Mistrust in Self-Driving Cars is on the Rise: AAA Study

An American Automobile Association’s (AAA) study has revealed shifting attitudes with self-driving cars.

According to the study, 73 percent of American drivers are afraid of riding in an autonomous vehicle, signaling a 10 percent jump from a January study, with two-thirds reporting feeling less safe if they were to share the road with one. Millennials surveyed posted the most significant shift, with 64 percent reporting in the negative over a late 2017 figure of 49 percent.

“Despite their potential to make our roads safer, in the long run, consumers have high expectations for safety,” said Greg Brannon, director of Automotive Engineering and Industry Relations at AAA. “Our results show that any incident involving an autonomous vehicle is likely to shake consumer trust, which is a critical component to the widespread acceptance of autonomous vehicles.”

The shifts in attitudes could be attributed to the slate of well-publicized crashes involving autonomous vehicles, including an Uber self-driving program vehicle killing an Arizona pedestrian last March, a non-fatal Tesla Model S crash in Utah, and a Model X crash in California where its Autopilot system was scrutinized.

The AAA used randomly selected 1,014 adults to complete the survey, with a 4 percent plus or minus margin of error.

AUTONOMOUS TRUCKS WILL HIT SWEDEN’S ROADS LATER THIS YEAR

Swedish tech startup Einride does not have the fame (or government subsidies) that Tesla has, nor the experience in car manufacturing of established automobile brands like Volvo. Yet, if the company succeeds in carrying out its ambitions, it is going to have a driverless truck in operation way before any of the established carmakers do. No less importantly, it will have an electric drivetrain.

There are solid reasons to believe Einride is not merely boosting its progress to lure investors. The best signifier is that it has partnered up with multinational grocery behemoth Lidl. Last October, Einride released a statement explaining how it is going to support Lidl in its transition towards electric and autonomous transport. The supermarket chain has a goal of reducing its emissions by 40% in Sweden by 2035. The company already switched to lower-emission fuels such as biodiesel, but now wants to go all the way down to zero. That’s where Einride comes in.

Founded in 2016, Einride has developed the T-pod, an electric truck that is not just able to operate autonomously, but does not even feature a driver’s seat. Without the cabin, more space is left for the drivetrain and freight. Powered by a 200 KWh battery, it can cover approximately 125 miles or 200 km on a single charge. Over that distance, it has space for 15 standard pallets, equal to 160 sq ft or 15 m2. Its maximum weight will be around 20 tons, and it will be sold at roughly $150,000 per unit.

The company plans to start a pilot program using the T-pod by the third quarter of 2018. The vehicle will be driving around the city of Halmstad on the Swedish west coast, carrying actual Lidl products and driving through actual Swedish traffic. However, at first the T-pod will be monitored at a distance by a human driver, ready to take over the wheel when required. Total autonomy, at least at the start of the pilot, not yet been reached, but Einride plans to slowly decrease human involvement, going from 1 to 10 trucks per remote driver.

Einride Electric, Autonomous Commercial Truck

Still, the T-pod makes for an interesting proposition. As long as the distance is not too large, companies can now operate a vehicle at eventually drastically lower labor costs. Additionally, the maintenance and fuel costs associated with wielding a traditional combustion engine are eliminated.

Furthermore, the T-pod is to be conceived of as one cog in a much larger wheel. Using a network of hubs from which the pods operate, the 200 km range suffices to sustain a huge, highly automated logistics system.

As Einride’s own timeline indicates, we are still some time away from large scale adoption of autonomous, electric trucking. By 2020, the company wants to have built 200 vehicles, and this might turn out to be rather ambitious for a firm that, by then, will exist less than 5 years. But looking into the longer term, Einride has bolder plans. It aims to have 40% of Swedish road transport carried out by its own vehicles as of 2035. That is optimistic, given the advancement competing car brands will have made. Production of Tesla’s Semi for example, a highly autonomous electric truck, is slated to start in 2019. Einride is still a company to keep a close eye on. If it manages to fulfill its promise and gets its autonomous electric truck into commercial operation before the end of this year, it does have a strong position to take up larger swaths of the trucking market in the near future.

By Rogier van Rooij, originally published by Cleantechnica

AUTONOMOUS CHEVY BOLT AV SHOWN WITHOUT STEERING WHEEL

GM revealed a fully autonomous version of its electric Chevy Bolt at CES last week, and it was- I mean, can you call an advanced concept car lazy? Take a look at that official, GM-produced photo of the Bolt AV, above. Do you see the problem, yet?

That’s right. The people behind the car that is meant to show off GM’s future and place Chevrolet up on a pedestal among other autonomous heavy-hitters like Tesla, Google, and Volvo, didn’t even bother to make their interior symmetrical- and I’m not the only one who noticed, either. You can clearly see the bias towards the traditional “driver’s seat” location by placing the screen off to the right. Which- maybe makes sense? But, since there is no human driver- and no human driving even possible, without controls- doesn’t that seem a little odd?

Maybe it’s not, and GM rightly assumes that the majority of trips will be of the single-passenger variety in the future, too. That’s probably right- isn’t it?

