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States on Front Lines on Driverless Policy: Seminar

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Burney Simpson

State legislators will be among the most influential writers of driverless vehicle policy and an upcoming seminar will argue it is essential they are involved as the technology evolves nationwide.

The one-day “Automated Vehicle Policy and Regulation: A State Perspective Workshop” will be held on Wednesday, May 18, at the University of Maryland.

“Most transportation legislation is created at the state and local level. State legislators are on the front lines of the changes we will see with this technology,” said Stanley Young, the conference organizer and advanced transportation and urban scientist with the National Research Energy Laboratory (NREL).

“We need to get state and local officials engaged and aware of the issues as these massive changes occur in society,” said Young.

He notes that driverless transportation has the potential to reduce traffic fatalities and accidents, improve mobility for seniors and people with disabilities, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions as vehicle idling and wasted trips

The seminar runs from 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Howard Frank Auditorium at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, on the school’s College Park campus, near Washington, D.C.

Most states have yet to address autonomous and connected vehicle technology even though it could impact transportation for years to come. This is despite huge media attention on the topic, and a few states that are actively testing the technology.

Transportation experts will have to add autonomous vehicles to their discussion topics which traditionally have focused on highways and transit, said Young.

The workshop brings together a number of nationally-known experts in the driverless field.

Bryant Walker Smith, developer of the Center for Internet and Society website that tracks state legislative activity on driverless technology, will be on the opening panel framing the issues.

Smith will be joined by Robert Peterson, co-author of A Look at the Legal Framework for Driverless Vehicles (See “Send Lawyers, Guns and Driverless Vehicles”), and Frank Douma, who will discuss Minnesota’s initiative on mobility and people with disabilities.

Another panel features state legislators active in autonomous vehicles. State Sen. Mark Green of Tennessee (See “Tennessee Senate Scheduled to Vote on Proposed Driverless Law SB 1561 This Week”), and Del. Glenn Davis of Virginia will discuss their recently enacted legislation designed to build driverless-oriented business and encourage research on the technology (See “Careful Steps on Driverless Laws for Tennessee, Virginia”).

There will also be discussion on the opportunities for merging energy and transportation issues. The seminar will conclude with remarks from Alain Kornhauser, director of Princeton University’s Transportation Research Program.

The workshop is sponsored by the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT) at the University of Maryland, the I-95 Corridor Coalition, and NREL, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Photo: FBI Press Conference by Jay Baker, 2014

Data

A Roadblock to Self-Driving Cars: Who Owns the Data?

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One question that may be holding back progress toward autonomous cars - who will own the data?

As more automakers look toward partnerships with technology companies to develop their cars into self-driving transportation vehicles, one wrench in the wheel appears to be a disagreement over who will own the data garnered from the vehicle.

As some of the earliest self-driving car models come into reality, the data gathered from those early cars-mapping, sensor data, traffic data, efficiency, and much more-is incredibly valuable to many parties.

However, other data collected could be on the drivers themselves-where they eat, where they shop, what movies they like to see and more, explains TheStreet.com, especially as in-car shopping and entertainment systems become more popular.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that the question of the ownership of such data is a very big deal.

In fact, determining that ownership is what several news outlets report put the brakes on partnership talks between General Motors and Google previously, as well as talks between Ford and Google. TheStreet reports the point of contention could also be complicating GM’s recent acquisition of San Francisco-based self-driving car tech firm Cruise Automation.

“Automakers don’t want to relinquish control of data in return for access to computer code; at least, not now,” TheStreet said.

Now, Google has confirmed it will be partnering with Fiat-Chrysler. Google’s technology will be put into 100 Chrysler Pacifica mini-vans for testing on public roads.

Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne recently told Reuters that the question of who will own the data from the prototype vans has yet to be determined, but it seems that talks are going amicably. TheStreet speculated, “More than likely, [Fiat-Chrysler] had to agree to respect Google’s boundaries pertaining to software and intellectual property.”

