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Connected, Autonomous Vehicles On Display in Northern Virginia

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Jennifer van der Kleut

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Staff and elected officials from Fairfax County in northern Virginia were treated to an up-close look at connected and driverless car technology at a special event last week on May 3.

DriverlessTransportation.com and our sister company, eTrans Systems, which manufactures connected-vehicle software, took part in the event, which examined the logistics and benefits of advancing the technology and also offered test rides in prototype vehicles.

Representatives from Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), Tesla Motors, eTrans Systems and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) brought vehicles with connected and semi-autonomous technology to demonstrate how they work and to show off some of the benefits.

eTrans Systems showed off some of its V2I technology (vehicle-to-infrastructure) on test rides in a large, closed-off parking lot at the Fairfax County Government Center. Through a tablet mounted on the dashboard, riders could see when the system warned the driver if he was going over the speed limit or when the road was about to curve, and informed him of how soon an approaching traffic signal was going to change or when a collision with another vehicle was possible.

Following the demonstration rides, Fairfax County elected officials convened a discussion panel, moderated by David Zipper from the D.C.-based startup incubator 1776, and featuring representatives from eTrans, VTTI, VDOT and the consulting firm RK&K.

John Estrada, founder of DriverlessTransportation.com and CEO of eTrans, began remarks by reminding everyone that some autonomous vehicles are already present in Fairfax County and many other spots around the globe.

“Elevators are autonomous vehicles,” he pointed out. “And anyone who has ever traveled in or out of Dulles Airport has ridden in an autonomous tram.”

Estrada said he thinks the key to slowly introducing the technology to the masses is by starting it much that way-by limiting it to smaller, controlled areas in which they can be the only mode of transportation. He offered the nearby shopping and business districts of Tysons Corner as an example, as well as a few busier spots in Reston such as Reston Town Center and up and down the Sunrise Valley corridor.

In addition to providing a valuable opportunity to perfect the technology in a smaller, controlled environment, autonomous vehicles could also help solve the widespread “last mile” problem of public transit in such areas. This refers to how some people shy away from mass transit like Metro, buses or the subway because it only gets them so far, and then they have no way to get the “last mile” to their needed destination.

Dwight Farmer of RK&K, who previously worked for decades as a planning commissioner in Hampton Roads, Virginia, continued the conversation by pointing out many benefits that municipalities like Fairfax County could enjoy with the advent of autonomous vehicles and V2I and V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) communications.

For example, if safe spacing between vehicles could be reduced, the capacity on our highways could double, Farmer said. This refers to the idea that the distance between cars could be automated through technology so that cars could safely travel very close together without the danger of collision, and the constant start-and-stop that often accompanies gridlock traffic.

Farmer added, with automated safe spacing, cars could also safely increase their speeds by 20 percent, getting people to their destinations even faster and more smoothly.

And, with fewer crashes, those municipalities could save a great deal of money that is normally spent on crash response, which could then be rerouted for much-needed infrastructure improvements.

“I think we’re about to witness extraordinary times,” Farmer concluded.

Moderator Dave Zipper agreed.

“I think [connected and driverless vehicles] are going to bring about the most exciting change in mobility since the Model Ts were first rolled out in 1910,” he said.

Images by Jennifer van der Kleut for DriverlessTransportation.com

News Roundup: Volkswagen Shows Off Sedric the Level-5 Autonomous Car in China, Major Players Weigh In on California’s Proposed Driverless Testing Policies, and More

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A look at some of the biggest news stories to come out of the driverless and connected-car world this past week:

Major players weigh in on California’s proposed self-driving testing policies

Representatives from major players in the autonomous drive game, such as Apple, Uber, Tesla Motors and Ford, have been sending comments to California officials on what changes they would like to see made in the Golden State’s proposed policies for testing self-driving vehicles. In particular, Apple wants to change the way companies report “disengagements,” which we assume refers to accidents or collisions. Tesla wrote that they disapprove of the idea of barring testing of vehicles that weigh more than 10,000 pounds. Uber said it should be allowed for people to pay to ride in an autonomous vehicle with a driver behind the wheel in order to provide the company with honest feedback. Tesla also warned that restrictive policies would encourage developers to leave the state. Read more from Business Insider.

 

What to do with the ‘ocean of data’ connected and driverless cars will create each day?

Barclays analyst Brian Johnson said recently that as more and more cars are outfitted with sensors, cameras and LiDAR, the more data they will begin to generate. In fact, a single autonomous car will be capable of generating as much as 100 gigabytes of data per second. “Assuming the entire U.S. fleet of vehicles - 260 million vehicles - has a similar data generation, it would create an ocean of data. To put it in context, one hour’s worth of raw data across the entire U.S. fleet would be around 5,800 exabytes in size,” Johnson said. One exabyte is equivalent to one million terrabytes. That presents a wealth of problems when it comes to the storage, management and analysis of that much data. Many big companies like Tesla, Delphi and Intel have ideas about how to tackle this problem. One idea is “edge analytics,” where information is analyzed close to the sensor itself rather than being sent elsewhere through the cloud. Read more from CNBC.

