9.02 - Elaine

January 15, 2021Newsletter archive →

January 15, 2021

blue; text-decoration: blue; text-decoration: none;">2nd edition of the 9th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter

AUTOMATED VEHICLES:  Comprehensive Plan

E. Chao, Jan. 2021, "The Automated Vehicles Comprehensive Plan (Comprehensive Plan) describes how the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) is supporting the safe integration of Automated Driving Systems (ADS)2 into the surface transportation system. It explains Departmental goals related to ADS, identifies actions being taken to meet those goals, and provides real-world examples of how these Departmental actions relate to emerging ADS applications... "  Read more

Hmmmm...  I guess this is a good plan. Of course, Safety is #1, as it should be. DoT's #1 public responsibility is Safety. Whether Cyber Security and Privacy are # 2 and 3  and ahead of Enhanced Mobility and Accessibility is certainly debatable. And if the Enhanced Mobility and Accessibility of the "mobility disadvantaged that have been left behind by our current favored transport system"  were to be a category, then that one should be right behind Safety at #2 if not ahead of Safety and a solid #1. The rest. as they should, are appropriately details.  What is most disconcerting about the report are the images. To me, those images depict the current "haves", not "have-nots" and thus don't really address the mobility needs and desires of those whose quality-of-life could be most enhanced by automation technology. These images seem to focus the Plan on giving those that already have pretty good ways to get around, yet another way to get around, where, when you finally get right down to it, may at best be only slightly better than what they already have. This Comprehensive Plan should first be focused on providing high-quality affordable mobility to those whose quality-of-life could be most improved by such new technologies and subsequently serve those that already enjoy and can afford other high-quality forms of mobility.

Also, Elaine, thank you for a really good 4 years.  You (and USDoT) were really the star of what was otherwise a most embarrassing Presidency. Also, thanks to Diana Furchtgott-Roth and many others in US DoT.  Alain

SmartDrivingCars

Pod-Cast Episode 194 Zoom-Cast Episode 194 w/Anuj Pradhan UMass

F. Fishkin, Jan. 15, ""When it comes to vehicle safety technology...should manufacturers be sharing instead of competing? Should there be standardization? Anuj Pradhan, co-director of the Human Performance Lab at UMASS Amherst joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that...plus the latest from GM, Tesla, Mobileye, Nio and more."  Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!". Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay ... Alain

0, 0);"> Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCars Summit

4th Live Episode on Zoom

Why Customers are Buying Them

The Unique Selling Proposition for Cars with Automated Driver Assistance Systems

noon ET, Thursday, Georgia, serif;">

Georgia, serif;"> Video Summary of 1st Session Setting the Stage Georgia, serif;"> Princeton University Princeton, NJ

The SmartDrivingCars eLetter, Pod-Casts, Zoom-Casts and Zoom-inars are made possible in part by support from the Smart Transportation and Technology ETF, symbol MOTO.   For more information: www.motoetf.com.  Most funding is supplied by Princeton University's Department of Operations Research & Financial Engineering and Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (PAVE) research laboratory as part of its research dissemination initiatives.

GUIDELINES FOR TRIALS OF AUTOMATED VEHICLES IN AUSTRALIA 2020 G. Allen, Jan 2021, "... The guidelines provide a flexible mechanism to encourage innovation while maintaining safety. They aim to accommodate a range of different automated vehicle technologies and applications, and the management of trials will allow for these differences. For example, the risks posed by the trial of a single, low-speed, driverless shuttle on a set route will be different from those for a trial of a fleet of heavy vehicles on a motorway.... ... An automated vehicle trial is not to be considered a deployment of automated vehicles, the requirements for which are still under development...." Read more

Hmmmm... If one is going to be using public roads to test one's technology, this seems like appropriate guidelines that the public should impose in return for the use of those public assets to test one's technology. Alain

Moynihan Train Hall: It's Stunning. And, a First Step

M. Kimmelman, Jan 11, "The $1.6 billion Moynihan Train Hall opened at dawn on New Year's morning — on budget, too, even a couple of months early. Instagram swooned. Tweeters channeled Stefon from "Saturday Night Live."

In the midst of everything else, we needed this. New York needs this.

No, the huge, lofty train hall, with its soaring skylights, doesn't magically resurrect the old Pennsylvania Station or extinguish the raging dumpster fire that is the current one. It leaves all sorts of herculean challenges and tasks around Penn Station unresolved. But it delivers on its promise, giving the city the uplifting gateway it deserves. When was the last time you could say something like that about a public works project?...

Skeptics had expressed fears that the new train hall would be just another publicly subsidized shopping mall masquerading as a railway station like the $4 billion Oculus at the World Trade Center. (I can't think of a recent project that did more to squander public faith or sour New Yorkers on the value of architecture.)..." Read more

Hmmmm...Ouch!!!! I agree!!! Alain

Holiday Surge in Travel Exceeds Last Year for Trips to Places between 50 and 500 Miles Away, but Is Still Less Than Last Year for Local Travel and Trips Over 500 miles

BTS, Jan 8, " This holiday season, a typical day saw more people staying home.

As the charts below show, on average, a greater percentage of Americans stayed home each day this holiday season (12/18/2020 - 1/3/2021) than during the previous year. Similar to Thanksgiving travel, Washington, DC, and New York State led the nation in the percentage of people staying home. California joined them as the third area with the greatest percentage of people staying home each day on average during the holiday period...."  Read more

Hmmmm...Very interesting! Alain

Federal rule change would exempt self-driving cars from crash standards

Bloomberg, Jan 14, "President Donald Trump's administration is starting to update federal motor vehicle safety standards to exempt self-driving cars from crashworthiness standards that are applied to cars operated by humans, a move questioned by safety advocates.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Thursday it's beginning to craft rules to "clarify ambiguities in current occupant protection standards for vehicles equipped with automated driving systems that are designed without traditional manual driver controls."

The rule-making process would be conducted under the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, who is to be inaugurated Jan. 20. But consumer safety advocates say new rules are needed for driverless vehicles instead of exempting them from existing regulations...."  Read more

Hmmmm...  I tend to agree, especially wrt driverless cars and trucks.  These are substantially new technologies and deserve their own "modal" administration, rather being an asterisk on a conventional mode.  Alain

Saving a Railroad – Changing His Trajectory – Part 3 of a Conversation with Dr. Kornhauser

K. Pyle, Dec. 21, "It started with a phone call at the end of the 1975 Spring semester. Representative James J. Florio's office was looking for expert help to evaluate a reorganization plan for the bankrupt railroads in the Northeast Corridor. In many ways, the eyes of the entire country were on this potential legislation and it involved the largest bankruptcy (PDF), Penn Central, in U.S. history......" Read more 

Hmmmm... We had a nice conversation. Thank you Ken.  Alain

Nio ET7 First Look: Jumping Headfirst Into Autonomous Driving

N. Yekikian, Jan 11, "If you aren't familiar with Chinese automaker Nio, there's a good chance you're not alone. The Chinese brand sprung up seemingly overnight, hit a rough patch in 2020, but appears to be back and forging ahead with new models. Nio already makes three SUVs—the ES8, EC6, and ES6—and today it took the wraps off of the ET7, their first fully autonomous electric vehicle....

To make the ET7 fully autonomous, Nio's own Autonomous Driving tech (or NAD for short) comes as an optional subscription service and is powered by 33 sensors in and around the car. The ET7 has 11 eight-megapixel cameras on board, one ultra long range LiDAR unit, five millimeter-wave radar cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and two positioning units (V2X and ADMS). In total, the system can generate up to eight gigabytes of data per second. ... Read more 

Hmmmm... Sounds like Nio ET7 is brute force rather than elegant.  I sure hope it has an "optimal forgetting algorithm" that throws away most of those data to determine the few pearls of wisdom that will keep it from crashing.  My advice to the driver is... Don't stop paying close attention to the road ahead.  As with many things, more is not necessarily better.  Also, like many other things that sound too good to be true, they may well not be. We meed some real fact checking here.  Sounds too Nikolaish to me Alain

An Early Nikola Investor Sells All Its Stock

A. Root, Jan. 15, "Steel manufacturer Worthington Industries, an early Nikola investor, finished selling all its Nikola stock this week. The small-cap company realized more than $600 million by providing seed capital to the hydrogen-powered trucking start-up years ago.

