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Cars without drivers scoot around Nissan plant, towing cars
http://www.kentucky.com/news/business/article118893283.html

YOKOSUKA, Japan Nissan Motor Co. is testing self-driving cars at one of its plants in Japan that can tow vehicles on a trailer to the wharf for loading on transport ships.
...
During a demonstration Monday, a Leaf car with no one inside scooted along the road, pulling a trailer with three other Leafs on it, stopped properly for other vehicles, and then veered into a parking lot.
 
Yes, the semi-autonomous vehicle era which is now beginning is "going to be a mess", and it probably won't last very long, either, IMO.

Autonomous features ripe for misunderstanding
Safety issues arise for buyers, sellers


As Donna Lee approached the intersection of Roberts Drive and Spalding Drive in Sandy Springs, Ga., the salesman in the passenger seat told her not to hit the brakes, even though two cars were stopped and waiting at the red light ahead.

According to court documents, Lee and Mercedes salesman Desmond Domingo have similar accounts of what happened next on the evening of May 10, 2014. The Distronic semiautonomous system in the Mercedes-Benz GL450, which Domingo believed would bring the car to a full stop, did not kick in as he expected. The Mercedes slammed into the car in front of it at around 40 mph, causing a chain reaction of crashes that left a 16-year-old driver with a concussion and significant damage to the cars involved.

Situations such as that -- when car salespeople are trying to demonstrate semiautonomous technology to customers who've never experienced it -- are emerging as a concern for industry watchers who fear salespeople will oversell or misrepresent technology, leading to accidents...

Semiautonomous technology is rolling out piecemeal, and each automaker has a system that does something different. Some bring a vehicle to a full stop. Some slow the vehicle to about 5 mph. Some can keep the vehicle in the lane, with little input from the driver. Others issue warnings when the vehicle is about to leave the lane but leave the driver in control.

The wide variety of options makes it hard to keep track of what each vehicle does. Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation, said this is a problem that likely won't be solved until fully autonomous vehicles -- ones that drive themselves without input from the driver -- are available.

"Until then, it's going to be a mess," he said...
http://www.autonews.com/article/20161205/OEM06/312059966/autonomous-features-ripe-for-misunderstanding
 
cwerdna said:
Cars without drivers scoot around Nissan plant, towing cars
http://www.kentucky.com/news/business/article118893283.html

YOKOSUKA, Japan Nissan Motor Co. is testing self-driving cars at one of its plants in Japan that can tow vehicles on a trailer to the wharf for loading on transport ships.
...
During a demonstration Monday, a Leaf car with no one inside scooted along the road, pulling a trailer with three other Leafs on it, stopped properly for other vehicles, and then veered into a parking lot.
https://transportevolved.com/2016/12/05/nissan-launches-intelligent-vehicle-towing-at-oppama-factory-based-on-autonomous-nissan-leaf/ has a short official Nissan video of the towing at the top.
 
cwerdna said:
cwerdna said:
Cars without drivers scoot around Nissan plant, towing cars
http://www.kentucky.com/news/business/article118893283.html

YOKOSUKA, Japan Nissan Motor Co. is testing self-driving cars at one of its plants in Japan that can tow vehicles on a trailer to the wharf for loading on transport ships.
...
During a demonstration Monday, a Leaf car with no one inside scooted along the road, pulling a trailer with three other Leafs on it, stopped properly for other vehicles, and then veered into a parking lot.
https://transportevolved.com/2016/12/05/nissan-launches-intelligent-vehicle-towing-at-oppama-factory-based-on-autonomous-nissan-leaf/ has a short official Nissan video of the towing at the top.
It seems that once the vehicles themselves have self-driving capabilities that they could contain special pre-sale software that would allow them to perform the task of loading and unloading themselves from the transport ship.
 
RegGuheert said:
It seems that once the vehicles themselves have self-driving capabilities that they could contain special pre-sale software that would allow them to perform the task of loading and unloading themselves from the transport ship.
Perhaps they could even sell themselves, cutting out the middleman (dealer). Wouldn't that be sweet!
 
Stoaty said:
RegGuheert said:
It seems that once the vehicles themselves have self-driving capabilities that they could contain special pre-sale software that would allow them to perform the task of loading and unloading themselves from the transport ship.
Perhaps they could even sell themselves, cutting out the middleman (dealer). Wouldn't that be sweet!
Autonomous car: "What'll it take to put you in a car today/today/today/today/brrrp Error detected . . . Reboot in progress . . . Initializing data . . . . . This may take a few minutes . . . . . [Muzak starts] . . . . Please stand by . . . . . We value your business . . . . . Thanks for your patience . . . . . . . You are number 12 in line . . . . . . . . . . . You are number 11 in line . . . . . . . . . . . Our business hours are now over for the day. Please try again tomorrow. We are open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Pacific Time. Thank you."

Uh, are you sure we want to go there? ;)
 
Via GCC:
Uber launches self-driving pilot in San Francisco with Volvo Cars
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/12/20161214-uber.html

Uber is expanding its self-driving pilot to San Francisco, California, using specially-converted self-driving Volvo XC90 premium SUVs. . . .

