Bikes: The Self-Driving Car's Biggest Problem

A lot of people are really looking forward to when they can buy a self-driving car. And the echnology involved in them is amazing. They not only drive themselves, but no when to stop to avoid hitting other cars, pedestrians, birds and even squirrels. Bicycles though, are another issue.

According to Spectrum, autonomous vehicle researchers say bikes are the most difficult to detect because they are relatively small, fast and heterogenous, meaning they don't have a lot of mass and can vary in appearance as people attach strollers or hang things off of them. They are also much less predictable because they can make sudden turns or jump out of nowhere.

Data shows that autonomous vehicle technology identifies approximately 89 percent of cars. Yet it could only spot 74 percent of bikes in testing. Technology is improving though and visual processing of roadways is being augmented with laser-scanning imagery and radar sensing, which helps cars to "see" that there is an object in the roadway, even they can't identify what it is.

Santa Clara University Gets First U.S. College Self-Driving Shuttle

The self-driving shuttle on Santa Clara University's campus,
along with it's engineers.

Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA is attempting to reduce car use on campus. It has come a little closer with a recent pilot program. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, an autonomous shuttle has recently started driving the one mile loop around campus with five designated stops, enabling people to leave their vehicles off-campus and jump on the shuttle. This is the first self-driving shuttle on a U.S. college campus.

The shuttle has a safety engineer on board but drives itself. The pilot program started in November and runs through February, after which the school will decide whether it wants to continue — and whether it will let the shuttle run without a human driver. There could be some other tweeks as well if the shuttle stays. Boxy and high-roofed, the shuttle is a $30,000 four-person electric vehicle called the Polaris GEM. Basically it's a glorified golf cart that travels campus at 7 mph. It currently can't accommodate wheelchairs. Future versions could be larger vehicles.

Today, a safety engineer sits in the navigator’s seat with his hand on a throttle in case he needs to take control. There’s also a bright orange emergency stop button that passengers can hit. In the three weeks the shuttle has been running, the engineer has had to take over only twice, both times because the car started to veer toward grass due to a software bug.

Proposal Calls For Limiting I-5 to Self-Driving Cars

I've been stuck on I-5 in Western Washington several times lately, but I'm not sure this is how to fix Kuow.com reports that a proposal to ban human drivers from the freeway is being discussed at a technology conference in Vancouver, B.C., that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, B.C. Premier Christy Clark, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates are all expected to attend today.

the congestion problem.
Seattle's Madrona Venture Group suggests that a 150-mile stretch of the freeway between Seattle and Vancouver be occupied only by driverless cars — except for quiet times at nights and weekends.

Under the idea, robot-cars would just get to share the HOV lanes on I-5 to start. Over time, the driverless cars would get their own lanes, then eventually all the lanes 10 to 15 years from now, allowing human drivers on I-5 only during non-congested times such as weekends and 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. on weekdays.

The brains behind this suggestion say a driverless I-5 would boost business and tourism between the two cities. Some critics disagree though. University of Washington civil engineering professor Don MacKenzie said social equity must be considered and that a huge number of families with older vehicles would be out of luck. MacKenzie says that, with 60 percent of cars in the U.S. lasting 15 years or more, about 1.5 million cars will still be on the road in Washington in 15 years that were manufactured this year or earlier.

Will Self-Driving Cars Put Us All Out of Work?

We've discussed some of the impacts that self-driving cars could have when the concept of them is fully realized- senior citizens and disabled people being able to "drive," how well-rested we will all be because we can take a nap in the car instead of driving, an increase in miles driven because many people will send their car home after arriving at work rather than pay to park it- but one aspect we haven't addressed at SRTC yet is that the autonomous car revolution could take American jobs.

According to MarketWatch, 4.1 million jobs could disapear, including chauffeurs and drivers of trucks, cabs and ride-share vehicles.

The potential savings are predicted to outweigh the human cost, as drivers are one of the biggest expenses for transportation companies. And they have to sleep and take vacation, which isn't necessary for their self-driving replacements.

Some disagree though. Uber, expected to benefit hugely from autonomous cars, says it won't completely phase out drivers. Uber started a self-driving pilot program in Pittsburgh recently, although the car arrives with a human sitting in the front seat to take over if something goes wrong.
Still, the naysayers — and there are plenty — just aren’t buying it.

When To Cross? When the Car Smiles At You

How do you know when it's safe to cross the street? When the car approaching you smiles at you. A new self-driving car, called the Smiling Car, lights up with a smile to show that it has detected you and isn't going to run you over.

According to Fastcoexist.com, when you're standing on a street corner waiting to cross, you usually make eye contact with the driver of the car in your path to create some sort of understanding that they won't drive into you. With self-driving cars, that doesn't work. So the Sweden-based engineering firm Semcon had a little fun with technology in order to let the car "communicate" with others.

Eventually, designers say that eye-tracking and laser technology will be able to not only detect a pedestrian waiting to cross the road, but also small head or eye movements.

Beverley Hills Considering Self-Driving Cars As Public Transportation

Is this the public transit of the
future?

When you think "public transportation," do you think buses, subways, light rails- or do you think self-driving cars? In Beverly Hills, they think the latter. The city's council voted this month to create a program to use self-driving vehicles as public transportation.

