SmartDrivingCar.com/6.22-Post-Summit-051818
22st edition of the 6th year of SmartDrivingCars
3rd Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit
evening May 14 through May 16, 2019
Save the Date; Reserve your Sponsorship
Photos from 2nd Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit
The Open Source Solution to Autonomous Safety #smartdrivingcar
K. Pyle, May 9, “Safety and, as importantly, the perception of safety could be the pin that pricks the expectations surrounding the autonomous vehicle future. Recognizing the importance of safety to the success of this still nascent industry, autonomous taxi start-up, Voyage, recently placed their testing and reporting procedures in an open source framework. …Oliver Cameron, Voyage Co-Founder and CEO, is excited to see participation and says, “We can’t wait to have all of these contributions from companies from around the world; contribute to build the actual standard in autonomous safety.” Read more, Hmmmm…. See the video that was played at the Princeton SDC Summit which generated substantial positive discussion at the Summit. See also full length video. Alain
Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 39
F. Fishkin, May 17, “How close is California to giving the green light to driverless testing on public roads? Deputy DMV Director Bernard Soriano joins Alain Kornhauser, Fred Fishkin and guest Michael Sena on Episode 39 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast. And we review some highlights of the just concluded 2nd annual Princeton Smart Driving Car Summit. Listen and subscribe!”
Hmmmm…. Now you can just say “Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!” . Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay. Alain
Real information every week. Lively discussions with the people who are shaping the future of SmartDrivingCars. Want to become a sustaining sponsor and help us grow the SmartDrivingCars newsletter and podcast? Contact Alain Kornhauser at alaink@princeton.edu! Alain
Share the Ride, Like We Share an Elevator
Viodi, May 17, “The elevator is the perfect analogy for the ride sharing that could be possible with the advent of autonomous vehicle technology. In this snippet from the 2018 SmartDrivingCar Summit, Princeton University’s Professor Alain Kornhauser explains how he recently gave his elevator pitch in an elevator to the Governor of New Jersey.” Read more, Hmmmm…. See video. Alain
Conference Highlights
Tweets by Ken Pyle @viodi, May 17, “And Professor Kornhauser’s chart showing the growth of the #Waymo fleet. #SmartDrivingCars…” Read more, Hmmmm….Very interesting. Alain
Setting the Stage with Images & Perspectives
A. Kornhauser, May 17 “The Fundamental Basics of of why this mobility r/evolution is Different” View more, Hmmmm…. Easy??? Alain
Near-term autonomousTaxis for Central Jersey
A. Kornhauser, May 17 “Dynamics of Google/Waymo’s Deployment of Driverless…” View more, Hmmmm….Great idea 😉. Alain
Fatal Crash Rate
R. Munroe, May 13, “It feels weird to look at car crash statistics and wonder whether we’ll all be able to stop driving before I’m involved in a fatal crash…” Read more Hmmmm…. Think about it. Alain
Strategic Transit Automation Research Plan
V. Valdez, FTA Report #0116, Jan 2018,”… Whereas
automation is relatively mature in rail transit operations, this is not the case in bus transit. The domestic transit bus industry lags behind both light-duty vehicles and heavy-duty trucking, as well as international transit manufacturers and providers. Transit bus automation could deliver many potential benefits, but transit agencies need additional research and policy guidance to make informed deployment decisions. The U.S. transit industry often is conservative in adopting new technologies, services, and business models. Although funding and policy constraints may play a role, there is also a reasonable unwillingness to risk public funding or to undertake new operational models without a full understanding of
the approach or without federal leadership and guidance. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has developed this Strategic Transit Automation Research Plan to begin addressing these issues. The plan establishes a research and demonstration framework that will move the transit industry forward (see Figure ES-1: Strategic Transit Automation Research Roadmap)….” Read more, Hmmmm…. Finally!! movement is FTA… Some god statements… “The scope does not include driver assistance systems without an automation aspect (e.g., driver warnings and alerts), but does include those with automated actuation (e. g., as in an automated emergency braking application)”, … “Five broad areas of use cases have been identified, ..” Unfortunately , None of those 5 are not ride-shared autonomousTaxis on ,. on , Alain
How Intel and Mobileye are taking a simpler path to autonomy
T. Stevens, May 16, “While it’s likely that Waymo will be the first company to make driverless cars a commercial reality, thanks to its Phoenix-based autonomous transportation service that launches soon, when it comes time for you and I to actually buy an autonomous car, there’s a very strong chance it’ll run technology created by Mobileye.
