Posts

Google_self-driving_car_MountainView2

Google to DOT: We should be able to sell driverless cars if they can pass federal road test

/1 Comment/in , , , , , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

News outlets are reporting that Google executive Chris Urmson sent the U.S. federal government a proposal Friday suggesting that self-driving cars should be legal on public roads, and legal to sell to consumers, if they are able to pass a road test satisfying federal safety standards.

Furthermore, Google’s proposal said the rule, if approved, should apply to any company manufacturing self-driving cars, not just Google.

“Google would rather not wade through government bureaucracy and red tape, so it has penned a proposal that will hopefully allow autonomous vehicles to be federally approved for road use sooner,” Hot Hardware reported Saturday.

“It’s hard to argue with Google’s reasoning,” Hot Hardware writers said, appearing to agree with Google.

This past week, representatives from several top companies such as Google, General Motors, Lyft, Duke University and Delphi Automotive, which are all heavily invested in autonomous car research and development, appeared on Capitol Hill to testify before members of Congress on the merits of the rising technology.

While it appears some progress was made in the meeting, in the same week, a new report from the Department of Transportation made headlines.

In its efforts to create a consistent national policy regarding self-driving cars, the DOT proposed that any self-driving cars on public roads must include a driver’s seat, steering wheel and brake pedal.

This was met with disappointment from Google, whose cars are famously steering wheel-less.

Engadget reports that the proposal was sent in an informal letter to top DOT officials on Friday, but that an official draft proposal has not been submitted to legislators yet.

Nevertheless, Google representative Johnny Luu told the Associated Press that the tech company’s proposal was “the beginning of a process” to create “the right framework that will allow deployment in a safe and timely manner.”

If approved, analysts see the proposed road tests as a “fast-track” approach to getting self-driving cars to market, as opposed to the current, more lengthy process automakers usually have to abide by.

“The typical process for making new rules takes years,” Associated Press reporter Justin Pritchard reports.

There is no word yet on what legislators think of Google’s idea.

“The department will take input from lots of stakeholders as we develop [a] plan,” Gordon Trowbridge, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is overseeing the regulation of self-driving technology within the broader Department of Transportation, told the Associated Press last week.

 

 

 

CapitolConstruct1

Google, GM, Lyft to Testify Before Congress on Importance of Autonomous Car Technology and What Government’s Role Should Be

/0 Comments/in , , , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

Executives from some of the biggest names in the autonomous car race will testify on Capitol Hill next week on the importance of autonomous car technology in making driving safer, as well as offer advice on what the government’s role should be in crafting appropriate legislation to help America get there.

According to Reuters, Chris Urmson, the head of Google’s self-driving car project, along with executives from General Motors (GM), Delphi Automotive and ride-hailing app Lyft will be speaking before a Senate committee led by Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican that heads the Senate Commerce Committee.

Inverse reports that representatives from two Duke University departments-the Humans and Autonomy Lab and Duke Robotics-will also be joining them at the hearing.

Reuters reports that the committee wants to hear from these company reps on “advancements in autonomous vehicle technology and its anticipated benefits for Americans.”

In addition, the committee wants to hear their thoughts “on the appropriate role of government in promoting innovation, including removing unnecessary hurdles, and their strategy to grow consumer adoption of this new technology.”

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in January of this year that his goal was for the federal government to remove legislative obstacles to the development of autonomous and connected-car technology, and to develop a consistent national policy for testing within six months.

At the same time, the Obama Administration announced $4 billion in funding for autonomous and connected-car testing along designated corridors nationwide.

For more information about the hearing as well as a link where you can stream the hearing live, visit the Senate committee’s website.

Bacon1

Autonomous Vehicle-Testing Dollars Entice States

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , ,

Burney Simpson

States are lining up for their share of driverless vehicle research dollars but each has its own approach to getting at the sizzling bacon of business bucks.

In Tennessee, State Sen. Mark Green has introduced legislation that will allow testing of Level 4 autonomous vehicles in the state. Level 4 vehicles can operate without any human intervention.

The Clarksville Republican believes testing will lead auto OEMs to consider manufacturing the vehicles in the state. Green emphasized the economic benefits of the technology in an interview with The Leaf-Chronicle.

“Because these companies that are going to manufacture them, and create all those jobs, are going to go where they can test their vehicles,” said Green.

California, Florida, Michigan, Nevada and the District of Columbia have enacted legislation making it legal to test autonomous vehicles. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe last year proclaimed the state would allow the testing.

Green’s bill, SB 1561, is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Transportation Committee on Monday, February 1. A similar bill, HB 1564, has been introduced in the Tennessee House by Rep. Mike Carter, an Ooltewah Republican.

Green’s proposal would require a human operator for any autonomous vehicle being tested, and impose a use tax of one cent per mile for an autonomous vehicle with two axles, and 2.6 cents a mile for those with more than two axles.

MASSACHUSETTS MEETS

In Massachusetts, several agencies and large cities are working to make self-driving vehicles legal and ensure the state becomes a research center on the technology.

