2020-04-10
year of SmartDrivingCars
Autonomous shuttles help transport COVID-19 tests at Mayo Clinic in Florida
Press release, April, 2, “For the first time in the U.S., autonomous vehicles are being used to transport medical supplies and COVID-19 tests at Mayo Clinic in Florida.
At a time when health care resources and staff are
stretched thin, the Jacksonville Transportation
Authority (JTA) has partnered with Beep and NAVYA to
use autonomous vehicles to safely transport COVID-19
tests collected at a drive-thru testing location at
Mayo Clinic in Florida.
"This development is a historic moment for the
Jacksonville Transportation Authority," says Nathaniel
P. Ford, Sr., CEO of Jacksonville Transportation
Authority. "Along with our partners, Beep, NAVYA and
Mayo Clinic, we are leveraging our learnings from
three years of testing autonomous vehicles through our
Ultimate Urban Circulator program. Our innovative team
saw this as an opportunity to use technology to
respond to this crisis in Northeast Florida and
increase the safety of COVID-19 testing."..." [Read more](https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/autonomous-shuttles-help-transport-covid-19-tests-at-mayo-clinic-in-jacksonville/) Hmmmm... While not mentioned in
the article, they are operating
Driverlessly... without attendant or safety
driver. Yea!!! (People aren't being moved,
just goods and the Operational Design Domain is
constrained, but it it is driverless none the
less!) Listen watch more on [Pod-Cast_151](https://soundcloud.com/smartdrivingcar/smart-driving-cars-episode-151)/[Zoom-Cast_151](https://youtu.be/YAuqHS5W53c).
Alain
Smart Driving Cars Pod-Cast Episode 151
###
F. Fishkin, April 9, “In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, fully autonomous, driverless vehicles are carrying medical supplies and Covid-19 tests to the Mayo Clinic in Florida. They’re provided by Beep and the CEO, Joe Moye, joins Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that, plus the latest from Nuro, Tesla and more.” “Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!”. Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay … Alain
Smart Driving Cars Xoom-Cast Episode 151 - Joe Moye
Video version… Watch Zoom-Cast 151 …. Alain
Note to readers…
The SDC eLetter is in its 8th year, the audio Pod-Casts are in their 3rd year and above is the link to the 4th video Zoom-Cast. Dick Mudge, Fred Fishkin, Jeremiah Liu and I have begun experimenting with extending the Zoom-Cast to include a live component, a Zoom-inar, to bring in some of your thoughts and comments in real time. These will need to be scheduled in advance and will require a pre-registration on your part. They will also require agreements on some acceptable behaviors by all involved as well as some funding sources to support the production costs. I’d love to have feedback from you as to the scope, viability and value to you of such an initiative. Please email me at alaink@princeton.edu with subject: Thoughts on SDC Zoom-inar. Thank you in advance for your contribution. Stay safe and healthy. We can make it through all of this and help others who are in need. Alain
Nuro gets the green light to test driverless delivery robots in California
A. Hawkins, April 7, “Nuro, the self-driving startup founded by two ex-Google engineers, was approved to test its driverless delivery robots on public roads in California. The company is the second to receive a driverless permit in the state.
Nuro, which has tested its driverless grocery
delivery service in Arizona and Texas, is authorized
to test two light-duty delivery vehicles in nine Bay
Area cities, according the California DMV. This
includes portions of the cities of Atherton, East
Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Menlo Park,
Mountain View, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, and Woodside.
The vehicles can't exceed 25 mph and are only
approved to operate in fair weather conditions on
streets with a speed limit of no more than 35 mph."
[Read more](https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/7/21212719/nuro-driverless-car-test-california-dmv-delivery) Hmmmm... Very nice. This is
a substantial step forward. The Ca DMV
announcement: [DMV Authorizes Nuro to Test Driverless Delivery Vehicles in Portion of Bay Area](https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/newsrel/2020/2020_16) Alain
Tesla sales in China hit record high during the pandemic, represent 25% of country’s EV sales
F. Lambert, April 9, “…We already knew that Tesla delivered 3,563 and 3,900 cars in January and February in China, but the March numbers are apparently the ones that made the difference.
