
of roughly 600
self-driving taxis in
Arizona during the novel
coronavirus outbreak. But
the safety drivers who
monitor the autonomous
taxis are concerned that
they are being put in
harm's way.
Waymo is "strongly
encouraging" its full-time
employees without
"business critical" tasks
to work from home. Its
safety drivers, who are
employed by a French
transit company called
Transdev North America
that has a multiyear
contract with Waymo, are
still mostly required to
come into work, The Verge
has learned. Transdev
appears to be following
guidelines set by the
Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
(CDC) by stepping up the
frequency of its cleanings
and disinfections. But
drivers tell The Verge
that the Waymo vendor is
ignoring recommendations
about social distancing.
"It feels like the drivers
are treated like second
class citizens, having to
report to work and serve
'hails' while the
full-time employees are
required to work from home
to stay safe," said a
Waymo driver who requested
anonymity in order to
speak freely. "Safety for
some."..." [Read more](https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/13/21178375/waymo-self-driving-car-coronavirus-covid19-intel-arizona)
Hmmmm... I thought
that Waymo had
started offering
rides without safety
drivers in
Chandler???? I
guess, they do it in
a "smaller"
Operational Design
Domain (ODD) and
they are trying to
expand that ODD by
operating with
safety drivers for
trip originating and
or terminating
outside that
original "smaller"
ODD.
Anyway… I often use the elevator to try to understand autonomousTaxis… driverless mobility machines. Will we look back to this complaint by attendants as the turning point which hasten Waymo’s operation of its vehicles without attendants on-board much as the elevator operator’s strike in NYC in September 1945 hasten the deployment of automated elevators (see Pushing the right Buttons)? As I’ve been writing, the biggest challenge of Uber/Lyft is management of its drivers. It looks like Waymo is experiencing the same challenges with its attendants. Moreover, a NECESSARY condition on economic viability is safely operating without a driver/attendant. We may look back and credit COVID-19 as hastening Waymo’s deployment of driverless mobility for all. This may be COVID-19’s only positive contribution to society. Alain
March 6, 2020
Call to Action on Children in Autonomous Vehicles Feb. 2020, “The Blue Ribbon Panel on Children in Autonomous Vehicles is calling on developers of autonomous vehicles (AVs) to ensure that AVs are engineered, deployed and marketed to protect the unique needs of child passengers. Developers are broadly defined to include original equipment manufacturers, non-original equipment manufacturers, as well as designers of component systems such as LIDAR, chip or satellite manufacturers, and others building key components of AVs.
AVs must be developed,
regulations upgraded and
laws passed to ensure
children will be properly
restrained, have the highest
level of protection in a
crash, and can be
appropriately supervised
during a trip. This panel
believes it is imperative
that minor children never be
transported without
appropriate supervision by a
parent, guardian or
caregiver until best
practices are adopted.
We're asking developers to
commit to the following
actions: ... " [Read more](https://www.safekids.org/kids-autonomous-vehicles/blue-ribbon-panel/call-to-action)
Hmmmm... Given that
one of the largest
mobility marginalized
groups are individuals
that are too young to
drive, including the
very young that
require supervision as
well as those that are
old enough to ride
alone, this focus
group is very
important and very
pertinent. Alain
February 28, 2020
NTSB slams Tesla, Apple and regulators over a fatal Autopilot crash
R. Mitchell, Feb. 25, “The nation’s top safety investigator slammed Tesla on Tuesday for failing to take adequate measures to prevent “foreseeable abuse” of its Autopilot driver-assistance technology, in a hearing into the fatal 2018 crash of a Tesla Model X SUV in Mountain View, Calif.
The National Transportation
Safety Board said 38-year-old
Walter Huang, an Apple
software engineer, had
Autopilot engaged in his 2018
Tesla Model X and was playing
a video game on his iPhone
when the car crashed into a
defective safety barrier on
U.S. Highway 101.The board
also blamed the highway safety
arm of the U.S. Department of
Transportation for failing to
properly regulate rapidly
evolving robot-car
technology.... The board
adopted[a long list of measures](https://t.co/mEFsCDf1dB)
meant to reduce such accidents
as "partially automated
driving" technologies become
more popular in new
vehicles.... Sumwalt made
clear the Mountain View crash
was not an isolated incident,
but illustrative of the safety
issues involved as humans and
robot systems increasingly
share the driving, not just in
Teslas but in vehicles from
all manufacturers. "It's time
to stop enabling drivers in
any partially automated
vehicle to pretend that they
have driverless cars," he
said.