Check out Steve Hanley’s well-thought out piece, originally published by our sister site, EV Obsession, below. Then, let us know what you think of the autonomous Bolt AV (for “autonomous vehicle”, natch) in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Autonomous Chevy Bolt Shown at CES | Video



Are you sitting down? General Motors said this past week it plans to begin producing a fully autonomous car with no steering wheel and no pedals — not in some far off time, but next year. It says Chevy Bolts fitted with 4th generation autonomous technology will start rolling off the assembly line in 2019. The announcement makes for a nice segue between the end of CES 2018 and the start of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
GM’s crosstown rival, Ford, says it will be offering driverless cars, but not until 2021. Google is planning to begin a driverless ride-hailing service in Phoenix, Arizona, soon using modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans, but those cars will still be fitted with traditional pedals and a steering wheel. The autonomous Chevy Bolts are intended for use in ride-hailing duty in several US cities, and will not be made for sale to individuals. At least, not yet.



GM Announces Autonomous Chevy Bolt AV at Detroit


GM President Dan Ammann told The Verge. “It’s a pretty exciting moment in the history of the path to wide scale deployment and having the first production car with no driver controls. We believe this technology will change the world, and we’re doing everything we can to get it out there at scale as fast as we can.” If GM can stick to its self-imposed timeline, the self-driving Bolt will be the first mass-produced fully autonomous car in the world. It will be assembled at the Orion Township factory alongside its conventional cousins.
GM has petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for a number of waivers from existing vehicle safety regulations. For instance, the autonomous Bolts will have no steering-wheel-mounted airbag because they have no steering wheel. D’uh. “A car without a steering wheel can’t have a steering wheel airbag,” Ammann said. “What we can do is put the equivalent of the passenger side airbag on that side as well. So it’s to meet the standards but meet them in a way that’s different than what’s exactly prescribed, and that’s what the petition seeks to get approval for.”
GM is currently testing its autonomous cars in Phoenix and in San Francisco. The company says the City by the Bay presents many more challenges for self-driving vehicles. “While we also test vehicles in Phoenix, our San Francisco vehicles predict an average of 32 times as many possible interactions as those in Phoenix. Thus, San Francisco challenges our self-driving system more because, as the number of objects increase, there are exponentially more possible interactions with objects that the self- driving system must consider. For example, GM’s self-driving Chevy Bolt AVs (would) encounter 270 emergency vehicles for every 1,000 miles driven in San Francisco, compared to just six in Phoenix.”
Each autonomous Chevy Bolt has not one but two data recorders to store data pertinent to every driving situation. Together, they keep a digital record of all input data from the car’s sensors, information about acceleration, braking and steering actions, and any malfunctions that may occur. Both are designed to survive in the event of a catastrophic accident.
GM is anxious to establish a lead in the autonomous car field. It has acquired Cruise Automation, a San Francisco based self-driving startup, as well as Strobe, another startup that specializes in Lidar technology. Adding both to its portfolio is part of the General’s plan to become a “full stack” autonomous car company.” It also plans to introduce up to 20 new EVs by 2023.
As Tesla muddles through “production hell” with its Model 3, some are suggesting the legacy automakers may not be as threatened by Tesla as once thought. Designing cutting-edge electric cars with advanced autonomous features may be where Tesla shines, but building millions of high-quality units is something the car companies have been doing very well for generations.
One area where Tesla still has a wide lead is integrating the sensors that are needed to make autonomous cars a reality in a way that does not detract from the appearance of the cars. Compared to the crude Lost In Space type arrays that sprout from the autonomous cars being tested by Waymo, Uber, General Motors, and others, Tesla’s sensor suite is virtually invisible to the untrained eye. It’s a good thing those cars from other companies are intended for commercial service because it is unlikely any self-respecting car owner would want one of those antlered beasts parked in the driveway.

Images by GM, and edit. originally published by EVOBsession.

Smart Autonomous Car Concept To Debut In Frankfurt

Daimler revealed a new electric concept car this past week by introducing the Smart vision EQ fortwo, a car that combines familiar Smart design elements with some forward-thinking technology. Unsurprisingly, self-driving is front and centre of this concept, demonstrating Daimler’s commitment to its own car2go service, and asserting its intention to be a key player in the future of urban mobility.

Indeed, car2go was specifically called out in the announcement of this concept vehicle, which cited 2.6 million global users renting a car with the service every 1.4 seconds. What do car2go’s existing users have to do with a concept car? Even a passing look at the Smart vision EQ’s features shows how this could be a terrific step forward in the landscape of urban carsharing.

The concept is focused around a swarm intelligence software. This technology would base an algorithm on existing user data, allowing the car to make itself available in high-demand areas. Users would then book a vehicle that would come to them, rather than seek an available vehicle nearby in the app. Second, the onboard battery, just 30 kWh, is designed for automatic charging between trips at power stations and inductive charging docks.

The most striking design feature of the Smart vision EQ are the large glass doors, which not only offer an incredible view for passengers, but also become interior and exterior facing displays — perhaps to provide traffic and weather updates, or to act as digital advertising billboards. An additional two exterior LED displays positioned in the registration plate positions at the front and rear of the vehicle provide user information, including the availability of the vehicle in question, or the name of the user who booked it.

