5.32-UberLondon-092917

For Uber in London, a New Route: Diplomacy J. Stewart, Sept 28, "As a global disrupter, Uber is no stranger to conflict, and its instinct has always been pugilistic. But on Monday, three days after Transport for London said it wouldn’t renew the ride-hailing service’s license to operate, Uber all but prostrated itself to show its humility.

In a full-page ad in The Evening Standard that began “Dear Londoners,” Uber’s new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, apologized “for the mistakes we’ve made,” and acknowledged that “we must also change.” He added, “You have my commitment we will work with London to make things right and keep this great global city moving safely.

In a letter to employees, Mr. Khosrowshahi said that “change comes from self-reflection” and that “the truth is that there is a high cost to a bad reputation.” He pledged to be a “better partner to every city we operate in.”

Welcome to the kinder, gentler Uber.” … Read more Hmmmm…Well said!  You would have thought that this would have happened as soon as its valuation hit 9 digits.  Better late than never.  (Although, did the full-page ad in the Standard buy its editorial?)  Alain

U.S. senators announce deal on self-driving car legislation

D. Shepardson, Sept 27, "U.S. senators announce deal on self-driving car legislation…Two sources briefed on the matter said the bill would not include larger commercial trucks…

A similar bill that unanimously passed the U.S. House earlier this month also excluded vehicles above 10,000 pounds…."  Read more Hmmmm…This is really unfortunate for the truck drivers who desperately need technology to improve their workplace (one of the most unsafe occupations!).  OSHA should be insisting that this safety-inspired legislation also encompass professional drivers.  What a shame.  The "Teamsters" have not only wasted their lobbying $$$ but worked to the detriment of their constituency.  Alain

Drivers urged to insist on autonomous emergency braking

Sept 28, " coalition of road safety and motor industry bodies are encouraging private and fleet car buyers to insist on Autonomous Emergency Braking when they buy their next new car saying it could save hundreds of lives on our roads…." Read more Hmmmm…Well that’s a ‘no-bain-er’.  The self-insurance (deductible, not-covered, …) that is saved, pays for it.  Insurance now needs to also jump on-board and share some of their wind-fall profits to really convince folks to buy.  Alain

Cadillac Driving Coast-to-Coast with ‘Super Cruise Hands-Free’ CT6

R. Price, Sept 27, "Cadillac’s demonstration of its “Super Cruise” driver assistance technology suite has begun a coast-to coast-run across 16 states.

This demonstration of the automaker’s “hands free” semi-autonomous tech which competes with Tesla’s Autopilot marks five years of development of the system. Participating in the run are 12 pre-production Super-Cruise equipped Cadillac CT6’ that left the Cadillac House in New York City yesterday on its way to California. In total, the convoy will cross 16 states, making the following stops: Cleveland, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Memphis, Tennessee; Dallas, Texas; Santa Fe, New Mexico and Phoenix, Arizona…." Read more Hmmmm…See video, Super Cruise Package is $5,000 on the Premium version and includes Driver Assist Package (Adaptive Cruise Control, Night Vision, Forward and Reverse Automatic Braking,) &  Active Chassis Package  (Active rear steering, Magnetic Ride Control™, 20" wheels and all-season tires).  (A Driver Awareness Package with very inferior features is $3,500 on the Luxury Model.)  I can’t wait to go to a dealership and have them try to explain to me the configurations and pricing.  Dealerships are going to need to get PhDs in ‘Cadillac CT6’ to understand the confusion.  How are Dealerships pre-ordering these cars??  No two will be the same. I guess that’s good??? What ever happened to Henry Ford’s "Black".   Alain

Toyota is trusting a startup for a crucial part of its newest self-driving cars

J. Bhuiyan, Sept 27, Luminar, which launched in April 2017 with $36 million in funding, announced it is working with Toyota’s research arm, Toyota Research Institute, on the company’s newest version of its autonomous platform.

Toyota unveiled the next generation of its self-driving platform today, which features more accurate object detection technology and mapping, among other advancements.