……. the Model X drove straight down the middle of a “gore lane,” a white-striped zone where cars aren’t supposed to go,” … It is clear from the images that the gore area was NOT white-striped as is supposed to be and the lane markings are badly worn. Why didn’t NTSB fault the CA DoT for its poor maintenance and marking practices. CA DoT needs to be severely reprimanded. “ … a Toyota Prius crashed into it 11 days earlier…” to what extent did NTSB investigate the Prius crash. It didn’t have autoPilot, so that’s not the common factor. I suspect that the confusing lane markings and the lack of striping is the root cause… “ … The car’s collision avoidance system did not detect the crash barrier.” … I suspect that this is NOT true. The system detected the stationary object, but the coded logic disregards stationary objects (classifies them as false alarms) because false positives are too likely. NTSB made a similar error in the Joshua Brown crash where the system didn’t mis-identify the stationary trailer ahead as being background sky, but instead classified the stationary object in the lane ahead as a false positive . NTSB investigators have failed to ask the right questions in these investigations…
" ....The car's
forward collision warning
system did not provide an
alert, and the automatic
braking system did not
activate."...
Again, the
system
classified
stationary
objects in the
lane ahead as
phantom
objects and
disregards
them. Once
disregarded,
there is no
reason to
initiate a
warning or
apply
Emergency
Brakes.
Yipes!
[Read more](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-02-25/tesla-autopilot-crash-hearing)
Hmmmm... Hopefully this
will curtail the
misbehavior in the use
of these systems. The
Self-driving systems
require constant adult
supervision. I suspect
that NHTSA will place
extraordinarily onerous
regulations on
personally owned
self-driving cars that
will effectively ban the
ability to sleep, play
video games, text or
otherwise be
non-vigilant in all
non-driverless
vehicles. Driverless
vehicles will be
required to be operated
and maintained by a
responsible fleet
manager and not have any
straight forward way for
a human to drive them.
Certainly no steering
wheel or pedals. I
expect that they'll also
ban the use of
Stupid-Summon-like
systems outside of one's
own personal property.
They should. Alain
February 15, 2020
“Urbs,” “Burbs,” and the Immigration Locomotive
J. Hughes, Feb 2020, “Even more so than the nation, the broad fourstate, 35-county metropolitan region centered on New York City (figure 1) is becoming afflicted by a condition of demographic stagnation. While the United States has been experiencing the lowest population growth rates since the Great Depression, the region has only recently (2016–2018) slipped into absolute population decline, spawned by domestic outmigration. The major counterforce forestalling a demographic catastrophe has been positive international migration. Immigration has become the primary source of population growth—the demographic locomotive. Without it, the region would have to bear fully the economic consequences of what has become a virtual domestic population hemorrhage—a vast exodus of regional residents moving to the rest of the country. This is just one dimension of endemic demographic change that has swept the post–Great Recession world….
The second new reset is a turnaround of the pattern evidenced in the 2010–2016 period, when population growth in the “urbs” surpassed that of the “burbs.” After dominating growth early in the decade (2010–2016), the core—the urban heart of the metropolitan region encompassing New York City and three adjacent counties in New Jersey—suddenly slipped into decline post-2016, causing the region as a whole to lose population. This is the latest transformation in what has become a transmillennial demographic roller coaster ride… “ Read more Hmmmm… Most interesting Demographic Dynamic. A must read. Alain
February 7, 2020
[NHTSA Grants Nuro Exemption Petition for Testing Low-Speed Driverless Vehicle](https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nuro-exemption-low-speed-driverless-vehicle)
January 31, 2020
2020 Hyundai Sonata stars in Super Bowl ad all about ‘Smaht Pahk’ S. Szymkowski, Jan 27, “Hyundai is going all in on Boston accents and the 2020 Sonata for its Super Bowl advertisement. As is often the trend these days, the ad made its debut on Monday less than a week before the big game, but it’s quite a clever spot….” Read more Hmmmm… This is as irresponsible of Hyundai as StupidSummon is for Tesla. It may even be more irresponsible because Hyundai hasn’t included the over-the-air-information system that allows them to monitor its use. Having the car do stuff without an alert and attentive driver in the driver’s seat implies liability on them (their system) if something bad happens. Plus, squeezing a car into a parking place when the people can’t get into the adjacent cars is not the smartest move unless you’ve also made the Hyundai key proof. There will be retaliation. Alain
The Disengagement Myth Kyle Vogt, Jan 17, “In a few weeks the California DMV will release disengagements data from Cruise and other companies who test AVs on public roads. This data is really great for giving the public a sense of what’s happening on the roads. Unfortunately, it has also been used by the media and others to compare technology from different AV companies or as a proxy for commercial readiness. Since it’s the only publicly available metric, I don’t really blame them for using it. But it’s woefully inadequate for most uses beyond those of the DMV. The idea that disengagements give a meaningful signal about whether an AV is ready for commercial deployment is a myth. …“ Read more Hmmmm… Amen! This is a MUST read. As with everything, details matter. It is true that figures don’t lie, but but it is easy to game systems such that figures, without the underlying details, do lie. As Kyle points out, there are important details associated with disengagements. These need to be well understood for disengagements to be a proxy for safety and market readiness. The when, where and associated details of each disengagement is critically important if the objective is safety and market readiness.
