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Navya Self-Driving Shuttle Hit By Semi-Truck

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Just two hours after officials celebrated the launch of a new self-driving shuttle service in downtown Las Vegas, the shuttle was in a crash with a semi-truck.

The eight-passenger, electric shuttle, built by Navya and operated by Keolis, was launched as part of a study on the efficiency of Level 4 autonomous vehicle technology and the public’s response to it, sponsored by AAA, Keolis North America, the city of Las Vegas, and the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. It is reportedly the first Level 4 autonomous vehicle to be launched on public roads in the U.S.

Early reports of the crash suggest that the fault lies with the other vehicle, however.

According to statements quoted by Car And Driver and the Associated Press, the Navya shuttle was cruising along down the street when a semi-truck began backing out of a driveway. As it was supposed to, the shuttle’s technology detected the obstacle and came to a complete stop. However, the semi-truck continued to back up, and eventually it struck the shuttle on the left-front driver’s side.

“If only the truck had the autonomous technology, this would likely not have occurred,” John Moreno, manager of AAA’s Northern California, Nevada and Utah office, told Car and Driver.

Moreno also told Car and Driver and the Associated Press that police told him they have issued a citation to the driver of the semi-truck.

Within days of the crash, which many are describing as a mere “fender-bender” with no injuries or significant damage, the shuttle was back in business, returning to its route downtown. However, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) plans to investigate the crash further, Car and Driver reports.

The shuttle is set to operate on a 0.6-mile fixed route that includes three pick-up/drop-off spots along Fremont East, located in downtown but separate from the bustle of the main Las Vegas strip. Over the next year, sponsors expect at least 250,000 passengers to take a ride in the shuttle, with each one being asked to complete a public perception survey after their ride. AAA plans to donate $1 for each passenger that rides the shuttle during the study, to benefit victims of the mass shooting that took place in Las Vegas on Oct. 1.

Image Credit: Navya

News Roundup: GM and Cruise Automation Announce ‘Mass-Production-Ready’ Autonomous Car, Renault Teases a Driverless Electric Car That Can Power Your Home, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

GM and Cruise Automation announce ‘mass-production-ready’ self-driving car

Cruise Automation and its parent company, General Motors, which acquired the startup last year, announced this week that their latest self-driving car is ready for mass production. Kyle Vogt, CEO of the San Francisco-based Cruise Automation, said that their latest model has “full redundancy” throughout the autonomous system, so that it’s ready mechanically, and from a sensor and software perspective, to “fail operationally and be safe.” The vehicle itself will be based on GM’s Chevrolet Bolt, and will be manufactured at the company’s plant in Orion, Michigan. GM and Cruise are currently getting everything in place at the plant to be prepared to roll out hundreds of thousands of vehicles per year that, from the outside, look like a normal Chevy Bolt, but on the inside, feature a sophisticated system capable of full automation with no help needed from a human driver. Read more from TechCrunch.

 

Renault Symbioz is a driverless car that doubles as an extra room in your connected house

Renault’s latest autonomous concept car is much more than that. The “Symbioz” is a sleek, ultra-modern, autonomous vehicle whose seats can rotate to face each other and form a comfortable lounge of sorts. In addition, Renault has designed a smart home that pairs with the car. The car can pull into an open space in the house and become an extension of the room. Both doors can open outward in opposite directions so the car morphs into a pod or smaller room within the room, with the rotating seats providing extra seating. In addition, as an electric car that stores energy in the floor of the vehicle, the car can also serve as a backup power source for the home, providing power in an electrical outage, or supplementing with extra power during peak hours of power usage. Read more and see photos from Car and Driver.

 

Driverless bus taking passengers around site of 2012 London Olympics

Navya is debuting a self-driving bus in London this week, taking as many as 14 passengers at a time on a loop around the park that was the site of the 2012 Olympics. Though the buses are capable of traveling at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour, they will be capped at just 5 miles per hour while operating around Olympic Park. The entire loop around the park takes 12 minutes. Alistair Gordon, CEO of Keolis, the company that is supplying the buses, said the ride is proving to be very smooth and feels like “gliding.” “You’d never know there was no driver in the vehicle,” he told V3. So far, passengers are telling news outlets that they have enjoyed the ride and found it to be “the perfect way to try out an autonomous vehicle” at a slow speed in an environment they found much safer than being on the open road. Read more from V3.