The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) announced
today that Tesla delivered 10,160 vehicles in China
in March, the automaker's best results in a single
month ever.
Tesla managed the result in a month when the overall
passenger car sales in China, which is the biggest
auto market in the world, were down more than
40%...." [Read more](https://electrek.co/2020/04/09/tesla-sales-china-hit-record-high-pandemic-country-ev-sales/) Hmmmm... Pretty impressive.
Tesla's halo in China seems similar to the
iPhone's halo in year past. Alain
Tesla releases impressive look inside Gigafactory Shanghai, with its hundreds of robots
F. Lambert, April 8, "Tesla has released a video with
an impressive look inside Gigafactory Shanghai, which
is currently Tesla's only vehicle factory in
operation. The timing of Tesla's Gigafactory Shanghai
couldn't have been better for the automaker.
Not only did they manage to build the entire factory
and start production within about a year, but the
production also started before Tesla was forced to
shut down Fremont factory due to the coronavirus
pandemic. It resulted in Tesla at least being able to
produce some cars during the shutdown at its main
plant.
This wouldn't be possible without Tesla managing to
turn what was an agricultural field into a complex
factory on an incredible timeline. We've covered the
construction through drone videos posted by locals,
but we've rarely had the chance to take a look inside
the plant — where the really impressive work happens.
Today, we get our best look inside the factory, thanks
to Tesla releasing an official video in China:...." [Read more](https://electrek.co/2020/04/08/tesla-look-inside-gigafactory-shanghai-robots/) Hmmmm... Very impressive. [See video](https://youtu.be/hoGlLL0UmpQ).
Alain
Zoox, citing COVID-19 shutdown, lays off its autonomous vehicle backup drivers
A. Hawkins, April 6, “Zoox, the ambitious self-driving startup said to be worth over $3 billion, laid off almost all of its contract workers last week, including its backup drivers who ride around in the company’s autonomous vehicles. Around 120 people are said to be out of work….
“Zoox has every intention to resume testing and normal business practices, and will need your efforts in getting back on track,” the email said.” Read more Hmmmm… When they start laying off coders, then one can read something into this. Actually this is a good time to do a thorough upgrade of all the code so there really isn’t need to be testing physically right now. There is plenty to do in simulation which can all be done while “sheltering in place” (at least sort of and much easier than driving around.) So they have a good excuse to save some short term money. Alain
Self-Driving Cars Can Pave Way during COVID-19. Let’s do so in the U.S.
Blog, April 8, “Americans are wisely moving their daily lives to their homes during COVID-19 and following recommendations from public health officials to distance themselves from others. At the same time, these changes present hurdles as people seek to stock up on medical supplies, groceries, and other necessities without exposing themselves to this virus. Self-driving cars, or autonomous vehicles, can be a part of the American advantage in meeting this challenge—if Congress steps up…. “ Read more Hmmmm…Washington doesn’t have enough money to make this happen and should focus the money that it is printing to those that really need it. To make driverless cars happen all Washington needs to really do is to create a welcoming environment for these mobility machines and let the investment community do the rest. Driverless Mobility Machines have a viable business case.Alain
The COVID-19 Shared Mobility Action Plan A. Friedel, April 1, “With many countries in various levels of quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it comes as little surprise that the Shared Mobility sector has been hit particularly hard. Not only are most people staying home, but those who do need to travel are wary of using shared vehicles which could be harbingers for transmission. So, what are private service operators in this sector doing to keep business afloat, meet shifting demands and to even help those in need during this crisis? To answer these questions, Shared Mobility Expert Augustin Friedel is curating an extensive table that records the various actions taken by shared mobility actors around the world. The table effectively organises their responses into three primary categories:
1. Daily Operations
2. Adjustments to Increased Usage/Addressing New
User Groups
3. Help for Front Line Heroes/High Risk Groups
Within each of these categories, there are several
interesting trends which we have observed..." [Read more](https://urbanmobilitycompany.com/content/daily/the-covid-19-shared-mobility-action-plan) Hmmmm... Excellent