The Smart vision EQ fortwo is just a concept, but for those who can’t wait to ditch diesel, Daimler’s Smart fortwo electric is the cheapest electric car in the US. You can also see how it compares by reading our other electric car reviews.

Concept vehicles such as this raise some interesting questions. Will anyone living in a city actually own their own car in the near future? Or will we all be driving the sharing economy, ordering a car that will arrive at our location, on demand? With the Smart vision EQ fortwo, it certainly seems that Daimler has a commitment to smoothing out some of the technological bumps in the road for shared, self-driving electric vehicles. It’s not unreasonable to say that this future will soon become reality in cities around the world.

Public Trust In Autonomous Car Technology Is Eroding

In 2016, the MIT AgeLab, in cooperation with the New England Motoring Press Association, conducted a study to determine public attitudes about autonomous car technology. It found that younger drivers were more accepting of the idea that cars could drive themselves without human input than were older drivers. The more mature people who took the survey liked the idea of active safety systems that help keep a car within its proper travel lane, issue side collision warnings, adapt to the speed of other cars on the highway, or brake automatically in an emergency.

Credit: MIT AgeLab 2017

This year, in advance of NEMPA’s seventh annual technology conference, the AgeLab repeated its survey. The results showed that over the past year, trust in autonomous car technology has eroded. Most surprisingly, the largest decrease occurred among younger drivers. In 2016, 26% of respondents aged 16-24 reported they were comfortable with full autonomy. This year, that number dropped to 14%. Among those 25-34 years old, 40% were comfortable with full autonomy in 2016. For 2017, that number plunged to only 20%.

Professor Bryan Reimer is an associate director of The New England University Transportation Center at MIT, an organization is whose mission, according to its website, is to “understand, manage, and creatively exploit the strategic implications of disruptive change on the future of the transportation system.” He is also the head of the MIT AgeLab that conducted the 2016 and 2017 surveys. He told the NEMPA conference the change in consumer attitudes is a danger signal for an industry that is spending billions to rush autonomous driving systems into production. The issue, said Reimer, is a lack of trust.

Part of that is a reflection of technology issues everyone experiences on a daily basis. All of us are familiar with cell phones that suddenly lose their signal, internet sites that crash, or stories in the press about hackers who have stolen millions of identities from online retailers. Certainly hacking and trouble with internet security played a significant role in the last US election. Another part of the lack of trust is the innate understanding that building systems that can perform perfectly in Boston traffic in the middle of a blizzard is an extremely difficult challenge.

Even though 42,000 Americans died in highway accidents in 2016, the press focused on two fatalities that took the lives of drivers who were driving Teslas in Autopilot mode — one in Florida and one in China. Professor Reimer told the NEMPA conference, “I could write a 50 page dissertation on why Tesla Autopilot should be banned and another 50 page dissertation on why it shouldn’t.”

Another issue the MIT survey revealed is that people are confused about how autonomous systems work. In general, drivers learn about the systems through trial and error more than any other way. Reading the owner’s manual is a close second. Dealers come in a distant third and are the subject of much criticism. When the MIT team, headed by Hillary Abraham, one of the co-authors of this year’s study, went to various dealerships and asked questions about autonomous driving technology, she and her colleagues found the sales staff was often just as confused as the customers.

Abraham falls into the “younger people” category. When I asked her if she would feel comfortable getting in a self driving car with no pedals and no steering wheel to take her to the airport, she demurred and her body language suggested the idea was not very appealing to her. When I changed the question to ask if she would trust an app that could summon a self driving car, her body language became much more receptive. She told me she would trust the app more than the car itself.

Reimer said the decline in trust of autonomous car technology by younger people should worry automakers. It’s all well and good to develop advanced systems, but if people don’t trust them, they won’t spend their hard earned dollars to buy cars that have them. In fact, in this year’s survey, when people were asked how much they would spend for cars with such miraculous technology, 49% said they would never buy an autonomous car at any price. There were many reasons for that and the most common ones are summarized in the graph below.

Any good sales person will tell you that people usually won’t buy a new product so long as they have questions about it. The chart above shows people have lots of questions about autonomous car technology. Manufacturers would do well to take Reirmer’s data to heart and figure out how to answer those questions if they want autonomous cars to do more than gather dust out behind showrooms.

Customer confusion about new technology is not limited to autonomous driving systems. Surveys show that people are just as confused about the differences between hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric cars. Chrysler is so afraid of raising the issue that is refuses to to tell people its new Pacifica Hybrid minivan is a plug-in hybrid vehicle. Questions about charging procedures and how to find charging stations abound. In general, many dealers are doing a poor job of educating people. In fact, sales representatives often give conflicting or inaccurate information when asked.

Readers of Gas2 have left comments about dealers trying to switch them from an electric or plug-in car to a conventional car, actually bad mouthing the newer technology in the process. One Chevrolet dealer didn’t know his Chevy Volt cars needed to charged and got into an argument with a customer who asked why the car he was test driving didn’t have a full battery charge.