 

Volkswagen wows with ‘Sedric’ Level 5 autonomous concept car in Shanghai

We first saw “Sedric” the Level-5 autonomous car in March, when Volkswagen showed off renderings of the concept car. Now, Volkswagen is showing off the real thing. The company recently took Sedric to China to show it off at the Auto Shanghai 2017 show. The car is capable of full Level-5 self-driving, and in fact executives said all a passenger has to do it climb in, press a single button to start the car, and then control it throughout the rest of the trip via voice commands. The car has no brakes, controls or pedals. In fact, the car features no “cockpit” at all. See more from Automotive Tires and Parts.

Photo: Interior of Volkswagen’s ‘Sedric’ car / Credit: Volkswagen

 

NVIDIA Sell-Off Leads to D20 Fallback

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Led by NVIDIA (NVDA), the Driverless Transportation’s Weekly Stock Index (D20) suffered its largest weekly loss since February of 2016 last week.

Sixteen price losers forced the D20 to drop 3.5 percent, or 6.79 points, and close the week at 185.91. The D20 lost ground against the Dow, which remained virtually unchanged, and the S&P 500, which slipped 0.3 percent to close at 2355.54.

NVIDIA’s sell-off continues as its stock lost $8.60 a share to close at $100.33.  This 7.9-percent drop was sparked by a downgrade to its stock by an analyst at Pacific Crest, but was really fueled by the market’s overall perception that NVIDIA’s stock price is overvalued.

Tesla (TSLA) was one of the few bright spots for the D20 this week. By meeting its expected number of vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of 2017, Tesla’s stock sky-rocketed 8.7 percent to close at $302.54 a share.  With that share price, Tesla’s market cap is larger than General Motor’s (GM), making Tesla the most valuable U.S. automaker.

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

Up-and-Comers:

Led by D20 constituent Delphi (DLPH), Otonomo raised $25 million in series B funding to continue its mission to assist the big automobile manufacturers in monetizing the data they are receiving from the connected vehicles they produce.

Otonomo’s platform is cloud-based and organizes the vehicle data so that consumers of the data-think insurance companies, vehicle parts manufacturers, and dealerships-can access it.

Renesas Leads Pack of Five Losers for Big Drop in D20 Stock Index

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Led by Renesas, five Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) constituent stocks lost more than 5 percent last week, prompting the D20 to take a nose dive for 3.63 points this week, closing at 181.87.

The D20’s 2-percent loss allowed the Dow, which jumped 1 percent, and the S&P 500, which gained 0.7 percent, to outperform the D20 for the third consecutive week.

Although the D20 had 10 price gainers and 10 price losers, the not-so-fabulous five of Blackberry (BBRY), Magna (MGA), NVIDIA (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), and Renesas (TYO:6723) drove the D20 to a significant loss.

There seemed to be no central theme for the five losing stocks. Blackberry lost 5.5 percent after announcing its new KeyOne smartphone. Magma missed earnings expectations and dropped 5.4 percent, and profit-taking continued to eat away at NVIDIA’s stock price as it also lost 5.4 percent this week.

Tesla dropped 5.6 percent even though its earnings announcement showed double the revenue from a year ago and a narrowed earning-per-share loss. Renesas lost a whopping 9.5 percent on news that it was close to completing an acquisition of Intersil.

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

Up-and-Comers:

Waymo, Alphabet’s (GOOG) driverless car division, is suing Uber and Otto for theft of trade secrets. Otto, which is owned by Uber and founded by Anthony Levandowski, stands accused of stealing Waymo’s trade secrets surrounding the LiDAR technology that Waymo pioneered. Levandowski, who led Google’s driverless efforts before it was named Waymo and left in 2015, started Otto in early 2016.

TomTom’s Drop Brings the D20 Stock Index Down After 5 Weeks of Gains

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After five weeks of consecutive gains, a drop by TomTom led the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) to take a slight step back this week, losing 0.18 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 185.64.

With an evenly divided 10 stock price gainers and 10 stock price losers, this time the D20 was no match for the Dow, which rose 1 percent, or the S&P 500, which added 0.8 percent.

Tesla Motors (TLSA) was the D20 price-percentage gainer, adding 7.1 percent to close at $269.23.  Tesla’s jump in price was likely caused by a combination of CEO Elon Musk’s access to President Trump and the NHTSA’s decision to close the investigation into a fatal accident that involved a Tesla with its Autopilot engaged.

