Catching Up

Just the updates for right now.

George Hotz and Comma.ai still aiming for late 2016 release for their gizmo to make existing cars turn into driverless ones (at least on the highways) and for gathering driver data with an app - Chafr.

First insurer to go all out with a policy for self-driving cars and partially driverless is in the UK.

Toronto council member pushing for plan for driverless buses. 

Why stop at a vehicle? There's a passenger drone, kind of a driverless helicopter, approved for testing in Nevada. Drone taxi anyone?

Speaking of flying, Google co-founder Larry Page is deep into inventing (and, presumably, selling, renting, or share-using) flying cars. The report claims this is easier to accomplish than driverless vehicles, but isn't flying way more three dimensional? Just to be clear, these would be self-flying. No pilot's license necessary. Beyond George Jetson.

I have to look at this more closely. The NHTSA Administrator has expressed in public the need for government guidelines that will allow innovation to proceed regarding self-driving vehicles. The word regulation was not used. Mark Rosekind emphasized that we need to improve our safety record and noted that we kill a large airplane's worth of people with human-operated vehicles every week - just in the US.

Comments on NHTSA comments.

And lots and lots of buzz about rumors that Uber will take over Daimler or some other auto manufacturer, partner with an auto manufacturer (maybe Fiat Chrysler, but other names mentioned), or be taken over. I'm not going to give a source because this is super easy to find. The one thing that is significant is the big pile of money from Saudi sources being put into Uber, whose valuation is - not actual value, I think - is higher than that of conventional car companies. I mention this because of Uber's substantial investment in and testing of driverless vehicles.

Is Tesla in denial?

Another Tesla crash and Tesla is again blaming the driver - after reviewing crash data. Fortunately, the crash was not serious; it happened when the car accelerated while parking. Similar Tesla argument as it has previously spouted, that the driver had switched off autopilot. When will Tesla learn that partially autonomous is a recipe for disaster? It is the company's fault, in my opinion, if it puts out a vehicle that was designed to "understand" how a sometimes software/sometimes human-controlled vehicle works without itself understanding and testing how humans would act in those circumstances. I'd like to write a brief for that plaintiff in the inevitable lawsuit - unless Tesla quietly settles soon, which is likely.

I'm also reading in various sources about GM CEO statements that the company is holding onto steering wheels, brakes and other human-operated equipment. I am presuming that GM is not as advanced as it would like to be and is likely jealous of the companies that are further along in this regard. A couple of years ago it was saying that driverless vehicles were decades away. Now it is investing billions and making deals. GM will stay wedded to the idea of steering wheels etc. until it has developed - or purchased a company that has developed - a fully autonomous vehicle without such human-operator equipment.