These test cars — which Toyota is testing on both a closed driving course and on some public roads — will also be using Luminar’s lidar sensors, or radars that use lasers to detect the distance to an object. Read more Hmmmm…Interesting.  Alain

Toyota’s new self-driving car has two steering wheels to prevent robot joyriding

A. Hawkins, Sept 27, "Today, the Toyota Research Institute, the Silicon Valley-based arm of the biggest carmaker in the world, unveiled the latest version of its autonomous vehicle, featuring better sensors, improved detection, and two steering wheels to better transfer control from human to robot…." Read more Hmmmm…Interesting. See video  Alain

NVIDIA Invests in Chinese Self-Driving Car Startup, JingChi

Press release, Sept 25, "NVIDIA GPU Ventures has joined a group of investors led by Chinese venture capitalist firm, Qiming Venture, in investing $52 million in Chinese startup JingChi.

Founded last spring by Tony Han and Jing Wang, former leaders of the autonomous driving unit at Baidu, JingChi uses NVIDIA GPUs and NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 to develop its autonomous cars.  Read more Hmmmm… Initiatives are bubbling everywhere.  Alain

Tesla switches from NVIDIA to Intel for its infotainment systems

J. Finga, "Ever since Tesla took the wraps off the Model S, its electric cars have had NVIDIA hardware powering the infotainment system and the giant touchscreen that controls it. However, it’s apparently breaking with tradition: Bloomberg sources hear that the automaker has switched to Intel. Reportedly, the Model 3 and new versions of other cars will be the first to make the leap. It’s not certain what prompted the move (Intel, NVIDIA and Tesla have all declined to comment), but it’s a huge coup if true.

For the most part, NVIDIA’s deal with Tesla has been more about prestige than raw numbers. As a luxury EV maker, Tesla wasn’t about to sell in huge volumes. That’s changing with the Model 3 — when Tesla has hundreds of thousands of pre-orders, the bottom line suddenly matters a great deal. Intel is hopping aboard right as Tesla’s unit sales will make a significant difference for component partners. Combine that with Intel’s other victories, such as its Waymo deal, and it’s quickly becoming a fierce competitor in the automotive world…." Read more Hmmmm… Is this part of a bounce back to MobilEye or is Tesla just getting stuff for free? Alain

Chinese internet search engine Baidu sets up $1.5bn self driving car fund

C. Cadell, Sept 21, "Chinese search engine Baidu announced a 10bn yuan ($1.1bn) self-driving car fund on Thursday as part of a wider plan to speed up its technical development and compete with US rivals. The “Apollo Fund” will invest in 100 autonomous driving projects over the next three years, Baidu said in a statement.  The fund’s launch coincides with the release of Apollo 1.5, the second generation of the company’s open-source autonomous vehicle software…  Read more Hmmmm… One way to get initial adoption of one’s software.  Alain

Chinese drop investment in maps firm HERE after U.S. resistance

E. Auchard, Sept 26, "A Chinese-led group has withdrawn its offer to buy a stake in German carmaker-backed mapping company HERE after it failed to win approval from a U.S. national security oversight board.   Chinese mapping company Navinfo (002405.SZ) said on Tuesday that the company and partners Chinese internet giant Tencent (0700.HK) and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC [GIC.UL] had dropped plans to take a 10 percent stake in the company. …
Navinfo said in a statement that it spent months after the deal was announced in January seeking approval from the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS). But after meeting CFIUS resistance, the group had decided to pull its investment offer. It did not give details of why CFIUS opposed the investment…" Read more Hmmmm… Even without US resistance, it is tough to compete in China.  Ask Uber.  Alain

Say goodbye to these Uber self-driving cars. But don’t worry, there’s a fresh fleet coming.

C. Linder, "It’s been 371 days since Uber first launched a self-driving car in Pittsburgh and you can soon kiss the familiar gray robot cars goodbye.  Well, in favor of a new fleet set to hit the construction-prone, pot-holed streets sometime in the coming months….

