Scoop-012218

Episode 19 of the Smart Driving Cars Podcast with Princeton University’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin. In this edition: The White House Infrastructure Plan, driverless transportation for seniors in Florida, Waymo coming to Metro Atlanta, Uber’s big promise and more.

Surface Transportation Innovations

R. Poole, Jan 2018,  “In this issue: • RAND guidelines for infrastructure policy, …
A recent article on the forthcoming White House infrastructure plan quoted an Administration spokeswoman as saying it would address “rebuilding our nation’s crumbling infrastructure.” That frequent characterization is misleading, as pointed out in an excellent new report from the RAND Corporation, “Not Everything Is Broken: The Future of U.S. Transportation and Water Infrastructure Funding and Finance.” (https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1739.html)…
After setting the stage, the report goes on to offer guidelines for sound investment in transportation and water infrastructure. Since much of what is wrong with our infrastructure is the result of bad policy, rather than lack of money, “an across-the-board ramp-up of federal spending is unlikely to solve the infrastructure problems…”  In addition, focusing on “shovel-ready” projects is ill-advised; instead, Congress should focus on longer-term projects likely to produce significant national benefits….Whatever the White House proposes will be modified by Congress. The RAND report offers important guidelines for that endeavor.”  Read more Read more Hmmmm… An excellent Rand report and commentary by Bob.  Lots more in the issue on many aspects of transportation.   Alain

Plains Region Assessment of aTaxi Ridesharing and Empty Vehicle Management

J. Fu, N. Yang, W. Yuan, Jan 16, “The goal of this report is to examine the feasibility of an autonomous taxi (aTaxi) system throughout the plains region, which encompasses the states of CO, KS, MT, NE, NM, ND, OK, SD, TX, and WY. To accomplish this, we have broken up this task into three components…”  Read more Hmmmm… Really nice Draft Report.  Alain

West Region Assessment of aTaxi Ridesharing and Empty Vehicle Management

K. Wu, A. Erkalova, M. Wagner, B. Cakmak, Jan 16, “… Of the nine states that were part of our analysis, the majority of trips originate from California. For the West, the busiest times of day are evening rush, evening, and morning peak, in that order, and the greatest AVO occurs during the morning peak and evening rush.Major metropolises tend to have higher AVO in their regions, but there are also a few scattered rural regions with very high AVOs as well….”  Read more Hmmmm… Another really nice Draft Report.  Also see the interactive graphs.  NorthEast Report is linked below. Alain

3M Connected Roads aim to make life easier for autonomous vehicles

K. Wyatt, Jan 22, “The idea of “smart roads” isn’t especially new, and in the last couple of years, in particular, we’ve seen a stack of concepts for turning our highways, byways and city streets into something more than flat, stupid concrete. The problem with the bulk of these is that any municipality that chose to implement them would have to spend vast sums of money retrofitting roads with sensors and other gizmos….Another change would involve changing road signs to be more reflective, and more easily readable. This would benefit both human drivers and self-driving cars by allowing each to more quickly and easily identify and process information….” Read more Hmmmm… Wow!  A practical “connected” suggestion!  Alain

Is All This New Automotive Safety Tech Working? Not If Drivers Don’t Understand It

E. Adams, Jan 15, “… Much of the chatter in CES focuses on the arrival (sooner, later, or waaaay later) of autonomous vehicles, while Detroit tends to play up the sheet metal and the performance of new cars and trucks. Both, however, are also reliable showcases of all the not-quite-autonomous safety and convenience tech that’s creeping into our cars and is meant not only to take the stress out of driving, but make us better at it.

But here’s a thought: Is all this stuff doing what it’s really intended to?  Note that we’re not asking does it work, of course, because the innovations do indeed function as advertised.”really NOT SO MUCH unless you read the fine print…”  Which brings us to the concerning question about the newest, most sophisticated, and priciest new ADAS systems: Are they truly being embraced by drivers, thus moving the safety ball farther down the field? Or are they baffling nuisances that are eventually shut down, unused, or avoided out of frustration, annoyance, or uncertainty? Even more interestingly, are they truly paving the way for the semi-autonomous and autonomous cars now in the pipeline, as manufacturers seem to be counting on?…”  Read more Hmmmm… All REALLY GOOD questions!. Alain

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT A SELF-DRIVING CAR IS, AND IT’S BECOMING A PROBLEM

A. Marshall, Oct 17 “”WE HAVE NOW self-driving cars.” So declared no less an authority than the United States’ chief of transportation, Secretary Elaine Chao, in a May interview with Fox Business. “They can drive on the highway, follow the white lines on the highway, and there’s really no need for any person to be seated and controlling any of the instruments.”

