Lance Eliot, April 28,
"Several self-driving car luminaries
assembled online via a Zoom-casted
battleground this week to undertake a
Lincoln-Douglas style debate about the
future of the Autonomous Vehicle (AV)
self-driving car industry and the advent
of AI-driven mobility.
Originally scheduled for one hour, the
dialogue and fielding of audience
questions prompted the superstars to keep
going, tackling many of the most vexing
and unsolved matters that underlie the
potential success of self-driving
vehicles, encompassing both autonomous
cars and autonomous trucks.
The lively discussion was civil and
polite, fortunately so in these times of
seemingly stark polarization and guttural
attacks during our contemporary public
discourse. Yet, even in the realm of
eloquent argumentation, at times the
gloves came off and there were some fierce
zingers and moments of rather piercing
cut-the-air-with-a-knife verbal
sparring..." Read
more Hmmmm... Lance,
Thank you for the kind and thorough
synopsis of our 1st Zoom-inar. We
were all pleased by the turnout,
interaction and substance. Alain
Video version... Watch
Zoom-Cast 154 .... Alain
D. Sperling, April 27, "This webinar
will focus on what transportation
solutions are available to combat these
trying times. Panelists will discuss
what strategies states, cities, transit
agencies, TNCs and others are taking to
address COVID-19. The session will begin
by introducing some insights into
suspected changes in travel behavior,
and continue with a discussion about how
we can plan for a future that will
enable climate resilient and equitable
communities. There will be a Q&A
following the presentation. ... " Read
more Hmmmm...
Excellent Webninar. Watch
and See
Slides .
Focused on conventional transit. Watch
and Listen to possible future
implications of Driverless
technology on post-Covid-19
transit in SmartDrivingCar
PodCast 154 with Dan Sperling
/ Zoom-Cast
154 with Dan Sperling.
C. Assis, April, 30, "Tesla Inc. late
Wednesday surprised Wall Street by
posting a first-quarter profit amid the
broad economic destruction wrought by
the coronavirus pandemic.
Tesla TSLA, +6.66% Chief Executive Elon
Musk kept the surprises going on a
post-results call with analysts, veering
off script to condemn the ongoing
restrictions put in place to curb the
spread of the virus.
Echoing his similar criticism on
Twitter, Musk called the orders an
“infringement of people’s rights” and
likened them to fascism....
First-quarter 2020 “was the first time
in our history that we achieved a
positive GAAP net income in the
seasonally weak first quarter. Despite
global operational challenges, we were
able to achieve our best first quarter
for both production and deliveries,”
Tesla said in its letter to investors."
Read
more Hmmmm... You
can't make up this stuff!
Drinking the Kool-Aid. Note very
important comment that Dan
Sperling made in Zoom-Cast 154.
Alain
Tech, April 28, "COVID-19 has had a
significant impact on the world,
affecting people’s lives and forcing
many businesses to suspend their
operations. At Waymo, we're actively
monitoring the situation, taking steps
to support our local communities, and
contributing to COVID-19 response
efforts. While Waymo has temporarily
suspended its on-the-road operations as
we put the health and safety of our
riders, partners, and employees first,
we are still driving our technology
forward with our work in simulation.
Gaining 100+ years of experience in one
day
Simulation is vital in the advancement
of self-driving technology. At Waymo,
one day in simulation is like driving
more than 100 years in the real world.
In simulation, we drive around 20
million miles a day,..." Read
more Hmmmm... I
commented about simulation in the
Zoom-inar. Major problem with
simulation is that it doesn't know
what it doesn't know. (Variational
analyses doesn't really get to
what it doesn't know.) You really
need to trip over it in the real
world. That is why what Tesla has
been collecting from its customers
is so valuable. Via crowd
sourcing, they 're getting close
to "seeing all that Mother Nature
can throw at the driving task".
Alain
K. Korosec, April 28, "Ford said
Tuesday it will delay until 2022 plans
to launch an autonomous vehicle service,
as the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted
the company to rethink its go-to-market
strategy.
The news was shared as part of Ford’s
quarterly earnings, which was released
after the market closed Tuesday. Ford
reported a $2 billion loss in the first
quarter compared to a profit of $1.1
billion in the same period last year.
The company warned that losses during
the second quarter will widen as the
COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt
its business.