After posting a Q4 loss with revenue down 6 percent, TomTom (TOM2) was the D20’s price-percentage loser.  TomTom lost 9.6 percent last week, closing at €7.79. Without TomTom’s loss the D20 would have been easily in the black this week.

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

 

Up-and-Comers:

Ford, looking to add muscle to its driverless car program, invests in Argo AI.  Ford is committing to spend $1 billion on the start-up and operate it as an independent subsidiary. Argo AI was founded by the former head of Google’s car division, Waymo, and a former top engineer for Uber’s self-driving division. It appears Ford, like many of the other automotive manufacturers, felt the need to buy technology as opposed to developing it in house with the race to deliver driverless cars heating up.

Otto won Hot New Startup at the Chrunchies.  The Chrunchies Awards are an annual event in its tenth year, sponsored by TechCrunch and devoted to celebrating start-up technology companies.  Otto has plans to develop technology for self-driving trucks. Otto demonstrated its technology in October with an Otto-powered truck delivering 50,000 Budweiser cans to Colorado Springs from Fort Collins, Colorado.

Volkswagen and Tesla Motors Help D20 Break a New Barrier

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The Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) rose 1.4 percent to break the 180 barrier for the first time and close at 180.75 last week, thanks in part to gains by Volkswagen and Tesla Motors.

Thirteen price gainers compared to seven losers ensured that the D20 hit a new high.

The D20 was led by Volkswagen (VLKPY), which jumped 8.3 percent to $31.64, particularly after the debut of the I.D. Buzz autonomous-capable VW Bus at the Detroit Auto Show.

Volkswagen’s gain was supported by Visteon (VC), which rose 5.1 percent, and Tesla (TSLA), whose six consecutive weeks of gains have pushed its stock price to $237.75.

The D20 outperformed the Dow and the S&P 500 this week.  While the D20 rose, the Dow lost 0.4 percent to close at 19885.73 and the S&P sunk 0.1 percent ending the week at 2274.64.

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

Up-and-Comers:

Starship Technologies has raised an investment round of $17.2 million with Daimler as the lead investor. U.K.-based Starship’s product is a six-wheeled insulated cooler that can autonomously deliver food, hot or cold.  Starship founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Fiis, also founders of Skype, hope that their rolling delivery drones are a hit on sidewalks around the world.

CES Buzz Helps D20 Top Dow and S&P 500

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The buzz generated at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) by companies displaying their driverless prototypes helped push the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) to a new all-time high of 178.22.

Its gain of 2.4 percent more than doubled the Dow’s 1-percent bump and was better than the S&P’s 1.7-percent jump.

Many of the D20 automakers were at CES to demonstrate their driverless prototypes, or to announce partnerships or the desire to create one. With Delphi (DLPH), NVIDIA (NVDA), Renesas (TYO:6732) and Valeo (VLEEY) as exhibitors in the “Self-Driving Technology Marketplace,” CES 2017 looked more like a traditional car show than the Consumer Electronics Show that started 50 years ago in 1967 in New York City.

Nineteen price gainers and only one loser, NVIDIA, guaranteed that the D20 would advance. The price percentage leader for the D20 was Tesla (TSLA), which jumped $15.32 per share, or 7.2 percent, to close at $229.01 after announcing that they missed their 2016 production targets by almost 5 percent. When Tesla shoots for the moon and misses by 5 percent, they still get rewarded.

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

Up-and-Comers:

CrowdAI, an artificial-intelligence-as-a-service provider, has raised $2 million dollars to further its efforts to provide this service-combining computer vision and image recognition.  CrowdAI provides high-quality annotated images that should enable autonomous vehicle and drone manufacturers to model and build their AI-based scenario recognition systems more quickly.

NVIDIA Steps Back, and the D20 Takes a Dive

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Eight price gainers couldn’t undo the damage that 12 losers inflicted on The Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) this week.

The D20 lost 2.1 percent, falling to 163.43, as the Dow edged up 0.1 percent and the S&P 500 lost 1 percent.

NVIDIA (NVDA) took a rare large step backward this week, losing 6 percent of its value and closing at $88.45. It had to happen sooner or later, because the stock has been on a tear.  Since Oct. 14th’s close at $65.99, NVIDIA’s stock price rose to a peak of $94.16 on Nov. 25th, a 43-percent price gain in only six weeks.

Other key losers were Tesla (TSLA), which lost 7.7 percent, and Mobileye (MBLY), which dropped 6.8 percent.

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

 

Up-and-Comers:

A new electric car company called Lucid Motors has announced that it will begin building its manufacturing center in Casa Grande, Arizona in 2017.  Their first car, a four-door sedan, is targeted for production in 2018.

Starship Technologies’ autonomous delivery robots have scored another partner, JustEat.  JustEat is using the small six-wheeled autonomous delivery vehicles in the Greenwich section of London to deliver take-out.

