It Takes a Smart City to Make Cars Truly Autonomous

As reported by Engadget: Artificial intelligence is driving the autonomous car. Coupled with robust computers, automobiles of the future will be more powerful than any other device we own. But they'll only be as powerful as their surrounding allows. If your vehicle doesn't know about a traffic jam along its route, like its human counterparts, it'll get stuck in gridlock. That's where connectivity comes in. When self-driving cars hit the road, they'll not only be computing juggernauts but also sharing data with everything all the time.

One of the places where a connected infrastructure is already being built is Nevada. More accurately, Las Vegas. The city known for gambling has to deal with 42 million tourists and the traffic they bring with them every year. Controlling all of that is the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. The agency oversees all the city and surrounding area's transit infrastructure and has been proactive in its embrace of vehicle communication, including working with Audi on its traffic-light countdown system that displays the time before a light turns green on the dash of the car.

Helping to navigate Nevada's foray into vehicle-to-infrastructure communications is the Nevada Center for Advanced Mobility, which facilitates partnerships between the state and private and academic entities. Innovation Director Dan Langford told Engadget that the goal is to create a safer, smoother transportation and pedestrian experience for residents, visitors and businesses working within the state.

But the state is doing more than just looking at ways to make traffic flow smoothly and helping folks get to their destination; it's actively implementing solutions. Agencies that traditionally deal with slow-moving transportation projects and bureaucracy are acting quickly as new sensors, applications and data become available. "The level of risk and innovation that some of the agencies are open to has increased," Langford said.

An example of that is the recent partnership between the state and Nexar, which builds systems for automobiles to communicate with one another. Co-founder and CTO Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz likened it to air traffic control but for the ground to increase not only the capacity of the roads but also their safety.

It's helping Nevada track vehicles and what they see while the state focuses on the infrastructure. Approximately 18 months ago the Center for Advanced Mobility pivoted from working on autonomous vehicles to focusing on the actual infrastructure that self-driving cars will need to get around while automakers figure out the in-car solution. The fragmentation in the automotive world will continue until there's a government mandate from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or the industry sits down and figures out a standard. The state can't control that aspect of the transportation. What it can do is make sure the roads are ready. Nexar and Nevada realize that if the state is to stay ahead of the curve, it needs to start working on how roads will interact with these cars now instead of waiting.

But Nevada isn't the only state looking at the future of infrastructure. On a 35-mile stretch of US 33 in Ohio, the state in partnership with Honda, the Transportation Research Center at East Liberty and the Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research will build a "smart road" by laying down highway sensors, expanding fiber optic networks and outfitting government and research vehicles with data-collecting hardware. When it's complete the information collected can be instantaneously shared with researchers. That data will be used to understand how traffic flows in all sorts of conditions and can help in the testing of autonomous vehicles outfitted with vehicle-to-infrastructure technology.



The state won't stop with US 33: It plans to make other smart roads. The information gathered from this pilot program will likely be watched closely by other states as more and more of our cars become rolling data centers eager to consume and share data.

Meanwhile automakers like BMW, Mercedes, Audi, and GM have been outfitting their vehicles with V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) and V2I (vehicle-to-infrastructure) technology. It's early days, but the benefits are already showing up in the high-end models like the upcoming Mercedes S-Class with its ability to change speeds based on road conditions.

The transportation infrastructure of tomorrow is only available in a few places, with only high-end vehicles able to access and share data. But the work is happening both at the car and street level. Even if you don't own a car, the work will benefit public transportation and the shipping of goods.

Like self-driving cars, it'll be years (possibly decades) before cars and roads are sharing data on a nationwide level. But those robot cars need this network if they're going to fundamentally transform how we get around.

Tesla Model X Earns a Perfect NHTSA Safety Rating

"This thing's a freakin' tank."

As reported by Engadget: Tesla has yet another achievement to crow about. On Tuesday, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) released its assessment of the company's Model X SUV and awarded it the agencies highest possible rating: 5 stars across every test category. That makes the Model X the safest SUV on the road today.

