So many plans out there being boasted of that I'm going to leave out details. Hoping this is the bottom of the pile and that I will not have any driverless catching up to do for a while. Really, the news should wait for when I have time to read it. Some of this is current and some from the last few weeks. Funny though that the media takes much longer to catch up, so still timely.
Great minds and herds - thinking alike
Uber to launch driverless taxi/publicly-available transport in Arizona. No backup driver necessary from the report, though we will see if that changes. At this point, an Arizona executive order (which can be quickly yanked or changed), not legislation, permits driverless bots to roam without a backup driver.
Mercedes is considering following the same path as Uber. The swanky car company is planning a driverless limousine/taxi service, perhaps fancier than the more taxi-like bot service than Uber envisions. Mercedes does not want to be left behind when the Google and Uber driverless bots hit the road. Corporately related to Car2Go, by way of Daimler, Mercedes has a built-in advantage due to the on-demand experience of its corporate cousin.
BMW is considering the same, but it has no actual plans. However, the company is seeing ridehailing a la Uber as the future, with three-minute wait times.
Hire one person and speculation runs amok
What is Google going to do? The tea leaf readers are having fun after the recent Google hire of an automobile executive to lead its driverless car project. The new guy, John Krafcik, was at Ford and Hyundai before going to a now-failing online car dealership. Google is also ramping up driverless car production, so speculation continues about whether the company is preparing to mass produce its driverless pods. (Randomly, interchangeably using the terms bots and pods. Terminology is fluid at this early stage of the driverless revolution.)
Apple speculation heats up with meeting between executives and California DMV. Are they or aren't they? And what exactly is Apple building? Where will they test it?
Yes, if you are up on driverless news, that week-or-so old update is old.
And I have not even gotten to today's driverless news. Other work keeps getting in the way.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Good Driverless Planning Happening
In Australia, one state, South Autstralia, is planning on being the first state there to embrace drirverless technology and attract companies that are developing this technology.
Take a bot on a cold day
Toronto has two-year effort to plan for driverless vehicle future. The plan for the plan has an actual leader designated and he is enthusiastic. Toronto's General Manager for Transportation Services, Steve Buckley, wants to make sure his city is ready to seize and make the most of the opportunities that widespread driverless adoption will bring.
Issues that Buckley is studying include whether taxi and other bots, as he's calling them, will share lanes with traditional driver vehicles, whether taxi bots will rule the day, or whether there will be a mix of SOV driverless, privately owned, mixed in with the taxi bots.
Take a bot on a cold day
Toronto has two-year effort to plan for driverless vehicle future. The plan for the plan has an actual leader designated and he is enthusiastic. Toronto's General Manager for Transportation Services, Steve Buckley, wants to make sure his city is ready to seize and make the most of the opportunities that widespread driverless adoption will bring.
Issues that Buckley is studying include whether taxi and other bots, as he's calling them, will share lanes with traditional driver vehicles, whether taxi bots will rule the day, or whether there will be a mix of SOV driverless, privately owned, mixed in with the taxi bots.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Driverless Testing Spreading Across Globe, US
Transit union drivers, taxi drivers, Uber and other ridehailing drivers, beware. Time now to train for new work. The driverless revolution is coming your way fast.
Literally, it is impossible to take a week off, let alone a decent vacation, from driverless vehicle news because daily there are updates. I'm just catching up after a summer of work and actual vacation travel. Next year, such a schedule could mean I'll miss a sight of the first driverless taxi or ridehailing car in my neighborhood. More likely that will be two years from now. But if I were planning to visit the Netherlands this summer, I could treat myself to a ride on driverless transit.
Catch a ride near some tulips
The Netherlands takes the lead with driverless transit starting in November of this year. The pods are on the roads now being tested and come November they will be shuttling up to six passengers at a time around two towns in the province of Gelderland. (Not sure if there is a connection, but geld, or something close, means money in several languages.) The WEpods will go up to 15 miles per hour (25 kph). Initially, this driverless shuttle will be treated gently; it will not be available during rush hours, at night, or in inclement weather. But you will be able to book it with an app along its initial fixed route.
The Netherlands WEpod follows in the footsteps of CityMobil2, which has operated in towns in Finland and Switzerland. There are also driverless pods at Heathrow Airport outside of London.
And a short trip from London, Oxford, Cambridge ...
In the town of Milton Keynes, in England, two-seater driverless pods are about to be given a trial run. In the works for more than a year, the pilot project will ramp up from three up to 40 pods for ferrying people around and taking lessons for fine tuning regulation of driverless technology.
While in Asia, ...
Singapore did a six-day trial (something biblical here?) a few months ago with tourists as guinea pigs. A large garden that is a tourist destination allowed for pre-arranged rides on the driverless shuttle golf-cart-type vehicle. Turns out that the tourists loved the driverless service and the guinea pigs were safe.