Ford is a bit different from other
companies that have launched autonomous
vehicle pilots in the United States. The
automaker has been pursuing two parallel
tracks that were supposed to eventually
combine ahead of a planned commercial
launch in 2021. The automaker is testing
and homing in on what its AV business
model might look like, while separately
developing autonomous vehicle
technology...." Read
more Hmmmm... Not
surprising and actually an
opportunity to do it right.
Waiting another year to more
properly do something that is
expected to scale and provide
substantial quality-of-life
enhancements to many for many
years is not a bad idea!
It is a good idea.
Ford/Argo has, in
my view, been focused
appropriately on delivering
mobility-as-a-service affordably
by using driverless technology to
not only extract much of the labor
cost required to deliver mobility
but enable them to offer
high-quality, demand-responsive
mobility at scale and do it
profitably. This is something that
conventional transit hasn't been
able to do, ever. Taxis and
chauffeured services are too
expensive, therefore have always
been and will remain a niche
service. TNCs (Lyft/Uber) remain
somewhat affordable because they
depend on drivers that, at best,
make barely minimum wage,
something that is societally not
very desirable and can't scale
beyond the 1% or so oCCf trips
that they currently serve.
Conventional public transit, which
struggles to be relevant by
offering service along fixed
routes serving few locations
sporadically on a fixed infrequent
schedule. These service offerings
are designed to try to force
customers to adhere to the Transit
company's timetable in order to be
able to distribute their high
labor costs over as many users as
possible (in so doing attract very
few customers). It is the labor
cost that forces conventional
transit to offer infrequent
service along fixed routes serving
few locations. In places where
people live in only a few dense
places and "everything" they want
to go to exists at a few other
places, then conventional transit
works just fine, thank you.
Unfortunately, that's not the way
most people live nor are the
places that those people wish to
go concentrated in but a few
locations.
Once human labor
has been extracted from the
delivery of individual trips, then
the service can be focused at the
individual needs/desires, 24/7.
This lull allows Ford/Argo to come
to Trenton and position itself to
offer affordable mobility to all
throughout Trenton and position
itself to begin to scale
profitably by expanding to provide
mobility to all in Mercer County,
the rest of New Jersey, the
Philadelphia and New York
Metropolitan area and the entire
Northeast corridor. Not a bad
opportunity for Ford. In fact
it's a good idea, and as my
daughter Michelle likes to say...
"Try to only do things that are a
good idea!"Alain
S. Szymkowski, April 28,"There's a
reason some automakers are skipping
Level 3 partially automated driving
systems and aiming straight for Level 4,
and Audi's the latest marque to discover
the potential trouble the tech's rollout
may cause.
Automotive News Europe reported Tuesday
Audi will no longer add a Level 3
system, called Traffic Jam Pilot,
to the A8 sedan in Europe. The hyped
technology was also initially confirmed
for the US, though it was scrapped
earlier for the country over similar
fears that played out in Europe in the
years to come, namely legal framework.
Hans-Joachim Rothenpieler, Audi's head
of technical development, told the
publication it's simply too late to add
the technology as the current A8's
already through a good portion of its
lifecycle. Audi of Europe did not
immediately return Roadshow's request
for comment.
The deeper problem reportedly comes
down to liability and the unknowns
surrounding the Level 3 partial
automation. ... " Read
more
Hmmmm... 1st question: Is
traffic Jam Pilot "Level 3"???
Probably not, unless Audi was
going to suggest that the driver
doesn't need to be paying
attention (can play video games,
sleep, jump in the back seat, ...)
when the driver initiates Traffic
Jam Pilot. If that is what
Audi had in mind, then of course,
they'd need regulatory cover (The
regulator let/made us do it).
Blame the regulator if something
bad happens! No regulator is ever
going to grant that kind of cover.
(I hope.) Given that Audi can't
pass the buck to someone else,
then there is no way that Audi (or
any other OEM) is going to trust
any individual, even their own
customer, to not miss-use the
feature or misbehave in its use.
That's why SAE's Level 3 will
"never" come to market
(~likelihood is extremely small).
Audi's decision here adds
substance to a speculation that I
and many others have had since day
one.
OEMs are stuck with "you must remain alert and attentive to the driving task at all times, even when you are not directly manipulating the steering, throttle and/or brake". Their only other option is to take the driver completely out of the loop, (except to specify where to go and "how loud to play the music"). The OEM needs to be the adult in the room making sure that the vehicle is well maintained and remains in its certified Operational Design Domain. (Sure, an OEM can "sell" such vehicles to an operator/serviceProvider, but the real profit opportunity comes in the provision of the service, not supplying the commodity to the service provider. (The real profit is in panning for the gold, not in the producing and selling of the pans & shovels. Too much IP in those pans and shovels.) Alain
B. Anderson, April 28, "nternal
communications viewed by German
publication Automobilwoche addressed
both the software lead Tesla has over
its competitors as well as how its
Autopilot semi-autonomous driving system
is ahead of all rivals.