What is also most important here is the underlying objective of the companies doing the tests and reporting the data. As has happened in our secondary education where students are taught what is in and how to take the SATs rather than just learn. The objective is not learning , but getting 800s on the SATs so that they can get into ‘Princeton’. This is perpetuated by the ‘Princetons’ of this world that don’t look into the details of the student’s academic qualities and capabilities. In the academic world, we know these students as ‘box checkers’, gamers of the college admission process. The gaming is continued by the ‘banks and med schools’ that use simplistic GPA (Grade Point Average, aka ‘disengagements’) cutoffs. The ‘box checkers’ then take ‘underwater basket weaving’ courses and become grade grubbers. It is lazy and irresponsible to use simplistic measures as proxies to very complex concepts such as intelligence, creativity, compatibility, and all the other details that make a good student, a good employee, a good citizen, a good mobility system.
In our case, testing is assumed to be about safety and market readiness; however, for some, it may be about trying to “make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” or “putting lipstick on the pig”. It is easy to game the metric ‘Disengagements’ by simply testing in easy places, under easy conditions, instead of really trying to find the corner/edge cases that you don’t know in places and conditions of the Operational Design Domain that you are actually going to serve and make a business out of all of this technology; rather than just trying to get good press, or flipping it to someone else or putting it on an academic self. The details would readily divulge the real objective of the company doing the testing.
I hope that Kyle, in his next post, will divulge what he, GM’s lawyers and GM’s board are requiring of his system for each of them to sign off and begin to operate an economically viable mobility service to the general public in some ODD. Each will demand that it be safe. The board will also demand that it be profitable. What details are they requesting that will make each comfortable signing on the bottom line? Alain
Intel’s Mobileye has a plan to dominate self-driving—and it might work
###
Hmmmm…
Reflections
A. Kornhauser, Jan 12, Hmmmm… Self-driving cars are hot and the OEMs are responding. I’m about to buy a new Subaru Outback and EyeSightis standard. It is no longer just AutoPilot or expensive options that car salesmen don’t sell. Car companies, as reflected in what is in showrooms and what was promoted at CES, have realized the comfort and convenience of Self-driving technology (cars that have a lot of the Safe-driving car features but also enable you to take your feet off the pedals and hands off the wheel at least for short periods of time. These technologies are really becoming the ‘chrome and fins’ that sell cars to individuals in the 2020s. The momentum is all behind that happening and there is little Washington or Trenton or Princeton Council can do about it. Hopefully part of that momentum will be to make these systems actually work well, especially the Automated Emergency Braking Systems (MUST quit assuming that all stationary objects in the lane ahead can be passed under and consequently each is disregarded. As Tesla is finding out, sometimes those objects are parked firetrucks.) and begin to put hard limits on over-speeding, tailgating and use while driver is impaired. Self-driving cars are unfortunately going to lead to substantial urban sprawl, increased VMT, increased congestion and do nothing to help the energy and pollution challenges of our addiction to the personal automobile. Only ‘Waymo-style Driverless’ (autonomousTaxis, (aTaxis)) tuned to entice ride-sharing can potentially stem the tide of ever more personal car ownership and ever expanding urban sprawl. Alain
January 6, 2020
Back
A. Kornhauser, Jan. 6, Hmmmm… I’m in rehab and hope to go home on Wednesday morning. Thank you to so many of you for all the good wishes and prayers. They each helped. I’m looking to making a full recovery. Remember, if you don’t feel well, get evaluated by a doctor. I was totally clueless about what hit me from out of nowhere. Alain
November 30, 2019 [Chandler unveils drop-off, pick-up zone for self-driving cars](https://ktar.com/story/2852028/chandler-unveils-drop-off-pick-up-zone-for-self-driving-cars/) G. Zetino, Nov. 25, ""It's about
to get easier for self-driving cars to drop off
and pick up passengers in Chandler. The city
of Chandler, in partnership with Waymo, on
Friday unveiled the nation's first drop-off and
pick-up zone for autonomous ride-hailing cars.