News from across the pond
New York City is already behind as a DOT connected-car-technology testing site. But it may fall further back in the advent of new vehicular technology because it is planning to test only connected vehicle technology and not driverless vehicles on its streets. That's okay, my home town has a long tradition of launching shows after previews elsewhere. This project goes with the conventional wisdom of most traditional car manufacturers, and perhaps more than a few departments of transportation around the US, that regular cars outfitted with driver warning systems, vehicle-to-vehicle technology, and limited autonomous features will win the war against total driverless - and be safe. I do not believe that someone napping, checking email, or watching a cable show clip will suddenly snap to attention when the car somehow shouts out EMERGENCY! Maybe my reflexes are unusual, though.
On the way to Miami
Other spots to test this same connected-vehicle technology will be Tampa, FL, Wyoming, and Ann Arbor, MI.
Literally, it is impossible to take a week off, let alone a decent vacation, from driverless vehicle news because daily there are updates. I'm just catching up after a summer of work and actual vacation travel. Next year, such a schedule could mean I'll miss a sight of the first driverless taxi or ridehailing car in my neighborhood. More likely that will be two years from now. But if I were planning to visit the Netherlands this summer, I could treat myself to a ride on driverless transit.
Catch a ride near some tulips
The Netherlands takes the lead with driverless transit starting in November of this year. The pods are on the roads now being tested and come November they will be shuttling up to six passengers at a time around two towns in the province of Gelderland. (Not sure if there is a connection, but geld, or something close, means money in several languages.) The WEpods will go up to 15 miles per hour (25 kph). Initially, this driverless shuttle will be treated gently; it will not be available during rush hours, at night, or in inclement weather. But you will be able to book it with an app along its initial fixed route.
The Netherlands WEpod follows in the footsteps of CityMobil2, which has operated in towns in Finland and Switzerland. There are also driverless pods at Heathrow Airport outside of London.
And a short trip from London, Oxford, Cambridge ...
While in Asia, ...
Singapore did a six-day trial (something biblical here?) a few months ago with tourists as guinea pigs. A large garden that is a tourist destination allowed for pre-arranged rides on the driverless shuttle golf-cart-type vehicle. Turns out that the tourists loved the driverless service and the guinea pigs were safe.
News from across the pond
New York City is already behind as a DOT connected-car-technology testing site. But it may fall further back in the advent of new vehicular technology because it is planning to test only connected vehicle technology and not driverless vehicles on its streets. That's okay, my home town has a long tradition of launching shows after previews elsewhere. This project goes with the conventional wisdom of most traditional car manufacturers, and perhaps more than a few departments of transportation around the US, that regular cars outfitted with driver warning systems, vehicle-to-vehicle technology, and limited autonomous features will win the war against total driverless - and be safe. I do not believe that someone napping, checking email, or watching a cable show clip will suddenly snap to attention when the car somehow shouts out EMERGENCY! Maybe my reflexes are unusual, though.
On the way to Miami
Other spots to test this same connected-vehicle technology will be Tampa, FL, Wyoming, and Ann Arbor, MI.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Two Steps Closer to Driverless Transit
Santa Clara University's three-month driverless shuttle pilot - an intra-campus transit system, from my perspective - will look at which model works best for satisfying travel demand, the choices being (1) the conventional fixed-route transit model, or (2) a demand-response, you-call/we-pick-up model. However, it will be a while before any data is produced because university students will not be allowed to ride the golf-cart vehicles for at least the first month. Something about safety; I'm sure the parents appreciate that.
Driverless bus in China
Yutong Bus, a Chinese transit vehicle manufacturer, has successfully tested a driverless bus. The manufacturer exports to 120 different countries and sells over 60,000 buses a year. This was just one successful drive, but it is nice to see a vehicle manufacturer aiming to bring driverless technology to the transit market.
Google monthly report
Nice tidbits and tea leaves in the Google monthly report on its driverless comings, goings, and progress. Google is emphasizing the safety of its vehicles in California and Texas traffic, doing well by pedestrians, not crashing into deer (or visa versa), and continuing to rack up driverless miles - over two million and counting, according to Google. Next up will be pod cars in Austin (just the old models are there now) and figuring out the venue riders will want use to enter destination information. Smartphones are a likely choice. A question I've not seen Google mention is whether it will produce shared-ride or transit driverless vehicles. Those pods are cute, in a smurf kind of way, but do we really want to exchange current congestion for a sea of adorable pods and endless parking lots with identical G-cars?
Speaking of pods, two-seater, driverless prototype cars will soon be on the road in a city in Germany. The birthplace of Frederick Engels (Karl Marx's pal), Wuppertal, now a down-on-its-heels former rust belt manufacturing center, will host the mini-cars on a test track on a stretch of city street that offers a diversity of driving challenges, including the presence of pedestrians.