Worthington (ticker: WOR) sold about 7 million Nikola shares (NKLA) for roughly $147 million on Jan. 13. That works out to a price of about $21 a share.

The transaction was the third big Nikola sale for Worthington. The company sold stock last August, bringing in $250 million. And it had earlier sold stock in July, bringing in another $238 million. Overall, Worthington sold its Nikola stake for an average price of around $34 a share.  The $600-plus million total is impressive—especially for a company with a market capitalization of roughly $3 billion. But it doesn't answer the question: Why did Worthington invest in a hydrogen-powered trucking start-up at all?   ... " Read more

Hmmmm...Wow, someone is still willg to pay $21/share. Alain

Many couldn't afford a car in 2020. The rich went on a buying spree

R. Mitchell, Jan 8, "New auto sales data shows a sharp divide between a surging market for luxury trucks and SUVs and soft sales for vehicles under $30,000..."  Read more 

Hmmmm... What we may well find is that the pandemic really let the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Totally unfair! Alain

Tesla claims you are '7x less likely to be in a crash' with Autopilot, but the data is not that clear

F. Lambert, Jan 14., "... Today, Tesla released its report for Q4 2020:  In the 4th quarter, we registered one accident for every 3.45 million miles driven in which drivers had Autopilot engaged. For those driving without Autopilot but with our active safety features, we registered one accident for every 2.05 million miles driven. For those driving without Autopilot and without our active safety features, we registered one accident for every 1.27 million miles driven. By comparison, NHTSA's most recent data shows that in the United States there is an automobile crash every 484,000 miles.

The best comparison point is against the same metric over the same period last year to account for the weather and seasonal conditions:

• Autopilot Engaged: It is at one accident for every 3.45 million miles driven in Q4 2020, which is an improvement from every 3.07 million miles driven in Q4 2019.

• Autopilot disengaged but with active safety features: It is at one accident for every 2.05 million miles driven in Q4 2020, which is actually down from every 2.10 million miles driven in Q4 2019.

• Autopilot disengaged and without active safety features: It is at one accident for every 1.27 million miles driven in Q4 2020, which is down from every 1.64 million miles driven in Q4 2019.

Therefore, it shows an overall improvement with Autopilot active, but the data also shows worse performance with the safety features only...." Read more 

Hmmmm... As is my custom every time Tesla releases this information, I offer to do, pro bono,  an independent analysis of the underlying data in an effort to "fact check" Tesla's claims. Alain

GM teases new Chevy Bolt with Super Cruise, sets release date for February

A. Hawkins, Jan 12, "GM says that two new versions of the Chevy Bolt are set to be unveiled in February 2021. The company has released a new teaser that highlights a new feature coming to the electric vehicles: GM's well-regarded advanced driver assist system, Super Cruise.... " Read more 

Hmmmm...Let's see if this really happens, if it is an option or standard and, if an option, how much extra? Let's hope that GM actually builds and Dealership actually sell Bolts with SuperCruise. Alain

Tesla (TSLA) could be a $2 trillion company in just '1 or 2 years,' says top Wall Street analyst

F. Lambert, Jan 13., "... Now, one top Wall Street analyst, Daniel Ives of Wedbush, says that it could only be the beginning of Tesla's stock rise.  In a recent interview with TD Americas, Ives said that he sees Tesla rising over $1.5 trillion over the next year or two:

"In a year or two from now, we're not just looking at one trillion for Tesla, but in a couple of years this could be a company that could start to approach 1.5 trillion – 2 trillion market valuation."

The analyst is amongst the most optimistic on Wall Street as he sees Tesla delivering 800,000 vehicles in 2021.  Ives is particularly bullish on Tesla's prospect in China, where he believes Gigafactory Shanghai to be the "key to the company's success." Furthermore, the analyst sees Joe Biden winning the election in the US with his green agenda as a positive for Tesla.  Here's the new interview:..." Read more 

Hmmmm... Crazy!. Alain

Tesla's main self-driving rival isn't Google—it's Intel's Mobileye

T. Lee, Jan. 13, "One of the most underrated companies in the self-driving technology sector is Mobileye, an Israeli company that Intel purchased for $15 billion in 2017. Mobileye is the largest supplier of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) that ship with today's cars. In a Monday interview at the virtual CES conference, Mobileye explained its strategy to stay on top as the industry shifts to fully self-driving vehicles.

Mobileye's self-driving strategy has a number of things in common with that of Tesla, the world's most valuable automaker. Like Tesla, Mobileye is aiming to gradually evolve its current driver-assistance technology into a fully self-driving system. So far, neither company has shipped products with the expensive lidar sensors used in many self-driving prototypes..." Read more 

Hmmmm... Waymo is Driverless in one place, Phoenix. Neither Tesla not MobilEye are driverless anywhere. They both REQUIRE on-board human driver supervision. That's why they are only Self-driving. Alain

US Railroads Finally Meet Positive Train Control Install Mandate

J. Parsons, Dec 30, "With just two days to spare before a year-end implementation deadline, 41 U.S. freight and passenger railroads have met a federal mandate for full deployment of positive train control to prevent potentially deadly crashes.

The Federal Railroad Administration said on Dec. 29, that in addition to being in full compliance with the safety technology's technical requirements on more than 57,500 route miles, the railroads have achieved full interoperability between host and tenant railroads operating on PTC-governed main lines. The group includes New Jersey Transit, which the agency said last month appeared at risk for not meeting the completion target based on earlier data..."  Read more 

Hmmmm... Now that this has been done, when will railroads begin to move to "crewless" operation. That can't be difficult technologically. Sociologically, a whole other question.  Train crews need to be bought out and deserve to be bought out. Three (3) of the Five (5) man (they were essentially all men then) crews were bought out in the 1970s.  It is time that the railroads buy out the two remaining crew members. This would allow them to run many more frequent short trains rather than a few long trains. The improved service would lead to more business, more short trains and more employees that could be represented by the BLET.  It is not a surprise that State legislators are trending in the opposite direction by mandating 2-person crews. Alain

Mobileye is bringing its autonomous vehicle test fleets to at least four more cities in 2021

K. Korosec, Jan. 11, " Mobileye is bringing its autonomous vehicle test fleets to at least four more cities in 2021..." Read more 

Hmmmm... See also: Mobileye Take Autonomous Vehicle For a test Spin In Munich Traffic. Unfortunately, I still see all of this as simply "eye candy" to sell something that actually has no intention of delivering what it is implying.  I still claim that the business case is  ZERO (doesn't exist) for personally-owned autonomous vehicles. (1.  for it to be purchased by a consumer, it must be able to go on most, if not all roads. We/MobilEye are/is nowhere close to being able to operate safely on most roads, let alone "all" roads. Thus, the consumer market has zero opportunity to scale.  (Heck EVs can't scale even though their range is at least twice what the average daily driving range).  If MobilEye's objective is the fleet market operating within a certified Operational deign Domain, then starting in big cities, New York City being the worse of the worse,

As with Waymo, MobilEye should be testing in "Chandler" rather than "NYC".  But if this is Click Bait and Clicks are the objective, then NYC is right-on. Alain

Bay Area living out of reach for some VTA transit workers who sleep in their cars

S. Herrera, Jan 12, "The longtime bus driver has slept in his SUV for the last two years to save costs and give himself some much-needed rest.