Image: The interior of a Renault Symbioz car, inside a Renault Symbioz smart home. Credit: Renault

Big Rebound By Visteon Pushes D20 to a Gain

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After a one-week set-back, the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) returned to its winning ways, largely thanks to a big rebound by Visteon Corporation.

Twelve price gainers out-weighed eight price losers to help the D20 beat the Dow and S&P 500.

The D20 gained 1.23 points, or 0.6 percent, as it climbed to 215.04 while the S&P 500 added 0.2 percent to close at 2,438.30 and the Dow remained virtually unchanged at 21,394.76.

Visteon (VC), the automotive parts maker, was the D20’s price gain percentage leader of the week, adding $3.54 to its stock price and closing at $95.91 per share. It rebounded nicely from last week’s 8-percentage-point drop in price.

Blackberry (BBRY) missed its quarterly revenue forecast, which hammered its stock price, dropping it 7.8 percent and making it the D20 price-percentage loser of the week.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up-and-Comers:

Navya, maker of the Arma, a driverless shuttle bus, has announced that it will deploy two Armas to the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor. It is part of the Mcity Program, the University of the Michigan-led partnership with driverless and connected vehicle makers to improve safety, sustainability and accessibility in an urban test facility.

News Roundup: Congress Set to Weigh 14 Driverless Vehicle Bills, Univ. of Michigan to Get Two Self-Driving Shuttles, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A roundup of new headlines to come out of the driverless, connected-car industry this week:

Congress to weigh 14 driverless vehicle bills next week

The federal government is racing to address emerging mobility technology. Their efforts are being led by a series of 14 driverless vehicle bills that will hit the House floor next week. Some of the bills may be swooped up into a larger package the House will be considering. The bills address a number of issues, including whether autonomous vehicles should have to obtain approval for their technology before going to market, establishing guidelines for the sharing of data, and allowing some test vehicles to be exempt from traditional automobile standards. Read more from The Hill.

 

Tesla’s VP of Autopilot, a former Apple engineer, abruptly leaves

A mere six months after joining Elon Musk’s team, former Apple engineer of 12 years, Chris Lattner, has left his position at Tesla Motors as vice president of autopilot software. Lattner announced his departure on Twitter, saying it “turns out Tesla isn’t a good fit for me after all.” He added that he was eager to hear about interesting open roles for “a seasoned engineering leader,” and that his resume was easy to find online. Shortly after, Tesla announced that Lattner’s role was being filled by two people evenly — existing Tesla Autopilot hardware chief Jim Keller, and a new hire, Andrej Karpathy, who reportedly has a PhD from Stanford University in “computer vision.” Read more from The Register.

 

Two driverless shuttles to debut on Univ. of Michigan campus

Mcity, the University of Michigan’s public-private partnership for mobility research including driverless vehicles, will launch a driverless shuttle service on the school’s North Campus this fall. The two shuttles were manufactured by Navya, and are fully automated. Each shuttle can seat up to 15 passengers. “This first-ever automated shuttle service on campus is a critical research project that will help us understand the challenges and opportunities presented by this type of mobility service and how people interact with it,” Huei Peng, director of Mcity and a professor of mechanical engineering at U-M, said in a statement. The shuttles have been being tested since December. Read more from The Detroit Free Press.

 

Image: Still from Univ. of Michigan YouTube video

News Roundup: Group Wants a 50-Year Ban on Driverless Cars, Las Vegas Gets a Driverless Shuttle Downtown, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A roundup of recent headlines from the driverless and connected-car industries:

Groups advocate for ban on driverless cars due to projected job losses

A number of transportation labor groups are starting to pop up across the U.S., advocating for a ban on driverless cars due to the number of jobs they expect the technology to eliminate. In particular, New York’s Upstate Transportation Agency is seeking a 50-year-ban on the technology, stating they expect 4 million jobs to be lost, or 3 percent of America’s workforce. In addition, the Independent Drivers Group is advocating for keeping the law that requires at least one hand on a car’s steering wheel at all times, which they believe will effectively ban driverless cars as well. Read more from The Daily Dot.

 

China signs off on plans for world’s largest autonomous driving test zone

Officials in Zhangzhou, China have signed off on plans to designate a 56km-wide zone of the city to act as the world’s largest autonomous drive test area. Chinese news outlets describe the plans as consisting of a “city-level lab road network with complete traffic signs.” The designated zone will also include a 600,000-square-meter closed testing ground and a two-million-square-meter open experimental field. Michigan’s similar testing area, known as Mcity, will reportedly help with Zhangzhou’s plans. Officials said they hope the zone will debut by the end of the year. Read more from China Daily.