Marchionne said to Reuters, though, before they get that far, they need to get the vans up and working.

“We need to get to a stage where the car is viable so we can discuss the spoils of that work. We’re not there,” he told Reuters.

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Self-Driving Forklifts Automate Warehouses

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Burney Simpson

Automated, electric-powered forklifts developed at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute are contributing to the growing use of self-driving technology.

Coraopolis, Penn.-based Seegrid takes off-the-shelf electric-powered forklifts, adds hardware and software, and turns them into Vision Guided Vehicles (VGV), said Amanda Merrell, Seegrid marketing director.

Once transformed, the VGVs perform such warehouse tasks as Put Away; Long Haul; End of Line where the finished product is taken to a shipping dock; Replenishment where inventory is moved from storage to picking; and more.

Seegrid says its VGVs reduce labor costs, improve warehouse safety, and increase productivity.

Customers include Volvo, Daimler, Denso, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, and Freightliner.

This YouTube video cleverly contrasts the measured style of the automated VGV with its human-operated counterparts - Seegrid Vision Guided Vehicles in Action.

The hardware that Seegrid adds includes 10 cameras that keep the forklift aware of its surroundings.

The software includes coding that allows the warehouse operator to program a driving route for the VGV.

“You simply get on the machine, hit record, drive it on some particular route, get off, hit play, and it just loops around on that route forever,” Seegrid CEO Jim Rock told radio station WESA fm in Pittsburgh.

It hasn’t all been easy. Seegrid declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014 as it got ahead of itself and explored new markets. Rock helped the firm to re-focus on its core forklift sector. In addition, supermarket operator Giant Eagle, an original Seegrid funder, agreed to swap debt for a greater equity share of the firm.

The company exited bankruptcy in February 2015.

A customer that purchases VGVs will use the Seegrid Supervisor app to manage the devices. It provides for real-time monitoring, intersection control, and the ability to set operating rules, such as recharging.

To do that, the VGV is programed to visit a charging station once its battery power has dropped to a certain level, “say when it’s at 30 percent,” said Merrell.

A human is still needed to physically attach the forklift to the recharging station, said Merrell.

Rock says the VGVs have operated safely for more than 125,000 miles due to sensors that ‘tell’ the machine when a human is within a certain distance. And the VGVs beep and make other noises as they move so workers are made aware of their presence.  

Dr. Hans Moravec developed the Seegrid technology at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. The company was founded in 2003 and launched its first VGV in 2008.

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Tesla, Mobileye Send D20 Losing Again

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Losing 3.2 percent of its value while falling to 143.39, the Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index last week far outstripped the 0.2 percent loss in the Dow and the 0.4 percent slump in the S&P 500. With 18 losers and only two gainers, the D20 logged its second consecutive weekly decline.

The D20’s biggest loser was Tesla (TSLA), dropping close to 11 percent and falling all the way to $214.93, its lowest level since mid-March. Tesla’s plunge came after it announced that it was doubling its plan for vehicle deliveries. Israel-based Mobileye (MBLY) also dropped sharply as it announced disappointing first quarter results, losing 8.2 percent and closing at $35.00.

The two gainers for the D20 this week were Alphabet (GOOG) and Nissan’s ADR (NSANY). GOOG gained 2.7 percent closing the week at $711.12 while NSANY edged up nearly 2 percent to end the week at $18.12.

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

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Many Challenges to MAAS in the U.S.

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Burney Simpson

The developers behind the Babcock Ranch in Florida face challenges as they position it as the first planned community for driverless transportation. It is to feature electric-powered self-driving vehicles and public transit on-demand with an Uber-type app. (“America’s First ‘Truly Sustainable’ Town Will Run on Driverless Transit”).

Transportation in Babcock is a step towards Mobility As A Service (MAAS) where consumers give up their own vehicle and rely instead on a combination of public transit, rideshare (i.e. Uber), biking and walking.

A user will pay a monthly subscription fee to access with their smartphones the MAAS door-to-door transportation service.