Mark Fields, the former CEO of Ford Motor Company, famously told the press earlier this year that “nobody wants to buy electric cars.” Fields was fired this week and will be replaced by the former head of Steelcase, an office furniture manufacturer. Hopefully the new guy will know enough about sales to focus on educating potential buyers instead of making fun of them.

Self Driving Car As Appliance: Coming Soon To A Garage Near You

Elon Musk says one day the self driving car will be as common and as non-controversial as the self service elevator. People don’t hyperventilate about an elevator that go up and down automatically and (usually) stop precisely at the proper floor. Why should a self driving car be any different? Is the age of the automobile as appliance upon us?

It certainly seems that way. Tesla has just hired away Chris Lattner from Apple to be the head honcho of its Autopilot software department. Lattner worked at Apple for 11 years, where he was responsible for many software innovations including Swift, Apple’s proprietary programming language.

Lattner is no car guy. His description of the self driving car of the future sounds more like a testimonial for a refrigerator or washing machine than an automobile. “I want to accelerate the path to cars being appliances that solve people’s problems,” he tells MacRumors.

“I’m personally not the kind of guy who loves doing oil changes and fiddling around with them. I just want something that is reliable, that works, ideally drives me everywhere I want to go, and I don’t have to think about it. It’s solving my problems, it’s not something I have to care for, feed and maintain. That’s the way I look at cars.”

Cars as soulless machines, drones that save us from the drudgery of driving back and forth to work, 5 times a week, 50 weeks a year. Appliances that park themselves, plug themselves in, know where we are and where we are going at all times. Oh, joy. Be still my beating heart.

Self driving cars may decrease congestion in our cities and cut auto emissions. They may allow us to rent our cars out when we are not using them to generate extra income. But will they ever evoke the sort of passion that a Shelby Cobra, a Ford GT, a Jaguar XK 140, or a Ferrari GTO does?

There is a disconnect even within Tesla. On one hand, the California based manufacturer of electric cars is offering people a 5 passenger sedan that can accelerate to 60 mph in the time it takes most of us to locate and answer our phones. On the other hand, it is building cars that offer about as much driving excitement as your basic Maytag washer/dryer combination.

Elon Musk must know what he’s doing. Tesla Motors has gone from success to success since it started barely 10 years ago. Perhaps the world needs self driving appliances more than it needs another Lamborghini Miura. But then again, perhaps not.

Source: MacRumors via The Next Web

Self Driving Cars Now Approved For Sale In Michigan

Self driving cars are a hot topic in the automotive world. After Joshua Brown was killed while operating his Tesla Model S in Autopilot mode last May, many groups involved with the automotive industry advised regulators to go slow when approving rules for autonomous driving vehicles. Consumer Reports in particular has called upon Elon Musk and Tesla Motors to stop calling their suite of driver assistance features Autopilot. CR thinks that name suggests to drivers that the system is capable of performing more tasks than it actually can, giving drivers a false sense of security.

Several states — California, Florida, and Texas among them — permit companies to test self driving cars on public roads, provided there is a human driver on board who can take over the controls if necessary. Google has been working for years on a small two passenger electric car with no steering wheel, accelerator or brake pedal. But even California, which is usually out in front on all things dealing with new technology, restricts those cars to private test facilities. The ones that Google operates on public roads must have the a steering wheel and pedals installed.

Last week, Michigan became the first state to allow car companies to sell fully autonomous cars with no steering wheel or pedals for use on its public roads.  The legislation was approved by the Michigan senate last September, but took this long to wend its way through the state’s house of representatives and reach governor Rick Snyder’s desk. The legislation was backed by General Motors and Ford, plus Google and ride sharing services Uber and Lyft. “The new laws mean autonomous vehicles can operate on any road in the state, at any time, and by anyone. Or no one,” reports Autoblog.

“By establishing guidelines and standards for self-driving vehicles, we’re continuing that tradition of excellence in a way that protects the public’s safety while at the same time allows the mobility industry to grow without overly burdensome regulations,” Gov. Snyder said.

The package of legislation also approved funding for the American Center for Mobility, a closed research campus where companies can develop and test autonomous driving technology without subjecting the public to undue risk. Michigan is anxious to shift the center of gravity for automotive innovation away from California and Silicon Valley.

Michigan senator Mike Kowall, one of the co-sponsors of the legislation, said the new laws would turn “the eyes of the world once again on Michigan for its engineering and its research. It’s a different kind of car building but car building nonetheless,” according to a report in Crain’s Detroit Business.

Source: Autoblog

New Details About Fatal Tesla Crash Emerge

UPDATE July 2 9:00 am.  According to Automotive News, “There was a portable DVD player in the vehicle,” said Sergeant Kim Montes of the FHP in a telephone interview.

The story about the man who died in a crash while driving his Tesla Model S in Autopilot mode on a highway in Florida is all over the news. When the story broke a few days ago, I first assumed it happened this week. I was surprised to learn later that it actually happened on May 7. I do this stuff for a living (sort of) and so I monitor news about Tesla and Elon Musk fairly closely. Until Wednesday, there was not a single report anywhere on the internet about a fatal crash involving a Tesla back in May. Then Tesla apparently finally found out about the crash and NHTSA got involved.

