Google is not working up to driverless, but to driverless real. It's all screen-based interaction with the vehicle. Except: Car meets pedestrian.
Google patents display the future
Better patent, software, engineering minds than mine are parsing through Google's recent patent applications to find that vehicles will be skipping the human altogether, except as a passenger. No steering wheel, no brake pedal, no gas pedal. Just room for a couple of passengers. I'm guessing the actual vehicles will come in different sizes for riding alone, riding with the kids, riding on extended vacation, or riding with groceries.
Another Google patent seems to go low-tech to keep pedestrians safe. Instead of my imagined tech solution of a chip on every pedestrian - whether in the purse, backpack, or jacket - Google is trying out something more akin to school bus signs that pop out when the bus stops, something visual to WARN ANYONE close that a vehicle is moving and could pose a danger. So far, Google has included people with visual disabilities in its plans, so I am guessing it will do something to tweak this solution for people who are unable to see.
In the rear view mirror
Not that Google is at all complacent with its position in the driverless industry lead, but there are hungry innovators working hard. One example: A competition is to be hosted for autonomous race cars. These will also be battery powered. The name: Roborace. It is expected that self-driving races will be taking place at actual car races. Who will be the stars without drivers? The software engineers, the welders?
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Human vs. Machine - No Contest
In terms of reaction time, when quick thinking or braking is necessary, machines - including driverless vehicles - are way ahead of humans. What we require seconds for, to assess a situation and react, a driverless vehicle can currently do in tenths of a second. Think what it takes to barrel to a stop when traveling at 80 miles an hour.
This article explains the details in terms of safety of driverless versus human drivers.
And that driverless vehicle you eventually ride in might be a 3D printed vehicle., such as the one Local Motors is showing around. Ditto for the house you live in. More and more companies are getting in this game as well. A new term: Additive manufacturing. There's no waste in this polymer world.
We might not have cars anymore, but you could use the garage for a giant 3D printer. That's not even a joke.
This article explains the details in terms of safety of driverless versus human drivers.
And that driverless vehicle you eventually ride in might be a 3D printed vehicle., such as the one Local Motors is showing around. Ditto for the house you live in. More and more companies are getting in this game as well. A new term: Additive manufacturing. There's no waste in this polymer world.
We might not have cars anymore, but you could use the garage for a giant 3D printer. That's not even a joke.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Florida to Use Driverless Road Inspection Vehicles
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL., will study driverless vehicles conducting road and airport inspections, and painting lane lines. The research will take place over 14 months to determine how well the vehicles perform in different conditions, such as rainy weather.
The vehicles used will be Ford Escapes and they will be out there on normal roads.
The study is being performed under the auspices of the Florida Department of Transportation.
The vehicles used will be Ford Escapes and they will be out there on normal roads.
The study is being performed under the auspices of the Florida Department of Transportation.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Michigan Nods to Past and Hesitantly Nod to Future
A drop in the bucket - $2.7 million. That's the size of a US Department of Energy grant to fund a University of Michigan study of driverless and connected vehicle energy consumption, human interaction, and vehicle speed and motion data.
Ford Motor Company continues to ride ahead of the conventional auto manufacturers in terms of its visions for driverless vehicles and how personal transportation will be transformed in the next decade. Now Ford's CEO, Mark Fields, is proclaiming in public that driverless vehicles will be on the roads in four years, something even Google has not declared.
Ford is the first company to be testing its autonomous cars at M City in Michigan. M City is kind of like a movie set/fake city/set of driving patterns and obstacles/testing ground. You won't be seeing Ford bots in Mountain View.
However, Ford is NOT necessarily envisioning fully driverless in four years and the company is not embracing the taxi bot/Uber model of shared vehicles. Fields thinks one obstacle is carrying car seats. Okay, maybe he hasn't considered that those can also be shared as well.
Ford Motor Company continues to ride ahead of the conventional auto manufacturers in terms of its visions for driverless vehicles and how personal transportation will be transformed in the next decade. Now Ford's CEO, Mark Fields, is proclaiming in public that driverless vehicles will be on the roads in four years, something even Google has not declared.