"There's tons of people who are commuting because they can't afford to live in the Bay Area," said Glinton, who has worked for VTA for a dozen years. "On average, I make $100,000 a year easy … but who wants to give $30,000 a year to someone else for rent?"..."  Read more 

Hmmmm...  Not pretty! And it's not just transit workers. Apparently it is also Police, Fire and other civil servants. Affordable housing also needs to have affordable mobility; else it in NOT affordable living! Alain

Monthly changes in key transportation indexes

M. Sivak, Jan. 14, "....The changes are in percent relative to the corresponding month in 2019. They are adjusted for population (all but price of gasoline) and for inflation (price of gasoline)..." Read more 

Hmmmm...  Quantified is the enormous YoY changes (mostly down) yet the "stock market" seems to be going nothing but up.  Really strange! Alain

How much did we use different classes of vehicles just before the pandemic?

M. Sivak, Jan. 12, "This analysis examines distances driven per vehicle in different vehicle classes in 2019 (the last year before the pandemic) and compares them with the corresponding values in 2009. ... Noteworthy trends are as follows:..." Read more 

Hmmmm...  Really strange "per vehicle stats"   Given the increase in population and the economy over the past 10 year period, the number of registered vehicles must have increased "enormously"; else, this is really strange Alain

Georgia, serif;">4thAnnual PrincetonSmartDrivingCar Summit 4th Episode at noon on Jan. 21, 2021 TO BE followed by 12 more weekly episodes through to April15, 2021.  Each episode starting Live on Zoom @ noon Eastern (Princeton Time) and lasting for 1.5 hours or until Discussion with audience ends. A. Kornhauser, Feb 6, "The focus of the Summit this year will be moving beyond the AI and the Sensors to addressing the challenges of Commercialization and  the delivery of tangible value to communities. We've made enormous progress with the technology. We're doing the investment; however, this investment delivers value only if is commercialized: made available and is used by consumers in large numbers. Demos and one-offs are "great", but to deliver value that is anywhere near commensurate with the magnitude of the investment made to date, initial deployments need to scale.  We can't just have "Morgantown PRT Systems" whose initial deployment has been nothing but enormously successful for 45 years (an essentially perfect safety record, an excellent availability record and customer valued mobility). Unfortunately, the system was never expanded or duplicated anywhere.  It didn't scale. It is a one-off.

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

In part, the 4th Summit will focus on defining the "Richmond" of Affordable Shared-ride On-demand Mobility-as-a-Service. The initial Operational Design Domain (ODD) that safely accommodates Driverless Mobility Machines that people actually choose to use and becomes the envy of communities throughout the country. " Read more 

Hmmmm... Draft Program is in flux. Consider all named individuals as "Invited yet to be confirmed". Alain

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

Sunday Supplement

Half-Baked

Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence as Simple as Drag and Drop #CES2021

CES2021, Jan 11, "It took decades for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to enter the mainstream. Still, it is new enough that it remains the domain of data scientists, machine learning, and software engineers. The challenge is that these experts are in short supply, causing projects to be relatively expensive with relatively long timelines.

Blaize's AI Studio promises (my bold) to solve that by allowing subject matter experts, whether that expert is a city planner, doctor, or farmer, to directly create artificial intelligence applications that operate locally. This code-free, visual and open standards tool allows the subject matter expert, with minimal help, to prepare & train, deploy & manage, and use & monitor an edge-based, Artificial Intelligent app.... Read more

Hmmmm... Promises, promises...; however, when it claims "... Working with the doctor and processing approximately 12,000 images the AI models achieved 90% accuracy within two days. This greatly exceeds the 76 to 80% accuracy a human would achieve examining x-rays...."  ... One must ask "how did it do dat???" Who was the "God" that knew all the correct answers, such that the AI was able to pat itself in the back with a score of 90% and the human that looked over the whole process only got "76 to 80%".  ... If there is a "God" that always gets the right answer, then I want the "God" not this.  If there isn't a "God" with all the right answers, and the right answers come from the human, then these reported results are simply "the luck" of this test, rather than the long-run statistical performance of this approach. This is really half-baked. Alain

Click-Bait

Calendar of Upcoming

Events:s

4th Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCars Summit

4th Live Episode on Zoom

Why Customers are Buying Them

The Unique Selling Proposition for Cars with Automated Driver Assistance Systems

noon ET, Thursday, Georgia, serif;">

Georgia, serif;"> Video Summary of 1st Session Setting the Stage Georgia, serif;"> Princeton University Princeton, NJ

On the More Technical Side

http://orfe.princeton.edu/~alaink/SmartDrivingCars/Papers/

These editions are sponsored by the SmartETFs Smart Transportation and Technology ETF, symbol MOTO. For more information head to www.motoetf.com

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 193 Zoom-Cast Episode 193 w/Bobby Hambrick, AutonomousStuff

F. Fishkin, Jan. 8, "Bobby Hambrick started AutuonomouStuff in a barn in Morton, Illinois....and has pioneered much of the technology moving the autonomous industry forward, now as part of Hexagon. Bobby joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin to look back and look ahead. Plus...Apple, Hyundai, Waymo, Tesla and more! "

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 192 Zoom-Cast Episode 192 w/Danny Shapiro, nVIDIA

F. Fishkin, Dec. 30, "NVIDIA continues on a roll powering the Zoox robo taxi unveiled this month by Amazon. NVIDIA senior director of automotive Danny Shapiro outlines the progress and looks ahead to 2021 in the latest Smart Driving Cars with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. "

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 191 Zoom-Cast Episode 191 w/ Louis Aaron'23 and Joel Johnson

F. Fishkin, Dec. 20, "College student Joel Johnson has been keeping a log of dozens of trips in Waymo's self driving service in Chandler, Arizona, and posting videos on YouTube. Louis Aaron'23, another student, has been working with Elon Musk's Boring Company in Las Vegas. The two share their experiences with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin in the latest Smart Driving Cars."  Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!". Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay ... Alain

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 190 Zoom-Cast Episode 190 w/Chris Urmson, Aurora

F. Fishkin, Dec. 15, "With Aurora taking over Uber's self driving efforts,  what is on the horizon for the start up whose leaders have roots at Waymo,  Tesla and Uber? Co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin in this special edition of Smart Driving Cars." SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 189 Zoom-Cast Episode 189

F. Fishkin, Dec. 11, "With the 4th Annual Princeton Smart Driving Cars Summit about to get underway...a preview of what's to come. Plus..Aurora takes over Uber's self-driving car project, Cruise tests fully driverless behind the wheel, is Apple planning a self-driving surprise and more. Join Princeton's Alain Kornhauser & co-host Fred Fishkin ...and subscribe!" SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 188 Zoom-Cast Episode 188

F. Fishkin, Dec. 6, "The Nikola saga continues, AutoX goes fully driverless with robotaxis in China...plus Luminar, Tesla, TuSimple and more. Join Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for Episode 188 of Smart Driving Cars." SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 187  Zoom-Cast Episode 187 w/Michael Sena,  The Dispatcher

F. Fishkin, Nov 25, "What you should know about electric cars, climate change and more.  The Dispatcher publisher Michael Sena joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin in an eye opening edition of Smart Driving Cars.."

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 186  Zoom-Cast Episode 186 w/Kelly Funkhouser, Consumer Report

F. Fishkin, Nov 24, "When it comes to active driver assistance systems, what works and what needs improvement? Some answers from Kelly Funkhouser… program manager for vehicle interface, head of connected and automated vehicles at Consumer Reports.  She joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for episode 186 of Smart Driving Cars."