According to The Verge, the council envisions self-driving vehicles providing "on-demand, point-to-point transportation," with citizens "requesting a ride using their smartphone." The city's mayor says the shuttles wouldn't replace public transportation, but augment it.

Councilmembers say Beverly Hill's temperate climate, well-maintained roads, and compact size make it perfect for using unmanned vehicles as public transportatin.

Phase one of the city council's program includes contacting companies like Tesla and Google to form potential partnerships. Sponsorships are mentioned as potential source of revenue, but so far there doesn't seem to be any actual funding for the program.

Self-Driving Cars Confused by Lack of Lane Markings

A common complaint in Spokane (after the number of potholes) is the lack of clear lane markings.
Striping wears off from weather exposure, age and plowing and sometimes it's hard to tell which lane you are in, or if there is even more than one lane.

Apparently humans aren't the only ones confused by bad lane markings; they play havoc with self-driving cars as well. Yahoo says the lack of markers caused Volvo's version of the self-driving car to refuse to drive itself during an event at the Los Angeles Auto Show recently. Apparently it was confused about what was the actual lane and couldn't make a judgement without striping to guide it.

Automakers are adding extra sensors that sense guard rails, barriers, and other lanes to combat this problem, but that adds cost to the price of the car- about $4,000 extra. Radar is also an option, as it uses radio waves to bounce of objects and determine where barriers are. But again, that adds cost for the buyer of the car.

Google Self-Driving Cars No Longer Blame-Free When It Comes to Collisions

Well, Google self-driving cars are no longer blame-free. Until recently, Google cars had driven more than a million miles without causing even a fender bender. The cars had been involved in a few accidents, but hadn't caused any.

On Valentine's Day, that streak came to an end, according to Vox. A report from Google says the self- driving car was in the rightmost lane  approachinh an intersection when it encountered a sandbag blocking its path and stopped. The car then tried to merge into traffic to the left to avoid the sandbag. It tried to merge in front of a bus, expecting the bus to let it in. The bus kept moving and the Google car hit the side of the bus, damaging the front fender, the left front wheel, and one of the driver's side sensors.

The bus was estimated to be moving about 15 miles per hour at the time of the crash, while the Google car was traveling 2 miles per hour. No one was injured.

Self-Driving Cars Can Both Help AND Hurt the Environment Apparently

Or for the love of Pete, you just can't win. While self-driving cars are being touted as the way of the This Vox article says that vehicle automation could initially save energy and reduce emissions by chaining cars together to drive more aerodynamically, driving at more consistent speeds and possibly serve as shared vehicles instead of everyone owning their own car. On the flip side though, more cars may be used if driving is easier and more pleasant, as self-driving cars will reportedly be. This includes the young, the elderly and disabled people using the cars that don't or can't currently drive, thereby putting more cars overall on the streets.
future, they may not be too great for the future of air pollution.

So how do these factors balance out? A new study called Help or Hindrance? The Travel, Energy and Carbon Impacts of Highly Automated Vehicles does a lot of calculation into this and says the answer is "it depends." Depends on what? Policies and decisions that need to be made today. A pretty interesting article, so take a look. 

Driverless Bus On the Road in the Netherlands

Forget driverless cars- the Netherlands (as usual) is way ahead of us. Last week, an electric,
driverless bus called a WEpod was launched there on a trial basis on the campus of Wageningen University, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

The bus doesn't even have a steering wheel or pedals that would allow a human driver to take control, unlike driverless cars in the U.S. The WEpods, which only travel at a top speed of 25 miles per hour,  only carry six people but will be used as regular public transit eventually. In April, driverlesss semi-trucks are supposed to be rolled out in the Netherlands as well. 

Reading Rainbow Takes On Driverless Cars

I'm one of the few non-technical employees in my office, so I admittedly struggle with some concepts. I get robots and remote control and all that, and while I think they're really cool and want one so I can take a nap while "driving", I'm a little baffled by the technology behind self-driving cars. Yes, I've read all the articles on them, but most are full of jargon and aimed at adults of a certain education level.

So how would you explain self-driving cars to, say, children? Problem solved. LeVar Burton takes on driverless cars in the Reading Rainbow segment below.

Newest Mercedes Comes With It's Own Crosswalk

Mercedes-Benz revealed a new concept car at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week but it's got more in common with Inspector Gadget than the family truckster. The "F 015 Luxury in Motion" car not only recognizes and reacts to pedestrians in front of it, it can even project a real-time crosswalk onto the road and use voice commands to direct the person to cross. 

The "Where the Sidewalk Starts Blog" has more information on this latest self-driving car.

Six Things Learned From Riding In A Self-Driving Car

Most people are familiar with the cartoonist The Oatmeal by now. I was given his book "How to Tell if Your Cat is Trying to Kill You" for Christmas. And it was an eye opener, let me tell you. Another eye opener was his serious, yet funny, take on self-driving cars. The cartoonist got the chance to try one out recently and did a blog post about it.

While I'm used to The Oatmeal's content being snarky most of the time, he took this opportunity to point out some things about self-driving cars that many people haven't realized. Such as the huge opportunities they will present to elderly people and those with disabilities.

He also calls the cars "Skynet Marshmallow Bumper Bots" and shares some theories on why they're so darn cute.

Here's the full article, from The Oatmeal.