“We’ve expanded this program to all 50 states and the District of Columbia,” he said. “So far, more than 10,000 [veterans] have taken advantage of this waiver program.”
Darling also expects FMCSA to form more partnerships with a variety of industry “stakeholders” in the year ahead to keep improving the safety profile of the trucking industry.
“Remember: always think safety first at home and at work,” he said in closing.
Bill Graves, ATA’s president and CEO, saluted Darling for his work with the industry in his remarks.
“We appreciate the openness you bring to the office, the commitment of time you’ve given to our industry and our events and the rare quality – one which we’re unfortunately seeing less and less of in public service - of being able to disagree without being disagreeable,” Graves said.
“We share your goal – and the goal of FMCSA – to make America’s road safer for everyone,” he said. “And if the worst that can be said about us is that we have disagreements over whose idea will be safer than the others, then we’re not doing too bad.”
As reported by C|NET: It hasn't been a week, but already, fail videos of Tesla's new Autopilot software are popping up on YouTube. This is not unexpected, as the automaker's founder, Elon Musk, admitted that it's still technically in a beta-testing phase. Still, it has the potential to send the tech-averse into a frenzy, especially when the media gets involved. The only problem with this is that it's not the car's fault as much as it is the driver's.
Tesla made explicit mention, both during its press conference and afterwards on its website, that the driver should remain in control of the vehicle at all times. Yes, there are several videos (CNET's included) showing plenty of hands-off driving, but that was under the supervision of Tesla employees. The automaker's website spells it out explicitly: "Tesla Autopilot functions like the systems that airplane pilots use when conditions are clear. The driver is still responsible for, and ultimately in control of, the car."
If you look at the two videos below, you'll see why it's important to keep your hands on the steering wheel. Towards the end of the first video, the vehicle makes a strange dive to the side of the road, but the owner had his hands on the wheel, so he caught the car before it hit the curb. In the second video, the car appears to dive into oncoming traffic, being saved only when the driver's hands return to the wheel.
This flagrant disregard for the rules is what will doom semi-autonomous driving before it truly takes off. An accident will occur, the media will jump all over it, and everybody will ask if the technology is truly ready for the road. Trouble is, everybody is calling this "autonomous driving" when it still requires plenty of human intervention. A mixture of increased expectations and lowered defenses results in the trouble you saw above. That's why the system is called Autopilot -- it's used when conditions are ideal, and there's still a human to step in when needed.
Thus far, the videos seem to have no affect on Musk's plan to expand Autopilot to markets outside the United States, as evidenced in this tweet from earlier this morning.
One robot has been given a simulated version of the brain cells that let animals build a mental map of their surroundings.
As reported by MIT Technology Review: The behavior and interplay of two types of neurons in the brain helps give humans and other animals an uncanny ability to navigate by building a mental map of their surroundings. Now one robot has been given a similar cluster of virtual cells to help it find its own way around.
Researchers in Singapore simulated two types of cells known to be used for navigation in the brain—so-called “place” and “grid” cells—and showed they could enable a small-wheeled robot to find its way around. Rather than simulate the cells physically, they created a simple two-dimensional model of the cells in software. The work was led by Haizhou Li, a professor at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
“Artificial grid cells could provide an adaptive and robust mapping and navigation system,” Li wrote in an e-mail coauthored with Huajin Tang, a research scientist at A*STAR, and Yuan Miaolong, a graduate student and first author on a paper about the work. “Humans and animals have an instinctual ability to navigate freely and deliberately in an environment rather effortlessly.”
The work is significant because it shows the potential for having machines mimic more complex activity in the brain. Roboticists increasingly use artificial neural networks to train robots to perform tasks such as object recognition and grasping, but these networks do not faithfully reflect the complexity and subtlety of a real biological brain.
“Neural networks are actually very loosely inspired by the brain,” says Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle. “They are distributed computing elements, but they’re very simple as compared with neurons; the connections are extremely simple as compared with a synapse.” He says this new development that takes inspiration from the brain “seems like good work.”
Place cells were first identified in the 1970s by John O’Keefe, who found that they fire whenever a mouse passed the same spot in an area. Grid cells, pinpointed in a different part of the brain by May-Britt and Edvard Moser in 2005, activate when an animal arrives at any location on a triangular grid of points, thereby providing a more detailed sense of position in space.
