The Northeast Corridor, that magical set of states where Amtrak (the US passenger rail system) is actually profitable and on time, is waking up to the future. Its state-level lawmakers are busy making possible the operation and testing of driverless vehicles. I so want to see driverless in Boston and Brooklyn. What will drivers and pedestrians do if there is no driver to shout an expletive at? Somehow shouting out "as*%ole" to a vehicle in which a couple of people are watching a movie cannot provide any satisfaction. Essentially the same bills being considered There's no law against plagiarism when drafting statutory language, so the bills being considered in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are pretty much the same. I am not using word "identical" because I might not be reading the text of the bills uber-carefully. It's after work, the dog is resting beside me, and the brain is not in crunch mode. Here are the links. New York - Assembly bill A31 Massachusetts - Bill H. 2977 Rhode Island - S. 2514 All allow for operation of driverless vehicles if federal safety standards are met. Of course, the US Department of Transportation is not ready for its safety standards to permit operation of such vehicles YET. All require that somewhere a licensed driver be present and be able to take over operation of the vehicle, whether from afar at an undisclosed location or from inside the vehicle. However, testing - all that would be permitted at this time - of an autonomous vehicle will require a human driver to be present in the vehicle. Hey pals, Michigan is THE Motor State The state of Michigan gets indigestion every time the terms driverless or autonomous vehicles are mentioned. Instead of taking Alka Seltzer, the state is medicating itself with money, in this case Michigan Strategic Funds to the tune of $3 million. The funds are for the purpose of buying Willow Run, to create a new driverless testing facility in Ypsilanti (wasn't that what MCity was for?). No joke - the Willow Run entity is called the Willow Run Arsenal of Democracy Landholdings Limited Partnership. Only Freedom Fries will be sold. That part was a joke. Because land is cheap in Michigan, there will be money left over toward the start up of the American Center for Mobility, a consortium of:
the State of Michigan – including the Michigan Department of Transportation and MEDC, the University of Michigan, Business Leaders for Michigan and Ann Arbor SPARK. The board of directors includes representatives from the university, BLM, SPARK, which initiated the project and will play a key role in economic development tied to the center. Automotive industry and community advisory boards will also be established.
I'm thinking there's no direct sales of Nevada-produced Teslas in Michigan. [Editor's note: I actually spent whole weeks in Ypsilanti years ago, when I was in high school, and my brother worked for Ford as an engineer and my sister had a summer job there when she was at MIT. It's a weirdly generic place. No personality.] University bubble To get around antiquated U.S. state and federal motor vehicle regulations, driverless is heading toward university campuses, with their private roads. Other potential markets with private roads include resorts, office parks, and gated communities, particularly communities for older adults. Right now, Vardon Labs is taking its golf-cart-like driverless shuttle vehicle to campuses in California. This video is from Fresno State.
A great opportunity for college campus shuttles is the willingness of students to try anything. Then they can convince their parents and grandparents to try stuff, perhaps while not also making their elders feel stupid and incapable. That might be too high a standard. My daughter actually asked if I know that my phone has a timer just because I was using a little standalone timer. Yes, sweetheart, I know. Adult brilliant children also have senses of humor, sometimes directed at their parents. Meanwhile, across the seas in Greece While the U.S. is doing fantastic as far as its private sector goes, and scrambling when it comes to public funding, and laws and regulations, Greece - yes, the country that barely escaped bankruptcy - has an actual driverless transit shuttle on its streets and that driverless shuttle is picking up actual people and there is no steering wheel or brakes. There are humans in a little office watching from afar (and likely feeling quite bored). Watch the cute video (not on youtube, so I can't embed it.)
Where can normal people board driverless vehicles? Right now, in Greece. In a few months, add China, if a developer's plans come true. Greece - yet another reason to travel there Everyone is smiling on the driverless CityMobil2 bus on the roads of a city in Greece. Can't help thinking - Look ma, no hands! After the pilot is over, what next? People already seemed tickled pink by the cute pod bus. Watch the video.
