By Jeff Sanford
Toronto, Ontario — September 16, 2016 — Uber is testing it’s autonomous vehicle (AV) capabilities with robot taxis in Pittsburgh, Ford thinks AVs could account for 20 percent of its business by the end of the next decade and the Chairman of the US-based National Transportation Safety Board believes cars will always require a human co-pilot.
– This past Wednesday Uber began operating its fleet of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh. As one reporter from MIT Technology Review who tested the service that morning notes, “My Self-Driving Uber Needed Human Help.”
The Uber vehicles being put to work this week have a driver in the car in case of emergency. The report claims that the “test ride…shows the technology is not quite ready.” Uber, of course, hopes that “the technology will eventually allow it to do away with drivers altogether—something that would help it save a lot of money … ”
The report said the car “performed admirably in many difficult situations—reacting to pedestrians darting into the road, for example—and I mostly felt pretty safe. However, several times the person behind the wheel needed to take control: once so the car didn’t become stuck behind a truck, and once to avoid another vehicle making a sudden turn.”
A screen in front of the back seats “shows passengers a 3-D picture of what the car’s sensors see and indicates what actions the vehicle is undertaking, such as steering or braking. There is also a button that passengers can press to stop the vehicle … perhaps if they get too nervous. A fisheye video camera embedded in the roof will record passengers’ reactions for later analysis.”
The biggest challenge, the reporter said, was paying attention when the car was in control to what was happening on the road. Pittsburgh was chosen as the test site because, “The city’s roads are narrow, winding, and often filled with pedestrians and cyclists. The city also has hills and bridges that can play tricks on a self-driving car’s sensors, and its climate will pose challenges. To date, most self-driving cars have been tested in states, like California and Nevada, where conditions are usually bright and sunny. Uber says its self-driving cars will be able to drive in rain and snow but will need extra supervision.”
A company spokesperson was quoted as saying that, “Pittsburgh is the ideal environment for us to be testing in … In a lot of ways, [it] is the double black diamond of driving.” The Uber vehicles have “seven lasers, including a spinning lidar on top; 20 different cameras at the front and sides of the vehicle; two radars that provide 360° coverage; GPS; and inertial measurement units.” The cars also have a liquid-cooled computer in the trunk.
– A new bill in Michigan seems aimed at prohibiting companies from operating autonomous ride-sharing businesses. Google has asked that the bill be amended to remove such language. The proposed legislation, as it’s currently written, says AV manufacturers must have distributed vehicles in the US before they can operate an autonomous ride-sharing business in the state. This would leave companies such as Google and Uber out in the cold, as of course they do not currently sell vehicles.
– Uber’s self-driving taxis are going to have competitors, that’s for certain. Their biggest competitor just might be one of the OEMs. A report in the Wall Street Journal notes that Ford has laid out plans to expand into various autonomous car services, such as robot cabs. According to the report, “The company thinks autonomous vehicles will account for up 20 percent of total vehicle sales by the end of the next decade, and its first deployments will be in urban areas, such as New York City and Metro Detroit. Ford plans to roll out in 2021 its fully autonomous car with no steering wheel or pedals, selling about 100,000 a year for commercial purposes only. A personal-use driverless car will be available in dealerships around the middle of next decade …”
– The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) has announced that John Krafcik, CEO of Google’s self-driving car project, will kick-off the new automated vehicle section being included in the show this year. The show takes place in Detroit and will feature “Autonomous Driving, Connected Car Technologies, E-Mobility, Mobility Services and Urban Mobility,” this year.
– Tesla recently announced an upgrade to the software that runs its cars. According to CEO Elon Musk he sees “a 3x potential increase in safety,” when the car is operated in Autopilot mode as a result of the improvements. A statement from Tesla says the data already suggests a 50 percent reduction in the probability of having an accident when using Autopilot versus manual driving. According to Musk, the upgrade has, “… improved the accuracy of Autopilot by making more use of the radar sensor on Tesla vehicles. Until now, the radar sensor has been a supplementary sensor, but now it will play a greater role in determining whether an object is a danger. The camera and imaging-processing system that currently powers the semiautonomous system will still be used, but the data collected by the radar will carry more weight when deciding how the car should react when in Autopilot.”
Musk has also said that he believes that the change could have prevented the fatal accident that occurred in May, when 40-year-old Joshua Brown crashed into a semitruck while driving down the highway using Autopilot.
– A company named “Comma.ai” claims it has a system that will add Tesla “Autopilot-like abilities to many standard vehicles,” for just $1,000. A report on MIT Technology Review suggests that “Off-the-shelf autonomy systems are likely to be an important route to acceptance of self-driving capability.”
According to the report, “The company doesn’t claim that the unit will turn a car into a fully autonomous vehicle. Instead, it will provide a vehicle with the ability to automatically accelerate, brake, and change lanes on the highway … The device … adds only camera sensors to the car.”
– Christopher Hart, Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said recently he doesn’t think fully automated vehicles will ever be a thing. In an interview with MIT Technology Review, he said, “his agency’s experience investigating accidents involving autopilot systems used in trains and planes suggests that humans can’t be fully removed from control.” He thinks “future autos will be much safer, but that they will still need humans as copilots.”
– Apple is said to have abandoned its effort to make a self-driving car according to a report on Quartz. The company’s “Titan” project was supposed to produce a car that would compete with the Google car and Tesla. A new Chief of Operations brought in over the summer has reformatted the program, cutting out the car to focus on “building an autonomous system instead of an actual car. As a result of this shift, dozens of Titan project members have left the company,” according to the story.