At first, details were sketchy. We heard that a tractor trailer was making a left turn at an intersection on a four-lane highway with a wide median strip. There were no traffic lights at the intersection. These sorts of road junctions are quite common in Florida and other parts of the country. Whether the tractor trailer was turning left or executing a U turn is still unclear to me.

In any event, my first reaction was that a large vehicle like that should not have pulled out in front of oncoming traffic. Perhaps the truck driver was partially at fault? If you are building an autonomous driving system, how do you program it to anticipate every stupid thing a human being is capable of, whether it is a truck turning into the path of the car or a clueless pedestrian stepping off a curb into traffic while engrossed in the morning newspaper and drinking a flat white latté?

Now, details are beginning to emerge and they are disturbing. First, the driver of the Tesla was Joshua D. Brown, of Canton, Ohio. He was 40 years old and a Navy SEAL for 11 years. He left the Navy in 2008, according to the Pentagon. He was a very tech-savvy fellow. He was the founder of his own internet network and camera company, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News. He posted videos about his Tesla experiences on several occasions, including one showing how the Autopilot system in his car once saved him from a potentially dangerous collision when a white commercial truck swerved suddenly into his lane.

A woman driving on the same highway and in the same direction as Brown claims she was driving 85 mph when Brown’s Model S flew by her at a high rate of speed. That information is not included in the official traffic accident report filed by the Florida State Police, but is surely something known to Tesla, as it has access to all of the data stored in the car’s computer system. It is included in a story atTeslarati.

The driver of the tractor trailer, Frank Baressi, age 62, told the Dallas Morning News in a telephone interview that the Tesla driver was “playing Harry Potter on the TV screen.” He added, “It was still playing when he died.” Baressi said, “he went so fast through my trailer I didn’t see him.” He didn’t see the video playing, but claims he could hear the movie still playing when the Tesla finally came to a stop several hundred yards up the road. Tesla Motors says it is not possible to watch videos on the Model S touchscreen, but word is that Brown had a portable DVD player in the car.

The really scary part is that not only did the sensors in Brown’s car fail to detect the tractor trailer directly in front of it, the car itself continued to drive down the highway for several hundred yards after its roof was sheared off. It finally came to a stop in the yard of a home owned by Bobby Vankavelaar. He told ABC Action News that the Tesla traveled “hundreds of yards from the point of impact, through a fence into an open field, through another fence and then avoided a bank of trees before being unable to swerve and miss a power pole that eventually stopped the car a few feet away.”

So, is this a ‘perfect storm’ event? Someone driving much too fast while distracted, coupled with a truck driver who looked but didn’t see a car approaching in the opposite direction, in unfortunate lighting for a white truck? And what impact will this have on the advent of autonomous driving technology? Mike Harley, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book, says systems like Tesla’s, which rely heavily on cameras, “aren’t sophisticated enough to overcome blindness from bright or low contrast light.” He says to expect more deaths as the autonomous technology is refined.

Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book, said the crash is a huge blow to Tesla’s reputation. “They have been touting their safety and they have been touting their advanced technology,” he said. “This situation flies in the face of both.”

Really, Karl? We said in a previous post that fatalities will continue to occur even when more cars start driving themselves. The difference is that, statistically, the likelihood of a fatal accident will be less for autonomous cars than cars operated by human drivers. This unfortunate incident occurred after Teslas worldwide had accumulated more than 130 million fatality-free miles while driving in autonomous mode. Statisticians say a death every 100 million miles is normal. So, the Tesla Autopilot system is already 30% more likely to save your life than if you are driving yourself unaided by computers.

Elon Musk continues to remind people that Autopilot is still only an aid. Drivers must remain alert, aware, and ready to take control at any time. My wife says autonomous cars are like boats towing water skiers. Most states require there be two people in the boat — one to steer and one to watch the skiers. She thinks if you are going to use computers to drive your car while you nap or watch videos, another responsible adult should be required to watch the road ahead.

Her idea is not as fanciful as it may sound. At the beginning of the automotive age, drivers entering a city were required to have a person on foot walk in front of the car sounding a klaxon to warn the citizenry that a motorized vehicle was approaching. Will regulators require something similar now that we know our machines can fail to protect us from all danger?

My guess is that the impetus of technology cannot be denied. Absent deliberate malfeasance on the part of a manufacturer, the world will accept that there is always an element of risk. The technology will get better. Within a few years, when IHS Automotive says 20 million autonomous cars a year will be sold every year worldwide, the chances of a fatal accident occurring in a self-driving car will probably be closer to once every 500 million miles.

Tesla is very lucky this was a single car accident. If another driver had died as a result of being impaled by a speeding Tesla with its roof sheared off, the odds are an army of trial lawyers would descend on the victim’s family, begging for a chance to be the first to sue Tesla. In the end, the fate of autonomous driving technology may not be determined as much by regulators as by the courts.

Screenshot via Teslarati

First Autopilot Death Occurs In Florida

We said just two weeks ago that it was statistically inevitable that someone would die in a Tesla operating in Autopilot mode eventually. Two months ago, it finally happened. An Ohio man driving on a highway in Florida failed to notice a tractor trailer crossing the roadway. Neither he nor his Autopilot system slowed the speed of his car. He drove under the trailer and was killed. The car was extensively damaged.

