Taxi-Like and Microtransit AV Pilots

US sees on-demand AV expansion with taxi- and transit-like pilots

Big news! California has granted Waymo permission to operate AVs without a safety driver, but, for now, only in the Palo Alto area and only for free. Waymo must request permission to charge a fare for AV service in California. This permit will not only enable Waymo to go truly backup-driverless in California, but it will also boost Waymo's credibility if the company wants to expand elsewhere. In fact, Waymo is also about to begin experimenting with charging fares for AV ridehailing in Arizona. Waymo continues testing in California, Arizona, Washington, Michigan, Texas, and Georgia.

Meanwhile, free AV shuttle service is going well in the entertainment district of Arlington, TX, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This service is used to shuttle people on game days for the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers, and other events. The North Texas Council of Governments (NTCOG) will be spending "$1.5 million for its cities to have planning assistance ahead of autonomous vehicle deployment. Total funding up to $10 million for the actual programs would follow." The Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Transportation Council, a part of the NTCOG, is also involved, with its own AV 2.0 plan. This AV 2.0 is not yet posted on either the NTCOG website or on the RTC webpages.

International on-demand, small AV taxi-bots 

Tel Aviv AV ridehailing service announced for 2019. New Mobility will be VW cars using Mobileye technology. If AVs can operate on roads with crazy Israeli drivers, which means all Israeli drivers, then they are ready for anywhere. Though the service is self-described to include Mobility as a Service (MaaS), there is nothing to indicate an actual MaaS platform such as FlexDenmark or Whim, which operates in Finland. [MaaS is generally thought to be of as a coordinated technology platform for delivering transportation choices across all modes. This can be done on a per ride, monthly, or even an annual basis.]

In Finland, in March 2019, an AV shuttle will be piloted with passengers in Helsinki. The shuttle bus is touted to be an all-weather vehicle that can handle snow.

First-mile/last-mile solutions to retrofit for sprawl may use AV transit or shared-use private transportation pods that seat up to four passengers. The video shows a pilot in Milton Keynes, a UK city in England, of AV pods available on demand via an app. The company manufacturing the AV pods is Aurrigo. FYI: The pilot just ended after a successful seven months.

Up to 15 pods – capable of travelling up to 15 miles per hour and lasting up to 60 miles from one charge – have been operating in the city centre from Central Railway Station. There are plans for the pods to continue to operate in the city, with a service being offered to residents in the near future.

Advertised in the video above is the independence-enhancing aspect of the mobility-on-demand AV pods for some people with disabilities. Showcased is an individual who is blind. What goes unmentioned is that the vehicle appears not to be accessible to people with wheelchairs and other mobility-related disabilities.

Nividia Versus Mobileye - and They Are Not Alone

Nvidia is confident. It has a buddy in Tesla owner Elon Musk, it has truck stuff going on with PACCAR, a major truck manufacturer, and Wall Street is enamored.

More than apples

They do more than grow apples, launch ships, and grow computer companies out there in the other Washington - Washington State that is. Now they are happy as clams in their expectation that truck manufacturer PACCAR's partnership with Nvidia will bring lots of driverless truck manufacturing to the Evergreen State. Others, probably in states with more professional truck drivers, are concerned about the loss of trucker jobs and jobs in the industries that serve those drivers. Waffle House? Flying J? Where will they be without the middle class disposable income of truck drivers?

Cheap can be good

Forget expensive LIDAR and sensors, this Dr. Jianxiong Xiao, a computer vision professor at Princeton,is using $50 cameras from Best Buy, a US chain store that sells TVs, laptops and batteries. It's not a high-tech mecca. The company is AutoX and an article describes the non-Mobileye approach to driverless.

Yes, the video of the self-driving AutoX car is here.

Let's face it, there are reports each day about up and comers in the software engineering, cameras, and LIDAR corners of the driverless supply chain. There are still plenty of start ups willing to push their ideas and compete with the big guys in this still fluid market.

And from somewhere in the Mediterranean ...

Mobileye has money now that Intel has purchased the company. The question is whether Mobileye can maneuver past Nvidia with its over $15 billion infusion of cash from Intel. Gee, no one talks millions anymore. However, I am not the only one doubting Intel's strategy. Is Intel grasping to have a presence in a market it is unfamiliar with? Did it overpay and go the wrong route as far as artificial intelligence? 

The Russians, Chinese Are Coming in Driverless Buses, Pods

Russia plans to introduce a driverless bus. So far, it has been tested, presumably at low speeds, on private roads, such as campuses. The bus is low floor, and therefore accessible (I presume), and runs on electricity. No confirmation if the bus will be launched during the 2018 soccer World Cup games. Warning: Even insomniacs will fall asleep to this video.

Toronto wants driverless buses, or at least little shuttles

Though driverless vehicles - sans drivers - are not yet legal in Ontario, Toronto council members are hatching a plan for driverless transit. They will meet in mid-July to consider a report to plan driverless transit. Toronto was one of the first cities to designate a staff person to begin to look at the transformation that driverless transportation will bring.

Intel + MobilEye + BMW = ?

The three companies: a chipmaker, driverless player, and a traditional high-end car company, are teaming up. The question is whether the deal will push BMW ahead in the driverless car race. Bloomberg did a nice summary. More speculation and details are provided by Android Headlines (AH). I have not seen anything yet that would make me believe this is a game changer. 

Baidu chooses Chinese town as third of 10

Baidu has chosen an ancient Chinese town, a tourist magnet, for a driverless project with a route system. The company, known as the Chinese Google, is planning to introduce driverless vehicles to 10 cities. The ancient town of Wuzhen is the third to be announced. There is no date set for the launch of the demonstration projects.

Tesla fatal crash

To all of us who did not know the victim, the Tesla crash heard round the world is a piece of information, something to be fixed. To me, personally, the fatal crash demonstrates the dangerous and disingenuous game that the partially driverless vehicle plays. Human drivers, such as the victim, himself a big fan of his beloved Tesla autopilot, get lulled into complacency with each day's safe trip. One day, when daydreaming, watching a movie - as the "driver" was reportedly doing - or just staring out the window, but hardly paying attention to the road, the human is not driving or thinking about driving, when an instant you-must-pay-attention-right-now situation presents itself. We humans are not generally good at the split second jolt to action. The crash occurs before the driver knows what is happening, in that split second when he or she is processing information, before action is taken.

While Mobileye and Tesla hash out who was responsible in the press, presumably continuing into the courts unless the victim's family is placated with lots of money first, I hope that NHTSA, which will investigate, will take the opportunity to impose a black box requirement for driverless vehicles and also consider the great risks of the combination of the partially driverless vehicle and the human who is supposedly ready to drive.  

My condolences go out to the family of Joshua Brown. His death is a great sorrow to his family and friends. May they be comforted by memories of him.