Together with other types of cells, and by processing sensory information, grid and place cells are thought to afford animals with an innate sense of the world around them and of their location within it. The discovery of these cells earned the three scientists involved the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2014 (see “Nobel for Brain’s Location Code”).
The Singaporean researchers tested the approach on a robot let loose in a 35-square-meter office space. They had the robot roam around the office space, and verified that its artificial place and grid cells functioned in a comparable way to their biological counterparts.
The navigation system isn’t yet as good as a conventional one, and the researchers say they need to develop a better understanding of the way biological cells function in order to improve it. However, they suggest that it could offer advantages over conventional systems, which may be confused by changes to an environment, for example.
As well as providing a more efficient and reliable way for machines to get about, Li hopes that the work could help neuroscientists understand the functioning of the brain’s navigation system. “This will provide a solution to predict neural activities using mobile robots before conducting experiments on rats,” the researchers write.
As reported by Engadget:Electricmotorcycle maker Zerohas announced its 2016 lineup and in particular it's expanding its stable of two-wheeled vehicles. The new FXS is a lightweightsupermoto-inspiredbike for the city while the DSR adds more power to the company's fleet of dual sport bikes with additional toque and horsepower. Powering these new bikes and others in the line is an updated Z-force motor that promises improved performance and efficiency.
While rivals Mission and Brammo have either completely disappeared or been swallowed up by a larger company, Zero keeps improving and introducing new bikes. It's steadily improved its offerings over its 10-year history. I rode the DS model a few years and wasn't impressed. It felt like a bad motorcycle with an electric motor strapped on. A few months back I rode the 2015 DS, FX and SR models and was impressed at how much the company had come at creating vehicles that were not only real motorcycles, but were fun to ride.
The new DSR has 25 percent more horsepower and 56 percent more torque than the regular DS. That performance increase is due to the new high-output 660-watt motor controller. The base model ($15,995) has a city range of 147 miles and freeway range of 70 miles when cruising at 70-miles an hour. The optional "Power Tank" adds 2.8 kWh of power storage (for an additional $2,674) that extends the range to 179 miles in the city and 86 on the highway.
The FXS continues the FX's mission to make riding on the street way more fun than it should be. It has 70 pounds of toque and up to 44 horsepower in a less-than-a-300-pound body. The 3.3 kWh version with 45 mile city range runs $8,495 while the 6.5 kWh version with a 90 mile city range will set you back $10,990.
The motorcycles are both powered by the updated Z-Force motor. Zero says the motor produces power more efficiently, cools more rapidly and has a higher thermal capability. Basically, it lets you ride the bike harder and at higher sustained speeds with better range. In addition to the new bikes, the motor will be in the 2016 Zero SR, Zero S ZF13.0 and Zero DS ZF13.0.
Zero is also introducing an industry standard (J1772) charging port in its new Charge Tank accessory. It's the same charging port system used by Tesla and the Fiat 500e. This is in addition to charging via a regular wall outlet. Known industry wide as Level 2 charging, the new tank will speed up charging from up to over eight hours to about two or three depending on the bike. The Charge Tank will be available in the spring for an additional $1,988 and will work with 2015 and later SR, DS, DSR and S models.
All these new bikes will be available in dealerships starting in November.
As reported by Business Insider: "We believe in the next six to eight weeks we'll be able to return to flight," Lee Rosen, who is the vice president of mission and launch operations at SpaceX, said on Tuesday at the International Astronautical Congress,Reuters reported.
That means we can expect to see the next SpaceX launch by early December, which is ridiculously soon, considering the company suffered a devastating loss less than five months ago on June 28.
To return to space so soon is a notable achievement.
For comparison, Orbital Sciences Corporation, now called Orbital ATK Inc., has not flown since their Antares rocket exploded about one year ago on Oct. 28, 2014. And NASA waited more than two years to launch one of their Space Shuttles after the Columbia disaster in 2003.
Exciting upgrades and more historic landing attempts
Since the explosion, SpaceX has not only identified the problem but they have also begun to repair and make some exciting upgrades to their Falcon 9 rockets.