The latest cars to be used in San Francisco have been built by Volvo and sold to Uber, after which Uber’s own self-driving hardware and software package has been added, most visibly in the roof-mounted control apparatus. Volvo Cars and Uber are contributing a combined US$300 million to the project. Both Uber and Volvo will use the same base vehicle for the next stage of their own autonomous car strategies.

These cars will drive around the streets of San Francisco autonomously, but as part of the pilot program they will at all times have an Uber technician on board to supervise the car’s operation.

  • Starting today, riders who request an uberX in San Francisco will be matched with a Self-Driving Uber if one is available. Expanding our self-driving pilot allows us to continue to improve our technology through real-world operations. With its challenging roads and often varied weather, Pittsburgh provided a wide array of experiences. San Francisco comes with its own nuances including more bikes on the road, high traffic density and narrow lanes.

    —Anthony Levandowski, Head of the Advanced Technology Group, Uber. . . .
 
And the response to the above, via the car connection:
Uber takes self-driving cars to San Francisco, DMV isn't happy
http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1107804_uber-takes-self-driving-cars-to-san-francisco-dmv-isnt-happy

. . . In California, the cars function much as they do in Pennsylvania. They have two engineers onboard--one in the driver's seat, one in the passenger's--taking notes and generally being available should anything go wrong. . . .

All of which sounds great and reasonable, except for one small problem: the California DMV says that Uber doesn't have a permit to operate self-driving vehicles on the state's public roads. Twenty companies have applied for and receive such permits, but Uber isn't among them. In response, Uber says that its cars aren't self-driving, and that's why there are humans onboard. According to Uber, those humans can and frequently do take over control of vehicles in driving situations.

The DMV says that whether or not there are humans onboard is irrelevant: Uber's vehicles are capable of driving autonomously, and that fact alone means that Uber has to apply for the proper permit. . . .
 
GRA said:
California doesn't back down, via Reuters:
Uber takes self-driving cars to Arizona after California demands permit
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-selfdriving-idUSKBN14B2B3

Good for us (California).

What does this have to do with the thread? The vehicles in question are not BEVs, they are not Leafs, and they are not fully autonomous. I'm actually behind Uber on this one.
 
baustin said:
GRA said:
California doesn't back down, via Reuters:
Uber takes self-driving cars to Arizona after California demands permit
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-selfdriving-idUSKBN14B2B3

Good for us (California).

What does this have to do with the thread? The vehicles in question are not BEVs, they are not Leafs, and they are not fully autonomous. I'm actually behind Uber on this one.
This thread has long since become the de facto thread for general discussion of autonomous cars, rather than one limited to the topic title.
 
GRA said:
...this thread has long since become the de facto thread for general discussion of autonomous cars, rather than one limited to the topic title.
I changed the title, which made deciding where to post the story below easier...

The article below shows how rapidly AV's have advanced since the original post ~ four years ago:

Less stressful than a taxi: We ride in Hyundai's Autonomous Ioniq Electric

The day after California told Uber to halt the testing of its driverless cars, Hyundai gave us a brief ride in an autonomous Ioniq Electric. The trip was mostly uneventful — our driver/engineer didn't hit anyone, and, unlike Uber's, Hyundai's car didn't run any red lights. You may think that's faint praise, but at the speed of advancement we take nothing for granted. More than once during our ride around a pre-mapped, all-right-turn route in Las Vegas, the Ioniq had to sort things out for itself, and the longer you ride the more you realize the scope of data we humans process without noticing.

This Ioniq was identified only by its Korea-spec origins — dual charging ports for fast and regular recharge and no side marker lights — and Nevada's autonomous vehicle license plate. Tourists were completely unaware that it was driving itself.

The autonomous Ioniq uses one 140-degree and two 110-degree Ibeo LiDAR units in the front fascia, plus a camera array inside the cabin at the top of the windshield. A single camera is used for traffic-light detection, with stereo units for the driving assistants. According to Hyundai, the autonomous gear detects objects knee-high but also will not drive into a low-hanging tree branch. We're also told the system works in rain and snow, citing the all-conditions approval certificate from Nevada, though that center front sensor looks prime for snow packing in heavy stuff...

During our ride, the car signaled appropriately, always used the correct lane, and stayed within the lines even on poorly marked curving roads (no lane changes on this route) and dutifully motored past Las Vegas's finest at the posted speed limit...
http://www.autoblog.com/2016/12/20/autonomous-hyundai-ioniq-electric-first-ride/#slide-4317395
 
A good perspective on Nissan's plan to use remote drivers to accelerate the transition to vehicles which require no (on-board) drivers:

Nissan’s Path to Self-Driving Cars? Humans in Call Centers

“THIS IS IT!” Maarten Sierhuis says. “I mean, look at this.” He points to a photo of road construction at an intersection in Sunnyvale, California, near Nissan’s Silicon Valley research center, which Sierhuis runs. A line of cones shunts traffic to the left side of the double yellow line. The light is red. A worker holds a “Slow” sign. It’s the sort of seemingly unremarkable situation that can trigger convulsions in the brain of an autonomous vehicle.