Now, after one million autonomous miles, over 30,000 passenger rides and building out a 200-car autonomous fleet between Tempe, Ariz., San Francisco, Calif. and Pittsburgh…"  Read more Hmmmm… See embedded video.  Real milestone and progress.  Many things are easy but some remain hard.  Alain

Uber driver, self-driving software not at fault in Pittsburgh crash, company determines

A. Aupperlee, Sept 20,  "…“We look to make sure, one, that our operators did the right thing in that circumstance, and two, that our software didn’t contribute in any way to the crash,” Zych said. “And in all the incidents that we’ve looked at so far, that has been the case.”…  Read more Hmmmm… If NTSB were to find this worthy of investigation, would they rule as they did wrt Joshua Brown?  I remain so unhappy about their findings.  Alain

Former VW Engine Chief Arrested, Signaling Widening Emissions Case

J. Ewing, Sept 28, "An investigation into Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal expanded significantly on Thursday after German authorities arrested a former high-ranking executive of the carmaker, two people with knowledge of the arrest said.  The executive, identified by German news outlets as Wolfgang Hatz, is a former chief of engine development at Volkswagen. He worked closely with Matthias Müller, now the company’s chief executive, when both were members of the management board of the carmaker’s Porsche unit. Mr. Hatz was being held in Munich without bail.

Mr. Hatz, well known in automotive circles because of his previous role as chief of research and development at Porsche, is the second person to be arrested in Germany in connection with the Volkswagen case and the first German citizen. His prominence signals that the investigation — which has proceeded slowly since the wrongdoing came to light two years ago — may be entering a more intense phase.

Being incarcerated puts Mr. Hatz under enormous pressure to testify against others because his chances of winning release are greater if he cooperates. The information he provides could lead to new revelations and seriously impede Volkswagen’s attempts to put the scandal, in which it admitted to manipulating diesel cars so they artificially reduced their emissions in lab tests, behind it. Read more Hmmmm…This may not be like the "Financial Crisis" where everyone walked away.  This was not the way to do business and this lesson needs to be learned, especially since software/AI is engulfing the car.  Alain

Trump backs off vow that private sector should help pay for infrastructure package

T. Newmyer. Sept 26, "…Now the administration wants to force states and localities to foot most of the bill. The previous strategy — a push that has taken a back seat to other Republican priorities in Washington — was aimed at luring private investors with promises of federal backing. Some of that thinking appears to be changing…"  Read more Hmmmm…This would be the final nail in the DSRC / ConnectedVehicle coffin. Alain

In Taiwan, Modest Test of Driverless Bus May Hint at Big Things to Come

C. Horton, Sept 28, "…The electric vehicle crawled along at a speed of no more than six miles per hour. And only 12 passengers could fit inside. But the bus also drove itself, raising hopes in Taipei that autonomous public transportation would be up and running here within a year….But successful testing on a closed course at low speeds can only reveal so much about how the buses would fare in traffic. Getting them on the road at busy times is the next step, and the program’s backers are eager to see that happen quickly… At $550,000 a unit, including import taxes, it is nearly twice the price of a larger bus with a driver…Read more Hmmmm…Slow is good, because we need to be very careful that we don’t screw up.  These are truly driverless and VERY different to what Uber and Waymo are doing where there is always a driver ready to take over.  (Shhhhhh….There is an ‘attendant’ on board the EZ10, also).  The price is very high, but it will come down.  Even McClarens are now priced for the masses.  Alain

  Pittsburgh’s self-driving car boom means $200,000 pay packages for robotics grads

A. Levy, Sept 16, "There’s a war for talent in Pittsburgh’s booming autonomous car market.  It started with Uber and now includes Argo AI, which is majority owned by Ford, and a start-up called Aurora Innovation. With so much hiring, it’s a good time to be at the city’s prized academic institution, Carnegie Mellon University.
Andrew Moore, the dean of Carnegie Mellon’s computer science school, said that computer vision graduates right out of college are commanding pay packages of $200,000, which he described as "unheard of for any role until recently."…  Read more Hmmmm… 🙂  It’s been a arduous evolution from Steelers to Pirates.  🙂 Alain

Say it five times fast: Roboburgh, robot belt, robotics row. But will these Burgh buzzwords stick?