New for neighborhoods, I mean housing developments, in China
Safety, avoiding pesky human labor, and rational mobility within an enclosed community are the reasons why China's largest property development company is investing big time in driverless technology. Watch the video as the small pod - a six-seater - travels about. The same developer will be opening a hotel in 2017 with an all-robot staff. Solves the issue of a labor shortage. Down under - plastic kangaroos, oh no South Australia is trying hard to attract the emerging driverless vehicle industry and Volvo has arrived. Unfortunately, the first ride involved a collision between an inflatable kangaroo and a car with the South Australian transport minister, one Stephen Mullighan. Turns out the collision was human error. Had the driverless car been left to itself, the collision would have been avoided. But the human stepped in, or rather, touched the brake. Now Volvo will be testing its vehicles in South Australia. They can even operate at night, hopefully avoiding actual marsupials. Volvo is - no joke - studying marsupials.
So what did people expect when a car came on the road that allows for hands-free driving on the highway - but only highways with clear lane markings - and a warning that hands should remain - doing nothing - on the wheel? Turns out, those hands are not remaining on the Tesla steering wheels, Some "drivers" are climbing into their Tesla backseats or engaging in other unauthorized, not-good-driver behavior. Oh, and the car can't "read" weather, stop signs, traffic signals, or other common road situations. I don't have the time, but apparently these mischievous Tesla owners are posting their videos all over the place. Apparently, I'm not the only person concerned that semi-autonomous vehicles present real dangers. State driving regulators in California are pondering this issue. They were taking their time, but will they hurry up now that the semi-autonomous Teslas are out there driving themselves on highways throughout the state? According to a Silicon Valley article, linked to above in this paragraph, all eyes are on California to issue regulations and set the model for what other states and countries should document, restrict, and allow. And ... Tesla cars, with those hands-free drivers, perhaps some of them napping or watching videos while behind the wheel, are not considered self-driving according to current California rules. That will be one fun lawsuit when the first accident occurs because the driver did not become instantly attentive when the car alerted him or her. California might start first driverless community Planners developing a Southern California community to be pedestrian friendly and have supermarkets and other services within a 10-minute walk of each residence, is considering becoming the first driverless community in the U.S. as well. The idea is that when a car is needed, it can be shared and driverless. The name is Lilac Hills Ranch, for those wanting to delve deeper. Florida embracing driverless Why pay to build a road twice? Florida is resolving this possible problem before it becomes a problem. The sunshine state is planning to build roads that can be adjusted in some way for the day when connected and/or driverless vehicles begin traveling up and down its roads. Meanwhile, on the roads of Greece, completely driverless gets a chance Personally, I think a completely driverless vehicle is safer than a partially autonomous one. One city in Greece won the highly competitive spot to try real driverless transit on local roads - with dogs, pedestrians, bicycles, and angry human drivers - on a 1.5 mile stretch. I reported on this before the pilot program started; now the vehicles are in operation. No reports of passengers yet. There is a human monitoring the situation in a control center. He or she will be able to remotely take over the controls if need be, but the little bus is designed to travel without human control of any kind. That article provides very good coverage of the difference between the Greek CityMobil2 project and earlier ones.
Fare-free, driverless transit in Greece as CityMobil2 provides actual bus service for actual riders on the streets of Trikala. No idea where that is, but it has 80,000 people. A nice small city for a test project. (Though the article calls Trikala rural, it would not be deemed rural by American standards. American transportation regulations define rural as 50,000 or less.) The CityMobil2 buses are on the roads right now and will continue to provide rides through February 2016. Singapore designs driverless transit for everyone - including people with disabilities In an ongoing series of shared-use driverless projects - fitting about 10 people per vehicle, Singapore is designing universally so that one category of transportation-challenged people will be afforded true equality. The little transit buses are designed for wheelchair-user riders and not just "normal" riders. If you look at the vehicles, notice that unlike conventional transit buses, which seem as though wheelchair accessibility is an add on, these seem as if they were designed for more than one type of passenger.
England choosing conventional car manufacturers I'm thinking this is a mix of forward-thinking car manufacturers and the UK government getting a bit desperate that other countries are passing by the Union Jack in the race to bring autonomous transport to the world's roads. Jaguar and Land Rover are teaming up with British universities and the UK government - a la Michigan's M city, perhaps. But wait, this multi-faceted endeavor, which also involves 10 UK universities, will be studying drivers as well, meaning increasingly autonomous cars rather than driverless ones as fast as possible. UK might be more behind than it thinks.