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 185 Zoom-Cast Episode 185 w/Dan Smith, Waymo F. Fishkin, Nov 20, "Only Waymo has been transporting customers in driverless vehicles without a safety monitor on board. What goes into that kind of decision? Waymo Assistant General Counsel Dan Smith joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin in this special edition of Smart Driving Cars."  Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!". Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay ... Alain SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 184 Zoom-Cast Episode 184 w/Marjory Blumenthal, Rand F. Fishkin, Nov 20, "So when are driverless vehicles safe enough to be deployed? Senior Rand Corporation policy researcher Marjory Blumenthal joins Princeton University's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin to examine her latest report and more."  Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!". Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay ... Alain

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 183 Zoom-Cast Episode 183 w/Kirsten Korosec F. Fishkin, Nov 13, "Rivian's hands free driver assistance will be standard equipment...while Ford unveils the E-Transit. TechCrunch Senior Transportation reporter and editor Kirsten Korosec joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus Nuro, Tesla, Uber, Lyft, Cruise and more. Plus the coming changes for mobility under a new administration!"  Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!". Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay ... Alain

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 182 Zoom-Cast Episode 182 F. Fishkin, Nov 6, "What will a new administration mean for autonomous mobility? And what about the passage of Proposition 22 in California after Uber's big campaign? That plus luxury EVs coming from Bentley....and cheap EVs from China. Join Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that and more." SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 181 Zoom-Cast Episode 181  w/Sheldon b & Glenn Mercer F. Fishkin, Oct. 30, "Waymo releases self driving data...while traditional car dealers enjoy surprisingly strong profits during the pandemic. Why?  What about the coming autonomous mobility? Bell Air Partners' Sheldon Sandler and researcher-consultant Glenn Mercer explain in Episode 181 of Smart Driving Cars with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin.  "

SmartDrivingCars  Pod-Cast Episode 180  Zoom-Cast Episode 180 w/John Rich, Ford/Argo, part 2 F. Fishkin, Oct. 15, "Ford and Argo AI have unveiled their next generation self-driving test vehicle. Once again, Ford's Director of Autonomous Vehicle and Technology Development John Rich joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin to unveil the technology and the company's self driving business plans." SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 179 Zoom-Cast Episode 179 w/John Rich, Ford/Argo F. Fishkin, Oct. 15, "Which autonomous vehicle platforms will survive? The director of Ford's Autonomous Vehicle and Technology Development says there may only be two...and Ford /Argo AI will be one of them. John Rich joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that and more." SmartDrivingCars  Pod-Cast Episode 178  Zoom-Cast Episode 178 w/Andrew Hawkins, Verge F. Fishkin, Oct. 9, "Here we go! Waymo going fully driverless in Phoenix suburb service. The Verge senior transportation reporter Andrew Hawkins joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus Tesla... Amazon... Rivian and more. Subscribe!

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 177 Zoom-Cast Episode 177

F. Fishkin, Oct. 2, "New grades for assisted driving systems from Euro NCAP. But Princeton Professor Alain Kornhauser says the devil is in the details in this edition with co-host Fred Fishkin. And there's Amazon's success against Covid plusTesla, Uber, GM, Nikola and more. SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 176  Zoom-Cast Episode 176 w/Marc Scribner

F. Fishkin, Sept. 25, "A new government entity to oversee autonomous vehicles? Marc Scribner, Sr. Transportation Policy Analyst at the Reason Foundation on regulation and more with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Plus...Tesla, Nikola, GM and the California move to ban new gasoline vehicles."

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 175   Zoom-Cast Episode 175 w/Michael Sena F. Fishkin, Sept. 18, "Automobility and the future of car dealers... "The Dispatcher" publisher Michael Sena offers a different take on how car dealers may battle automakers pushing for direct to consumer subscriptions. That and more in this edition of Smart Driving Cars with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin."

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 174 Zoom-Cast Episode 174 w/Kelly Funkhouser, Consumer Reports

F. Fishkin, Sept. 4, "Moving forward with autonomous vehicle testing, the head of safety at Uber's Advanced Technology Group is pledging safety data transparency. Nat Beuse joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co host Fred Fishkin for that and more on the latest mobility headlines." SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 173 Zoom-Cast Episode 173 w/Nathanial Beuse F. Fishkin, Sept. 4, "Moving forward with autonomous vehicle testing, the head of safety at Uber's Advanced Technology Group is pledging safety data transparency. Nat Beuse joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co host Fred Fishkin for that and more on the latest mobility headlines." SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 172Zoom-Cast Episode 172  Special Edition w/Danny Shapiro

F. Fishkin ,Sept. 2, "Mercedes unveils the latest S Class with more computing power than 60 average cars...with NVIDIA playing a big role. NVIDIA's Director of Automotive Danny Shapiro joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that and more." SmartDrivingCars  Pod-Cast Episode 171Zoom-Cast Episode 171 w/Henry Greenidge

F. Fishkin, Aug. 30, "What should autonomous mobility companies be doing to win support from black communities? Why is it important? Henry Greenidge…Fellow in residence at the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at NYU joins Princeton's Alain Kornhausere and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus...Uber, Voyage, Tesla and more...."

SmartDrivingCars  PodCast 170  ZoomCast Episode170 w/Michael Sena F. Fishkin, Aug 20, "Tesla grows while other automakers flounder. And creating standards in an era of mistrust. The Dispatcher publisher joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin in a thought provoking episode. Plus...transportation planning during and after the pandemic...NVIDIA...and more."

SmartDrivingCars  PodCast Episode 169 ZoomCast Episode 169  w/Anthony Townsend F. Fishkin Aug 13, "Ghost Road.. Beyond the Driverless Car author Anthony Townsend brings a unique viewpoint to the debate on the future of mobility...and the impact of the pandemic on ride sharing. Townsend joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that and the latest developments from Uber, Lyft, Tesla and more."

SmartDrivingCars  PodCast Episode 168 ZoomCast Episode 168  w/Olaf Sakkers F. Fishkin Aug 8, "Is Tesla a tech stock? Or a fashion product? Maniv Mobility's Olaf Sakkers authored a piece on Medium with that title and he joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser & co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus... GM's would be Tesla challenger Cadillac Lyriq, TuSimple, Uber, Ford and more."

SmartDrivingCars  PodCast 167  ZoomCast Episode167 w/Robin Chase, Carlos Pardo & Daniel Sperling F. Fishkin July 29, "In the midst of a pandemic, what is the future of ride sharing and mobility? Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin are joined by Robin Chase and Carlos Pardo of the New Urban Mobility Alliance and the director of the Institute for Transportation Studies at U C Davis, Daniel Sperling to dig into the challenges ahead."

SmartDrivingCars PodCast Episode 166ZoomCast Episode 166 w/Jay Rodgers'95, CEO Local Motors

F. Fishkin 16, "Local Motors announces a partnership with Beep to broadly deploy autonomous electric shuttles. CEO Jay Rogers joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for a wide ranging chat. Plus the Waymo-Fiat Chrysler deal, Tesla, AutoX, Ford, Mobileye and more." Zoom-inar Episode 005 AmaZooks

F. Fishkin, July 20, "Is Driverless home delivery the fastest route to Affordable Mobility for the Mobility Disadvantaged? ... "

• Zoom-inar Video (Video replay) AmaZooks

• PodCast (Audio Only) AmaZooks

SmartDrivingCars PodCast Episode 165,ZoomCast Episode165 w/Michael Sena

F. Fishkin 16, "Is the option to buy a car at a dealership going to vanish? The Dispatcher publisher Michael Sena has a provocative perspective in this edition with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser & co-host Fred Fishkin. Plus..an update on the Amazon Zoox deal, autonomous vehicles and how they can help battle discrimination in transportation, TuSimple, Mobileye, Uber, Tesla and more."  ...  Alain SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast 164 Episode 164,   Zoom-Cast Episode 163 w/Robbie Diamond

F. Fishkin, July 9, "Fostering economic opportunity through autonomous technology is the focus of an upcoming report from Security America's Future Energy. Founder and CEO Robbie Diamond shares details and more in this edition with Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Plus ..are armed police officers really needed for traffic enforcement? And the latest from Tesla, Waymo and more.  ..."  ...  Alain SmartDrivingCars  Pod-Cast Episode 163, Zoom-Cast Episode 163 w/Henry Greenidge F. Fishkin, July 2, "Transportation, racial injustices and changing the thinking around the future of mobility. NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy & Research fellow Henry Greenidge joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin in an eye and mind opening episode of Smart Driving Cars. Plus Amazon, Zoox, Waymo, Tesla & more. ."   ... Alain

SmartDrivingCars  Pod-Cast Episode 162,  Zoom-Cast Episode 162  w/Cliff Winston

F. Fishkin, June 25, "From the Brookings Institution, Cliff Winston, co-author of Autonomous Vehicles...The Road to Economic Growth? joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Plus..why are fatal crash rates rising in the midst of a pandemic...plus NVIDIA, Didi, Tesla and more."    ... Alain Episode 004  Insurance: For or Against SmartDrivingCars?

