The future of computer-driven cars and deliverbots
Many companies are looking to make self-driving trucks. Einride feels they are the best path to electric trucks, and that's the best way to reduce emissions.
Read more at Forbes.com in Einride s Self-Driving Goal Is Medium-Haul Electric Trucks, Not Long Haul. Here s Why.
Chinese companies have been expanding their operation of robotaxis with no employee aboard Baidu Apollo (sometimes called the Google of China) has expanded in Whuhan, Chongqing and Beijing and AutoX has expanded to Shanghai.
Read more at Forbes.com in Baidu, AutoX Expand Uncrewed Robotaxi Operations In China - Will The World Catch Up?
San Francisco Muni decided to study problems caused by robotaxis, possibly hoping to gather data to oppose them. Instead, their data shows they are doing amazingly well and should end the debate.
Read more at Forbes.com in Transit Study Reveals Robotaxis Causing Surprisingly Little Disruption On Streets
Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt has released an explanation of the cause, or proximate cause, of their crash last week with a San Francisco Muni bus.
Read more at Forbes.com in GM s Cruise Robotaxi vs Bus Crash Caused By Confusion Over Articulated Bus; They Say It s Fixed
Austin, TX, April 1 2023 - Tesla announced today that it's new low-cost car, known as the Model 2, will not come standard with a steering wheel or pedals. That's not because it will only work with Tesla's "Full Self Driving" system, but rather because they have been made virtual, through AI and the interior camera used for driver monitoring.
The mandatory report reveals the bus was slowing to a stop and wasn't doing anything odd when the Cruise hit it. This really shouldn't happen
Read more at Forbes.com in Cruise DMV Crash Report Suggests Their Car At Fault In Hitting Bus
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A Cruise Robotaxi, apparently with nobody aboard, has rear ended a San Francisco Muni bus on March 23. Nobody was injured and damage to the bus was modest, but more severe to the front bumper of the Cruise. Another Cruise blew through caution tape and hit downed Muni trolley power lines. It does not look good.
Read more at Forbes.com in Cruise Cars Crash Into San Francisco Muni Bus And Tangle In Fallen Trolley Wires
Today, Waymo released an extension of their previous safety frameworks where they promote what they call a "Case Credibility Assessment" — a way of examining whether any safety case is strong and should be believed. It's a complex situation, but the larger question is just who these safety cases are for, and how they will interpret them. In particular, what will regulators do?
Read more at Forbes.com in Waymo Makes A New Safety Case And Challenges All To Also Do So - But Is It Right?
Here's the new Podcast issue. Michael Sena has been writing the newsletter "The Dispatcher" for 10 years commenting on future transportation issues. He's much more skeptical about robotaxis and BEVs than I am, which makes a discussion much more engaging.
Tesla has done their investor day. No big announcements but tons of detail. About 20 minutes after it ends (it's still going at 4:50pm) Mario Herger and I will do a live post-show stream looking at highlights of the program.
Waymo has released impressive detailed safety data on their first million miles of operation with no safety driver. Cruise also just hit 1M miles but has less data to offer. I dig into Waymo's data and what it means.
Read more at Forbes.com in Waymo And Cruise have Both Hit 1M Miles With No Driver, But Waymo Publishes Detailed Safety Data
The unusual thing about the Zoox is it is symmetrical -- it drives the same forwards and backwards. Now it's finally out on public roads. That's a good time to discuss whether it would be good for other, traditionally designed robotaxis to drive backwards for short stretches to get out of tight spots, to turn around, and to quickly get out when they discover a fire crew that will otherwise break their widows.
Driving is the hard problem. But doing pick-up and drop-off turns out to have a lot of complications and it was not at the top of the todo list, so some companies are having issues with it with cities. We see some hints of this in Waymo's Superbowl-related service, too.
Read more at Self driving cars have trouble with Pick-up/Drop-off, and for the Superbowl on Forbes.com
I have done an experimental podcast discussion show on the hot future-of-transportation issues so far this year.
You can watch it on YouTube, where I have chapter markers to let you easily find the topics of interest to you, as we spoke for almost one hour and 20 minutes. I was joined by Mario Herger of The Last Driver Licence Holder
On Jan 21, SF Fire Dept. crews, worried a Cruise robotaxi was about to drive through their fire scene, smashed in its window. They said it wasn't stopping, and back when Cruise first began one of its cars did drive over a fire hose. Digging into the details though, Cruise said it had stopped after trying to pull over, and did what they expected. So what should it do, and does the fact that that Cruise takes the conservative approach in such situations of stopping and waiting for rescue constitute a big safety problem, or just a teething pain as they test and learn.
An annoying paper argues that self-driving cars will use huge amounts of compute and thus have a giant carbon footprint. The boring way that it's wrong is that the compute load will not grow as they suggest.
The more interesting way that it's wrong is that self-driving EVs will draw most of their power from no-emission generation sources like solar and nuclear, even if they do use a lot of power.
I recently took a ride in a fully autonomous Waymo vehicle in San Francisco. It was my first ride in many years — I had been a member of the early team while it was part of Google. My guide on the ride was Andrew Chatham, whom I had worked with back then. He is now a Distinguished Engineer, managing fleet logistics and many other things, and reporting directly to Waymo’s co-CEO.