resource!! Thank you John Niles for alerting
me. Alain
N.Y.’s Changed Streets: In One Spot, Traffic Speeds Are Up 288%
W. Hu, April 9, “Traffic at New York City’s busiest bridges and tunnels has plunged nearly 60 percent.
Rush-hour speeds have soared 288 percent on one of
the city's most clogged arteries — the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway — to 52 miles per hour
from 13 m.p.h. Even the air is cleaner, with levels
of particulate matter, which contribute to health
problems including lung cancer and heart attacks,
plunging as much as 35 percent across the city.
The coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged New York
has essentially erased much of the traffic in the
country's largest city, easing the congestion that
has strangled the streets and has made it more
perilous for pedestrians and a growing army of
bicycle commuters.
And it has happened far more swiftly and drastically
than any measure New York's leaders have taken so
far to push cars off the streets, including a
congestion pricing plan that starting next year will
impose fees to drive into the busiest parts of
Manhattan....
Despite far fewer vehicles on the road, the city’s automated speed cameras issued 24,765 speeding tickets citywide on March 27, or nearly double the 12,672 tickets issued daily a month earlier, according to city data….” Read more Hmmmm… Unfortunately, none of this is really good news because of the enormous personal cost that so many are bearing to achieve congestion relief. Congestion is in fact good. Alain
What does our post-COVID-19 technology world look like?
M. Erickson, April 9, “… For the next year or so, we must focus on the recovery of manufacturing, supply chain, and delivery. New diagnostics and treatments will be the new medical normal. Flexibility will continue in many sectors.
Longer-term, we will move toward a new normal. What
might be different?
Here, I focus on the STEM (science, technology,
engineering, and math — including medicine) changes
that can help make our new normal a better world to
live in. " [Read more](https://medium.com/@mderickson209/what-does-our-post-covid-19-technology-world-look-like-dbcd0d729c48) Hmmmm...Somewhat extensive
list of changes, almost including the "kitchen
sink", which gives almost everyone an
opportunity to contribute. One of the glaring
shortcomings is good old fashioned DATA. We
somehow need to add a D to STEM. It is good
that M now includes MEDICINE. Maybe Math
needs to revert to DATA, its fundamental.
DATA has none of the romance of S, T, E and or
M but we all know... Garbage In yields Garbage
Out for S, T, E and M. It all starts with
good DATA. When it doesn't exist and is not
respected, you get the poop show that we have
today. Alain
Self-driving car LIDAR stalwart Velodyne sued for sacking a third of its staff claiming coronavirus was the cause
K. Quach, April 9, “ A key maker of Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors for self-driving cars unlawfully terminated more than 140 of its employees to shift jobs offshore, a lawsuit claims. Velodyne Lidar fired more than 33 per cent of its staff working at its headquarters based in San Jose, USA, we’re told. The layoffs came as a shock to more than 140 of its employees, who were only given one day’s notice, it is claimed.
The company blamed the layoffs on the coronavirus
outburst, but its employees argued the advanced-tech
biz is using the pandemic as an excuse to
conveniently slash its US workforce so that it can
shift more of its operations overseas to cut
costs...." [Read more](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/09/lidarr_velodyne_sacking/) Hmmmm...Ouch. It is a
hardware company and many may not be able to
work from home, but this is not pretty. Alain
Car dealers are desperate. Does that make it a good time to buy a vehicle online?
R. Mitchell, April 8, "New-car showrooms are closed.
Inventory is beyond bloated. Car dealers are bleeding
cash and ready to negotiate.
In other words, if you're blessed with good health and
you have a reasonable chance of keeping your job,
now's a good time to buy a car.