F. Fishkin, June 23, "But the debate is not really about technology nor is it about who delivers the best value for the money or the most privacy. It is about ..."

• Zoom-inar (Video replay)  Insurance: For or Against SmartDrivingCars?

• PodCast (Audio Only) Insurance: For or Against SmartDrivingCars?

Listen/Watch more  

Hmmm...   We only scratched the surface. Alain SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 161,Zoom-Cast Episode 161 w/Alberto Stochino F. Fishkin, June 17, "Is less data sometimes more when it comes to driverless vehicle technology? Perceptive Founder and CEO Alberto Stochino joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus the DOT's new plan for sharing autonomous safety information, the latest from Tesla, EVs from China and more." ...  Alain

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 160, Zoom-Cast Episode 160  w/Jessica Cicchino F. Fishkin, June 12, "Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Research VP Jessica Cicchino co-authored a new study saying self driving vehicles could struggle to eliminate most crashes.   She joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin to discuss the study.  Plus the latest on Tesla, Ford & VW, Covid-19 and more.  " "Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!". Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay ... Alain

SmartDrivingCars  Pod-Cast Episode 159, Zoom-Cast Episode 159 w/Kara Kockelman F. Fishkin, June 4, "Prof. Kara Kockelman's focus on smart transportation to save lives, money and the environment has made her a sought after global expert.  The U. of Texas Transportation Engineering Professor joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin on the impact of Covid-19 and much more. Plus Tesla, Uber, Argo AI and the top smart driving headlines. For more on Dr. Kockelman's work....please visit...  http://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman."

DrivingTheDebate Episode 003  Everyone's for Connectivity; but... F. Fishkin, June 2, "But the debate is not really about technology nor is it about who delivers the best value for the money or the most privacy. It is about ..."

• Zoom-inar (Video replay)  Everyone's for Connectivity; but...

• PodCast (Audio Only) Everyone's for Connectivity; but...

Listen/Watch more  

Hmmm...   We only scratched the surface. Alain

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 158,  Zoom-Cast Episode 158 w/Chunka Mui

F. Fishkin, May 28, "In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, what are the smartest ways to re-build and plan for the future? Futurist and author Chunka Mui joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus Amazon, Zoox, Intel Mobileye, Tesla, Uber and more." SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 157,  Zoom-Cast Episode 157 w/Grayson Brulte

F. Fishkin, May 21, "Global auto makers must completely re-think their autonomous mobility strategy as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. So says innovation strategist Grayson Brulte of Brulte & Company....who joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. Plus...Waymo, Tesla, Uber and more."

DrivingTheDebate Episode 002  The Future of Public Roadway Transit F. Fishkin, May 14, "Will the Bus be Thrown Under the Bus?...

• Zoom-inar Video (Video replay)Smart Driving Cars: The Future of Public Roadway Transit

• PodCast (Audio Only) Smart Driving Cars: The Future of Public Roadway Transit

SmartDrivingCars  Pod-Cast Episode 156,  Cars Zoom-Cast Episode 156 w/Danny Shapiro2 F. Fishkin, May 14, "With new hardware and software capabilities NVIDIA is expanding into new areas of driver assistance technology. Sr. Director of Automotive Danny Shapiro joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that...plus the latest on Waymo, Voyage, Ford and more. listen and subscribe!" "Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!". Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay ... Alain

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 155,Zoom-Cast Episode 155 w/Alex Roy2 F. Fishkin, April 29, "The continuing impact of Covid-19 on autonomous vehicle progress. But it may not be all bad news. Alex Roy...host of the No Parking Podcast and Director of Special Operations at Argo AI joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus Tesla, Intel, Lyft, Uber and more. Listen and subscribe!

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 154, Zoom-Cast Episode 154   w/Dan Sperling F. Fishkin, April 29, "Can ride sharing rebound after the pandemic? Daniel Sperling, founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis joins Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for that plus Tesla, Waymo, Ford and more."

DrivingTheDebate Episode 001 The Driverless "New Normal" Debate F. Fishkin, April 27,

• Zoom Video

• SmartDrivingCar PodCast (Audio Only) Smart Driving Cars: The Driverless New Normal Debate

• Zoom Audience Questions (Only a few were addressed in Zoom-inar)

• Zoom Audience Comments

• YouTube Video

SmartDrivingCars  Pod-Cast Episode 153, Zoom-Cast Episode 153 w/Dick Mudge2

SmartDrivingCars Pod-Cast Episode 152,Zoom-Cast Episode 152 w/Brad Templeton

SmartDrivingCars Podcast Episode 148 w/Richard Bishop

SmartDrivingCars Zoom-Cast Episode 148 w/Richard Bishop

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 147 - Michael Sena

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 142 - J. Hughes

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 141- A. Roy

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 139- Randal O'Toole

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 138-Nick Zart

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 136

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 135 - with Jim Atkinson

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 130 with Dick Mudge & Michael Sena

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 112 - J. Hardiman NJM

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 110 - Lance Elliot

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 108 3rd Summit Wrapup

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 107 3rd Summit Leilei Shinohara & Staff Sergeant Terence McDonnell

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 106 3rd Summit David Kidd & Cecillia Feeley

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 104 3rd Summit Anil Lewis & Katherine Freund

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 97 - Michael Sena'69

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 71-Nader'55

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 69 - Chunka Mui

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 65 - Bernard Soriano, CA DMV

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 58-Keith Code,Motorcycles

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 55-Larry Burns, Autonomy

Recent Highlights of:

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January 08, 2021

Automatic braking is now on most new cars. But not GM or Fiat Chrysler vehicles C. Isidore, Dec 17, "Automatic braking, once a feature available exclusively to high-end cars, is becoming common across the industry, according to analysis from Consumer Reports and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

But the industry has some notable exceptions, including General Motors (GM) and Fiat Chrysler (FCAU), which badly trail rivals in offering automatic braking as standard equipment, according to the safety groups.

Automatic braking uses sensors to apply brakes when a vehicle ahead is stopped, and the car's onboard computer can avoid or lessen the impact of an accident. It's an increasingly popular feature with car buyers. Many automakers are emphasizing the feature in their advertising and sales pitches.

Four higher-end brands already had the feature on 99% or better of their vehicles before this past year: Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Tesla (TSLA).

Six more have the feature on at least 96% of the vehicles they sold in the United States between September 2019 and September 2020: BMW, Hyundai, Mazda, Subaru, Toyota (TM) and Volkswagen (VLKAF). Three more automakers — Ford (F), Honda (HMC) and Nissan (NSANF), had automatic braking on more than 90% of their US vehicles.... "  Read more 

Hmmmm... Set up for the 3rd session of the SDC Summit. Alain

December 31, 2020   Sustainable and Attainable: Zoox Unveils Autonomous Robotaxi Powered by NVIDIA D. Shapiro, Dec. 17, "When it comes to future mobility, you may not have to pave as many paradises for personal car parking lots.

This week, autonomous mobility company Zoox unveiled its much-anticipated purpose-built robotaxi. Designed for everyday urban mobility, the vehicle is powered by NVIDIA and is one of the first level 5 robotaxis featuring bi-directional capabilities, providing a concrete view into the next generation of intelligent transportation...." Read more 

Hmmmm... Watch Zoom-Cast 192. Alain

December 11, 2020

Uber, After Years of Trying, Is Handing Off Its Self-Driving Car Project

C. Metz & K. Conger, Dec 7, "Uber, which spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a self-driving car project that executives once believed was a key to becoming profitable, is handing the autonomous vehicle effort over to a Silicon Valley start-up, the companies said on Monday.

