*********************
B. Templeton, May 11, "... Companies will start mostly in
snow-free areas, though they will soon feel the call of New York
City, the world’s largest taxi market. While their goal is not
to be simply a better or cheaper replacement for taxis and TNCs,
it’s a good place to start — if you can make it anywhere, you
can make it there, to reverse the song lyric...."
Read more Hmmmm... Just to be
clear to everyone where I stand.. I could not disagree
more with Brad on the quoted statement above. In my
opinion, NYC is the last place in the USA to
deploy Driverless mobility. Moreover, recommending
Frank's views on 'how to make it anywhere' may also not
be such great advice nor is advice that suggests a
startup should start in markets where it is unlikely to
be superior to the entrenched products that currently
serve that market quite well.
Brad does a nice job
describing advances in deployments in Arizona, SF and
China. ODD expansion is nice, especially if it can give
us some insight in the relationship between ODD size and
rides served. These companies are in the "rides
business". It would be very helpful if they divulged
something that looked like a balance sheet that
divulges, over time as the ODD expands, revenue and
marginal operating costs. I'm certain that each is
watching these numbers very carefully. Hopefully
they'll share some of this information to help those of
us trying to deploy similar mobility systems in markets
that are unattractive to these firms.
Finally, some of us
in New Jersey are approaching deployment from an
orthogonal perspective from that of Brad. For example,
we are more than willing to start deploying a system
that hasn't solved the snow problem, the fog problem or
the hurricane/heavy rain problems. We'll be extremely
happy to pause service until we've had a chance to
shovel the snow, for the fog to lift and for the heavy
rain to pass. We'd love to have our citizenry benefit
from the "Safe, Equitable, Affordable, Sustainable,
High-quality" mobility that would be offered the other
24/7/350 days a year when weather is not an issue. This
24/7/350 mobility would be a life-changer compared
walking or not going, which are the current two best
alternative to many among the 70% of Trenton households
that have access to only one or zero cars. (In
Manhattan, many things are close and easily walkable,
others are readily accessible by a 24/7/365.25
affordable subway system. More than enough
yellowCabs/Ubers/Lyfts/blackCars for those using OPM or
have so much that affordability doesn't matter. Many of
us with a view from the NYC metro area see things very
differently from some in Silicon Valley. Vive la
difference! Alain
M. Cramer, May 15, "... He said he considers himself luckier than
other students at the university. At least, he said, he has a car
and can drive to Costco to buy food in bulk and save some
money..."
Read more Hmmmm... A NY Times
article may finally be realizing the existence of
fundamentally 2 Americas... Those that have access to
great mobility (those with access to a car) and those that
don't. The purpose of my 5th Summit
is to focus on the ways to begin to deploy the fruits of the
$330B investment in automation, connectivity,
electrification, and smart mobility (ACES) to make
available high-quality mobility to those that
don't have access to a car, as well as those that
do, thereby substantially improving their
quality-of-accessibility to a level comparable to that
which is enjoyed by those of us with access to our own
car.
It is very nice that
the NY Times has clearly stated in just two sentences
the challenge and the obvious societal value. My
goodness, MOVES-style mobility could not only allow
those that don't have a car to buy in bulk at Costco,
but could also allow them to easily go to Walmart and
buy normal quantities of affordable goods. Alain
Press release, April 26, "Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE: OSK), a
leading innovator of mission-critical vehicles and essential
equipment, and Robotic Research, a global leader in autonomous
mobility and Advance Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) solutions,
announced today a strategic partnership and an Oshkosh
Corporation investment in Robotic Research to accelerate its
innovation and autonomy offerings.
The companies began working together in 2017 on autonomy
programs for the U.S. Department of Defense — Oshkosh is now
expanding their relationship with Robotic Research, whose
robotics and autonomous driving technologies align well with
Oshkosh products and use cases. The new partnership and joint
development agreement will further complement Oshkosh’s ongoing
work in autonomous vehicles and equipment, providing significant
benefits to the millions of people that do essential work every
day – including the nation’s soldiers, firefighters and first
responders, as well as environmental service and construction
workers. ... " Read
more Hmmmm... The reason
we've gotten this far is because DoD has a real need for
driverless vehicles and DARPA sponsored the
"Challenges". It is still the best customer for the
"Trucking" sector of this technology. Oshkosh & RR
have been excellent suppliers to DoD for many years.
Congratulations on coming closer together. Alain
L. Lawton, May 12, "Torc Robotics has tapped Axel Gern, a
long-time leader in truck automation, to head its recently
opened Torc Europe GmbH engineering facility in Stuttgart,
Germany. Gern has been named senior vice president of
engineering and managing director for Torc Europe at the
technology and software development center.