Read more Hmmmm… The iconic image:
autonomousTaxi (aTaxi) stop facilitating true ride-sharing to any destination within the autonomous transit system’s Operational Design Domain. The first of what may well become a half million or so others. Each strategically located to be less that a 5 minute walk from essentially any of the billion or so person trip ends that are made on any typical day in the USA (outside of Manhattan (whose subway stations provide the comparable accessibility). Twenty million or so aTaxi vehicles could readily provide on-demand, share-ride mobility from these ~0.5M aTaxi stops. Provided would be essentially the same 24/7 on-demand level-of-service as we do for ourselves with our own conventional automobiles; however, this mobility would be affordably achieved using half the energy, creating half the pollution, eliminating essentially all the congestion, doubling conventional transit ridership and making such improved mobility available to those who today can’t or wish not to drive a conventional automobile. This is a MAJOR 1st. Alain
November 23, 2019 [Self-driving car capital? One senator thinks it can be Florida](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article237625484.html) R. Wile, Nov 22, "Sen. Jeff
Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) had just finished
serving in the Army, and was looking to make a
name for himself in Tallahassee as a junior
representative. He came across a talk given by
the founder of Google's driverless car project.
He quickly realized the potential of
self-driving cars to transform many aspects of
daily life. Ever since, he has made it his
mission to turn Florida into what he calls "an
angel investor" in automation policy. "We want
to have policies in place for this technology to
flourish," Brandes said in an interview at the
7th Annual Florida Automated Vehicles conference
in Miami, which concluded Friday.
Brandes has drawn headlines in the tech community for filing legislation allowing virtually any automated vehicle on Florida’s roads; this summer, he helped make Florida one of the first states to make AVs without a human back-up safety driver street legal.
Among the state's advantages Brandes points to
that he believes makes it ideal for AV
companies: no snow, which makes lane markings
more visible. That also means less road
construction in general...." [Read more](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article237625484.html) Hmmmm... Congratulations
Jeff!!! It was a great AV Summit and
congratulations on creating such a
Welcoming environment and intelligently
shaping the birth of this technology.
What you've done is enable Florida to
begin to enhance mobility and the quality
of life for all in Florida and especially
those who can most benefit from these
mobility machines. It was most impressive
to witness the enthusiasm for nurturing
the many aspects of
this technology from Florida's Governor,
Miami's Mayor, Fl DoT's Commissioner, the
heads of the toll road authorities,
planning agencies and educational
institutions. Most impressive was Ford's
comment that their autonomousTaxi efforts
are focused on developing driverless
technology and intend to operate
it to deliver Mobility-as-a-Service in
Florida, rather than sell the technology
to individual consumers. I applaud that
approach and hope that Ford will look to
also bringing some of those vehicles to
New Jersey so that we can begin to reap
the benefits of this technology. What
you've accomplished in Florida is THE
"best practice" for us to emulate in New
Jersey. Congratulations. Alain
November 16, 2019
November 1, 2019
An Update on the Outlook for Automated Vehicle Systems
18, 2019
Waymo to customers: “Completely driverless Waymo cars are on the way”
Your Tesla Can Now Pick You Up R. Mitchell, Oct. 4, “ Smart Summon is for parking lot use. But drivers have other ideas.
Tesla unleashed the latest twist in driverless car technology last week, raising more questions about whether autonomous vehicles are outracing public officials and safety regulators.
…Using a smartphone, a person can now command a Tesla to turn itself on, back out of a parking space and drive to the smartphone holder’s location - say at a curb in front of a Costco store..” Read more Hmmmm…. Russ, great article. A must read!
Elon, please stop. StupidSummon was a bad Valley-entitled idea before you released it. Now that it is out there it will ruin all that is good about Tesla, AutoPilot and Driverless cars. The shorters are going to have a field day.
While you are at it also remove all of the DistractTainment add ons or limit their use when AutoPilot is NOT on and drivers are engaged in driving. Just go back to V09! Along the way also get the Automated Emergency Braking (AEB) system to work properly (See NTSBbelow). To do that, maybe you should take a serious look at Velodyne’s new Tesla LiDAR. It may be able to tell you if the stationary object in the lane ahead is high enough above the road surface before your AEB system decides to disregard it. Then Tesla’s may stop decapitating drivers.
