Living Document = Let's Chat

Advances in technology, law, planning, and driverless projects did not stop this week for the double whammy of a hospitalization, then a death in the family, and surgery on another close relative. Life goes on, but I am digging out of a large mountain of email and work and fighting back the numb sensation of futility.

I have not even peeked at the comments to the proposed NHTSA guidelines or the proposed guidelines regarding cybersecurity. Here's a link to Consumer Reports' review of comments about data sharing. There's a NHTSA public meeting this coming Monday, Dec. 12, 2016, but I will be otherwise engaged with the surgical follow-up appointment. I hope to catch some of the live stream.

Game of chess and fun pilots

Is there a stalemate right now between the concepts of data sharing and proprietary data? Is the term living document being used as code for no one is ready for actual regulation? That is what it seems like at the federal level, where voluntary guidelines are proposed and we do not seem close at all to actual guidelines or regulation. In Pennsylvania, proposed regulations for driverless testing are not being pushed forward, reportedly because Uber is unhappy with data sharing provisions. And right now it seems that Uber owns the driverless field in Pennsylvania, particularly in Pittsburgh.

But there are strivers who are eager to race ahead. One is Florida, with the City Jacksonville's transit authority pondering, without any real detail, a driverless replacement and improvement on its current, disappointing Skyway. 

Sick of the 94 percent factoid

This statistic is repeated EVERYWHERE, including here and several times at the recent Congressional Roundtable of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. But is this factoid consistent across time, types of crashes, types of drivers, and different places? I do not know. All I know is that the 94 percent figure is cited over and over again without being tethered to any source of evidence or discussion of whether that evidence is consistent in various situations and places. In fact, even if the statistic is sometimes 85 percent, or in some places 98 percent, does it matter? The important reality is that we in the US pay lip service - in most places - to Vision Zero or other efforts to reduce roadway fatalities and injuries. Ultimately my irritation with the repetition of the 94 percent figure is irrelevant because we have effectively accepted the equivalent of a huge number of deaths each week. 

Scary when I think that my daughter will be making a six-to-eight hour drive home in a week. 

Not a united attitude

I don't know whether it is the imminent change in administration in Washington or NHTSA's relatively timid - not necessarily inappropriate - approach, but states and cities in the US are not taking a national approach. In their own ways, they are striving to race to the forefront, where the current leaders are Michigan and California, with Pennsylvania close behind due to the presence of Uber and Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.

Two arbitrary tidbits

Yes, some of this news is a bit stale, but I want to catalogue this for myself. I realize this is a bit arbitrary because there is plenty I am mentioning only on Twitter or Reddit.

Local Motors adds a drone accessory

Nvidia can text driverless vehicles in California