Driverless vehicles – Page 15

Driverless vehicles, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Human drivers bullying self-driving cars: Unlawful or fair game?

July 7, 2019

The official California DMV Driver Handbook provides prescribed driving practices that everyone is supposed to comply with while driving on our state roadways, including topics such as safe driving methods when the roads are wet from rain (admittedly, we don’t get much rain, but when we do, California drivers are known to freak-out and drive crazily), and driving when there is a tough curve or when on a steep hill, plus what to do when driving nearby animal-drawn vehicles or coming up to railroad tracks.

There are over 130 pages of crucial material in our DMV Driver Handbook, which licensed California drivers get tested on and presumably need to understand and are expected to obey (alright, I acknowledge that many don’t, but without those explicitly “you are on notice” regs, I think we’d agree that there might be chaos or at least even worse driving exploits than we already experience).

Continue reading… “Human drivers bullying self-driving cars: Unlawful or fair game?”

Automation, Automobiles, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

What is our plan for zero-occupancy vehicles?

July 6, 2019

In the transportation world, there has always been consensus that there is nothing worse than the single-occupancy vehicle. But there soon could be.

A common techno-utopian vision of the near-future city is one where automated vehicles come when called and whisk you to your destination, as you sit, relaxed and untroubled by traffic. But consider the opposite vision, that gridlock will be made worse by autonomous vehicles, which will spend much of their time driving around the city with no passengers. There is simply nothing about a vehicle being autonomous that makes it more likely to achieve higher occupancy. In fact, the current trajectory of AV deployment roadmaps and our transportation policy response ensures its average occupancy will be lower.

Continue reading… “What is our plan for zero-occupancy vehicles?”

Automation, Automobiles, City Planning, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

A new look at autonomous-vehicle infrastructure

June 21, 2019

What infrastructure improvements will promote the growth of autonomous vehicles while simultaneously encouraging shared ridership?

Imagine a future in which fleets of autonomous buses and shuttles effortlessly navigate through city streets to their designated stops. Ridesharing services dispatch shared autonomous vehicles (AVs) to pick up multiple passengers traveling along similar routes. Robo-taxis drop off passengers at subway stops for the next legs of their trips. Some traditional car owners decide that they no longer need personal vehicles because shared-mobility AVs fulfill their needs. Road congestion drops because there are fewer vehicles.

Now imagine an alternative future in which everyone who once owned a traditional car instead has an AV. Many people without licenses also purchase AVs for their personal use, even though they haven’t had a car for years or never owned one. Passenger-miles traveled increase by 25 percent.1 AVs circle while waiting for their owners to finish shopping or running errands if no parking spaces are available, or else they run a variety of errands, ranging from delivering groceries to picking up dry cleaning, themselves. City streets become even more gridlocked.

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Automobiles, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Autonomous taxis will become a $2 trillion market, UBS says

June 14, 2019

The global autonomous taxi market could be worth over $2 trillion on an annual basis by 2030, according to estimates from UBS analysts cited by Bloomberg.

In formulating its estimates, the bank utilized its Evidence Lab to run a simulation of an autonomous taxi fleet in New York City using a “complex algorithm that performs dynamic optimal route generation and passenger-vehicle assignment considering vehicle capacity and rider demand.”

What does this mean: The rise of a new multi-trillion dollar transportation industry will likely reshape how consumers travel and automakers operate.

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Driverless vehicles, Electric Vehicles, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Einride’s T-pod L4 driverless trucks hit public roads in Sweden

June 6, 2019

Einride is entering a new phase it development, as it deploys self-driving trucks in Sweden. The service is part of the startup’s ongoing collaboration with German logistics group DB Schenker. Both businesses have been working together on launching driverless vehicles since 2018.

Swedish transport authorities approved Einride’s deployment plans through the issuance of a pubic road permit. Based on the details of the permit, the startup’s autonomous trucks are allowed to travel from a warehouse to a terminal. The short route includes roads within an industrial hub in Jonkoping, Sweden. During operation, the self-driving trucks can travel up to 3.1 mph (5 km/hr).

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Driverless vehicles, new technology, Science & Technology News, Transportation

First commercial crossing of the north sea by autonomous vessel

June 5, 2019

A 12-meter (40-foot) autonomous vessel has sailed across the North Sea with a token cargo of oysters – making it the first commercial crossing by an autonomous vessel.

The vessel, designed and built in Essex, U.K., docked in the Belgian port city of Oostende last week following a successful transit from West Mersea. The voyage lasted 22 hours.

The box of oysters weighed around 5 kg – just a fraction of the current model’s maximum payload of up to 2.5 tons.

The SEA-KIT vessel USV Maxlimer is operated by SEA-KIT International Ltd, and is designed and developed by Hushcraft Ltd, based in Tollesbury, Essex. The vessel can be transported in a single 40-foot container.

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Analysis, Driverless cars, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Fleets of driverless cars could smoothen traffic by at least 35%

June 5, 2019

Driverless cars that are networked and in constant communication on the road could improve the flow of traffic by at least 35%.