 

Driverless shuttle debuts on Las Vegas streets

Canadian transport operator Keolis has partnered with Navya Technologies to run a driverless shuttle along the streets of Las Vegas. The city of Las Vegas recently designated an “Innovation District” for the testing of cutting-edge technology. Keolis recently purchased four Navya shuttles to test out driverless technology in select areas across Europe, and the two companies ran a trial in Lyon, France in September. The new shuttle, called Arma, is transporting passengers along east Fremont Street between Las Vegas Boulevard and Eighth Street, alongside regular street traffic, and can carry up to 12 passengers. The two-week trial will last from Jan. 11 to 20. The shuttle reportedly travels at a speed of around 15km per hour. Read more from the Las Vegas Sun.

Photo: Arma shuttle by Navya and Keolis drives through Las Vegas. Credit: Navya

News Roundup: Michigan Senate Passes Law Allowing Driverless Cars to Operate Without Humans, French City Debuts World’s First Driverless Bus Service, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A roundup of recent headlines in the driverless and connected-car industries.

Michigan State Senate Unanimously Passes Bill That Would No Longer Require a Human to Be in A Driverless Car

Driverless cars are moving full speed ahead in Michigan, where the state Senate has unanimously passed a bill that would no longer require a human to be in an autonomous car being tested on public roads. Backers touted the bill as “necessary” to keep Michigan ahead of the curve on rapidly advancing technology. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder reportedly supports the bill as well, which is on track to have full legislative approval by the end of the year. Other provisions in the bill include: allowing for public operation of driverless vehicles when they hit the consumer market; easing the “platooning” of autonomous commercial trucks traveling closely together at electronically coordinated speeds; help creating a facility to test autonomous and wirelessly connected cars at highway speeds at the site of a defunct General Motors plant; and allowing auto manufacturers to run networks of on-demand self-driving vehicles. Read more from the Associated Press and CBS Detroit.

 

Lyon, France Debuts World’s First Public Driverless Bus With Daily Service

Lyon, France launched this past weekend what is being called the world’s first driverless bus in its downtown Confluence area. The bus, which uses LiDAR radar technology and motion sensors to help it avoid accidents, can seat up to 15 passengers, and is now serving rides to the public, daily. Two shuttles run a 10-minute route with five stops. The shuttle was designed by French company Navya, and the design is set to undergo trials in Dubai soon as well. Read more about the new Navya shuttle buses from Travel+Leisure Magazine.

 

Volvo Teams Up With Autoliv to Develop Autonomous Car Software

Volvo Car Group and Autoliv, an automotive safety group, announced this week that they are forming a jointly-owned company to develop advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving systems. Volvo will bring to the table its know-how of decision-making software that determines how an autonomous car will react in different situations. Autoliv will bring expertise in sensor technology and computer vision systems. The two companies say they are committed to creating “a completely open, transparent environment for collaboration.” In a news conference, representatives said the new company, which has yet to be named, will initially have around 200 employees, and could grow to around 600 within two years. The company is set to begin work as early as next year. Read more about the collaboration from Associated Press and Crain’s Detroit Business.

Driverless SmartShuttle in Switzerland is no Cuckoo Clock

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Burney Simpson

Switzerland last week officially began offering live rides on the SmartShuttle autonomous, electric vehicle from Navya in the city of Sion.

The transportation system is led by PostBus Switzerland with a fleet management platform from BestMile. The BestMile platform gives PostBus a real-time overview of the fleet, and allows for its remote control.

Navya’s ARMA steering systems use Velodyne’s LiDAR Pucks, GPS RTK navigation devices, stereovision cameras, inertial navigation systems and odometry, according to a press release.

The SmartShuttle can be tracked in real time with a smartphone app or at a kiosk at a station. It was first announced last year and has been in a test mode since then.

“In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock,” Harry Lime in ‘The Third Man,’ 1949.

France’s Navya operated its driverless vehicle on the open road last year during the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress (ITS) in Bordeaux. The vehicle can carry up to 15 passengers at a top speed of 16 miles an hour.

Switzerland-based BestMile is a spinoff from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL in English) in Lausanne. EPFL-developed algorithms enable dispatching and routing, charging management, maintenance planning, and emergency handling, according to BestMile.