Toyota has already invested $50 million in a research facility it will operate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Meanwhile, Boston is seeking $50 million from the US DOT to integrate self-driving vehicles in its borders, and the city of Somerville has partnered with Audi to test self-parking cars.

On February 9 the state’s Department of Transportation and the Office of Housing and Economic Development are scheduled to meet with Google, Tesla, MIT, Toyota, Audi, and Uber, to discuss opportunities for self-driving vehicles, according to the Boston Herald.

MARYLAND MEANDERS

Maryland appears to be less ambitious. It is scheduled to consider matching bills in its state House and Senate that call for $50,000 annually to fund a task force that will study the issue of self-driving vehicles.

The task force would work this year and next, and report its findings by 2018, for a total cost of $100,000.

In the House, Del. Pamela Beidle introduced HB 8, and Sen. Andrew Serafini introduced SB 126. Beidle’s proposal was scheduled to be heard today, and the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee is to consider SB 126 next Tuesday.

The problem here is that the same two legislators proposed similar bills last year, but called for $100,000 per year in funding. Beidle’s proposal sailed through the House but the Senate shot down Serafini’s measure.

Photo of Bacon by Martin Cathrae, 2008.

AmericasRoadTeam2

Volvo: Roads will be Safer if 5.9 GHZ Band Reserved for Driverless Tech

/1 Comment/in , , , , ,

Burney Simpson

 

An important driverless technology advocate ramped up the battle for wireless bandwidth, urging the U.S. Senate keep the Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) 5.9 GHz spectrum reserved for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications.

Ensuring that portion of spectrum exclusively to such autonomous and self-driving technologies will lead to safer roads and more efficient delivery of freight, Susan Alt, Volvo Group North America’s senior vice president of public affairs, told a Senate subcommittee on July 7.

OPENING 5.9 GHZ

Alt spoke before the Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security subcommittee during a hearing titled “Technologies Transforming Transportation: Is the Government Keeping Up?“ (Visit here for a transcript of Alt’s testimony).

Volvo’s position as stated by Alt put it in opposition to Sen. Corey Booker, a New Jersey Democrat and the ranking member of the subcommittee, and Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican running for president.

The two joined in February to sponsor the Wi-Fi Innovation Act (S 242) that would require the Federal Communication Commission to test opening the 5.9 GHz band to greater public use beyond certain automated vehicle technologies.

Additionally, a GM lobbyist in June told the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee it would begin testing the use of Wi-Fi in the 5.9 band with Cisco Systems. (See “GM to Congress: We’ll Test Wi-Fi in DSCR Spectrum”). GM has pledged to launch a Cadillac CTS in the 2017 model year with V2V capabilities.

In her testimony Alt noted there are now four types of automated technology available to heavy-duty truck users including adaptive cruise controls and rear view cameras; remote monitoring equipment of driver behavior; remote monitoring equipment that predicts vehicle problems; and technology that checks the driver’s route to avoid possible delays.

Taking autonomous driving technology to the next step means improving V2V and V2I communications, and keeping other Wi-Fi communications out of the 5.9 GHz band.

“The concern is that by allowing other technologies to be shared on the same spectrum, it could create a lag or latency in sending critical and lifesaving communication signals. Therefore, we … (oppose) the Wi-Fi Innovation Act that would open up the 5.9 GHz frequency spectrum to Wi-Fi access for non-safety and other applications such as entertainment and advertising,” Alt testified.

Leaders from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) have also opposed opening the 5.9 frequency spectrum to non-safety applications.

ELIMINATING HUMAN ERRORS

As part of her testimony Alt offered two Volvo Truck videos. One from October 2014 previews heavy-duty trucks the video says will be “market ready in five to 10 years” and capable of providing a 360-degree scan from the driver’s seat that will virtually eliminate human errors.

The video claims the technology will be able to see all the objects within this 360 scan, including vehicles, bikes and pedestrians, and predict up to five seconds ahead of time what these moving objects might do. It will send a warning to the driver of possible accident-causing actions, and take control of the truck to avoid the accident if the driver doesn’t.

A second video released this month offers Volvo Vision 2020. It uses animation to show heavy- duty trucks platooning on the highway, allowing drivers in the following trucks to switch to a ‘driverless’ mode.

Alt also took the opportunity to champion two other major issues facing the freight trucking industry.

First, there is a need for federal definitions and rules on autonomous technology for freight trucks that supersede state regulations. Today, some states are setting their own rules, creating a patchwork of regulations, and that is slowing the development of the technology, she said.

Second, Volvo Trucks would like to eliminate the 12 percent Federal Excise Tax on the sale of a new heavy-duty truck. Adding new autonomous technologies will make trucks more expensive and the tax more onerous. Instead, replace the excise tax with a higher fuel tax, which will have the added benefit of encouraging the adoption of the new technologies, said Alt.

Volvo Trucks markets heavy-duty trucks, engines, and transmissions under the Volvo and Mack brand names, along with marine engines, coaches, and transit buses, said Alt. The U.S. is its largest market.

Feature photo courtesy America’s Road Team program sponsored by Volvo Trucks.