Uber will also invest $400 million in the start-up, called Aurora, so it is essentially paying the company to take over the autonomous car operation, which had become a financial and legal headache. Uber is likely to license whatever technology Aurora manages to create.

The deal amounts to a fire-sale end to a high-profile but star-crossed effort to replace Uber's human drivers with machines that could drive on their own. It is also indicative of the challenges facing other autonomous vehicle projects, which have received billions in investments from Silicon Valley and automakers but have not produced the fleets of robotic vehicles some thought would be on the streets by now...." Read more 

Hmmmm...  Actually a good article. Alain

December 04, 2020

Nikola Teaches GM a Lesson S. Wilmot, Nov 30, "Nikola Corp. NKLA 0.76% isn't turning out to be the next Tesla that investors and    were hoping for.

The electric-vehicle startup put its eye-catching “Badger” pickup-truck project on ice Monday as part of a radically shrunken version of its deal with GM. All that is left of the original agreement signed in September is a plan for GM to supply Nikola with fuel-cell technology for U.S. big rigs.

Detroit's biggest auto maker had planned to take an equity stake in Nikola in exchange for building the Badger under contract. But the deal has been in doubt almost from the start after a hedge-fund report detailed the limitations of Nikola's technology, leading to the resignation of founder Trevor Milton.

GM won't sell Nikola fuel cells soon. For all its fanfare about hydrogen, the startup is currently focused on battery-powered versions of its first electric truck, theTre, It hopes to start full-scale production in the fourth quarter of next year in Germany and in early 2022 in Coolidge, Ariz. Hydrogen trucks won't come before 2023, and in Europe Nikola is using Bosch as its fuel-cell supplier. ..."  Read more

Hmmmm... Lessons for many in this endeavor.  See alsoAndrew Hawkin's take as well as David Morris'. Alain

November 26,

The Vehicle Fuel Debate Has Been Hijacked

M. Sena, Nov. 19, "The lead article this month was inspired by a diagram I received showing how much of the energy that we generate to heat our homes, light up our rooms, make the concrete and steel to build our infrastructure and power our transportation is wasted. It's over two-thirds. Wasted! Half of it is from producing electricity.

There are a spate of battery and hybrid electric cars (and some others) on their way from China to Europe and North America. Some of the ones I describe in the Dispatch Central section will be familiar to readers since I wrote about them earlier. I could not help writing again about Volvo's slow but steady exit from Sweden. In the self-driving and data sharing section there is some interesting news out of the UK and Massachusetts, a state (actually a Commonwealth just like Pennsylvania, my home state) where I registered most of the cars I have owned during the eighteen years I lived there.

Waymo has delivered quite a bit of news to the press during the past few months. It seemed like everyone was putting the same spin on what they were saying. Naturally, I decided to spin in the other direction. In Musings of a Dispatcher I have mused about who is going to be sitting in all of those driverless vehicles. Will they be from Mars or from Venus?..."  Read more

Hmmmm... What can I say?? Another great edition of the Dispatcher. Be sure to read all the way through including  "Musings of a Dispatcher: Cars are from Mars".  Enjoy and listen/watch the following Pod/Zoom-casts.  Alain November 20, 2020

Active Driving Assistance Systems: Test Results and Design Recommendations

Staff, Nov. 2020, "In line with Consumer Reports’ mission to create a fair, safe, and consumer-driven marketplace, this report has been written for the industry to provide more explanation and guidance on the state of Active Driving Assistance systems based on our recent evaluation. While the systems are not equally capable, and may be designed with different usage intentions, CR's evaluation focused on real-world driving experience of consumers, keeping safety at the forefront. Our goals:

Support the creation of government policies and company practices to ensure that innovation and safety go hand-in-hand

Use consumer data to inform the industry of best-practices to aid in development

Advocate for transparency and clarity in marketing and consumer education of systems

In October 2020, Consumer Reports published ratings of Active Driving Assistance Systems, defined as systems that allow the driver to use Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Lane Keeping Assistance (LKA) to simultaneously control both the speed and steering of the vehicle. An industry webinar was also held...."  Read more 

Hmmmm.... A MUST read along with "Cadillac's Super Cruise Outperforms Other Driving Assistance Systems".  Most unfortunately, CR has not picked up on my main complaint about ACC: Tapping of the brakes by the driver turns off the ACC! This is BAD!!!  Even the hardest, let alone the slightest, engagement of the brakes should NOTturn off the ACC. It should ONLYdisengage the acceleration/throttle function of the ACC!

Tapping of the brakes by the driver is an indication that the driver no longer wishes to accelerate, NOT that the driver no longer wishes to slow down or stop.  So why do these systems turn off ACC (which disengage both the acceleration and deceleration functions, rather than just turning off the acceleration/throttle function. (I think that I actually know why... it is an SAE "recommendation". Just another reason why I don't like the November 13, 2020

Road Charge Projects: California Four Phase Demonstration K. Pyle, Nov 12, "A key recommendation from the 2017 pilot was to explore whether paying at the pump could work for a road charge just like it does for the gas tax. How could the user experience be as easy as possible? With support from a federal Surface Transportation Funding Alternative grant, California will test how road charge can work with four technologies: usage-based insurance, ridesharing, electric vehicle charging stations/pay-at-the-pump systems, and autonomous vehicles.

Interested in participating? The demonstration will begin in January 2021 and run for six months. Complete the Contact Us data form to express your interest in volunteering for one or more demonstration phases.... "  Read more

Hmmmm...  New Jersey is seeking volunteers for its version of this.  Participation is easy.  You will enroll via a quick, online enrollment process, plug a mileage reporting device into your vehicle and drive. During the pilot, you will receive monthly simulated statements that compare what you pay in current state fuel taxes to what you could pay in an MBUF system.  It is okay if you are not driving as much as you typically would because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Your driving data and feedback provided through anonymous online surveys will help us understand key issues such as privacy, equity and administrative costs with an MBUF system.

Please contact zenobia.fields@dot.nj.gov  to participate and help n the New Jersey version.  Use Subject: Please send,  Body:Mileage-Base User Fee (MBUF) Demonstration registration information . We need volunteers. Thank you for helping. Alain

November 6, 2020

Edmunds: Where are our self-driving cars?

W. Kaufman, Nov. 4, "Tesla recently made headlines with the beta launch of its Full Self-Driving system. That system comes with a disclaimer saying, “It may do the wrong thing at the worst time, so you must always keep your hands on the wheel and pay extra attention to the road.”

Tesla's system has impressive capabilities, but it's definitely not hands-free driving. A few years ago, news stories seemed to say that autonomous vehicles were just a few years away.

Well, it's been a few years and autonomous vehicles are, alas, still in the future. Right now, there is no car on sale that can drive itself without requiring the driver to pay attention to the road and be prepared to take control of the vehicle. In fact, some automakers have slowed down their timelines.

Here are three reasons why you can't buy a self-driving car today and one place you're likely to find them first....

EDMUNDS SAYS: You probably won't be able to buy an autonomous car any time soon. But expect autonomous fleet services to begin expanding in the near future." Read more

Hmmmm... An now a change in Washington... Alain October 30,

Sharing our safety framework for fully autonomous operations Waymo Team, Oct. 30, "On October 8th, Waymo opened its fully autonomous ride-hailing service to the general public in Phoenix. Right now members of the public are hailing vehicles with no human driver controlling the car â€â€Å" either in the vehicle or remotely â€â€Å" to help them get to where they're going as part of their everyday lives...."  Read more 

Hmmmm...

