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California DMV finalizing self-driving regulations, says it supports Tesla Autopilot as legal Level 2 tech
HybridCars.com
Why Tesla’s Autopilot and Google’s Self-Driving Car Are Two Entirely Different Animals
Brad Ideas/Brad Templeton
GM Takes D20 Over 160
Driverless Transportation
The Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index broke the 160 barrier for the first time ever, finishing at 160.77 last week. For the fourth consecutive week, the D20’s 2.9 percent gain outpaced the 2.5 percent gain in the Dow Jones Industrials and the 2.1 percent rise in the S&P 500 Index. The D20 saw 17 stocks finishing higher while three declined.
This week’s largest loser was Tesla (TSLA) down 7.9 percent on news that Consumer Reports held back its rating on the Model S owing to reliability concerns. Tesla finished the week at $209.09, its lowest point since mid-April 2015. On the driverless front, Tesla announced the release of its Autopilot update for the Model S. The reviews of the software update for existing cars are mostly positive, but some users have complained that the Model S takes turns too fast in Autopilot mode.
On the bright side, General Motors (GM) posted its fourth consecutive weekly gain by adding 8.5 percent and ending the week at $35.95 a share. Most of the jump was due to GM’s surprisingly positive third-quarter earnings announcement. GM has adopted a quiet but aggressive plan to develop “self-driving” cars.
Other D20 stocks that put in strong showings last week were Alphabet (GOOG) up 6.0 percent, Continental (CTTAY) up 6.9 percent, Magna (MGA) up 6.0 percent, and Valeo (VLEEY) up 6.2 percent.
Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks
Tesla’s Autopilot Hyped Too Much? Drivers Push It Beyond Its Limits, With Near-Dangerous Results
MIT Technology Review
Renesas Launches Autonomous-Driving Platform for Developers
Burney Simpson
A fleet of cars using a new comprehensive platform for creating, building and testing autonomous driving technology is now available for viewing and test drives at the Renesas DevCon 2015, the conference organized by Renesas Electronics America.
The autos feature eight LiDAR, five radar, forward smart cameras, a Vehicle to Everything (V2X) box, and other technology that is becoming a core part of autonomous vehicles worldwide.
Renesas’ Autonomous Driving Development Platform includes a fleet of cars that can be operated as a modular and open laboratory for the auto industry. Renesas collaborated on the project with autonomous technology firms Harbrick, NewFoundry, Arada Systems, eTrans Systems, and Cogent Embedded.
Renesas DevCon began yesterday and runs through Thursday at the Hyatt Regency Orange County in Anaheim, Calif.
“Advanced automotive systems for cars are complex to develop and carry a heavy burden of responsibility,” said Amrit Vivekanand, vice president of the automotive business unit at Renesas. “We are building vehicle-level platforms that address customer and partner engineering challenges.”
The platform can be used as a “working sandbox in real-world environments” by “algorithm experts, sensor makers, system integrators, and other subject matter experts” so they can “collaborate, validate, experiment” and benchmark new ideas, Renesas announced.
Vehicles using the new platform integrate such autonomous driving technology as sensor fusion, forward camera image recognition, 3D surround view, and V2X communications. It is powered by Renesas microcontrollers, System on Chips (SoC), and semiconductors.
The platform uses Harbrick’s PolySync system, a development system that uses two Renesas R-Car H2 SOCs. Cogent Embedded provided 3D surround view and forward lane detection systems. Arada and eTrans provided Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) systems that run on two channels of 5.9 GHz dedicated short-range communications (DSRC).
Renesas reported it plans to expand the technology to offer cockpit, safety, security, and powertrain platforms.
Renesas DevCon 2015
Renesas DevCon 2015 is an intensive four-day event filled with over 200 hours of lectures and labs, a solutions filled exhibit hall, and free development tools. You’ll also have the opportunity to learn from Renesas’ best and brightest during the one-on-one ‘Ask the Experts’ sessions. Learn how to create a Renesas Synergy project, from concept to working prototype. You’ll be able to configure and use modules from each layer to see how they are integrated, work as a platform and allow application development from the API level.
ITS California Buzzes on DOT Grants, Autonomous Levels Concept
John Estrada
The annual meeting of ITS California was held last week in Southern California. The major buzz at the show was the previous week’s announcement by the US DOT that initial winners in grants for next-generation V2V and V2I technology were proposals from New York, Florida and Wyoming. Many of the participants at the show felt very strongly that an award should have gone to California. It will be interesting to see what if any of those winning projects get off the ground.
There were quite a few interesting speakers at the show. A couple of highlights included:
Greg Larson from CalTrans who led a panel that considered whether bus and truck automation should come before auto automation. Greg presented a chart from Richard Bishop of Bishop Consulting that showed the various levels of automation leading to autonomous cars as described by the SAE. Rather than a detailed description of what makes a vehicle fit into various levels, Richard describes it as follows:
- Level 0: hands and feet ON;
- Level 1: hands or feet OFF;
- Level 2: hands and feet OFF, eyes ON;
- Level 3: hands, feet, eyes OFF, brain on;
- Level 4: hands, feet, eyes, brain OFF - Constrained environments;
- Level 5: hands, feet, eyes, brain OFF – Unconstrained.
There were also a series of demonstrations of connected vehicle technologies from eTrans Systems, Econolite, Bosch and Arada Systems.
This was our second year at the show and in that short time it was clear how quickly technology is advancing in the work of Intelligent Transportation.
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