Once onboard, the subscriber researches, books, and pays for their best transportation option among a slew of transportation providers, which may also include car share (i.e. zipcar), van pool, cabs, bikeshare, and possibly a limo service.

The real-time service means the subscriber can preplan a journey, or find, pay for, and jump on the best option on the fly.

top-slides-maas4A MAAS subscription may prove cheaper than the money spent buying or leasing a vehicle, along with gas, insurance, maintenance, parking, various state licensing fees, tickets, ad nauseam.

Savings alone makes MAAS intriguing but it comes with large challenges. Selling the concept in the U.S. may be especially difficult as car ownership is ingrained with 80 percent of all trips taken in personally-owned-vehicles.

In Europe, MAAS Finland plans to offer a monthly subscription and a single journey payment system, though it hasn’t launched yet. This video from the Finish Ministry of Transport and Communication neatly describes MAAS in animated form.

Information is vital to a MAAS system.

For example, schedules and fees of the transportation providers will have to be online, integrated and continuously updated. That goes for weather and road condition information.

The subscriber’s payment account and any special transport needs must be on hand.

That presents a hurdle for any MAAS operator in the U.S., according to transportation consultant Carol Schweiger’s presentation “Bringing Mobility as a Service to the U.S.: Opportunities and Challenges” where she outlines issues.

  • In practice, some public transit providers don’t share information with other providers, whether internally or externally. That is, the bus division doesn’t communicate well with the subway system, and neither talks to the bus system operated by the county next door.
  • Can a transit system with this kind of institutional mindset share its performance data with an Uber or a Velib bikeshare program?
  • Public transit organizations will also have to find the funds to build and maintain this 21st Century communications system, and to accept electronic payments.
  • Should there be a single regulator for an entire MAAS system, or do you keep separate offices such as one for transit and another for cabs?
  • Publicly-owned transportation providers must determine how to include travelers that don’t have smartphones and a payment card.
  • And then there’s such technical issues as cybersecurity, and providing service in the event of a system failure.

There are efforts to address some of these issues.

The transit app Moovit announced this month it would be integrated into Uber’s app in 131 cities in 22 countries.

MAAS COLLABORATION

Moovit users plan local travel options by checking their transit provider’s route data. Adding Uber is designed to help Moovit-ites better navigate the first mile/last mile of their journey.

A number of transit systems are considering using Uber to provide some part of their service for riders with disabilities.

The largest MAAS project in the U.S. now may be the one conducted by Joint Venture Silicon Valley that focuses on commuting in the San Francisco Bay area.

Joint Venture’s MAAS is collaborating with Palo Alto, San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA).

It seeks to integrate mobility apps with work transportation programs provided by employers like Enterprise Commute Trip Reduction (ECTR). It claims six important stakeholders in its commuting ‘ecosystem’: cities, transit agencies, mobility service providers, large employers, small employers, and ECTR software providers.

It plans this year to launch a Mobility Aggregation smartphone app that might support public and private transit, Carma ridesharing; Motivate bike share; Lyft Line and Flywheel; Car2Go, DriveNow, and Zipcar car sharing; and smartphone e-ticketing.

A second app might support public and private transit; Motivate bike share; UberPool; Car2Go and DriveNow; and smartphone e-ticketing.

Graphic is by Sampo Hietanen, CEO of MAAS Finland; One Seamless App by Joint Venture Silicon Valley.

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America’s First ‘Truly Sustainable’ Town, Babcock Ranch, Will Run on Driverless Transit

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A former ranch in Florida is aiming to be America’s first truly sustainable town, powered by solar panels and natural gas, and run on driverless transit through a public ride-hailing app.

When the expansive property first went up for sale 10 years ago, the owners received offers from all around the world, according to FastCoexist.com. But the owners decided to sell it to Kitson and Partners, a developer who had a very special plan in mind.

After selling 74,000 acres to the state of Florida to be a nature preserve-the Florida Panther and black bear are found on the land, according to TIME Magazine-Kitson and Partners set about designing the town of Babcock Ranch, which could soon be home to 50,000 pioneering residents.