The Israel-based company, acquired by Intel last year for a whopping $15.3 billion dollars, is taking a different, more-direct path to autonomy. While the competition throws millions of dollars at prototype cars festooned with more sensors than landed Apollo 11 on the moon, Mobileye has been relatively quiet as it slowly and iteratively develops its own technology with one presiding directive: KISS. (That’s “keep it simple, stupid” for the non-engineers out there.)… Read more Hmmmm…. Look also at Ambarella’s approach to simplicity and low power (3 watts) Alain
Ambarella’s VisLab Marks 20-Year Anniversary of MilleMiglia in Automatico
Press release, May 14, “…commemorating the twenty-year anniversary of MilleMiglia in Automatico, one of the world’s first tests of an autonomous vehicle on public roads. With this test, VisLab S.r.l., then part of the University of Parma and today an Ambarella company, was first to use vision technology to autonomously drive a car utilizing only low-cost camera and computing solutions….” Read more Hmmmm…. Congratulations Alberto!! Alain
Intel’s Mobileye gets self-driving tech deal for 8 million cars
S. Sheer, May 17, “Mobileye, Intel Corp’s Israel-based autonomous driving unit, has signed a contract to supply eight million cars at a European automaker with its self-driving technologies, a company official told Reuters. Financial terms of the deal and the identity of the automaker were not disclosed.
The deal for the advanced driver assisted systems will begin in 2021, when Intel’s EyeQ5 chip, which is designed for fully autonomous driving, is launched as an upgrade to the EyeQ4 that will be rolled out in the coming weeks, …” Read more, Hmmmm…. Great, but sounds a little iffy. Alain
Didi Chuxing can now test self-driving cars in California
M. Dickey, May 14, “Quite a number of companies — 53, to be exact — have received permits to test self-driving cars with a safety driver in California. One of the more notable companies that has received such a permit is China-based Didi Chuxing, which officially opened its U.S.-based research lab last March…. Missing from the list, unsurprisingly, is Didi rival Uber….” Read more, Hmmmm….D Welcome! Alain
1911 – A Trip Through New York City
G. Jones, Apr 7, “Old film of New York City in the year 1911. Print has survived in mint condition. Slowed down footage to a natural rate and added in sound for ambiance. …” Read more, Hmmmm…. Very interesting, as is “A Trip Down Market Street – 1906“. Alain
If we end up sitting around in self-driving cars watching ads, Google is going to make billions
D. Edwards, May 18, “While producing cars and components is still expected to be a good business once cars are autonomous, providing the driving experience is seen to be the biggest and best opportunity. New research from UBS predicts that US autonomous-vehicle revenue will reach $2.3 trillion by 2030—and 70% of the estimated is expected to come from selling experiences to the former drivers.
The biggest opportunity—$1.2 trillion—will be in robo-taxi services, moving people and things around in autonomous vehicles, according to UBS. Even though ride-sharing platforms like Uber and Lyft have an advantage through their large customer base, UBS sees their future as analogous to online travel agencies where the new ride agencies book trips with multiple robo-taxi services. …” Read more, Hmmmm…. Of course. Alain
Self-Driving Cars Find Clearer Paths in Europe
J. Ma, May 14, “Cars that drive themselves are finding the clearest paths to showrooms in the U.K., Germany, South Korea and Singapore, where governments have enacted legislation allowing autonomous vehicles to be tested on public roads. And China’s not far behind.
Those nations are outpacing the U.S., where the absence of national legislation to clarify a “checkerboard of state rules” hampers the deployment of driverless cars, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in a report. California and Arizona lead the 50 states in allowing tests of driverless cars and host the largest fleets, according to the report released Tuesday. …” Read more, Hmmmm…. I disagree. We are still leading and certainly have a clearer path in Driverless. No one else has what Arizona and California (and even Ohio) have in place for Driverless. Self-driving is a Wild-Wild West Showroom/OEM play that is basically unregulated everywhere.
Apple, Again, Grows Its California Self-driving Fleet, It Has the Second Biggest Fleet
S. Kurt, May 14, ” It seems that Apple grows its fleet of self-driving test cars. Apple has, again, expanded Its fleet of autonomous cars in California. Apple Apple now has 55 vehicles and 83 drivers under its permit to test autonomous vehicles, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said in an emailed response to questions …” Read more, Hmmmm…. Here they come. Alain
Half-baked stuff that probably doesn’t deserve your time
New Mobility Survey Finds Over ⅓ of Americans are Combining Public Transit with Ridesharing
J. Giich, May 8, “We conducted a survey of over 1010 US residents to find out what their current transportation habits are and what motivates transit riders across North America to choose one option over another. …” Read more, Hmmmm….Be careful with these results. Ride-HAILING is NOT necessarily Ride-SHARING. It is only ride-sharing when 2 or more unrelated trip makers (who would have each taken their own car) travel in the same vehicle, and thus, share that vehicle. The driver is a “computer’ in ride-hailing and is NOT taking the ride to improve his/her place-time utility. Unfortunately, today essentially no one ride-shares in anything except conventional mass transit. autonomousTaxis will not become a substantive mobility provider unless they serve unrelated customers wishing to travel from about the same place at about the same time going in roughly the same direction. Sharing rides in elevators enables high-rise buildings to be viable.
C’mon Man! (These folks didn’t get/read the memo)
Calendar of Upcoming Events:
3rd Annual Princeton SmartDrivingCar Summit
May 15 & 16, 2019
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
Save the Date
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On the More Technical Side
https://orfe.princeton.edu/~alaink/SmartDrivingCars/Papers/
Capsule Networks (CapsNets) – Tutorial