C. Linder, Sept 26, "So the story goes, Mayor Bill Peduto began using #Roboburgh whenever he cited technology articles on Twitter. It seemed trendy and possibly even hip or, to some, dorky…." Read more Hmmmm… Dorky, but nice.  Alain

Udacity adds course on flying cars and ramps up self-driving program

C. Said, Sept 19, "…Udacity founder and CEO Sebastian Thrun has himself transitioned from autonomous cars to flight: He pioneered self-driving cars at Google over a decade ago, and now, in addition to his Udacity work, he runs Kitty Hawk, a company started by Google co-founder Larry Page to make flying cars…"   Read more Hmmmm… Nice.  Alain

Why Cities Are Concerned About Self-Driving Vehicle Legislation in Congress

“We don’t want to let a sense get out there that there are provisions or clauses in our legislation that are intended to restrict the abilities of states or localities to set speed limits, or set traffic lights, or stop signs, or directions for vehicles, or restrict their ability, basically, to manage streets and roadways,” said Frederick Hill, communications director for the Commerce Committee…."

We’re concerned about the lack of engagement with local communities and even with state DOTs,” Corey said. “It seems like a lot of the work that has been done has been largely driven by industry.”  "This is a technology," he added, "that is going to fundamentally change how people move around cities." Read more Hmmmm…True.  Alain

PodCasts

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 5

F. Fishkin, Sept 11,   "In this episode of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast, host Fred Fishkin chats with Princeton University Professor Alain Kornhauser and University of Texas Professor Kara Kockelman about the news from GM and Cruise Automation, progress in technology and in Washington D. C. and how much people are willing to pay for cars that can drive themselves…." Listen Hmmmm… Nice. Thank you Kara.  Alain

Some other thoughts that deserve your attention

On the More Technical Side

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

Half-baked stuff that probably doesn’t deserve your time

Daimler’s self-driving truck platoons to roll onto US highways

N. Lavars, Sept 27, "As autonomous vehicles of all shapes and sizes continue to gain momentum, truck platooning is something we’re starting to hear more and more about. The basic idea is that, fitted with self-driving technology, trucks wirelessly tethered with one another can roll down the highway in a tighter formation than would be possible with humans at the wheel…. Hmmmm…Just what we need.  Trucks in ‘tighter formation’  …Its move onto US soil follows testing at a private facility in Oregon, and comes with the blessing of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)…"  Read more Hmmmm…Talk about putting cart-before-horse.  There isn’t one mile of highway in Oregon where having trucks in ‘tighter formation’ would deliver any value.  Check out the road cams in OR for yourself. Why not roll out a really good intelligent cruise control and emergency braking system on all new Daimlers (aka Freightliner) so that they don’t rear-end or jack-knife anyone.  Once that tail isn’t wagging that dog, then come back to this.  Alain

Autonomous Passenger Drone swoops onto the flying taxi scene

N. Lavars, Sept 27, "The field of flying taxis is one that is starting to fill up. Joining the likes of the Ehang 184 and Volocopter is the newly announced Passenger Drone… "Range is 30 to 35 mins with speed of 30 to 35 knots (34 to 40 mph)," Read more Hmmmm…Talk about "range anxiety"  20 miles between recharges.  I guess we need to start somewhere??? See video.  Alain

Mercedes’ parent company will pour $1 billion in a US factory that will create its Tesla rival

A. Cremer, Seot 21, "Germany’s Daimler said it will invest $1 billion to expand its U.S.-based Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama to start building electric sport-utility vehicles there from about 2020…."  Read more Hmmmm…Great!  Just what we need.  Another SUV.  Alain

Dyson planning electric car by 2020

J. Chadwick, Sept 27, " The company responsible for the bagless vacuum cleaner will use its expertise in solid-state battery technology and electric motors for its own electric vehicle….Dyson is working on an electric car to be launched in 2020, according to the company’s founder James Dyson.  The company currently has a dedicated team made up of 400 Dyson engineers and automotive experts, and is continuing to recruit for the £2 billion project, the founder said…

Details on the vehicle’s concept were scant, but Dyson did say that it would be unlike anything else on the market, as "there’s no point in doing one that looks like everyone else’s"." Read more Hmmmm…I thought I was reading The Onion.  Doesn’t Detroit say that it is hard to make a car???  Since Elon is doing it…Welcome to the Club!   Alain

Ford, Lyft will partner to deploy self-driving cars

J. White, Sept 27, "Ford Motor Co (F.N) said on Wednesday it will collaborate with Lyft to deploy Ford self-driving vehicles on the ride-services company’s network in large numbers by 2021…" Read more Hmmmm…That’s how many ‘SmartDrivingCars lifetimes’ from now???  And doesn’t GM own 9% of Lyft?