News Roundup: Tesla’s New Self-Driving Hardware to Debut This Month, Three Groups Get Green Light For Testing Driverless Cars in Ontario, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A look at some of the biggest headlines to come out of the driverless and connected-car industry over the past week:

Elon Musk says Tesla will roll out new self-driving feature before the end of the year

After announcing that all cars made after Oct. 19 would feature all-new self-driving hardware, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said this week that the company would gradually start activating the new capability “in about three weeks.” However, there still appears to be much confusion and speculation over just how “autonomous” the new feature will be, including whether a driver will still be expected to keep eyes on the road, or hands on the steering wheel. Additionally, some Tesla owners are upset that the newer models hae been stripped of so many of their previous features, in favor of the new hardware. Read more from Computer Business Review.

Three groups get licenses to test driverless cars in public in Ontario

Ontario’s Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca pulled up to a press conference recently in the “Autonomoose”-a self-driving Lincoln MKZ hybrid sedan-to announce to reporters that three groups have been granted permission to test their driverless prototypes on public roads in the province. The University of Waterloo’s Centre for Autonomous Research will test the MKZ starting early next year; Erwin Hymer Group is the second, and QNX, a division of Waterloo’s BlackBerry, will develop vehicle software in association with its test of automated features of a 2017 Lincoln. Read more from TheStar.com.

Construction begins on American Center for Mobility in Michigan

Progress on the new American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan is moving quickly. Just months after the sale of the old 330-acre Willow Run test site was finalized, construction on the ACM has already broken ground. A ceremonial first dig by officials including Governor Rick Snyder was conducted last week. ACM will be a site for testing autonomous and connected-car vehicle technology, and is expected to be open for business by this time next year. Read more and see photos on Detroit Free Press.

News Roundup: California DMV Proposes More New Mandates for Driverless Vehicles, Tesla Plans Level 5 Autonomy By Next Year, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A roundup of interesting headlines to come out of the driverless and connected-vehicle industry this week:

Companies are once again concerned that California DMV rules will delay autonomous transportation progress

It seems California still can’t strike an effective balance when it comes to laws governing the manufacture and testing of autonomous vehicles. Previously, the California Department of Motor Vehicles said it was relieved and happy when the federal government released official policies and guidelines for states regarding self-driving vehicles, because the state felt it did not have the expertise or technical knowledge to design its own rules. Yet, despite the recent release of the federal government’s new policies, the California DMV this week held a public workshop about state rules, and industry folks say they were blind-sided by even more new state mandates, which make them concerned that once again, progress in the state will be hampered. The Los Angeles Times reports that under new rules, manufacturers would also have to obtain an ordinance or resolution from local authorities “that specify the roadways, speeds and other conditions that their vehicles are designed to operate in to ensure that communities have input on where testing occurs.” Perhaps even more surprisingly, E&T Magazine reports that companies would have to submit a full year’s worth of driverless data before being allowed to apply for a testing permit. Read more from the LA Times and E&T Magazine.

 

Tesla News: By end of next year, all cars will be fully autonomous-but we will only take responsibility for accidents in certain cases

A lot of news came out of the Tesla camp this week. First, on Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk announced that all new Tesla models will be capable of complete autonomy-that, is Level 5. All current Tesla owners will also be able to update their car’s software to turn their semi-autonomous cars into Level 5 vehicles, which Musk said will require no interaction from the “driver” at all. Musk said the company hopes the Level 5 updates will be ready by the end of 2017, barely one year from now. In other news, though, Musk blasted the media for making such a big deal over the few recent Autopilot crashes that have taken place, one of which killed the driver of the vehicle. He said the few accidents should not overshadow the numerous miles Teslas have driven safely while in Autopilot. Based on that, Musk said, Tesla as a company will only be taking responsibility for crashes caused by “design flaws.” That declaration comes amid a still-brewing argument within the auto industry over where liability for crashes in semi-autonomous or fully autonomous vehicles should fall. Read more about Tesla’s announcements from the Business Journal and WIRED magazine.

 

Moscow still sees self-driving buses as 5-10 years away

Russia broached the subject of driverless transportation this week, suggesting that the nation is still wary of the concept. Representatives from the Department of Transport said they still see self-driving transit buses as being at least five to 10 years away, “after they have been recognized as safe and beneficial in other countries.” In particular, officials pointed to Singapore as a country they are following with interest. Singapore is in the process of rolling out connected-vehicle bus control systems, and just recently starting testing self-driving robot taxis in a small downtown area. Moscow isn’t ruling out the concept of driverless transportation completely, though-officials said research and development is already underway involving driverless car sharing and artificial intelligence systems for vehicles, as well as semi-autonomous features such as emergency braking and driver fatigue monitoring. Read more from Mos.ru, the Moscow City news website.