Ford is the first company to be testing its autonomous cars at M City in Michigan. M City is kind of like a movie set/fake city/set of driving patterns and obstacles/testing ground. You won't be seeing Ford bots in Mountain View.
However, Ford is NOT necessarily envisioning fully driverless in four years and the company is not embracing the taxi bot/Uber model of shared vehicles. Fields thinks one obstacle is carrying car seats. Okay, maybe he hasn't considered that those can also be shared as well.
Volvo & Microsoft - Guys, Not Creative
The Volvo car still looks like a car. Oh boy, you can work or relax at a conventional, sleek, updated 1950s dashboard, sitting in a luxurious, 1990s Mercedes-like seat. Wow. Really? A first grader could have come up with something better. Did you consult any potential buyers? Did you think carsharing? Long-distance options for travelers? This was the outer boundary of Volvo innovation? You're kidding, right?
Oh, and Volvo states it has "reimagin[ed] the entire car experience." Not.
Like Downton Abbey for cars
Volvo's new car, to be tested on Swedish roads in 2017 - yes, that far from now - offers a rose-colored version of what we currently have, while adding safety features to make sure that drivers do not do a Tesla by turning on a self-driving feature when traveling on a road the car is unable to navigate on its own. This is PARTIALLY driverless - a necessary adjective that car manufacturers routinely exclude as these partial babies roll off the assembly line.
But the vision offered reminds me of Downton Abbey, The Remains of the Day, Upstairs, Downstairs, Gone With the Wind (an entirely different period and country, though still an apt comparison, I think) and the like - portraits of people clinging to a vanishing world. In those literary examples, some happily adopted electricity and cars, though they yearned for the trappings, customs, look, and culture of their wealthy, privileged lives to remain in place.
Like such characters in literature, film, and TV, Volvo will soon find itself in a very different world than the 20th century one in which it prospered.
Another 20th century company on board
Microsoft, which has lost its image as a company in the forefront of innovation, is Volvo's partner. Gee. The only cool part is the retro-looking virtual goggles, reminiscent of the View-Master, that lets you pick out seating colors and upholstery fabrics. The View-Master, created in 1939, was popular in the Mad Men era, which is how this whole Volvo futurama car experience appears to me. Look at the guy in the moving image above, a modern-day Don Draper.
Someone else is busy
Elon Musk is out to hire software engineers in his quest for Tesla to be fully driverless in three years.
Oh, and Volvo states it has "reimagin[ed] the entire car experience." Not.
Like Downton Abbey for cars
Volvo's new car, to be tested on Swedish roads in 2017 - yes, that far from now - offers a rose-colored version of what we currently have, while adding safety features to make sure that drivers do not do a Tesla by turning on a self-driving feature when traveling on a road the car is unable to navigate on its own. This is PARTIALLY driverless - a necessary adjective that car manufacturers routinely exclude as these partial babies roll off the assembly line.
But the vision offered reminds me of Downton Abbey, The Remains of the Day, Upstairs, Downstairs, Gone With the Wind (an entirely different period and country, though still an apt comparison, I think) and the like - portraits of people clinging to a vanishing world. In those literary examples, some happily adopted electricity and cars, though they yearned for the trappings, customs, look, and culture of their wealthy, privileged lives to remain in place.
Like such characters in literature, film, and TV, Volvo will soon find itself in a very different world than the 20th century one in which it prospered.
Another 20th century company on board
Microsoft, which has lost its image as a company in the forefront of innovation, is Volvo's partner. Gee. The only cool part is the retro-looking virtual goggles, reminiscent of the View-Master, that lets you pick out seating colors and upholstery fabrics. The View-Master, created in 1939, was popular in the Mad Men era, which is how this whole Volvo futurama car experience appears to me. Look at the guy in the moving image above, a modern-day Don Draper.
