Category Archives: self driving cars

TREND: Electric and Self Driving Cars. Boon for Electric Industry.

  • It’ll be an economic boon for the electic industry.  
    • Gone will be stagnant load growth with demand increasing
    • New business models will encourage distributed, clean energy resources.
  • Will bolster smart grid development
  • Support Charging Station Development

Utility Dive | How the coming boom in electric and self-driving vehicles will transform the grid

Western State Revises Self Driving Car Rules. The Info you Need:

California revised its state regulations for self driving cars by adding:

  • Require cars to comply with the federally proposed 15 point NHSTA assessment
  • Permits no human driver or steering wheel if the car is in 2 way communication
  • Car manufacturers are not pleased as the NHSTA requirement impacts current and scheduled self driving car testing

California’s revised rules

Fortune | Toyota Tech Director Calls California’s Proposed Self-Driving Car Rules Preposterous

Key Information. Feds Self Driving Car Regulations.

  • voluntary 15-point “safety assessment” for automakers covering:
    • Data Recording and Sharing
    • Privacy
    • System Safety
    • Vehicle Cybersecurity
    • Human Machine Interface
    • Crashworthiness
    • Consumer Education and Training
    • Registration and Certication
    • Post-Crash Behavior
    • Federal, State and Local Laws
    • Ethical Considerations
    • Operational Design Domain
    • Object and Event Detection and Response
    • Fall Back (Minimal Risk Condition)
    • Validation Methods 
  • model state regulations define…

Business Trend. Local Trend. Top 3 Concerns. Self Driving Taxis.

Pittsburgh is home to a new fleet of Uber’s self-driving taxis. For the Ying of self driving taxis, is the Yang of safety experts.

The safety concerns:

  • self driving technology is not ready for primetime.
    • It’s like the safety experts think self driving taxis are the Kaepernick of transportation world. 
  • PA has no self driving car statutes or regs.
    • e.g. Who do we sue if there is an accident?
  • Self driving cars have gone off bridges and Pittsburgh has a lot of bridges
    • building bridges…

Driverless Freight Scheduled for Port of Houston. 3 Key Pieces of Intel

Developer of driverless freight technology:  Freight shuttle system technology developed at Texas A&M University

Announcement of the collaboration: September 9th in Bryan, TX

How will the port utilize the technology? The port will hold a  privately funded licensee of the technology

Government Technology | Electric, Driverless Freight Shuttle Might Solve Trucking-Related Problems in Texas

Business Trend. Lege Trend. Self Driving Big Trucks Coming Your Way. 3 Pieces of Informed Intel.

What companies are driving the push for driverless big trucks?

Why is the big truck industry moving fast toward driverless semis? Constant shortage of truck drivers

What incremental changes have occurred in trucking? Much like driver aided features in consumer cars, trucking has added “Advanced Driver Assistance Systems”

Tech Crunch | Paving the way for the autonomous truck

Business Trend. Self Driving Cars. American Car Maker Moves Forward. 3 Keys to Informed Intel.

Which company announced its promise to deliver driverless cars within 5 years? Ford

The target audience for Ford’s driverless cars? Commercial  ride share

How will Ford’s cars differ from current self driving cars?

  • No steering whell
  • No gas pedal
  • No breaks

New York Times | Ford Promises Fleets of Driverless Cars Within Five Years

 

 

INTERIM. Self Driving Ride Share Launches.

Where: Pittsburgh

When: August 2016

Who: Uber and Volvo, the wonder twins, have joined forces to form of self driving ride-share

Why Pittsburgh?

  • Carnegie Mellon Robotics Program has produced the biggest names in the field. 
  • A leader in their pack joined Uber in early 2015

Bloomberg | The autonomous cars, launching this summer, are custom Volvo XC90s, supervised by humans in the driver’s seat.