This is wrong….Read more Hmmmm… How long have I been saying this.  And there seems to be no improvement in sight.  There are 3 VERY different kinds.. SafeDrivingCars (not nearly good enough yet), SelfDrivingCars (barely good enough today, stay alert!!) DriverlessCars (We are still at a KarnhauserScale = 1.0 (Log(DriverlessVMT Worldwide).  Alain

Babcock Ranch Featured On CBS This Morning

Jan 17, “We’re excited to share that we were featured on CBS This Morning for our sustainability and solar efforts. Take a look at the clip featured on CBS This Morning on Tuesday, January 16, 2018…”  Watch video Hmmmm… Really brings home how early we are in the SmartDrivingCar r-evolution.  The operative comment is : ” If we can’t make it here, we can’t make it anywhere“.  Alain

Florida seniors could hold the future of driverless cars

E. Leedfeldt, Jan 15, “As supporters and critics debate self-driving vehicles, 125,000 senior citizens who live in a central Florida retirement community will take them for a ride in the world’s largest self-driving experiment. They’ll travel 750 miles of roads in The Villages retirement community near Orlando.

Voyage, an autonomous vehicle (AV) startup specializing in a robo-taxi service, will pick them up at their homes and drive them free of charge to and from grocery stores, theaters, pools, golf and tennis with only a “technician” on board to monitor the system — and take the wheel if necessary. Later on, the technician will be dropped and a transportation fee added…”  Read more Hmmmm… As with Babcock Ranch above: ” If we can’t…” Alain

  Argo AI resumes self-driving operations in Pittsburgh after Wednesday’s crash

C. Deppen, Jan 11, “…According to officials, a box truck ran a red light and T-boned a self-driving vehicle with four occupants inside…”  Read more Hmmmm… I wonder how the NTSB is going to blame Argo AI on this one.  Alain

HAS MOTORIZATION IN THE U.S. PEAKED? PART 10: VEHICLE OWNERSHIP AND DISTANCE DRIVEN, 1984 TO 2016

M. Sivak, Jan 2018, “This study analyzed recent changes in the United States in both the ownership of light-duty vehicles (passenger cars and light trucks) and the corresponding distance driven. Of interest were changes in the rates per person and per household. The period examined was 1984 to 2016.
The main findings are as follows:
(1) The vehicle-ownership rates per person and per household both reached their maxima in 2006. The two rates for 2016 are down, on average, 3.3% from their maxima, although they have rebounded, on average, 2.6% from the post-maximum minima reached in 2012 and 2013.
(2) The distance-driven rates per person and per household both reached their maxima in 2004.  The two rates for 2016 are down, on average, 6.2% from their maxima, although they have rebounded, on average, 3.9% from the post-maximum minima reached in 2013….” Read more Hmmmm… These are fundamentally important numbers that basically track the nation’s actual appetite for mobility. We definitely have plateaued in our desire to go places.  To what extent this is due to the waning of more attractive places to go or the decreased attractiveness of getting there or the various combinations,  we’re just not doing going as much and it isn’t because we’ve jumped on mass transit.  Alain

Americans still deeply skeptical about driverless cars: poll

A. Hawkins, Jan 12, “A new poll was released today basically repeats data that we’ve seen in previous surveys: Americans still don’t trust self-driving cars, and are nervous about the coming onslaught. Asked how concerned they’d be to share the road with a driverless car, 31 percent said they’d be “very concerned,” while 33 percent said “somewhat concerned,” according to the poll which was just released by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety…”

Read more Hmmmm… Surprised 110% weren’t “concerned…”  If done in 1898 they would have gotten the same results if asked about the Benz patent .  The study’s 1st page adorns a picture of Joshua Brown’s Tesla post Florida Crash. This Poll had only one answer. Whatever…   Alain

These flying robots can self-assemble in flight

E. Olsen, Jan 13, “Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a series of modular flying robots that can autonomously assemble themselves in midair and fly.  In the video above, the robots can be seen hovering near one another and then slowly moving close until magnets attached to each corner of a vehicle’s cage quickly snaps them together. …” Watch video  Hmmmm… How “autonomous”??? but Just fun!!   Alain