If you don’t remove StupidSummon then at least be sure to limit its use to the Tesla owner’s own private property by responsible users. (You know the GPS coordinates of where each owner lives, so you can geofence it. You also know each irresponsible use (You get the videos). Irresponsible use (use in the violation of the conditions spelled out in the user’s manual) should void its future availability in that car unless proper amend are made. If not, then insurance companies should clearly state that insuring the use of this feature requires a substantial additional premium; else, you’re not covered. Courts should view that use of this feature implies premeditated harm and demonstrates an extreme indifference to human life. Parking Lot owners should install signs forbidding the use of this feature on their property to protect themselves from being dragged into the claims process.
What is most disturbing about this feature is that its only value is to enhance the self-perceived manhood of Entitled Silicon Valley XXs and may well cause the public sector to over react and ruin to opportunity of responsible driverless mobility to substantially enhance the quality-of-life of those who can’t or choose not to drive a car, enhance the environment, subdue our energy use and reduce congestion. Elon, shame on you 28, 2019 Public forum will explore possibility of transit on demand in Princeton K. Knapp, Sept 22, “What would it take to make Princeton an accessible community for all, even those who cannot or choose not to own or drive a car? Princeton Future will explore the question at a public forum from 9 a.m. to noon on Sept. 28 in the community room at the Princeton Public Library.
Princeton Future is a non-profit community group that
studies issues related to planning, development, and
affordability. Speakers will discuss the capabilities of a
transit-on-demand system where small, driverless shuttles
could be summoned by a smart phone app to a location
within walking distance of a resident's home...." [Read more](https://planetprinceton.com/2019/09/22/public-forum-will-explore-possibility-of-transit-on-demand-in-princeton/) Hmmmm.... Listen to a summary of the
event in [Episode 126 of the SmartDrivingCars PodCasts](https://soundcloud.com/smartdrivingcar/smart-driving-cars-episode-126). See
below for other info. Alain
2019 [Waymo's robotaxi pilot surpassed 6,200 riders in its first month in California](https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/16/waymos-robotaxi-pilot-surpassed-6200-riders-in-its-first-month-in-california/)
2019
Autonomous Vehicles: A View from Seniors
Automated vehicles could provide mobility to the ‘mobility disadvantaged’
FORM S-1 REGISTRATION STATEMENT Lyft, Inc. Autonomous Vehicles Feb 25, “ This workshop brought together experts in cyber-physical systems, machine learning, transportation engineering, and applied mathematics, both from academia and from industry, to help bridge the technical gaps and to facilitate exchange and collaboration across disciplinary boundaries…“ Read more Hmmmm…. Slides and videos of the presentations are available here. In particular, see..:
-
Andrea Censi: “Liability, Ethics, and Culture-Aware Behavior Specification using Rulebooks” Abstract, Slides, video (via click on Schedule 11:30 Monday;
-
Adam Oberman:”Generalization and adversarial robustness of Regularized Deep Neural Networks “ Abstract, Slides, video (via click on Schedule 11:30 Tuesday);
-
Alain Kornhauser: “Market Forces and Market Potential for SmartDrivingCars (aka Autonomous Vehicles) “ Slides,video, (via click on Schedule 11:15 Tuesday);
-
Hani Mahmassani: “Shared Autonomous Fleet Services and Multimodal Urban Mobility: Optimization, Prediction and Dynamic Network Modeling “ Abstract, video, (via click on Schedule 4:00 Thursday);
Roman"">
Facing opposition, Amazon scraps New York HQ2 plans
Market Framework and Outlook for Automated Vehicle Systems
New Jersey Pending Legislation re: Autonomous Vehicles
Oct 16, Establishes fully autonomous vehicle pilot program A4573 Sponsors: Zwicker (D16); Benson (D14)
Oct 16, EstablishesNew Jersey Advanced Autonomous Vehicle Task Force AJR164 Sponsors: Benson (D14); Zwicker (D16); Lampitt (D6)
Oct 16, [Directs MVC to establish driver's license endorsement for autonomous vehicles A4541](https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/A5000/4541_I1.PDF) Sponsors: Zwicker (D16); Benson (D14);
Lampitt (D6)..." [Read more](https://orfe.princeton.edu/%7Ealaink/SmartDrivingCars/PDFs/NVIDIA-Self-Driving-Safety-Report-2018.pdf) Hmmmm....