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

Calendar of Upcoming Events:

Nov 8-10
Las Vegas, NV
Smart City, Smart Transit, Smart Energy

2nd Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit
May 16 & 17, 2018
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
Save the Date

Recent Highlights of:

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Driver Errors, Overreliance on Automation, Lack of Safeguards, Led to Fatal Tesla Crash

Press Relaes, Sept 12, "The National Transportation Safety Board determined Tuesday that a truck driver’s failure to yield the right of way ( a fact )and a car driver’s inattention due to overreliance on vehicle automation (  a deduction among several others that can easily be made, including:  the failure to yield was so egregious that there was nothing that he could do about it except lift his arms to protect his head and he wasn’t inattentive.  What the truck was doing was so absurd, it wasn’t believable. ) are the probable cause of the fatal May 7, 2016, crash near Williston, Florida…" Read carefully as well as links below.  Hmmmm… Wow!  Seems as if NTSB has decided to use this crash as a platform to weigh-in on automation.  A fact and a questionable deduction are given equal weight in reaching ‘probable’ cause.  Interesting  Probability Theory going on here.  "… Findings in the NTSB’s report include:

• The Tesla’s automated vehicle control system was not designed to, and could not, identify the truck crossing the Tesla’s path or recognize the impending crash. Therefore, the system did not slow the car, the forward collision warning system did not provide an alert, and the automatic emergency braking did not activate. "   This is an enormously damaging finding that should motivate the NTSB to investigate ALL of the forward collision warning and emergency braking systems that are on the market today.  Are any of them designed and do any of them work in cutoff situations? 

• …, highway design … were not factors in the crash.   The turn lanes at this intersection have no traffic control devices, or signs (yield or stop) to discourage the running of the turn. This isn’t a design issue? Doesn’t seem as if the NTSB considered that maybe, because there was no traffic or ???, the truck driver ran the turn wide, crossing Brown’s lane at maybe even 590 ft/sec.

…The NTSB issued a total of seven safety recommendations based upon its findings, with one recommendation issued to the US Department of Transportation, three to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, two to the manufacturers of vehicles equipped with Level 2 vehicle automation systems, and one each to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and Global Automakers. …
…Reiterated Recommendations
As a result of its investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board reiterates the following safety recommendations:
To the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Develop minimum performance standards for connected vehicle technology for all
highway vehicles. (H-13-30)
Once minimum performance standards for connected vehicle technology are developed,
require this technology to be installed on all newly manufactured highway vehicles. (H-
13-31)   What???  C’Mon Man!!!  Hasn’t the NTSB gotten the memo?  This has NOTHING to do with "Connected Vehicles" .
…"The abstract of the NTSB’s final report, that includes the findings, probable cause and safety recommendations is available online at https://go.usa.gov/xRMFc. The final report will be publicly released in the next several days.  The docket for this investigation is available at https://go.usa.gov/xNvaE. …. Alain