Waymo's Safety Methodologies and Safety Readiness Determinations N, Webb, Oct. 30, "As the world's most experienced developer of automated driving systems, Waymo has extensive experience in developing and applying state-of-the-art safety methodologies. Waymo's methodologies help implement Waymo's forward-looking safety philosophy: Waymo will reduce traffic injuries and fatalities by driving safely and responsibly, and will carefully manage risk as we scale our operations. Waymo's safety methodologies, which draw on well established engineering processes and address new safety challenges specific to Automated Vehicle technology, provide a firm foundation for safe deployment of our Level 4 ADS, which we also refer to as the Waymo Driver. Waymo's determination of its readiness to deploy its AVs safely in different settings rests on that firm foundation and on a thorough analysis of risks specific to a particular Operational Design Domain )...."  Read more 

Hmmmm...  The process.  Must read!  Alain

Waymo Public Road Safety Performance Data M. Schwall, Oct. 30, "Waymo's mission to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities and improve mobility for all has led us to expand deployment of automated vehicles (AVs) on public roads without a human driver behind the wheel.  As part of this process, Waymo is committed to providing the public with informative and relevant data regarding the demonstrated safety of Waymo's automated driving system (ADS), which we call the Waymo Driver...." Read more 

Hmmmm...  The substance.  Must read! ...

I had the priveledge of reviewing Waymo's most recent Safety Reports 1 , 2 (above)

In the past, safety reports by the AV community have largely been a response to NHTSA'¢s Voluntary Safety Self-Assessments and have, in my opinion, been largely public relations documents. While generally descriptive about the testing processes they contain very little, if any, substantive information about their safety related experience to-date focused exclusively on driverless operation.

Safe driverless operation is absolutely necessary for AVs to evolve from extremely expensive chauffeured rides to affordable mobility available to essentially anyone throughout an Operational Design Domain (ODD). Affordability requires that the mobility be delivered without a driver or attendant on-board the vehicle.  Only passengers.

The decision to remove the driver/attendant rests in part on the shoulders of public safety regulators who need to allow such operation, but more importantly, on the shoulders of the real decision makers at the AV company. In the end, it is those AV company decision makers who will be held fully responsible for any lapse in the safety of the driverless operation. These decision makers are inside the AV companies and are, of course, privy to all the details and substance about their own safety related driverless operation, which, in the past, has not been shared in their Voluntary Safety Self-assessments.

My impression is that these just released Waymo Safety Reports contain the substantive information that clearly depicts Waymo's safety-related driverless operational experience. To me, they read like internal documents meant to guide and inform internal decision makers to objectively decide if a sufficiently safe operational experience has been achieved in order to vote to fully accept the safety responsibility of driverless operation in their Operational Design Domain.

Given the information that is contained in these documents, it does not surprise me that Waymo decision makers have decided to proceed with driverless operation in the Phoenix Operational Design Domain. Had I had the responsibility of being one of the decision makers reviewing these documents, I would have also voted yes.

Alain

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Friday, October 23, 2020    How Ford's Next-Gen Test Vehicle Lays the Foundation for Our Self-Driving Business J. Davis, Oct 20, "Launching a self-driving service is complex. Many different pieces need to come together to create a trusted and scalable self-driving service that provides value to customers and the cities they operate in. At Ford, we are taking a thoughtful approach to how we bring together all these pieces to help shape the future of self-driving vehicles. One important part of this service is the vehicle, which will allow us to stand up our self-driving business.

Meet the Fourth Generation Self-Driving Test Vehicle: Beginning to roll out this month, Ford and Argo's fourth-generation self-driving test vehicles are built on the Escape Hybrid platform and feature the latest advancements in sensing and computing technology. The Escape Hybrid is also the architecture and platform we have chosen to use to bring our autonomous vehicle service online....." Read more  

Hmmmm....  See video. Imprssive. Listen/watch SmartDrivingCars PodCast / ZoomCast with John Rich. CNBC's take as well as THe Detroit News. Alain

rgb(51, 51, October 16,

Ford Reveals Stake in Newly Public Velodyne Lidar J. Szczesny, Oct 7, "Ford Motor Co's push to broaden its self-driving vehicle technology portfolio, led to it taking a stake in a Silicon Valley company developing lidar systems needed to help guide autonomous vehicles.

The automaker revealed it owns a 7.6% stake, or 13.06 million shares, in Velodyne Lidar, according to a report filed with the Securities Exchange Commission. With the shares trading at $17.40 per share, the stake is worth approximately $227.2 million. Ford filed the report to remain compliant with the SEC...." Read more  

Hmmmm....  Interesting, but even more interesting is the SmartDrivingCarsPodCast / ZoomCast with John Rich.  Alain

rgb(51, 51, October 09, 2020  Waymo starts to open driverless ride-hailing service to the public

K. Korosec, Oct. 8, "Waymo, the Google self-driving-project-turned-Alphabet unit, is beginning to open up its driverless ride-hailing service to the public.

The company said that starting today, members of its Waymo One service will be able to take family and friends along on their fully driverless rides in the Phoenix area. Existing Waymo One members will have the first access to the driverless terminology that means no human behind the wheel. However, the company said that in the next several weeks more people will be welcomed directly into the service through its app, which is available on Google Play and the App Store.

Waymo said that 100% of its rides will be fully driverless which it has deemed its rider only mode. That 100% claim requires a bit of unpacking. The public shouldn't expect hundreds of Waymo-branded Chrysler Pacifica  no human behind the  to suddenly inundate the entire 600-plus square miles of the greater Phoenix area.. ..."  Read more  

Hmmmm...  "...fully Driverless...". That means that Krafcik, the Waymo "Board", Alphabet's Board and all the lawyers have signed off and said... We are safe enough to basically bet the ranch that the expected value of the mobility that we'll be putting out on the streets of our Operational Design Domain, which is under our control, is worth whatever expected risk still exists that some bad things may happen.  That is an enormous hurdle that has been achieved by an entity that has an enormous ranch.  CONGRATULATIONS!!! It hasn't come easy, nor has it come without intese diligence and effort. CONGRATULATIONS!!! Alain rgb(51, 51, October 09, 2020

ASSISTED DRIVING GRADINGS Staff, Oct. 2020  "On this page you will find the gradings of cars tested by Euro NCAP on automated driving technologies.

For its 2020 assessment of Highway Assist systems, Euro NCAP has developed dedicated test and assessment protocols, divided into two main areas: Assistance Competence, based on the balance between Driver Engagement and Vehicle Assistance, and Safety Backup...."  Read more 

Hmmmm....Look carefully at each component of the rating system.  NCAP has chosen one algorithmic way of "adding apples and oranges" to get their rating. Unfortunately they don't divulge the secret formula.  To me, it doesn't seem to be sufficiently iweighted on what I consider to be the most important element... "Collision Avoidance". If the system doesn't do that well, then why bother being good at Consumer Information (unless that information says clearly that the system doesn't work well".

If NCAP itself did a good job of Consumer Information then it would divulge its algorithm and allow the consumer to edit its weights to trade-off what the consumer believes is more or less important.

In all fairness, NCAP does divulge the individual performance values.  With work, this is really valuable information. This is a must read!  Alain September 25, 2020

Proposal for a new UN Regulation on uniform provisions concerning the approval of vehicles with regards to Automated Lane Keeping System

UN Economic & Social Council, April 6, "The intention of the Regulation is to establish uniform provisions concerning the approval of vehicles with regard to Automated Lane Keeping Systems (ALKS).

ALKS controls the lateral and longitudinal movement of the vehicle for extended periods without further driver command. ALKS is a system whereby the activated system is in primary control of the vehicle.

This Regulation is the first regulatory step for an automated driving system (as defined in ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1140) in traffic and it therefore provides innovative provisions aimed at addressing the complexity related to the evaluation of the system safety. It contains administrative provisions suitable for type approval, technical requirements, audit and reporting provisions and testing provisions.