Someone else is busy
Elon Musk is out to hire software engineers in his quest for Tesla to be fully driverless in three years.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
For Person Who Is Sightless, Driverless = Everything
Okay, I cried. The video is sentimental, meant to show Hyundai as a caring company, giving a wonderful thrill to a boy who is blind. But what the video really demonstrates, for me, is the equality, independence, and the world that, I hope, will be opened up to people with all kinds of disabilities - the transportation challenged (or, rather the driving challenged) - when driverless vehicles become a readily available reality.
What the video also shows is how regular bumper cars can be replaced by something a bit more cerebral and less jarring. But I'm not a bumper car fan.
What the video also shows is how regular bumper cars can be replaced by something a bit more cerebral and less jarring. But I'm not a bumper car fan.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Challenges - Inside Baseball Technology, Labor, and ART
The chief of the British mail service has caught quite a bit of flack for her excitement about driverless trucks and drones. Labor responded harshly, not with actual facts about such technology, or with complaints about loss of jobs, but with brouhaha about the many challenges before driverless vehicles will be ready to roam the streets.
Personally, I think labor would be better off directly expressing its deep concern about jobs than attacking a high-ranking civil servant. Like the trains and cars of the last two centuries, the driverless industry will vastly impact the next one. Labor should best concentrate on education and retraining for new jobs rather than vitriol.
Sensory limitations of driverless "eyesight"
The New York Times has a nice article that simply explains current obstacles to the widespread use of self-driving vehicles. Specifically, the article discusses what a vehicles "eyes" or sensors must "see" and be programmed to respond to. And, as the article points out, there will be surprises - and accidents - no matter how refined the technology. Most likely, far fewer accidents than with human drivers.
The article has an artistic focus as well, but, to be frank, it did not inspire me.
Now here is art
I happen to like the look of cute rounded-rectangular driverless pods or bots or whatever you want to call the emerging class of self-driving vehicles, but there is a new shape on the horizon. A triangle, specifically a triangular self-driving bike that requires a human to pedal, but not to navigate. I'm thinking reading or watching a movie while pedaling and the techno-gizmo part of the tricycle decides where to turn and where to stop. Oh, and these are meant for bikeshare programs.
Very cool.
Pretty design counts
Google has a fun side and it is currently being expressed on the sides of its driverless cars. Cute designs resulted from a contest in California. Skyline, nature, people. So un-boring.
Outside design is not the only part of the driverless future that inspires. One writer talks of living in a driverless Winnebago, roaming around, sleeping while in traffic, not needing to be place specific. We can return to the nomadic lifestyle, but with our house vehicles always with us.
Personally, I think labor would be better off directly expressing its deep concern about jobs than attacking a high-ranking civil servant. Like the trains and cars of the last two centuries, the driverless industry will vastly impact the next one. Labor should best concentrate on education and retraining for new jobs rather than vitriol.
Sensory limitations of driverless "eyesight"
The New York Times has a nice article that simply explains current obstacles to the widespread use of self-driving vehicles. Specifically, the article discusses what a vehicles "eyes" or sensors must "see" and be programmed to respond to. And, as the article points out, there will be surprises - and accidents - no matter how refined the technology. Most likely, far fewer accidents than with human drivers.
The article has an artistic focus as well, but, to be frank, it did not inspire me.
Now here is art
I happen to like the look of cute rounded-rectangular driverless pods or bots or whatever you want to call the emerging class of self-driving vehicles, but there is a new shape on the horizon. A triangle, specifically a triangular self-driving bike that requires a human to pedal, but not to navigate. I'm thinking reading or watching a movie while pedaling and the techno-gizmo part of the tricycle decides where to turn and where to stop. Oh, and these are meant for bikeshare programs.
Pretty design counts
Google has a fun side and it is currently being expressed on the sides of its driverless cars. Cute designs resulted from a contest in California. Skyline, nature, people. So un-boring.
Outside design is not the only part of the driverless future that inspires. One writer talks of living in a driverless Winnebago, roaming around, sleeping while in traffic, not needing to be place specific. We can return to the nomadic lifestyle, but with our house vehicles always with us.
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