Friday, September 8, 2017

CONGRESS UNITES (GASP) TO SPREAD SELF-DRIVING CARS ACROSS AMERICA

A. Marshal, Sept 7, "ON WEDNESDAY, THE House of Representatives did something that’s woefully uncommon these days: It passed a bill with bipartisan support. The bill, called the SELF DRIVE (Safely Ensuring Lives, Future Deployment and Research In Vehicle Evolution) Act (H.R. 3388), lays out a basic federal framework for autonomous vehicle regulation, signaling that federal lawmakers are finally ready to think seriously about self-driving cars and what they mean for the future of the country…. Lawmakers, for their part, hope the legislation strikes a balance between allowing tech and car companies to test whatever, wherever, and giving them enough leeway to try stuff out, collect some data, and determine the best way to operate vehicles without a driver….
First, the legislation works out a way for the federal government’s rules to trump state laws and rules. It officially gives the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration power to regulate vehicle design, construction, and performance—the way it does with, well, normal cars. States still have authority over vehicle registration and licensing, but they’ll have a harder time making demands about what goes on inside the car….
Second, the legislation requires autonomous vehicle manufacturers be deliberate about the way they share their passengers’ data….
Finally, the legislation makes it a lot easier for self-driving cars to hit the road….
What’s Next?  Well, this is just the first half of this process. Now the Senate has to pass its own bill. Then both houses will work together to come up with compromise legislation that the president can sign…."  Read more Hmmmm… While not a high bar, this is likely to be the best thing Congress has done so far this year.  Putting the burden on NHTSA when it has so much to do with conventional cars may be just too much.  Since all of this, especially Driverless, is so radically new, it probably deserves a new ‘Administration’, a new entity, that has a clean sheet of paper with which to work this technology, much as trucks and airlines have with their own ‘Administration’.  Alain

Friday, September 1, 2017

Automated Vehicles: Are We Moving Too Fast or Too Slow?

M. Sena, Sept, ’17, "ARE WE MOVING too fast to get ‘No Humans Needed’ automated vehicles onto our roads, or are we dragging our feet? The Move Faster lobby says every day that passes without robots driving all our cars, close to a million people die needlessly in traffic accidents.  Here are the numbers, and they are grim:…

The Move Slower camp says that we don’t really know for sure that robots are better drivers than humans, we are not yet certain what changes will be required to the transport infrastructure to accommodate a mix of human and robot-driven vehicles and, perhaps most importantly, turning over our cars, trucks and buses to robots may be just another nail in the human race’s coffin….

… I am arguing in favor of caution…." Read more Hmmmm… First, as I have pointed out many times, the safety objective can be fully obtained with Safe-driving (automated collision avoidance and lane keeping) and doesn’t need Self-driving (automated with a ready and able driver just waiting to "save the day" and take control and drive conventionally)  or Driverless (no one is there to take control and/or there are no controls available to drive conventionally).  The mobility objective (leveling the mobility ‘playing field’ (affordable on-demand ubiquitous mobility) for everyone (including goods) requires Driverless (is not addressed by Safe- or Self-driving vehicles).  With respect to safety, there can be no support for anything more than politically-correct caution because there is no evidence to date that any of the automated collision avoidance systems and automated lane centering systems cause any crashes.  So it should be ‘ full steam ahead’!

With respect to our desire to address the mobility objective, which requires Driverless, extreme caution is where we are (we are still at ‘absolute zero’) and the enormity of the undertaking is so large that extreme caution is all that is possible.   To my knowledge, we have had only one ride (by Waymo) that was ‘Driverless in mixed traffic on an unaltered/unprepared public street’. (and that ride was likely (and appropriately) monitored remotely by an army of Waymo engineers ready to take over if anything bad or challenging was about to happen. So while we have logged ‘the first VMT (vehicle mile traveled)’,  we aren’t yet to even two decimal places of VMT (100th VMT).  Caution is what we have been doing and is the only thing that we can do.  But we must get on with it else we make zero dent in the mobility objective.  (Self-driving is all about enhancing the comfort and convenience of the conventional private automobile and enhancing the existing legacy auto industry.  While it claims, it doesn’t deserve, the safety kudos and it exacerbates rather than soothe the mobility gap between the haves and have-nots.).   See also the other articles in this issue of The Dispatcher.   Alain

Friday, August 25, 2017

Inside Waymo’s Secret World for Training Self-Driving Cars

A. Madrigal, aUG 23, " a corner of Alphabet’s campus, there is a team working on a piece of software that may be the key to self-driving cars. No journalist has ever seen it in action until now. They call it Carcraft, after the popular game World of Warcraft….Hmmmm…  Waymo’s naming should have been a play of GTA V such as "Maximus Furtum IV". Oh, but that’s our version of this.   🙂 Alain
 