ALKS can be activated under certain conditions on roads where pedestrians and cyclists are prohibited and which, by design, are equipped with a physical separation that divides the traffic moving in opposite directions and prevent traffic from cutting across the path of the vehicle. In a first step, the original text of this Regulation limits the operational speed to 60 km/h maximum and passenger cars (M1 vehicles).

This Regulation includes general requirements regarding the system safety and the failsafe response. When the ALKS is activated, it shall perform the driving task instead of the driver, i.e. manage all situations including failures, and shall not endanger the safety of the vehicle occupants or any other road users. There is however always the possibility for the driver to override the system, at any time.

The Regulation also lays down requirements on how the driving task shall be safely handed over from the ALKS to the driver including the capability for the system to come to a stop in case the driver does not reply appropriately.

Finally, the Regulation includes requirements on the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) to prevent misunderstanding or misuse by the driver. The Regulation for instance requires that on-board displays used by the driver for other activities than driving when the ALKS is activated, shall be automatically suspended as soon as the system issues a transition demand. These measures are without prejudice to driver behaviour rules on how to use these systems in the Contracting Parties as currently being discussed by the Global Forum for Road Traffic Safety (WP.1) at the time of drafting this document (See e.g. Informal Document 4 Revision 1 of the seventy-eight session of WP.1)...."Read more

Hmmmm.... A very important read with many very important details and this is just for Automated Lane Keeping Systems (ALKS) which is just the 2nd (baby) step, after adaptive cruise control on the way of "finishing" Level 2 and tip toeing into Level 3 and beyond. Thank you Russ for bringing this to my attention. Alain rgb(51, 51, September 11, 2020  Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving Capability' Falls Short of Its Name M. Monticello. Sept. 8, The features might be cutting edge, even cool, but we think buyers should be wary of shelling out $8,000 for what electric car company Tesla calls its Full Self-Driving Capability option. Tesla claims every new vehicle it builds includes all the hardware necessary to be fully autonomous, and the company says that through future over-the-air software updates, its cars should eventually be capable of driving themselves.  .... Anytime anyone uses words such as "Full" the one thing that you know that they are "Full" of is ....   "Full" is about a perception, not a fact. Even the definition of "autonomous" has caveats (or should I say Full of caveats?). What I interpret Elon to be selling is: sufficient hardware (sensors, memory, compute power and communications bandwidth) that, with more elegant software, may be able to do a way better job in safely driving a car.  What he has never said is that this hardware plus future software is going to be good enough for him to be held responsible if something bad happens when the car is being driven by that hardware and software combination. That said, lets move on...

But for now, Full Self-Driving Capability, which includes features that can assist the driver with parking, changing lanes on the highway, and even coming to a complete halt at traffic lights and stop signs, remains a misnomer ...Yes!...   Below, we explain each feature in the suite, its intended use, and how each performed in our tests.... " Read more 

Hmmmm.... See Video, Watch Zoom-Cast.  Help with parking.... no  one parks a good car into a tight parking place; else, that car's life as a god car rapidly disappears. Stupid Summon is just stupid... your car is not your dog and certainly not in the WalMart parking lot. (or should I have said WholePaycheck parking lot) Here puppy, here puppy!

I really like what Consumer Reports has been doing on this front. Trying to help consumers understant what is what. Alain rgb(51, 51, September 11, 2020

Autonomous vehicles could improve policing, public safety, and much more

rgb(51, 51, August 20, 2020   Creating Standards in an Environment of Mistrust

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Saturday, The Biggest Self-Driving Truck Startup Stumbles in Hitting High Goals rgb(51, 51, 255);">Thursday, Car OEMs Driving Toward Relevance or Perdition

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Thursday, Fostering Economic Opportunity through Autonomous Vehicle Technology rgb(51, 51, 255);">Thursday,

Announcing 2020-2021 Fellow-in-Residence Henry L. Greenidge, Esq. Press release, June 24, "The McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University has announced transportation policy expert Henry L. Greenidge, Esq. as a 2020-2021 Fellow-in-Residence. .."  Read more  

Hmmm....  In no uncertain terms, we must make sure that inequities and racism are not explicitly nor even implicitly baked intothe SmartDrivingCar r/evolution.  We are still at the very beginning, so it shouldn't be hard nor expensive but so far it doesn't look good.  The emphasis has been on giving those that already have fantastic ways to get around one more way. The focus hasn't been on the mobility disadvantaged and certainly not on the Black community. Just look where the testing has been taking place and the folks that take part in the focus groups and those that are given rides. Look at who designs and writes the software and the investors. Sure, one can and should serve them, but if public policy is going to play a role, then it can't bake in more inequities. Moreover, the private sector can also step up and realize that these systems can readily serve everyone.  The technology that makes SmartDrivingCars possible is not inherently racists.  It can respect and serve everyone. Henry and others can help make sure that the designers and deployers of SmartDrivingCars don't explicitly nor implicitly bake in racism and bias. Alain rgb(51, 51, 255);">Thursday, Motor Vehicle Fatality Rates Jump 36.6% in April Despite Quarantines, Says National Safety Council rgb(51, 51, 255);">Friday,

Society of Actuaries Research Brief Impact of COVID-19, June 12, 2020

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Thursday, Two-way Vehicle Connectivity is a Three-sided Coin That Everyone Wants to Own

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Thursday,

Luminaries Battle In Lincoln-Douglas Style Debate About The Future Of Self-Driving Cars rgb(51, 51, 255);">Friday,

What Negative Oil Prices Mean and How the Impact Could Last rgb(51, 51, 255);">Friday,

Starsky Robotics Failed. Does That Mean Automated Trucking Is Dead?

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Friday, January 31, 2020

2020 Hyundai Sonata stars in Super Bowl ad all about 'Smaht Pahk'

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Sunday, January 12,

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

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Monday, 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

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Saturday, November 23, 2019 Self-driving car capital? One senator thinks it can be Florida rgb(51, 51, 255);">

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Saturday, September 28, 2019 Public forum will explore possibility of transit on demand in Princeton

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Saturday, August 17, 2019 Autonomous Vehicles:  A View from Seniors

rgb(51, 51, 255);">Thursday, November 22,

Market Framework and Outlook for Automated Vehicle Systems

October 24,

New Jersey Pending Legislation re: Autonomous Vehicles

Oct 16, Establishes fully autonomous vehicle pilot program A4573 Sponsors: Zwicker (D16); Benson (D14)

Oct 16, EstablishesNew Jersey Advanced Autonomous Vehicle Task Force AJR164Sponsors: Benson (D14); Zwicker (D16); Lampitt (D6)

Oct 16, Directs MVC to establish driver's license endorsement for autonomous vehicles A4541 Sponsors: Zwicker (D16); Benson (D14); Lampitt (D6)..."  Read more

Hmmmm.... Things are beginning to move in New Jersey.  Alain

Testimony of Alain Kornhauser, Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology - Monday, October 22, 2018 - 10:00:00 AM

Audio Recording of Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology - Monday, October 22, 2018 - 10:00:00 AM

CPUC AUTHORIZES PASSENGER CARRIERS TO PROVIDE FREE TEST RIDES IN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES WITH VALID CPUC AND DMV PERMITS

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 

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 of SmartDrivingCar, 10,  2018   Don't Worry, Driverless Cars Are Learning From Grand Theft Auto

Extracting Cognition out of Images for the Purpose of Autonomous Driving

announce historic commitment of 20 automakers to make automatic emergency braking standard on new vehicles

Sunday, December 19, 2015 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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Alain L. Kornhauser, PhD

Professor, Operations Research & Financial Engineering

Director, Transportation Program

Faculty Chair, Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering

229 Sherrerd Hall

Princeton University

Princeton, NJ

(o)

(c)

Alain L. Kornhauser, PhD

Professor, Operations Research & Financial Engineering

Director, Transportation Program

Faculty Chair, Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering

229 Sherrerd Hall

Princeton University

Princeton, NJ

alaink@princeton.edu

609-258-4657 (o)

609-980-1427 (c)

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