US govt testing by @NHTSAgov finds Model X to be the safest SUV in history by significant margin https://t.co/zAdb5FQPEI

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 13, 2017

Every Model X variant -- the 60D, 75D, 90D, P90D and 100D -- all scored perfectly in front impact, side impact, rollover and overall safety. In fact, the NHTSA was unable to even tip one over during its dynamic test and gave the Model X only a 9.30 percent chance of rolling over during an accident.

The company credits its electric drivetrain and power system, as well as the vehicle's low center of gravity thanks to its battery packs being located under the cabin floor, for its impressive rollover resistance. "Of all the cars NHTSA has ever tested, Model X's overall probability of injury was second only to Model S," the company wrote in its press release.

Boeing Studies Planes Without Human Pilots, Plans Experiments Next Year

Boeing is researching the possibility of commercial-passenger jets that will rely on artificial intelligence rather than pilots. Initial experimental flights, without passengers, are planned next year, with such systems taking over some of the pilot decisions.

Boeing has begun researching the possibility of commercial-passenger jets that will fly without pilots, using artificial intelligence guiding automated controls to make decisions in flight.

“The basic building blocks of the technology are clearly available,” said Mike Sinnett, former chief systems engineer on the 787 Dreamliner and now vice president at Boeing responsible for innovative future technologies, at a briefing before the Paris Air Show.

“There’s going to be a transition from the requirement to have a skilled aviator operate the airplane to having a system that operates the vehicle autonomously, if we can do that with the same level of safety,” Sinnett said.

“That’s a really big if,” he added.

It sure is. Think about a machine that could do what US Airways Capt. Chesley Sullenberger did in New York City in 2009.

When a flock of geese took out both engines on an Airbus A320 with 155 people on board as it took off out of La Guardia, Sullenberger communicated with ground controllers, rapidly sized up his limited options within two minutes and guided the plane to a safe ditching in the Hudson River.

Sinnett, who plans a June 21 presentation on the subject at the Paris Air Show, agreed that the Sullenberger scenario is the standard that has to be achieved. It also underscores the challenge Boeing faces in attempting to take the human out of the flight deck.

“We are not smart enough to preprogram all those things. The machine has to be capable of making the same set of decisions,” Sinnett said. “If it can’t, we cannot go there.”

Sinnett said his team will fly a simulator this year with an artificial-intelligence system making some of the piloting decisions.

Next year, he said, they’ll fly the system on a real plane. Those would be experimental flights, with engineers and pilots on board, but no passengers.

Go for zero

Wild as it sounds to consider a commercial jet flying without a pilot, the times are ripe for such thinking.

Sinnett said Boeing’s research is driven by the pilot shortage worldwide that is only going to become more acute.

In the next two decades, Boeing forecasts a demand for about 40,000 new commercial jets, roughly doubling the world fleet.

“Where will the experienced pilots come from?” Sinnett asked.

Meanwhile, small autonomous drones are flown by the military and are being tested by Amazon for package delivery. And the public increasingly accepts the notion of driverless cars navigating the public roads.

Yet Sinnett understands why it seems more radical to think of the same for a passenger jet. Last year 40,000 people died in road accidents in the U.S. — leaving lots of room for potential improvement by autonomous, driverless cars.

By contrast, Sinnett said, there were zero deaths in the U.S. last year on scheduled jet aircraft. To make autonomous aircraft as safe as flying commercial is today, “We’ve got to be as good as zero,” he said.

Autopilot systems

Some of the technological building blocks of autonomous flight are already embedded in today’s aircraft.

On long flights, airline pilots will switch to autopilot as they cruise for hours.

What’s less well known is that commercial jets often auto-land, which is what makes landing possible in conditions of very low visibility due to weather.

The auto-land is the closest thing today to autonomous flight because the system reacts to changes in the environment as it comes in, adjusting for small changes in the winds.

Sinnett said that when he was developing the 787, the eighth landing the aircraft made was an auto-land without pilot input.

Auto-takeoff is not allowed, but today’s airplanes can do that too.

“If you want to end your career, you could take a 777 out and do an automatic takeoff,” Sinnett said. “The airplane is capable of doing it, but not capable at the same levels of integrity we have today. So we have pilots in the loop.”

The pilots always are expected to monitor the functions of the automated systems.

Because of the multiple redundant systems on aircraft, airplane accidents are almost always the result of a series of mishaps, any one of which would not alone have caused the accident.