Laser focus - cheaper and lighter
As with most innovations, the prototypes and early models are expensive. Now, the expensive technology that Google is using as the eyes of its driverless pods, called LIDAR (a mix of light and radar), is being manipulated, if you will (let's be clear: this technology is beyond me and I rely on others to explain it), by other companies and universities.
The University of California at Berkeley has come up with - or worked hard to develop - a cheaper, lighter version of LIDAR technology and hardware. Seems that this team has gotten the cost reduced from about $80k to $10. And they are aiming even lower.
And on the long route
Toyota continues to bank on a slow road to driverless and a long phase of partially autonomous vehicles. The company is putting its money where its mouth is - $50 million of it - by funding MIT and Stanford as joint research centers. An impressive robotics guy, Gill Pratt, has been hired to oversee the effort.
Driverless bus in China
Yutong Bus, a Chinese transit vehicle manufacturer, has successfully tested a driverless bus. The manufacturer exports to 120 different countries and sells over 60,000 buses a year. This was just one successful drive, but it is nice to see a vehicle manufacturer aiming to bring driverless technology to the transit market.
Google monthly report
Nice tidbits and tea leaves in the Google monthly report on its driverless comings, goings, and progress. Google is emphasizing the safety of its vehicles in California and Texas traffic, doing well by pedestrians, not crashing into deer (or visa versa), and continuing to rack up driverless miles - over two million and counting, according to Google. Next up will be pod cars in Austin (just the old models are there now) and figuring out the venue riders will want use to enter destination information. Smartphones are a likely choice. A question I've not seen Google mention is whether it will produce shared-ride or transit driverless vehicles. Those pods are cute, in a smurf kind of way, but do we really want to exchange current congestion for a sea of adorable pods and endless parking lots with identical G-cars?
Speaking of pods, two-seater, driverless prototype cars will soon be on the road in a city in Germany. The birthplace of Frederick Engels (Karl Marx's pal), Wuppertal, now a down-on-its-heels former rust belt manufacturing center, will host the mini-cars on a test track on a stretch of city street that offers a diversity of driving challenges, including the presence of pedestrians.
Laser focus - cheaper and lighter
As with most innovations, the prototypes and early models are expensive. Now, the expensive technology that Google is using as the eyes of its driverless pods, called LIDAR (a mix of light and radar), is being manipulated, if you will (let's be clear: this technology is beyond me and I rely on others to explain it), by other companies and universities.
The University of California at Berkeley has come up with - or worked hard to develop - a cheaper, lighter version of LIDAR technology and hardware. Seems that this team has gotten the cost reduced from about $80k to $10. And they are aiming even lower.
And on the long route
Toyota continues to bank on a slow road to driverless and a long phase of partially autonomous vehicles. The company is putting its money where its mouth is - $50 million of it - by funding MIT and Stanford as joint research centers. An impressive robotics guy, Gill Pratt, has been hired to oversee the effort.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Florida Driverless Trucks Coming Soon
Trucks
Driverless trucks will be coming soon to Florida roads. State contractors will be using them in construction zones.
Lockheed Martin is entering the driverless universe, or rather dipping a toe in the waters, as it were, by investing in a connected vehicle company. The company Peloton Technology, a truck-related autonomous technology company and a Mountain View startup, has serious money behind it from other companies as well. Those connected vehicles are not synonymous with driverless, this type of technology is likely to be an important part of driverless highway travel.
Chicago Wants to Be Second City for Technology and the Fourth, Fifth? City for Driverless
Chicago is lining itself up to be the Second City in yet another way. All of you tech, startup companies, out there, Chicago wants your first expansion to be the Windy City. As for driverless vehicles, Chicago will not be the second testing ground, but it would like to be next.
Meanwhile in California ...
It's fun reading about the speculation around Apple's recent acquisition of possibly driverless-project staff. These are people with experience at Tesla, Chrysler, and other car manufacturers, as well as Texas Instruments and technology companies. No one from the driverless Google or Uber teams seems included.
Driverless trucks will be coming soon to Florida roads. State contractors will be using them in construction zones.
Lockheed Martin is entering the driverless universe, or rather dipping a toe in the waters, as it were, by investing in a connected vehicle company. The company Peloton Technology, a truck-related autonomous technology company and a Mountain View startup, has serious money behind it from other companies as well. Those connected vehicles are not synonymous with driverless, this type of technology is likely to be an important part of driverless highway travel.
Chicago Wants to Be Second City for Technology and the Fourth, Fifth? City for Driverless
Chicago is lining itself up to be the Second City in yet another way. All of you tech, startup companies, out there, Chicago wants your first expansion to be the Windy City. As for driverless vehicles, Chicago will not be the second testing ground, but it would like to be next.
Meanwhile in California ...
It's fun reading about the speculation around Apple's recent acquisition of possibly driverless-project staff. These are people with experience at Tesla, Chrysler, and other car manufacturers, as well as Texas Instruments and technology companies. No one from the driverless Google or Uber teams seems included.
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