Most impressive is that the company, who is a world leader in reusable rocket technology, will now begin to attempt their historic rocket landings for most launch missions.
SpaceX attempted two of these landings earlier this year, and while neither were successful, these landings are like watching the future of spaceflight become reality. As shown below, the first stage of a Falcon 9 attempts to land on a platform in the ocean:
Flickr/SpaceX PhotosFirst stage Falcon 9 attempting to land on a barge named 'Just Read the Instructions'
Before the upgrades, SpaceX could only attempt these rocket landings for resupply missions to the International Space Station, which cost less rocket fuel therefore leave some left over for the rocket's landing attempts.
But resupply missions account for less than half of all SpaceX Falcon 9 flights.
Now, the upgrades have created a more powerful version of the Falcon 9 that can store fuel to attempt landings for most missions, and this December's will be no exception.
SpaceX's next mission will use a Falcon 9 to carry a communications satellite into orbit for the Luxembourg-based global satellite service provider SES SA.
Watching the Future Become Reality
Generations from now, people will look back and compare 20th with 21st century spaceflight, and one of the main differences will be reusable rocket technology.
Space rockets cost tens of millions of dollars to make and most are discarded after a single flight. SpaceX wants to change that by recovering the first stage of their Falcon 9 rockets — and they will be attempting the next landing this December.
While other companies, like France-based Arianespace and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, have proposed designs for future reusable rockets, SpaceX is the first company to actually fly and attempt to retrieve one. Stay tuned for the next landing attempt coming soon.
As reported by Quartz: GPS is a fine tool for finding a route between two places when there is a driver controlling a car, but as we near an era of fully autonomous vehicles, that technology is in need of a major upgrade.
That’s why Tesla is not just in the process of creating its own maps but is deciphering where each individual lane is on every road, across the globe. It’s doing this in part by tracking every one of its Model S cars each time a customer takes a drive, to learn where traffic typically moves. The project is immense but it is necessary if autonomous cars—which Tesla expects to be a reality in three years—are to work properly.
Tesla announced yesterday (Oct. 14) that it was upgrading all of its Model S vehicles with new functions that allow the cars to steer, switch lanes, and park autonomously (though it advised drivers not to actually take their hands off the wheel). Currently, tricks like autonomous lane-changing require a driver to indicate first, and for the car to rely on onboard sensors to decide when it is safe to change lanes.
But a fully autonomous car will need to know which lane it’s already in, how many lanes there are on the road, and where those lanes lead to—or end. Onboard sensors alone can’t generate this level of data. Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, believes this mass collection of data—Tesla plans to build around 50,000 cars this year—will set the company’s cars apart from rival auto makers who are preparing their own self-driving cars.
Certainly, tracking existing drivers will give Tesla a head start against “legacy” auto makers such as BMW, which, along with a consortium of other German brands, bought mapping software from Nokia earlier this year. But two more contenders for the autonomous car space may have an even greater advantage than Tesla: Apple and Google.
These companies could potentially track hundreds of millions of smartphones as their owners drive them from place to place, making their future road maps many times more accurate.
As reported by Mashable: Starting Thursday, yourTesla Model Swill have received an over-the-air software update, but not for free. The new 7.0 software will bring with it a new, more modern look to the operating system, some new instrument panel apps, climate control interface improvements, and — oh, yeah — Autopilot.
Autopilot, however, will cost every Tesla Model S owner $2,500, which probably qualifies it as the most expensive in-app purchase ever.
The Autopilot system is comprised of several different subsystems that include Autosteer, Auto Lane Change, Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, Side Collision Warning and Autopark.
The Autopilot suite of features that will be available to Model S cars built from September 2014 and beyond — essentially, any Tesla with the appropriate sensors. With the 7.0 update, drivers will notice the look of their instrument cluster has changed, displaying an update icon of the vehicle. This icon will show a detected vehicle ahead, lane marking readings, and also roadway obstacle warnings.
All exciting things — so let's dig into these new features one by one.
