I was aching to make breads and cookies and to cook for all of the family who will be around for the next few weeks. But a fly in that ointment was the worry about my older daughter driving for several hours to home and back on roads that could have ice or snow. She promised to be careful and I trust her; I just do not trust the other drivers to care about her well-being. That worry and the reality of the loss of a dear friend's son in an auto crash a couple of years ago sat like hard, heavy rocks in the pit of my stomach. My daughter, thankfully, arrived home safely, but, as you can see, the safety promise of autonomous transportation is quite personal to me.
I love reading, writing, and researching driverless developments, especially those about business models, laws, and regulations. Well, definitely add to that pilot programs and how many get autopilot/partially-driverless confused with autonomous in toto.
BUT ...
The past few months of work and life have been stressful. We lost a family member, we had a surgery, we had children traveling, and now my sister is not in great shape. Work was a total bear. Is that an expression? Well it is now.
So I need a break. I really need a time for reflection. I will continue to read each day about driverless developments, but I might not post for the next few weeks.
Find me in person at Transportation Camp in DC on Jan. 7. I may or may not show up at TRB, but I will be at a related meeting or two. By TRB, I mean the Transportation Research Board conference, held each year in January serendipitously during the coldest week in DC, which, for those of you from Chicago, feels somewhat balmy.
TRB, by the way, does interesting transportation research studies, generally about the US, since it is federally funded. Some are quite useful.
Advances in technology, law, planning, and driverless projects did not stop this week for the double whammy of a hospitalization, then a death in the family, and surgery on another close relative. Life goes on, but I am digging out of a large mountain of email and work and fighting back the numb sensation of futility.
I have not even peeked at the comments to the proposed NHTSA guidelines or the proposed guidelines regarding cybersecurity. Here's a link to Consumer Reports' review of comments about data sharing. There's a NHTSA public meeting this coming Monday, Dec. 12, 2016, but I will be otherwise engaged with the surgical follow-up appointment. I hope to catch some of the live stream.
Game of chess and fun pilots
Is there a stalemate right now between the concepts of data sharing and proprietary data? Is the term living document being used as code for no one is ready for actual regulation? That is what it seems like at the federal level, where voluntary guidelines are proposed and we do not seem close at all to actual guidelines or regulation. In Pennsylvania, proposed regulations for driverless testing are not being pushed forward, reportedly because Uber is unhappy with data sharing provisions. And right now it seems that Uber owns the driverless field in Pennsylvania, particularly in Pittsburgh.
But there are strivers who are eager to race ahead. One is Florida, with the City Jacksonville's transit authority pondering, without any real detail, a driverless replacement and improvement on its current, disappointing Skyway.
Sick of the 94 percent factoid
This statistic is repeated EVERYWHERE, including here and several times at the recent Congressional Roundtable of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. But is this factoid consistent across time, types of crashes, types of drivers, and different places? I do not know. All I know is that the 94 percent figure is cited over and over again without being tethered to any source of evidence or discussion of whether that evidence is consistent in various situations and places. In fact, even if the statistic is sometimes 85 percent, or in some places 98 percent, does it matter? The important reality is that we in the US pay lip service - in most places - to Vision Zero or other efforts to reduce roadway fatalities and injuries. Ultimately my irritation with the repetition of the 94 percent figure is irrelevant because we have effectively accepted the equivalent of a huge number of deaths each week.
Scary when I think that my daughter will be making a six-to-eight hour drive home in a week.
Not a united attitude
I don't know whether it is the imminent change in administration in Washington or NHTSA's relatively timid - not necessarily inappropriate - approach, but states and cities in the US are not taking a national approach. In their own ways, they are striving to race to the forefront, where the current leaders are Michigan and California, with Pennsylvania close behind due to the presence of Uber and Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.
Two arbitrary tidbits
Yes, some of this news is a bit stale, but I want to catalogue this for myself. I realize this is a bit arbitrary because there is plenty I am mentioning only on Twitter or Reddit.
Local Motors adds a drone accessory
Nvidia can text driverless vehicles in California
I went to a roundtable discussion on Monday hosted by the US House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, where six Congressional representatives from the left to the right and various industry and other stakeholders all agreed that innovation is good and stymying autonomous vehicle development and implementation would be bad. The room was packed even though no food, drinks, or particularly new information were served. The members of Congress were guest star Chairman of the House Transportation Committee Bill Schuster (R-PA), subcommittee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Daniel Webster (R-FL), and Daniel Lipinski (D-IL). I hope I did not leave out anyone. (Information in the parentheses refers to party, Democrat or Republican, and state.)
The subcommittee's informal conversation - NOT a Congressional hearing - was with:
- Mr. Chris Spear, President and CEO, American Trucking Associations (ATA),
- Hon. David Strickland, Counsel and Spokesperson, Self-driving Coalition for Safer Streets (and former NHTSA Administrator during the Obama Administration),
- Mr. David Zuby, Executive Vice President and Chief Research Officer, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and
- Mr. Kevin Acklin, Chief of Staff and Chief Development Officer, City of Pittsburgh
Keeping a straight face award goes to ...
The representative from the American Trucking Associations said - without laughing - that no jobs will be lost and that it will take decades for driverless technology to roll out. However, without turning his head completely around, he also said that trucking fleets would transition to driverless much more quickly than passenger vehicles because these are business vehicles and are operated as fleets. Mr. Spear also said that truck driver jobs are difficult to fill, so, presumably, the never-get-tired driverless technology will be a better bet than humans.
On the other hand, the Pittsburgh representative and David Strickland were much more jolly and upbeat about the prospect of autonomous vehicles, what they can accomplish for society, and the improvement in quality of life for older adults and people with disabilities.
Eyes on safety and commerce
Safety was a topic on everyone's lips with the significant uptick in fatalities on US roads in 2015 and 2016. Mr. Strickland emphasized this and it was also noted by the representative of the Insurance Institute, Mr. Zuby. Mr. Zuby was first runner up for the straight face award because he managed to express a belief in innovation and risk while also suggesting that the insurance industry needs complete proof. But insurance is a follower and not a leader in this field.
One aspect of safety that the members of Congress hung on to was the question of safety during the expected three decades - not my expectation - when "legacy" and fully autonomous vehicles will be sharing the road.
The other significant topic discussed was commerce with no one enjoying the prospect of 50 states with differing regulations governing driverless operations. The Commerce Clause of the US Constitution allows Congress to pass legislation that affects any related issue and to preempt state laws and regulations that interfere with interstate commerce. The representatives present at the roundtable discussion referred to their Constitutional authority. It was mentioned (I think by Strickland) that the California regulations go beyond the traditional self-certification model that NHTSA generally uses.
What does "driverless" mean exactly?
Like people off the street, participants on both sides of what was a long rectangular table with Congress members on one side and the invited guests on the other, talked about both partially autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles. The guests were generally better at articulating these distinctions.
Really not any news here. Just interesting to see alignment among unusual Congressional bedfellows. No one mentioned the elephant in the room - what will happen when a completely different kind of Administration fills the offices of the government on January 20 and beyond.
So I need a break. I really need a time for reflection. I will continue to read each day about driverless developments, but I might not post for the next few weeks.