So, if say, an autopilot does something unexpected, a crucial function of the pilot is to step in and catch that first piece of unintended behavior before the next step in any chain that could lead to disaster.

Artificial intelligence

Could a machine do the same?

If a passenger has a heart attack, will it divert?

If one engine goes out, will it know the best response given its position?

What about both engines?

Sinnett points out that a primary requirement for certification of commercial jets today is that the systems operate deterministically: given a set of inputs you must always get the same result.

But he said because no one is likely to be able to predict all the potential things that could happen during all phases of a flight anywhere in the world, an autonomous flying machine has to be able to respond non-deterministically — to react to a situation that has not been preprogrammed into the software.

“So we are doing early exploration with machine learning and artificial intelligence,” Sinnett said.

When safety regulators tell him that they cannot certify non-deterministic systems — as they have — he responds that yes they can, because they certify pilots.

Humans inevitably react differently to one another. An individual may even react differently to the same circumstances at different times.

Still, don’t expect pilotless passenger jets anytime soon.

Sinnett sees this problem of building a system — a machine — capable of intelligent, non-deterministic behavior as the toughest challenge.

“I have no idea how we’ll do that,” he said, with a laugh. “But we are studying it right now and developing those algorithms.”

Hyperloop One Reveals its Plans for Connecting Europe

As reported by Engadget: One of Hyperloop One's smartest ideas was the Global Challenge, a "competition" where cities could pitch for the honor of hosting a Hyperloop. From the suggestions, the company then produced a shortlist of routes that were both technically feasible and economically viable. We've already seen the candidate cities in the US, and now the company has revealed its thinking for Hyperloop corridors across Europe.

There are nine potential routes being considered on that side of the Atlantic, running from a 90km hop to connect Estonia and Finland, through to a 1,991km pan-German route. The UK, which has a love /hate relationship with rail travel, gets three proposed routes: one to connect its Northern Cities, one to connect the North and South, and one to connect Scotland with Wales.

Even bolder plans entail linking the world together via Hyperloops:

Faraday Future Will Test its Electric SUV by Climbing Pikes Peak

As reported by Engadget: Faraday Future announced that one of its FF 91 pre-production vehicleswill be participating in the 2017 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The company says the race will be the first in a series public tests of the high-end electric SUV.

Faraday says that the test vehicle will be production weight and specifications. While the company has been widely touting the vehicle's speed (zero to 60 mph in 2.39 seconds), this event will be highlighting the car's all-wheel steering that it says gives the vehicle better handling than a typical SUV.

The automaker has had its share of troubles. Including reports of unpaid bills and an exodus of high-level executives. It's currently searching for a CEO.

Faraday says the FF 91 will go into production in 2018.

Intel Predicts a $7 Trillion Self-Driving Future

Over half a million lives will be part of the ‘passenger economy’

A $7 trillion annual revenue stream, according to a study released Thursday by Intel. The companies that don’t prepare for self-driving risk failure or extinction, Intel says. The report also finds that over half a million lives could be saved by self-driving over just one decade.

The study, prepared by Strategy Analytics, predicts autonomous vehicles will create a massive economic opportunity that will scale from $800 billion in 2035 (the base year of the study) to $7 trillion by 2050. An estimated 585,000 lives could be saved due to autonomous vehicles between 2035 and 2045, the study predicts.

BY 2050, BUSINESS USE OF MOBILITY AS A SERVICE WILL GENERATE ABOUT $3 TRILLION IN REVENUE

This “passenger economy,” as Intel is calling it, includes the value of the products and services derived from fully autonomous vehicles as well as indirect savings such as time.

This is hardly the first attempt to place value on autonomous vehicles, nor will it be the last. However, Intel’s study offers a few interesting predictions for autonomous vehicles and how a combination of mobile connectivity, population density in cities, traffic congestion and subsequent regulation, and the rise of on-demand ride-hailing and car-sharing services will be the catalysts in this new economic era.

Of course, Intel has a vested interest in rosy predictions about the future of autonomous transportation. The chipmaker has promised to spend $250 million over the next two years to develop self-driving technology, and recently acquired Jerusalem-based auto vision company Mobileye for an eye-popping $15 billion. And Intel is working with BMW to put self-driving cars on the road later this year. So when Intel pays for a study that predicts self-driving cars will cause cash to rain from the sky, it should be seen as equal parts industry analysis and wishful thinking.