The findings were reported by researchers at the University of Cambridge who programmed miniature robotic cars to drive on a multi-lane track where various traffic obstructions occurred. Each tiny robotic car was fitted with motion capture sensors and a Raspberry Pi which enabled them to communicate via WiFi.

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Automobiles, China, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

China’s robocars are being lapped by their U.S. competitors

June 5, 2019

The autonomous Lincoln MKZ started turning left at a Beijing intersection when a speeding truck aggressively cut in front of it. Sensors in the car detected the approach and instantly froze it in place.

But that put the Lincoln directly in the truck’s path, so Baidu Inc. engineer Sun Lei grabbed the steering wheel, spun it to the right and floored the accelerator to get out of harm’s way. The truck zoomed by as Sun’s colleague in the passenger seat calmly took notes on a tablet computer—just another learning exercise for the self-driving fleet being tested around the nation.

“We hope to see more interventions during the road tests so that we can improve our technology,” said Calvin Shang, general manager of strategy and operations for Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group. “It won’t help if you only run the cars on simple routes even for 10,000 or even 100 million miles.”

Though disaster was averted, the incident shows how China’s push into autonomous vehicles is barely out of first gear, with only a handful of cities allowing limited trials by search-engine giant Baidu, startup Pony.ai, trucker TuSimple Inc. and others since last year. Domestic and foreign testers are putting cars, buses, trucks and delivery vans through self-driving trials to teach them how to navigate the notoriously congested streets of the world’s biggest auto market.

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Automation, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News, Transportation

The USPS test out self-driving trucks for hauling mail

June 1, 2019

Self-driving truck developer TuSimple is running a two-week pilot project
with the US Postal Service, moving mail between Phoenix and Dallas.

THE UNITED STATES Postal Service has a lot of ways to move the 484.8 million pieces of mail it handles every day. In rural Alaska, postal workers run hovercraft, prop planes, and the occasional parachute. They pilot boats in the Louisiana bayou and snowmobiles in Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, Utah, and Wisconsin. To reach the Havasupai Indian Reservation town of Supai at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, they go by mule train. And now, to carry the mail from Phoenix to Dallas, they’re letting robots do the work.

Starting Tuesday, self-driving trucks built by startup TuSimple will haul trailers full of mail and packages all by themselves. Well, mostly by themselves: The 18-wheelers will have a certified driver and safety engineer aboard, who will handle the driving on surface streets and take control from the robot as needed. The pilot project will last two weeks and include five round trips between the cities’ distribution hubs.

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Automobiles, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News, Transportation, Travel

Cars will change more in the next decade than they have in the past century

May 23, 2019

While the look and feel of our cars has changed in the past 100 years, the way we drive them hasn’t. But fundamental change is coming. In the next decade, not only will the way they’re powered and wired have shifted dramatically, but we won’t be the ones driving them anymore.

Some cars already have basic automation features, but the automotive experiments currently being undertaken by the likes of Uber and Google make up a minuscule proportion of the vehicles on our roads. By 2030, the standard car will evolve from merely assisting the driver to taking full control of all aspects of driving in most driving conditions.

This widespread automation, together with the electrification and increased connectivity of both the car and society, are set to shake up the car industry in a big way, affecting everything from the way cars look and feel, to how we spend our time inside them, and how they get us from A to B.

Continue reading… “Cars will change more in the next decade than they have in the past century”

City Planning, Driverless cars, Driverless vehicles, Electric Vehicles, Historical Perspectives, Science & Technology News, Transportation

How electric and driverless vehicles will change building design

May 19, 2019

The world’s first affordable automobile had a dramatic impact on residential design. On October 1, 1908, the first Model T Ford was built in Detroit. Unlike horses, most people could afford to have their own private car and keep it at their home. Between 1908 and 1927, Ford built some 15 million Model T cars.

Moving on from horses and carriages, for over a century homes and apartments have been designed to cater for private car ownership where drivers are human, and vehicles are powered by petrol or diesel.

As people began driving their own private cars, residential property design changed to provide a place to keep the vehicles (garages), and commercial venues had to accommodate individuals leaving their vehicles parked, instead of being dropped off by a carriage that immediately moved on (carparks).

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Automation, Automobiles, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

25 ton self-driving trucks to be tested on British roads for the first time

May 20, 2019

The government is testing driverless trucks on the A14 highway

Self-driving trucks that could help to speed up roadworks are being tested on Britain’s highways for the first time.

A 25-tonne autonomous truck, capable of moving huge amounts of earth without human supervision will take to the roads on a stretch of the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon as part of a trial by Highways England.

The trucks, capable of carrying a load of 40 tonnes, can be programmed remotely to follow a pre-determined route along road work sites and can detect and avoid obstacles, like other vehicles, along the route as they drive.

Continue reading… “25 ton self-driving trucks to be tested on British roads for the first time”