The first recorded fatality while using Tesla Autopilot occurred at the this intersection in Florida on Wednesday.

It was the first fatal crash by a Tesla while Autopilot was in use. Tesla automobiles completed more the 130 million miles of autonomous driving prior to this incident. As a result of the crash, NHTSA has opened an investigation. A statement by Tesla says that bright sunshine reflecting off a white trailer made the vehicle invisible to the software. It also reminds all Tesla drivers that they are ultimately responsible for the safe operation of their vehicle at all times.

This appears to be one of those “corner cases” that Elon Musk says makes developing a fully functioning autonomous system that will handle all possible situations that can arise correctly such a complex  and difficult task. At least that’s how our colleague Zach Shahan at CleanTechnica sees it. Here it the full text of statement from Tesla posted today:

A Tragic Loss

The Tesla Team June 30, 2016

We learned yesterday evening that NHTSA is opening a preliminary evaluation into the performance of Autopilot during a recent fatal crash that occurred in a Model S. This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated. Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles. Worldwide, there is a fatality approximately every 60 million miles. It is important to emphasize that the NHTSA action is simply a preliminary evaluation to determine whether the system worked according to expectations.

Following our standard practice, Tesla informed NHTSA about the incident immediately after it occurred. What we know is that the vehicle was on a divided highway with Autopilot engaged when a tractor trailer drove across the highway perpendicular to the Model S. Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied. The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer, with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the Model S. Had the Model S impacted the front or rear of the trailer, even at high speed, its advanced crash safety system would likely have prevented serious injury as it has in numerous other similar incidents.

It is important to note that Tesla disables Autopilot by default and requires explicit acknowledgement that the system is new technology and still in a public beta phase before it can be enabled. When drivers activate Autopilot, the acknowledgment box explains, among other things, that Autopilot “is an assist feature that requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times,” and that “you need to maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle” while using it. Additionally, every time that Autopilot is engaged, the car reminds the driver to “Always keep your hands on the wheel. Be prepared to take over at any time.” The system also makes frequent checks to ensure that the driver’s hands remain on the wheel and provides visual and audible alerts if hands-on is not detected. It then gradually slows down the car until hands-on is detected again.

We do this to ensure that every time the feature is used, it is used as safely as possible. As more real-world miles accumulate and the software logic accounts for increasingly rare events, the probability of injury will keep decreasing. Autopilot is getting better all the time, but it is not perfect and still requires the driver to remain alert. Nonetheless, when used in conjunction with driver oversight, the data is unequivocal that Autopilot reduces driver workload and results in a statistically significant improvement in safety when compared to purely manual driving.

The customer who died in this crash had a loving family and we are beyond saddened by their loss. He was a friend to Tesla and the broader EV community, a person who spent his life focused on innovation and the promise of technology and who believed strongly in Tesla’s mission. We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends.

20 Million Autonomous Cars By 2035 Says IHS Automotive

IHS Automotive predicts there will be more than 20,000,000 autonomous vehicles on the road by 2035. That’s a substantial increase from prior estimates. The difference is attributable to a marked increase in research and development by manufacturers, suppliers, and technology companies recently, as well as activity within various regulatory environments.

IHS says the US will lead the world in initial deployment and early adoption of autonomous vehicles. Japan will be close behind as it gears up to host the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. “Global sales of autonomous vehicles will reach nearly 600,000 units in 2025,” said Egil Juliussen, director of research at IHS Automotive. “Our new forecast reflects a 43% compound annual growth rate between 2025 and 2035 – a decade of substantial growth, as driverless and self-driving cars alike are more widely adopted in all key global automotive markets,” he said.

The latest analysis takes into account new mobility solutions such as ride sharing and car sharing programs and includes a number of factors, including development of new core technologies and the amount of R&D projects under way. It factors in discussions and initiatives by manufacturers with suppliers and ride sharing companies, technology company initiatives, and increased investment in mobility by other entities as well.

The forecast predicts there will be several thousand autonomous cars deployment in the U.S. in 2020. That number will grow to nearly 4.5 million vehicles by 2035, IHS says.  The forecast in China is for more than 5.7 million autonomous vehicles by 2035. China will be the single largest market for autonomous technology, according to analysts. The sheer volume of vehicles expected to be sold there as well as consumer demand for new technologies will drive growth, with more upside possible as regulators assess the potential of autonomous mobility to address safety and environmental concerns.

In western Europe, the forecast predicts about 3,000,000 autonomous cars will by 2035 and another 1.2 million vehicles in Eastern Europe. IHS Automotive also forecasts more than 1 million vehicles with some level of autonomy in the Middle East and Africa in 2035. Another 1.2 million self-driving cars will populate roadways in Japan and Korea.

There may be a few hiccups along the way. Challenges to the widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles include issues centering on software reliability and cyber security, Both are showing improvements as technology evolves and the industry recognizes the threat. The other concern is that a hodgepodge of rules and regulations will spring up in various markets, inhibiting the ability of companies to sell autonomous cars to the public. The technological challenges can be managed. Political hurdles may prove harder to overcome.

