Arizona Giving a Big Thank You Hug to Uber

University of Arizona is joining the Uber team to do research on driverless optics mapping,and safety. And the governor of the state could not be happier. Gov. Ducey would like to see Tuscon's streets with driverless vehicles being tested and more people in his states employed on innovative technology projects. Governor Ducey also signed an executive order that allows for the testing and operation of driverless vehicles in Arizona, (Sources: University of Arizona and the Tucson Weekly.)

In the category of what about pedestrians? comes a story form the University of Texas about how our intersections might operate with driverless vehicles. They might be reserving, or cuing up in some way, for permission or a slot to cross an intersection - all happening effortlessly because slow human brains will not be involved. This is all hunky dory for highway management, but it leaves walkers, bikers, and people in wheelchairs dependent on technology to cross a street. Yes, they are in many places currently dependent on traffic signal technology, but that is pretty simply managed. The UT-conceived system would be highly individualized for vehicles. Would non-vehicular travelers need to wear a signal to be able to cue up to cross the street? 

I am skeptical. The words used in the article all refer to vehicles. News flash: "traffic flow" also includes zero-emission modes.

Also in Texas

Google will soon be testing its fully self-driving cars - no human driver - on the streets of Austin. Stay weird. Unlike many human drivers, these vehicles can "see" a football field away.

And more on mixing modes

Traffic mixing of human-operated vehicles and driverless ones will be a reality for several years. Driverless software is "teaching" driverless vehicles to predict and, thus, effectively interact with humans. Turns out, humans are rather predictable - 92 percent of the time in how they behave on the highways in the behavior they demonstrate before changing lanes. What humans need from the driverless vehicles are visual indicators, similar to eye contact, when making decisions about navigation on the road.