Babcock Ranch will reportedly be an optimally planned city that is largely walkable. A majority of homes will be close enough to downtown that most people can walk or bike to work or shopping. For those that need to go longer distances, or who will need to commute to another city for work, will be able to hail a driverless electric car through a public app similar to Uber or Lyft, explains Syd Kitson.Babcock Ranch plans

Kitson and Partners have other revolutionary plans in the works as well. Eventually, they want homes to be equipped with tele-health and graywater-recycling infrastructure, and they will be built to withstand all types of weather, so that residents can shelter in place during tornados or hurricanes without having to be evacuated out of town.

They are also researching the newest technology in energy storage. The current plan is that solar energy will power the town during the day when the sun is out, and at night, it will switch over to a grid powered by natural gas. Eventually, Kitson says they want to find a way to store up energy created by the solar panels during the day so that they no longer have to rely on the grid at night.

“The holy grail for renewable energy is figuring out how to store it so you don’t need to turn to the grid at night,” Kitson says. “We’re talking to several companies about how we can do that, even at a neighborhood scale, almost like a micro-community of a system,” Kitson told FastCoexist.com.

Excitingly, construction on the town is already underway. The driverless electric public transportation system is already in the works, and homes should start being built this summer, FastCoexist reports.

TIME Magazine says the town is approximately five times the size of Manhattan, and will be powered by a solar energy plant that features more than 350,000 panels.

Kilson says starting a town like Babcock Ranch from scratch is easier than trying to transform a already existing town.

“How you design your roads—thinking about pedestrian walkways and bike paths, if you’re making it walkable and bikeable and pedestrian-friendly—doing that from the beginning is much easier,” he told FastCoexist.com.

“Babcock Ranch will exemplify what it means to be a town of the future,” he told TIME. “The first residents will be settling into a whole new way of life—one that is conscientious, engaging and connected.”

Images of renderings created by Babcock Ranch.

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General Motors and Lyft to Test Self-Driving Electric Taxis on Public Roads Within 1 Year

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Just months after General Motors (GM) announced it was investing half a billion dollars in ride-hailing app Lyft, now the two partners say they will be conducting joint tests of driverless taxis on public roads-within a year.

The Wall Street Journal reports the tests will be of autonomous, electric Chevrolet Bolt taxis.

One other firm will have its hands in the mix as well. As GM recently purchased San Francisco-based tech firm Cruise Automation Inc., WSJ reports Cruise’s self-driving technology will power the cars.Lyft-GM car

WSJ says details are still being worked out, but that Lyft sources say the tests will involve average taxi customers in an undisclosed city (perhaps San Francisco?).

GM is hoping the popularity of its Chevy Bolt will soon take off, despite slow demand for electric vehicles due to most U.S. cities still lacking a sufficient supply of charging stations. GM is banking on the fact that more drivers will appreciate the larger storage space and passenger leg room of the Bolt, since the car’s electric battery is located under the floor instead of the front of the car.

This is just the latest in a long line of recent autonomous vehicle announcements by major automakers. Earlier this week, Google and Fiat-Chrysler announced a joint venture to manufacture self-driving Pacifica mini-va
ns. Elon Musk and the gang at Tesla Motors announced they are taking a short-term profit hit in order to speed up productio
n to meet the demand for its less expensive Model S, now promising to have 500,000 cars ready by 2018 rather than 2020. And Volvo announced it would be conducting “the largest and most ambitious autonomous car test yet” with its “Drive Me London” program, scheduled for next year.

With all of those announcements (and more), plus several U.S. states working on autonomous vehicle legislation, things are certainly heating up.

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Texas A&M to Develop $150 Million Center for Driverless, Robotics Technology

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Burney Simpson

Texas A&M University is investing $150 million in a 2,000-acre research and development campus that will include autonomous vehicle research.

The campus will be both a development center for private firms and an educational hub for students offering four-year degrees.