You'll have to shop from home — or wherever you're
sheltering in place. You'll need to be adept at online
shopping and ready to negotiate price by email or
phone. But negotiating power in favor of the buyer has
rarely been so lopsided...." [Read more](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-04-08/buying-car-online-dealers-coronavirus) Hmmmm... I backed off buying
that Subaru 2 months ago. Did I actually make a
good decision for the first time in my life.
I've so consistently bought high and sold low. ;-) Alain
Tesla announces pay cuts and worker furloughs
T. Lee, April 8, “Tesla announced Tuesday that salaried workers would take pay cuts of 10 percent or more through the end of June. Most hourly workers—many of whom haven’t been working since Tesla shut down its Fremont factory last month—are being formally furloughed, making them eligible to claim unemployment benefits. The changes take effect on April 13.
"We expect to resume normal production at our US
facilities on May 4, barring any significant
changes," the email from Tesla HR said. It said that
pay cuts and furloughs were a "shared sacrifice
across the company that will allow us to progress
during these challenging times."
Tesla is slashing pay for vice presidents by 30
percent and directors by 20 percent. Lower-level
salaried employees will see their pay fall by 10
percent. These are predominantly white-collar
workers who have been able to continue working from
home.
"Employees who cannot work at home and have not been
assigned to critical work onsite will be
furloughed," the email says. Furloughed employees
will continue to receive benefits, including health
insurance. And thanks to the recently passed $2.2
trillion coronavirus relief bill, workers will be
eligible for higher-than-usual unemployment
benefits. Tesla says that "for the vast majority of
furloughed employees, unemployment benefits will be
roughly equivalent to normal take home pay."... " [Read more](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/04/tesla-announces-pay-cuts-and-worker-furloughs/) Hmmmm... Certainly not a
Stupid thing for Tesla to do. I especially
like the shared sacrifices and the higher %
cut to VPs and Directors. 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 the envy of communities throughout the
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
VW releases video of insane heads-up display in ID.3 electric car
F. Lambert, April 3, "VW has released a series of videos
about some of the more interesting features of the ID.3
electric car, including an insane heads-up display....."
[Read more](https://electrek.co/2020/04/03/vw-heads-up-display-id-3-electric-car/')
Hmmmm... I've never been a fan of Heads Up
displays. Putting that stuff in our face all the
time is simply distracting and not at all cute.
Maybe OK if you are a fighter jet pilot that
shouldn't even be in harms way in the cockpit.
Instead the pilot should be in some bunker someplace
flying the plane remotely. But of course that
wouldn't be manly enough. Never mind. After driving
a car for a while does anyone ever turn on these
distracting in your face displays???? VW, you are
insane. [Don't bother seeing video](https://youtu.be/03n2H_EY2zA). Alain
Click-Bait
Calendar of
Upcoming Events:s
until Evening Oct. 20 -> Oct 22.
SmartDrivingCar Summit
Princeton University Princeton, NJ
On the More Technical Side
http://orfe.princeton.edu/~alaink/SmartDrivingCars/Papers/
###
##
Recent Podcasts
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 150 - Andrei Greenawalt
###
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 “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
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
###
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
###
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:
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
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
###
###
###
###
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
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](https://medium.com/cruise/the-disengagement-myth-1b5cbdf8e239) 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](https://medium.com/cruise/the-disengagement-myth-1b5cbdf8e239) 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
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
October 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 September 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
20, 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/)
17, 2019
Autonomous Vehicles: A View from Seniors
2019
Automated vehicles could provide mobility to the ‘mobility disadvantaged’ 2019
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
2018 [Market Framework and Outlook for Automated Vehicle Systems](https://www.dropbox.com/s/rbrei4tuxbh7fls/SocietyOfActuaries_market-framework-automated-vehicle2018.pdf?dl=0)
2018New
Jersey Pending Legislation re: Autonomous Vehicles Oct 16, [Establishes fully autonomous vehicle pilot program A4573](https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/A5000/4573_I1.PDF)
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 SmartDrivingCar, See below. 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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