Source: Electric Cars Report   Photo credit: Nissan

Columbus, OH wins DOT's Smart City Challenge

The US has chosen its city of the future. No, it's not in Silicon Valley, nor is it anywhere near New York, Los Angeles, or Miami. The epicenter of innovation in the fields of electric mobility and connected, autonomous transport is [this is where drum roll would be if you hadn't already read the title of this article] Columbus, Ohio.

Yes, Columbus has earned the nod from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) as the winner of itsSmart City Challenge. As such, the city will have $140 million with which to work as it becomes a living laboratory for self-driving technology, connected vehicles, battery research, and more. Columbus is also planning programs to install EV charging infrastructure, provide transportation to improve prenatal healthcare access in a neighborhood with a high infant mortality rate, and deploy a trio of autonomous shuttles to run between a new transit center and a retail district within the city. In addition to helping people where they live and work by improving the way they (and the goods they use) get around, it will also provide a wealth of data and new ideas that communities around the world will find useful in solving their own problems, whether environmental, economic, or otherwise.

As for that substantial dollar figure coming Columbus' way, $40 million comes directly from the DOT. Vulcan Inc., a company founded by Microsoft cofounder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen to invest in programs to "solve some of the biggest global issues," will supply another $10 million. Columbus raised an additional $90 million (and an invaluable spirit of collaboration) from other private partners to help it achieve its goals.

In response to winning the Smart City Challenge, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther says, "Our collaboration between public, private, and nonprofit sectors is the perfect example of how we lift up our residents and connect all communities. Smart Columbus will deliver an unprecedented multimodal transportation system that will not only benefit the people of central Ohio, but potentially all mid-sized cities."

When you know a bit more about Columbus, it's not such a surprising pick. In addition to being home toOhio State University, Columbus is also the 15th largest city in the United States. Also nicknamed the Discovery City, it has thriving business and research communities, and is home base to some major players in those fields. In the city's video pitch for the competition (see above), it points out that it is the fastest-growing city in the Midwest, leading the way in both population and job growth.

Regardless of its credentials, it's an impressive feat to beat 77 other cities for the gig, including the six other finalists: Austin, Denver, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Portland, and San Francisco. While those other cities may not have won this competition, they all stand to benefit from information gathered and partnerships fostered through the Smart City Challenge. Read more in the press release from the DOT below.

Related Video:

U.S. Department of Transportation Announces Columbus as Winner of Unprecedented $40 Million Smart City Challenge

Paul G. Allen's Vulcan Inc. awards additional $10 million

COLUMBUS, OH – U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced today that Columbus, OH has been selected as the winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation's (U.S. DOT)'s Smart City Challenge. As winner of the Challenge, Columbus will receive up to $40 million from U.S. DOT and up to $10 million from Paul G. Allen's Vulcan Inc. to supplement the $90 million that the city has already raised from other private partners to carry out its plan. Using these resources, Columbus will work to reshape its transportation system to become part of a fully-integrated city that harnesses the power and potential of data, technology, and creativity to reimagine how people and goods move throughout their city.

"Each of the seven finalists put forward an array of thoughtful, intelligent, and innovative ideas that defined a vision for the future of the American city and formed a blueprint to show the world what a fully integrated, forward-looking transportation network looks like," said Secretary Foxx. "The Smart City Challenge required each city to think about transportation as cross-functional, not in silos, but as a transportation ecosystem. The bold initiatives they proposed demonstrated that the future of transportation is not just about using technology to make our systems safer and more efficient – it's about using these advanced tools to make life better for all people, especially those living in underserved communities. While Columbus is the winner of the Challenge, we believe each city has come out of this process with a stronger sense of how to address transportation challenges with technology and innovation."

"We are thrilled to be America's first Smart City. Our collaboration between public, private and nonprofit sectors is the perfect example of how we lift up our residents and connect all communities," said Mayor Andrew Ginther. "Smart Columbus will deliver an unprecedented multimodal transportation system that will not only benefit the people of central Ohio, but potentially all mid-sized cities. I am grateful to President Obama, Secretary Foxx, the U.S. Department of Transportation, all of our partners and especially the Smart Columbus team."

The Smart City Challenge generated a significant amount of excitement and interest amongst cities. U.S. DOT received seventy-eight applications in total – one from nearly every mid-sized city in America. The Challenge called on cities to do more than merely introduce new technologies onto city streets, requiring them to boldly envision new solutions that would change the face of transportation in our cities by closing the gap between rich and poor; capturing the needs of both young and old; and bridging the digital divide through smart design so that the future of transportation meets the needs of all city residents.

The seven finalist cities that were announced at South by Southwest (SXSW) in March – Austin, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Portland, and San Francisco – rose to the Smart City Challenge in an extraordinary way. They presented innovative concepts, proposing to create new first of a kind corridors for autonomous vehicles to move city residents, to electrify city fleets, and to collectively equip over thirteen thousand buses, taxis, and cars with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication.

Columbus was selected as the winner because it put forward an impressive, holistic vision for how technology can help all of the city's residents to move more easily and to access opportunity. The city proposed to deploy three electric self-driving shuttles to link a new bus rapid transit center to a retail district, connecting more residents to jobs. Columbus also plans to use data analytics to improve health care access in a neighborhood that currently has an infant mortality rate four times that of the national average, allowing them to provide improved transportation options to those most in need of prenatal care.