Autosteer
This is the new feature drivers will find most foreign and distinctive in the Autopilot suite, as the car effectively steers itself down the freeway. To activate Autosteer, the driver simply pulls the cruise control lever twice in quick succession. Turning on Autosteer also engages Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, which is Tesla's cruise control system that adjusts the speed of the Model S based upon the speed of the vehicle ahead.
How autopilot looks on the Tesla Model S dashboard.
IMAGE: NICK JAYNES/MASHABLE
Once Autosteer is on, a chime will ding. The sensors in the front of the Model S monitor the lane markings ahead and automatically adjust steering to keep the car within the markings. Now, if you were hoping that Autosteer would free up your hands for some idle work, like, say, whittling, I have some bad news. Like all other self-steering systems from other automakers, including Honda and Mercedes-Benz, the driver must keep his or her hands on the wheel at all times.
Tesla is quick to point out, though, that rainy, snowy, or foggy conditions will deteriorate the Autosteer performance. If Autosteer cannot read the lane markings, it will not be able to work. Autosteer will also cut out if the road the Model S is traveling on is too twisty.
In ideal conditions, however, the Model S will be able to keep itself within its lane without any input from the driver — accept the reassuring feeling that the driver's hands are still on the wheel.
If Autosteer can't confidently operate, it will display a warning for the driver in the instrument cluster. If the driver does not take over immediately, it will chime at you. If the driver still does not retake control of steering, the car will chime incessantly. If the driver does not take control after a few seconds, the Model S will bring itself to a swift stop in the lane and activate the emergency flashers.
Auto Lane Change
Now here's where the Tesla Autopilot suite gets interesting. When Autosteer and Traffic-Aware Cruise Control are engaged, the Model S can autonomously change lanes. This is the biggest distinction between Autopilot and any other carmaker's mild autonomy setups.
Say you want to pass the car ahead of you, simply signal in the direction in which you want to marge (which would be to your left because you don't want to pass illegally on the right, right?) and the Model S will move into the lane in the direction you indicated with your turn signal.
As it does this, the icon of the car in the instrument panel screen will go from a solid to a dashed line. Once the Model S determines the lane change is complete, the dashed line will return to a solid line and you can switch off the turn signal.
Side Collision Warning
Should a car or another object get too close to your Model S for its own comfort, it will alert you with visual cues on the digital instrument cluster. The graphics indicating an impending collision resemble radiating fluid lines coming off the side of the little digital Model S on the screen.
Arguably, this seems like a pretty innocuous extension of side blind-spot monitoring. Side Collision Warning does have an interesting feature, though. Should a car or object get too close to the Model S, it will autonomously steer out of the way while still keeping itself in its own lane. Intriguingly, this safety feature will activate even if the driver has disabled Side Collision Warning in the system settings.
Autopark
Should you you find a parallel parking spot that you don't feel quite up to the task of threading your Model S into, it can now do the duty for you. After you pass a suitable parking spot, a P logo will appear on the instrument cluster, indicating to you the car has seen the spot and is ready to park in it.
Put the vehicle into reverse and the Autopark guide will appear on the screen alongside the reverse camera image. Once you engage Autopark, the system controls both steering and vehicle speed. This is in stark contrast to a similar system from Ford, which relies on the driver to control vehicle speed with throttle and brake inputs.
Should you want to stop the Tesla Autopark system at anytime, you can do so by taking over steering operation, stepping on the brake or simply pushing the cancel button.
If you were hoping to whiz through town without a care in the world while your car searches for a parking spot, think again. Autopark will only recognize suitable parking spots when it is traveling below 15 mph.
Additional Updates
Of course, being Tesla, the 7.0 software update includes more than Autopilot. It also includes a new feature called Vehicle Hold, which is an extension to Hill Start Assist, which hold the car in place on steep inclines between the driver releasing the brake and applying the accelerator.
Vehicle Hold will also keep the Model S in place for extended periods of time. When engaged, the system is essentially a flexible parking brake, one that can be easily released by pressing the accelerator pedal.
Tesla has also updated the look of the instrument cluster energy usage display and clock in addition to the aforementioned vehicle icons that display the Autopilot functions.
In a speech given here at the American Trucking Associations (ATA) annual Management Conference & Exhibition (MC&E), Darling also called upon the industry to help his agency weed out “unsafe” operators.