“There is so much cognition that you need here,” Sierhuis says. The driver—or the car—has to interpret the placement of the cones and the behavior of the human worker to understand that in this case, it’s OK to drive through a red light on the wrong side of the road. “This is not gonna happen in the next five to ten years.”

It’s a stunning admission, in its way: Nissan’s R&D chief believes the truly driverless car—something many carmakers and tech giants have promised to deliver within five years or fewer—is an unreachable short-term goal. Reality: one; robots: zero. Even a system that could handle 99 percent of driving situations will cause trouble for the company trying to promote, and make money off, the technology. “We will always need the human in the loop,” Sierhuis says.

But Nissan has a solution: a call center with human meatbags ready to take command via remote control...
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/nissans-self-driving-teleoperation/

More on Nissan's presentation at CES at this thread:

BEV and AV news from CES 2017
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=22737&start=30

edatoakrun said:
Jan 5, 2017
PRESS KIT: Nissan Intelligent Mobility at CES

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn announces at CES breakthrough technologies
and partnerships to deliver zero-emissions, zero-fatality mobility


News At-a-Glance

On January 5, 2017 during his CES keynote Nissan chairman of the board and chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn announced several advancements as part of the Nissan Intelligent Mobility blueprint for transforming how cars are driven, powered and integrated into wider society. Highlights included:

The launch of Nissan' breakthrough Seamless Autonomous Mobility (SAM) system. Developed from NASA technology, SAM partners in-vehicle artificial intelligence (AI) with human support to help autonomous vehicles make decisions in unpredictable situations and build the knowledge of in-vehicle AI. This technology will enable millions of driverless cars to co-exist with human drivers in an accelerated timeline. It is part of Nissan Intelligent Integration...

A new Nissan LEAF will be coming in the near future. The model will be equipped with ProPILOT technology, enabling autonomous drive functionality for single-lane highway driving. This new LEAF will build on the company's leadership in electric vehicles, which includes more than 250,000 Nissan LEAFs sold worldwide since 2010. The new LEAF represents the next chapter of Nissan Intelligent Power...
...
http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/releases/press-kit-nissan-intelligent-mobility-at-ces

Highlights of the Video of the CES presentation at the link, IMO:

~38 minutes, the essential role of humans in supporting AV's, by using a remotely located human, BUT NOT relying on an on-board driver to take on this responsibility.

Makes perfect sense to me. What are your young kids, elderly parents (or you when you are taking a nap) expected do when your auto pilot demands someone grab the wheel?

~57 minutes, Importance of V-to Grid and V to Home capability to maximize the utility of BEVs.

Sounds like we'll be hearing a lot more about this in a few days at Detroit:

Nissan at 2017 North American International Auto Show
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=23214
 
edatoakrun said:
A good perspective on Nissan's plan to use remote drivers to accelerate the transition to vehicles which require no (on-board) drivers:

...But Nissan has a solution: a call center with human meatbags ready to take command via remote control...
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/nissans-self-driving-teleoperation/
That's an odd idea. I guess I have trouble imagining the following:

1) That each autonomous vehicle would have the uplink data rate to provide enough data to a remote operator. If I am not mistaken, this is one of the real limitations the military has with operating a large squadron of remotely-controlled drones.
2) That a human operator would be able to achieve enough situational awareness quickly enough in a situation in which the robot got confused to be able to safely move things forward. In many cases, I suspect there would already have been an accident before the human could get himself/herself oriented.
3) That this will prove to be somehow better than just using fully-autonomous software at any stage of development.

As such, I doubt they will ever field this with actual customers.
 
RegGuheert said:
edatoakrun said:
A good perspective on Nissan's plan to use remote drivers to accelerate the transition to vehicles which require no (on-board) drivers:

...But Nissan has a solution: a call center with human meatbags ready to take command via remote control...
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/nissans-self-driving-teleoperation/
That's an odd idea...
What's odd, IMO, is designing a semi-autonomous system such as Tesla's that still requires meatbags to be on-board every car, and ready to intervene at a moment's notice whenever the autopilot fails, defeating the primary benefit provided by a "self-driving" or "driver-free" vehicle.

Sounds like California's DMV regulators agree:

New to California roads: Cars with no drivers behind the wheel?

SACRAMENTO – State regulators on Friday proposed easing restrictions on testing autonomous driving systems, clearing a path for driver-free vehicles in California’s cities, towns and highways.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles allows testing of autonomous vehicles, but requires a driver behind the wheel. Tech companies and automakers have criticized the rules for slowing innovation.

The new proposal would allow manufacturers to test cars without drivers, as long as remote operators monitor the vehicles.

The proposal would push California ahead of other states and could pave the way for a new world of design and innovation in transportation. It would also boost Silicon Valley’s market position, as tech companies — ranging from Google’s Waymo, Tesla and Uber to a number of highly valued startups — seek to crack the engineering challenges of fully autonomous driving.

“This is the next step in eventually allowing driverless autonomous vehicles on California roadways,” DMV Director Jean Shiomoto said in a statement. The changes in the testing restrictions could come as early as this year...
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/10/driverless-cars-proposed-for-california-roads/
 
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