Along with driverless technology, the campus will offer research on robotics, smart power grids, and water systems.

“It will bridge the ‘valley of death’ between product development and the marketplace,” M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, said in a statement.

The site is on a former military base in Bryan, Texas, about 100 miles from Houston, and Austin, the state capital.

The site now includes the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and is called the Riverside Campus. It will be renamed the RELLIS Campus.

The TTI has been active in connected vehicles, freight movement, and other driverless vehicle projects. In November it named Christopher Poe its connected and automated vehicle (CV/AV) transportation strategy lead.

It reported last year it was involved in 40 CA/AV projects at the federal, state and local level. The I-35 Connected Work Zone project involved long-haul commercial trucks gathering road information from highway sensors (See “Texas Tests Connected Freight Trucks Along I-35“).

Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp said the school is in talks with a number of companies to conduct research at the center, including Japan’s Kubota Tractors, according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram.  

“Unless we create a lot of young farmers, driverless tractors may plow our fields in the not too-distant future. Otherwise, how are we going to feed the world?” Sharp said.

The school reported it already has the $150 million development costs locked down through a combination of private sector pledges and state budget funding.

The budget for the project calls for allocating $12 million to build the Advanced Research in Transportation Technology Building where companies will focus on autonomous vehicle technology.

The bulk of the budget, $73 million, will be spent on the Center for Infrastructure Renewal, which calls for assisting the private sector in applying new ideas to infrastructure redevelopment.

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Report: Google and Fiat-Chrysler Partnering Up to Develop Self-Driving Mini-Vans

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Jennifer van der Kleut

According to Bloomberg News sources this week, Google and Fiat-Chrysler are planning to partner up to develop new self-driving mini-vans based on Fiat’s Pacifica model.

The new driverless mini-van will reportedly combine Fiat-Chrysler equipment with Google self-driving technology, and will function as a plug-in hybrid, Bloomberg reports.

Many industry experts are not surprised by the news. Just last month, Fiat-Chrysler Chairman John Elkann was quoted as saying that in order to keep up with the times, the automaker should work with “new industry participants” like Google and Apple, rather than compete with them.

Tech Insider reports that the first step in this partnership will be for Fiat-Chrysler to provide Google with a fleet of Pacifica mini-vans, which Google will equip with its self-driving technology and then put to the test.

Google has been in talks with various automakers for quite some time, trying to find a partner for the manufacturing of future driverless cars that would be available to consumers. Bloomberg reports that Google previously was in talks with General Motors, but that disagreements over ownership of the technology and data brought those talks to an end.

Tech Insider analysts think the Fiat Chrysler-Google partnership will be very beneficial to both parties.

“It would likely give Fiat Chrysler a jump start on getting Google’s autonomous tech-which already has 1.4 million miles clocked-in-into its cars before anyone else has the chance, and it’d also almost definitely be a ton cheaper for the company than if it was to develop it’s own self-driving tech.”

According to Bloomberg, the partnership will be moving forward very soon this year.

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D20 in a Slump With Japanese Firms

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Like the Dow and the S&P 500, the Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index slumped last week. With 17 losers and three gainers, the D20 lost 1.4 percent of its value to close the week at 148.16. The Dow and S&P 500 both shed 1.3 percent of their value.

The only bright spots for the D20 were Volkswagen (VLKPY), Valeo (VLEEY), and the Chinese electric vehicle company BYD Co. (BYDDY). BYD’s ADR stock price rose 3.5 percent while Volkswagen’s jumped 3.8 percent. Valeo’s stock price soared 6.2 percent as it announced a joint venture with Siemens to manufacture electrical propulsion components for vehicles.

Driving the D20 down were Nissan (NSANY) and the Japanese auto parts supplier Denso (DNZOY). Nissan’s ADR stock price fell nearly 8 percent to $17.78 as the automaker’s prospects were downgraded by industry analysts. Denso’s ADR price drop was more dramatic as it lost 8.2 percent to finish the week at $18.86.

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