Things are beginning to move in New
Jersey. Alain
Audio Recording of Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology - Monday, October 22, 2018 - 10:00:00 AM
Roman"">Tuesday, June 12, 2018 [CPUC AUTHORIZES PASSENGER CARRIERS TO PROVIDE FREE TEST RIDES IN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES WITH VALID CPUC AND DMV PERMITS](http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M215/K467/215467801.PDF)
Roman"">Sunday, June 3, 2018
Waymo’s fleet of self-driving minivans is about to get 100 times bigger
PRELIMINARY REPORT: HIGHWAY: HWY18MH010 (Uber/Herzberg Crash)
May 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](http://orfe.princeton.edu/%7Ealaink/SmartDrivingCars/PDFs/NTSBuberPreliminaryMay2018.pdf) Hmmmm.... Uber must
believe that its systems are better at avoiding
Collisions and Automated Emergency Braking than
Volvo's. At least this gets
Volvo "off the hook".
“…According to data obtained from the self-driving system, the system first registered radar and LIDAR observations of the pedestrian about 6 seconds before impact, when the vehicle was traveling at 43 mph…” (= 63 feet/second) So the system started “seeing an obstacle when it was 63 x 6 = 378 feet away… more than a football field, including end zones!
“…As the vehicle and pedestrian paths converged, the self-driving system software classified the pedestrian as an unknown object, as a vehicle, and then as a bicycle with varying expectations of future travel path…” (NTSB: Please tell us precisely when it classified this “object’ as a vehicle and be explicit about the expected “future travel paths.” Forget the path, please just tell us the precise velocity vector that Uber’s system attached to the “object”, then the “vehicle”. Why didn’t the the Uber system instruct the Volvo to begin to slow down (or speed up) to avoid a collision? If these paths (or velocity vectors) were not accurate, then why weren’t they accurate? Why was the object classified as a “Vehicle” ?? When did it finally classify the object as a “bicycle”? Why did it change classifications? How often was the classification of this object done. Please divulge the time and the outcome of each classification of this object. In the tests that Uber has done, how often has the system mis-classified an object as a “pedestrian”when the object was actually an overpass, or an overhead sign or overhead branches/leaves that the car could safely pass under, or was nothing at all?? (Basically, what are the false alarm characteristics of Uber’s Self-driving sensor/software system as a function of vehicle speed and time-of-day?)
“…At 1.3 seconds before impact, (impact speed was 39mph = 57.2 ft/sec) the self-driving system determined that an emergency braking maneuver was needed to mitigate a collision” (1.3 x 57.2 = 74.4 ft. which is about equal to the braking distance. So it still could have stopped short.
“…According to Uber, emergency braking maneuvers are not enabled while the vehicle is under computer control, to reduce (eradicate??) the potential for erratic vehicle behavior. …” NTSB: Please describe/define potential and erratic vehicle behavior Also please uncover and divulge the design & decision process that Uber went through to decide that this risk (disabling the AEB) was worth the reward of eradicating “ “erratic vehicle behavior”. This is fundamentally BAD design. If the Uber system’s false alarm rate is so large that the best way to deal with false alarms is to turn off the AEB, then the system should never have been permitted on public roadways.
“…The vehicle operator is relied on to intervene and take action. “ Wow! If Uber’s system fundamentally relies on a human to intervene, then Uber is nowhere near creating a Driverless vehicle. Without its own Driverless vehicle Uber is past “Peak valuation”.
“…The system is not designed to alert the operator. “ That may be the only good part of Uber’s design. In a Driverless vehicle, there is no one to warn, so don’t waste your time. If it is important enough to warn, then it is important enough for the automated system to start initiating things to do something about it. Plus, the Driver may not know what to do anyway. This is pretty much as I stated in PodCast 30 and the 24 edition of May 10, 2018 Experts say video of Uber’s self-driving car killing a pedestrian suggests its technology may have fail
Don’t Worry, Driverless Cars Are Learning From Grand Theft Auto
Extracting Cognition out of Images for the Purpose of Autonomous Driving
Adam Jonas’ View on Autonomous Cars Video similar to part of Adam’s Luncheon talk @ 2015 Florida Automated Vehicle Symposium on Dec 1. Hmmm … Watch Video especially at the 13:12 mark. Compelling; especially after the 60 Minutes segment above! Also see his TipRanks. Alain
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