“We are thrilled to have Axel join our team,” said Michael
Fleming, Torc founder and CEO. “We have worked closely with him
since before Daimler Truck invested in Torc, and we appreciate
his clear vision and strong leadership. He knows the roadmap and
the tech, and has earned great respect from Torc’rs.”... " Read
more Hmmmm... This is a
real good hire by TORF and really shows their maturity
in advancing truck automation with Daimler.
Congratulations. Alain
S. Nicola, May 12, "... I caught a glimpse of these efforts
last week when Mercedes presented its hands-free driving
offering in Berlin. Dubbed Drive Pilot, the system is capable of
Level 3 automated driving, a notch higher than Tesla’s
Autopilot. Drive Pilot will go on sale next week as an option
for S-Class and EQS models at a cost of 5,000 euros ($5,270) and
7,430 euros, respectively..."
Read more Hmmmm... Very nice
that the headline parsimoniously states the Operational
Design Domain (ODD) of this automated driving system.
The text is not quite as
nice by obfuscating
the reality by stating "... capable
of Level 3 automated driving..." without clearly
stating the "Level 3" terms & conditions, the fine
print.
Fortunately,
Mercedes has implemented this system such that it is
only capable of being engaged while in a well defined
ODD. Please don't call it a lemon, or try to get your
money back, if it doesn't turn-on where and when you
want it to turn-on and that situation is outside the ODD
(the 'fine print'). And certainly don't game it or
customize it and expect Mercedes to pick up the tab when
something bad happens.
It is a great
start. People will buy it. They buy Tesla's FSD for
$12k. The question is, how will the customers behave
when they realize that the initial "size"not be what
they invisioned . Alain
P. Corn, May 8, "..." Read
more Hmmmm.... Peter, are
you sure you aren't a Kornhauser and simplified you
name. I often use "Korn" as my name when making a
restaurant reservation. You wrote exactly what I was
thinking. Andrew Saxe'08 & I had Princeton's
Prospect 11 up to 75 mph in the California Speedway
parking lot prior to the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. We
were scared to death. But not all that important when
the objective is to let folks who don't have a car get
to a "Walmart" without having to walk. The Why
should be important element when deciding on the What
in which to invest one's blood, sweat and tears. Alain
J. Bendel, April 29, "Companies with names like Aurora, Embark,
Kodiak, Ike, Plus, TuSimple, Waymo and more are promising to
change trucking as we know it. They want to put driverless
trucks on the interstates to run linehaul between staging yards
near interchanges. At least one company is still trying to sell
truck platooning technology.
Will they fundamentally change trucking? Probably not as much as
they might think. And they won’t all make the cut. Trucking has
been here before. What we have today is a miniature version of
the tech frenzy of 20 years ago.
Back in 2002, you heard names like Qualcomm, Internet Truckstop,
and PeopleNet, among others – many others. My tech company list
from 2002, when I covered the industry, has more than 200
entries. There have been so many name changes and failures, that
it’s impossible to say how many survived and in what form. We do
know that Qualcomm became Omnitracs, Internet Truckstop became
Truckstop.com, and PeopleNet was subsumed by Trimble Inc.
But in 2002 you also heard high-profile names like Aether,
Terion, and Transportal. Remember them? You’re forgiven if you
don’t. They promised to revolutionize trucking, too...."
Read more Hmmmm.... I guess
some of us have been around too long and we don't have
enough time left to see the next cycle of promises to
"change trucking as we know it" that will emerge in
2042. Alain
Press release, May 6, "Momentum Dynamics has announced a
wireless system that offers the possibility of both high (50-75
kW) and low (7-22 kW) power charging thanks to a “dual power”
mode. The company sees this as nothing less than “a major
breakthrough with enormous implications for the EV industry”.
The US developer, which specialises in inductive charging
systems for electric vehicles, plays less on the maximum
charging power than on the effects in practice. Until now,
inductive charging systems have only been designed for one
purpose – such as wireless charging of low-power cars in the
garage at home or charging heavy-duty vehicles with high power.
A car designed for home inductive charging with 7 kW cannot use
charging plates with higher power until now...." Read
more Hmmmm... This
approach to charging seems ideal for MOVES-type
driverless mobility systems that incorporate "kiosks"
where driverless vehicles wait for customers. Since
much of the day, the vehicles are waiting, they can be
charging, thus substantially reducing the size of
batteries for many, if not essentially all, of the
vehicles. For the foreseeable future, the ODDs for these
vehicles will be such that trips longer than say 100
miles will be essentially impossible. Trips of greater
length will be served by other multi-modal means. All
trips will start at a kiosk and, at end will be
repositioned to a nearby kiosk where recharging can
readily take place while waiting for the next
customer(s). Super-sized batteries will not be needed,
nor desired. Their higher capital cost will not need to
be incurred and their weight will not need to be lugged
around. Nice!😎 Also see ZoomCast
256 Alain
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