OLLI SHUTTLE COUSIN

BestMile was a partner in the June launch in Maryland of the self-driving Olli shuttle by Local Motors (See “New Self-Driving Olli Shuttle ‘Talks’ with Passengers”).

The free service in Sion operates Tuesday through Sunday in the afternoon, carrying passengers on a loop between the Place du Midi and popular cathedrals. Plans call for the service to be expanded and to operate on a regular schedule through the week.

Sion, capital of the canton of Valais in southwest Switzerland, had a population of 33,296 in 2014. Most jobs are in the service sector, and it’s a popular tourist destination.

PostBus is Switzerland’s leading bus company, carrying more than 140 million passengers each year.

SmartShuttle image from BestMile.

Comet Helps Power the Army’s ARIBO to Driverless Success

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Colin Wasiloff

Quickly making its way to a college campus, airport, or downtown near you, the Autonomous Robotics for Installation and Base Operations (ARIBO) automated vehicle pilot has driverless-technology enthusiasts buzzing. Comet Robotics is the Brighton, Michigan-based firm that assisted in the launch of ARIBO, and it now has 15 automated vehicle demonstrations in full swing with another 15 in the works.

“Comet Robotics’ mission is to demonstrate the feasibility of automated vehicles and accelerate their development,” said Corey Clothier, Comet’s founder and leader. Comet collaborates with dozens of stakeholders, ranging from U.S. military officials to Stanford University’s student population to transportation advisors in Greenwich, England.

The U.S. Army initiated ARIBO as a series of automated vehicle demonstrations at a number of federal facilities and universities. A commercial version of ARIBO, called AMP’D, has also been launched.

Comet made a name for itself when the Army’s Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center’s (TARDEC) Ground Vehicle Robotics group and other stakeholders successfully launched a pilot designed to reduce transportation costs on U.S. military bases and other government installations.

“As soon as we built the concept, people started talking. The interest at first was intense, and it kept growing,” said Clothier.

INITIAL PROJECTS

The first ARIBO demonstration occurred at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point with an automated shuttle from Navya Technology. (The photo for this article is a shot of the Navya shuttle.) There has also been a demonstration at the Warrior Transition Command, in Fort Bragg, N.C., which uses it to transport troops around its expansive campus.

Clothier has assembled at Comet an international team of technical specialists, automotive engineers, master planners, alternate energy gurus, and business development specialists with a common goal: proving that automated vehicles are feasible, economical, and safe for passengers and non-passengers alike.

Clothier visits clients and potential clients nationwide promoting the idea of driverless shuttles that reduce operational costs, fight congestion, eliminate accidents, and solve base parking issues.

He recently garnered support from leaders at the National Security Administration because it spends much time and money conducting background checks and security clearances for its shuttle-bus drivers. “NSA’s requirements for drivers with security clearances means a very narrow candidate pool,” said Clothier.

Large educational institutions share many of the same needs at their facilities and grounds as the military and the government. Comet is involved in pilots at Stanford, Clemson University, and the University of South Florida aimed at automating student transportation across campus and on thoroughfares. The schools also hope to alleviate parking problems.

Another demonstration project that has taken off is the city center in Greenwich, England, aided by a substantial investment by the national government.

AMP’D UP

AMP’D, the commercial side of ARIBO, has a number of pilots going or soon to begin. For instance, there is the unnamed movie studio campus that uses more than 500 golf carts to transport everyone from A-list stars to extras to its studios and offices. The studio is considering automating its transit system as the carts now spend nearly 90 percent of their day parked. International airports and retirement communities in the south have also been selected for pilots.

Response has been positive but there have been some surprises along the way, said Clothier.

“One area we didn’t expect to be confronted with so soon is the aspect of human behavior and how non-passengers interact with the automated systems,” said Clothier. Bystanders have tested the vehicle’s collision detection system by light-heartedly jumping out in front of the SUV-sized vehicle, repeatedly stopping it in its tracks. The pedestrian may find it funny but riders have to wait while he gets his jollies.

For now Comet is focused on low-speed, automated-vehicle solutions for bases, colleges and similar large campus-type spaces that need a transport program, said Clothier.

“We hope to bring together stakeholders across the spectrum of automated vehicles to collect and share data,” said Clothier. “The entire industry is still learning and we want to be at the center.”