Diess reportedly told fellow executives
that Tesla’s software is ahead of its
own and “any other automobile
manufacturer,” while admitting that it
is giving him “headaches.” Diess added
that Tesla’s customers appear won over
by the ability to control the car
through their smartphones....
“What worries me the most is the
capabilities in the assistance systems,”
he said. “500,000 Teslas function as a
neural network that continuously
collects data and provides the customer
a new driving experience every 14 days
with improved properties. No other
automobile manufacturer can do that
today.”..." Read
more
Hmmmm... What??? "ability to
control the car through their
smartphones"??? Something is being
lost in translation here. Except
for "StupidSummon" Teslas aren't
being controlled through their
smartPhones. What the smartPhones
control isn't what VW should be
worried about. AutoPilot and how
Tesla sells cars and supports its
customers is what VW should worry
about. Michael Sena, what do you
think?? Alain
S. O'Kane, April 28, "Ford and its
luxury brand Lincoln have canceled an
all-electric SUV that was going to be
powered by technology provided by EV
startup Rivian, the companies told
Automotive News on Tuesday.
Lincoln says it is still working closely
with Rivian, including an “alternative
vehicle” that will also be based on
Rivian’s electric vehicle skateboard
platform...." Read
more
Hmmmm... Ouch! Alain
[log in to unmask]:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/INBOX%3E3022058?part=1.5&filename=lmjdiniodjkflpia.png" src="cid:[log in to unmask]" class="" width="46" height="52" border="0">
Postponed, until Evening Oct. 20 -> Oct 22.Video version... Watch episode 150 with Andrei Greenawalt.... Alain
Video version... Watch episode 149 with Matt Daus.... Alain
Video version... Watch our first attempt.... Alain
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."
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"
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."
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"
V.
Bajaj, April
22,"A main
benchmark for
the price of
oil fell
negative for
the first time
ever this
week. The
decline —
more than 300
percent in
daily trading
— raised fresh
questions
about the
damage the
coronavirus is
having on the
global
economy.
What does it
mean for oil
prices to be
negative?
A benchmark
price for a
barrel of oil
to be
delivered next
month fell to
-$37.63 on
Monday, which
means that
sellers would
have to pay
someone that
much to take
it off their
hands.
But that
historic
plunge was
exacerbated by
a quirk in how
the oil
markets work.
The negative
price
concerned only
contracts for
delivery of
barrels in May
that are
traded on
so-called
futures
markets. At
the same time
trading
happens for
May
deliveries,
people trade
on contracts
ending in
June, in July
and so on." Read
more Hmmmm... What??? I realize that
I'm often "out
of it",
but... In all
my life I have
NEVER...
thought of,
let alone
mentioned, nor
have heard
anyone else
mention the
concept of negative
oil!
Often, talked
about $150/B
oil, $250/B,
S20/B even
$7/B oil.
NEVER $0/B
oil,
negative
Oil...
NEVER,NEVER,
NEVER!!!! and
look where we
are. UNBELIEVABLE!!!
Implications:...
no one's
models
extrapolate to
that regime.
(it requires
extrapolation
because no
data exists in
this
unimaginable
region.
Listen to Pod-Cast;
Watch Zoom-Cast
Alain
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
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 Hmmmm... Listen
to PodCast 148.
or/and Watch
us on YouTube.
Alain
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 Yippie!!! Unfortunately, the
latest is not
so good... Waymo has suspended all services, including
the
driverless.
Poopie!!!
Alain
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? AlainA. Kornhauser, Jan 12, Hmmmm... Self-driving cars are hot and the OEMs are responding. I'm about to buy a new Subaru Outback and EyeSight is 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
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
[log in to unmask]" class="" width="84" height="148">
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
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.
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 NTSB
below). 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.
Oct 16, Establishes
fully autonomous vehicle pilot program
A4573 Sponsors: Zwicker (D16); Benson
(D14)
Oct 16, Establishes
New
Jersey Advanced Autonomous Vehicle Task
Force AJR164 Sponsors: Benson (D14);
Zwicker (D16); Lampitt (D6)
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 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".
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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