Autonomous technology will drive change across a range of industries, the study predicts, the first green shoots of which will appear in the business-to-business sector. These autonomous vehicles will first appear in developed markets and will reinvent the package delivery and long-haul transportation sectors, says Strategy Analytics president Harvey Cohen, who co-authored the study. This will relieve driver shortages, a chronic problem in the industry, and account for two-thirds of initial projected revenues.

One of the bolder predictions is that public transportation as we know it today — trains, subways, light rails, and buses — will be supplanted, or at least radically changed, by the rise of on-demand autonomous vehicle fleets.

PEOPLE WILL FLOCK TO SUBURBS AS POPULATION DENSITY RISES IN CITY

The study argues that people will flock to suburbs as population density rises in city centers, pushing commute times higher and “outstripping the ability of public transport infrastructure to fully meet consumer mobility needs.”

The pressures of mounting traffic congestion and the correlated emissions will drive regulators to include autonomous vehicles as a part of their larger public transportation plans. Some cities may choose to own the vehicle networks not unlike existing public transportation, the study says.

The bulk of the revenue generated in the new economy will be driven by this “mobility-as-a-service.”

By 2050, business use of mobility as a service will generate about $3 trillion in revenues, or 43 percent of the total passenger economy. Consumer use will account for $3.7 trillion, or 53 percent, the study predicts.

The remaining $200 billion in revenue (of the $7 trillion total) will be generated by new applications and services as driverless vehicle services expand. A key opportunity will be how to capitalize on all of this saved time people will have once they no longer have to drive a car.

VEHICLES COULD BECOME “EXPERIENCE PODS”

Self-driving vehicles are expected to free more than 250 million hours of consumers’ commuting time per year in the most congested cities in the world, the study says. That’s a lot of time that could be filled with streaming video, news, and other content delivered to a captured audience.

It could also change the way cars are used. Vehicles could become “experience pods,” places where people can have their hair styled and cut, conduct a meeting, or receive a health screening.

Keep in mind, that this reimagined future doesn’t mean people will necessarily spend less time in cars. One of the great promises of self-driving cars is a reduction in congestion because these vehicles will be able share real-time traffic data and optimize tasks like finding parking.

However, in a more densely populated world, where cities rely on shared autonomous vehicles for public transit, there will be more traffic than ever before. The question is: how do people want to spend their time?

Rocket Lab Nails First Orbital Rocket Launch from a Private Pad

Rocket Lab has successfully launched its 56-foot-tall Electron rocket for the first time. The relatively tiny vehicle, designed to ferry small payloads to orbit, reached outer space around 20 minutes past midnight (Eastern time) on May 25th. Rocket Lab opened its 10-day launch window on May 21st and had to scrub three times due to poor weather conditions. Now that Electron was finally able to head outside our planet's atmosphere, the company also became the first to launch an orbital-class rocket from a private facility.

Rocket Lab chief Peter Beck said in a statement:

"It has been an incredible day and I'm immensely proud of our talented team. We're one of a few companies to ever develop a rocket from scratch and we did it in under four years. We've worked tirelessly to get to this point. We've developed everything in house, built the world's first private orbital launch range [in New Zealand], and we've done it with a small team."

The Electron has a carbon-composite shell and uses the company's proprietary Rutherford engines, which has 3D-printed primary components. It can carry up to 330 pounds worth of cargo to orbit, so its main payloads will mostly be small satellites like CubeSats. The company expects to stage a lift off 50 times a year, though it's legally allowed to launch up to 120 times. That's probably more than what it can realistically book at this point in time -- as Wired points out, there were only 85 overall launches in 2016.

Rocket Lab believes it can eventually do more launches than other aerospace companies, though, since it will offer cheaper services to customers who typically have to pay big money to hitch a ride on larger rockets. It already has clients lined up, including NASA, but before it can officially fulfill their order, it still has to successfully complete its next two test flights. The Rocket Lab team plans to use what it learns from this round to plan for its second flight, which will send an Electron to orbit.