Public-private partnerships were essential to the success of the Smart City Challenge. The Department announced partnerships with some of the most innovative folks in the private sector, including launch partner Paul G. Allen's Vulcan Inc., cloud partner Amazon Web Services, NXP® Semiconductors, Mobileye, Autodesk, Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs, AT&T, DC Solar and Continental Automotive. In addition, these seven cities were able to leverage U.S. DOT's $40 million grant to raise approximately $500 million more in funding – a vast majority of which comes from a diverse group of over 150 partners. These partnerships illustrated the private-sector enthusiasm to help build an inclusive transportation system of the future.

Paul G. Allen's Vulcan Inc.:

"Climate change is a complex challenge, and it will take all of us working together to develop innovative, scalable solutions. One of this competition's greatest strengths is how it incentivized leaders across the public, private and nonprofit sectors to collaborate," said Paul G. Allen. "It is my hope that cities across the country will draw from and adapt the ideas from the Smart City Challenge to transform their transportation networks and help put their communities on a more sustainable path."

Mobileye:

"We were impressed with how well the finalists demonstrated their commitment to transforming their respective cities into a fully-integrated city of the future, especially where safety was concerned." said Mobileye Co-Founder, CTO and Chairman Professor Amnon Shashua. "We anticipate significant advancements from each finalist as a result of this challenge and hope they continue to embrace forward-looking solutions, like Mobileye, and transform transportation infrastructure and safety in their cities. We are more than ready to play our part in ushering in the nation's first truly smart city and look forward to working with the winner through our participation with Secretary Foxx and the DOT's Smart City Challenge"

NXP Semiconductors:

"At NXP, we are honored to be able to provide Columbus with innovations that will truly make a difference to how its citizens live and work," said NXP CEO and President Rick Clemmer. "Through vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) technology as well as RFID tagging and smart card ICs, NXP will help Columbus keep its roads safer, reduce pollution, and create more streamlined traffic and toll payments. We look forward to partnering with Columbus and to watch it become a real, tangible example of what the secure, smarter world will look like."

Autodesk:

"The public and private sectors are generally viewed as at odds with one another, but Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx's Smart City Challenge proves that we can indeed work together to address the challenges facing our cities," said Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk. "The Smart City Challenge offered the tech industry and city leaders a common platform to envision and plan a more intelligent, sustainable urban future. We applaud Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx for his leadership in creating this collaborative effort."

Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs:

"The DOT Smart City Challenge has inspired cities to shift away from operating in traditional agency silos and towards creating a coordinated, outcome-focused transportation system that reduces congestion and enhances transport equity," says Anand Babu, COO of Sidewalk Labs. "Data is the key to enabling this transformation, and Sidewalk Labs is excited to partner with cities to provide data-driven applications to better manage roads, parking, and mass transit, and to encourage shared mobility. When governments and technologists collaborate, there is an enormous potential to reimagine the way we approach urban mobility, and Secretary Foxx and the DOT should be commended for moving this critical conversation in a new direction."

Amazon Web Services:

"Amazon Web Services collaborated with the seven finalist cities during the challenge, and will work closely with Columbus to help implement their smart city vision. Cloud technology is enabling collaboration and the creation of citizen services at an unprecedented rate."

AT&T:

"AT&T congratulates Columbus on a job well done by showing the vision of what a smart city can accomplish for its citizens," said Mike Zeto, general manager and executive director, AT&T Smart Cities. "While we look forward to continuing to work with all 78 cities that entered the Challenge, AT&T is especially thrilled to help Columbus bring to life its winning smart cities vision by providing a framework for success that can be scaled across the region and other cities as well."

DC Solar:

"The Smart City Challenge is a visionary initiative and DC Solar is proud to be named a partner with the DOT," said Jeff Carpoff, DC Solar's CEO. "We look forward to working with the city of Columbus to provide solar energy access through mobile solar solutions and EV infrastructure. DC Solar is excited to work with all the finalist and applicant cities who seek clean energy solutions. We applaud Secretary Foxx's innovative leadership, and we believe the Smart City Challenge will become a model for encouraging clean technologies in communities throughout the U.S."

Continental:

"At Continental, safety is at the cornerstone of everything that we do. That is why we are proud to join the USDOT's national Smart City Challenge as a provider of active safety technology and secure connectivity to help advance the development of future mobility services such as automated driving infrastructure solutions, Intelligent Transportation Systems and V2X technology," said Samir Salman, CEO of Continental North America. "The Smart City Challenge aligns with our company's mission of Vision Zero, which is our goal to globally eliminate traffic and road fatalities, making mobility safer, more convenient and more efficient for everyone."

The Department of Transportation and its federal partners, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy, and the National Institute for Standards and Technology, have committed to keep working collaboratively with all seven finalist cities to identify potential federal, state, local, and private resources to help carry out their Smart City plans. In addition, Vulcan Inc. has announced a new commitment to provide additional funding to support the climate and electrification efforts of all seven cities.

To learn more about the Smart City Challenge, visit www.transportation.gov/smartcity.