Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Totally Driverless - Uber v. Google

The competition to oust Google as the leader in the fully autonomous vehicle sweepstakes is heating up with Uber getting aggressive. Read this morning about Uber's Bing acquisition and what it means. Speculation all around that Uber's purchase of the Bing software engineers is part of reaching toward the great driverless plan to replace those pesky human driver employees, I mean "independent contractors."

Google's reasoning in going completely driverless is correct, in my opinion, and Chris Umson gives a nice driverless for dummies TED talk about Google's rationale and the technology that is making this leap possible. According to Umson, we humans are not the best drivers and thousands of us die each year as a result.

Monday, June 29, 2015

No Collision in Google/Delphi/Audi Near Miss

Out of all of the hoopla news coverage of the Google/Delphi/Audi near miss, the point made least frequently, but which is the most important point to drive home, is that no collision occurred. The Audi detected the other vehicle in the lane and it responded by not changing lanes. Spock-like logic, indeed. Humans are less likely to change course mid-moment. (This was a Delphi-controlled Audi vehicle.)

Last night, my friend's son was killed in a collision with a truck. A nice 24-year-old young man, full of promise. His brother is in the hospital. Funeral plans are being made. Hearts are breaking. If machines can drive better than we humans can, let us support this technological shift.

Down on the Driverless Farm

Yes, with fewer people, less regulation, and a big need for cost efficiency, farms in the US are going and, indeed, have already gone driverless. This article describes how farmers are laughing at the rest of us because we think of driverless as cutting edge, while for them a tractor without a human driving is old hat.

Google, Baidu Diverge on Driverless Plans

None of this is new. These are developments over the past month.

Google now going into car insurance business and its driverless vehicles are on the roads of Mountain View, CA. 

Tesla abandons Silicon Valley dream of totally driverless vehicles, opting instead for the incremental approach adopted by traditional car manufacturers.

Unlike the traditional car manufacturers, Tesla plans on launching a totally driverless vehicle in three years. The interim incremental approach will allow hands-free driving on the highway - but require eyes on the road. That seems so dangerous and definitely sleeo inducing. http://www.industryweek.com/emerging-technologies/tesla-autopilot-car-could-hit-road-weeks

No surprise here that China's tech sector is working on driverless vehicles. Baidu, described as the Chinese Google, is planning to have an autonomous vehicle on the road by the end of the year. However, the vehicle will be driver-assisted. Baidu has not announced plans for a driverless vehicle.
http://www.hybridcars.com/self-driving-car-being-built-by-chinas-google/

Friday, June 12, 2015

States Elbowing to Lead the Way

I'm still getting back to this topic, but it seems states are popping up like crazy to join the driverless bandwagon. Currently, there are driverless vehicles either on the roads or soon to be in five states: California (Mountain View), Florida (Tampa), Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), Nevada, and North Carolina (Fort Bragg).

Florida's governor is excited about driverless technology and he does not want to be left behind. Florida is getting in on autonomous features for driving on its roads.

Tampa will house the first driverless vehicle program for the public. Its Museum of Science and Industry will allow visitors to take a driverless ride starting this Saturday. 

South Carolina's city of Greenville wants to join in with the participation of Bob Jones University's engineering students.

Virginia's Tech Transportation Institute envisions cars with autonomous features on busy roads near Washington, DC in Northern Virginia. 

Nevada's governor is gung ho to be in the forefront of driverless vehicle adoption. There is already one driverless truck in the state.

Ford Prepares for New World

Ford Motor Company has come out with patents for new seating configurations and seating movement for driverless vehicles. One arrangement allows for the first row of seating to be tucked under the dashboard. Others will allow seating rows to face each other.

Ford's CEO is also planning on creating the Model T of driverless vehicles. I would have guessed that Ford's model of private car ownership will remain unchanged in the driverless age, except that Ford has launched a carshare program in London. This shows that Ford, alone among the traditional car manufacturers, envisions a future in which we do not all own our own vehicles.

Sorry for the lack of links here. I forgot all about this post for about two weeks. It's old news, but will be part of my knowledge base.

Ford looks beyond cars
Ford and Jaguar have entered into a joint venture with the UK government to put 40 driverless transit vehicles on the roads of Milton Keynes, a town outside of greater London, in late 2017. The UK is trying to position itself ahead of the US and Germany, but its plans are already behind Google in Mountain View, Uber in Pittsburgh, and the US Army in fort Bragg, NC. 

And now, on June 25, 2015, there's news of Ford's deepening involvement in Silicon Valley, biking - a shift toward the idea of mobility rather than cars.