…Scenarios like this form the base for the company’s powerful simulation apparatus. “The vast majority of work done—new feature work—is motivated by stuff seen in simulation,” Stout tells me. This is the tool that’s accelerated the development of autonomous vehicles at Waymo…
…Collectively, they now drive 8 million miles per day in the virtual world. In 2016, they logged 2.5 billion virtual miles…
…In that virtual space, they can unhitch from the limits of real life and create thousands of variations of any single scenario, and then run a digital car through all of them….
…Not surprisingly, the hardest thing to simulate is the behavior of the other people. It’s like the old parental saw: “I’m not worried about you driving. I’m worried about the other people on the road.”…
…They call it “fuzzing,” and in this case, there are 800 scenarios generated by this four-way stop. It creates a beautiful, lacy chart—and engineers can go in and see how different combinations of variables change the path that the car would decide to take….
…“That iteration cycle is tremendously important to us and all the work we’ve done on simulation allows us to shrink it dramatically,” Dolgov told me. “The cycle that would take us weeks in the early days of the program now is on the order of minutes.”…
…The power is that they mirror the real world in the ways that are significant to the self-driving car and allow it to get billions more miles than physical testing would allow. For the driving software running the simulation, it is not like making decisions out there in the real world. It is the same as making decisions out there in the real world…"  Read more Hmmmm… Excellent!! However, the description focuses on the ‘testing’ side.  What about the ‘training’ side?  Not much divulged here.   Alain

Monday, August 21, 2017

Driverless-Car Outlook Shifts as Intel Takes Over Mobileye

E. Boudette, Aug 8, "…Mobileye will remain based in Israel, and its co-founder Amnon Shashua will head all of Intel’s autonomous-vehicle efforts. The other founder, Ziv Aviram, is retiring from Mobileye to focus on another company he started, OrCam, which makes artificial-vision devices that allow the visually impaired to understand text and identify objects…" Read more Hmmmm…  Will Intel really not screw this up?   Alain

Monday, August 7, 2017

Cadillac’s Super Cruise ‘autopilot’ is ready for the expressway

M Burns, Aug 3, "Cadillac is about to start selling vehicles with an autonomous driving mode …Once the light bar on top of the steering wheel turns green, the driver can let go…

“Wait for the green light and let go,” the Cadillac engineer instructed. That’s it. The car was driving itself. I, the person behind the steering wheel, was no longer the driver. Cadillac’s Super Cruise system was driving.  The 2018 Cadillac CT6 sped along US-23 under the direction of Super Cruise. Traffic was light and the weather was perfect. The system held the Cadillac sedan in lane and responded appropriately to traffic. I spent an hour on the expressway and touched the steering wheel and pedals only a few times.  Super Cruise made the drive boring. I think that’s the point….

When active, Super Cruise controls the steering and speed, but again, only on an expressway. This is done through on board sensors and using GPS and mapping data. GM employed GeoDigital, a startup in GM Venture’s portfolio, to map 160,000 miles of expressways in the U.S. and Canada. The car company then used Super Cruise-equipped vehicles to test each mile.

Cadillac’s system also lacks several autonomous features found on Autopilot including the ability to pull the car out of a garage and change lanes by using the turn signals. Hmmmm…  fluff features with little value.

Super Cruise’s IR sensors tracks eye location and head movements. As long as the driver looks at the road every seven to 20 seconds, the system works as expected.  Hmmmm… Fantastic!

General Motors will have to rely on independently owned dealerships to correctly position this product and train buyers on its capabilities. Hmmmm… Yup!

For better or worse, Super Cruise is built into the CT6 like a standard system and not something a driver must use every time they’re on an expressway. This should help timid buyers.  Super Cruise feels like a feature ready for the masses. The system is deeply integrated into the vehicle and using it is akin to using cruise control or turning on the lights. There’s a button for Super Cruise on the steering wheel. Press the button when the system is available and it works. It’s that easy to turn a driver into a passenger. Read more Hmmmm…  Over the air updates?  See also Motor Trend’s view: "… a stand-alone option (as yet unpriced) on CT6 models with the premium luxury trim package and as standard equipment on top Platinum models (the price of which went up $500 for 2018, if that’s any indication)…."  Finally, I guess that I’ll have to go test drive one.  Alain