Waymo decides to join California's autonomous vehicle passemger program

Waymo to join California's autonomous vehicle passenger program

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BY KEN HANLY     JUL 3, 2019 IN TECHNOLOGY

Google parent company Alphabet's driverless vehicle startup Waymo has been given a permit by the California Public Utilities Commission to participate in the state's autonomous vehicle passenger service program.

Three other companies are in the program

For the purpose of California's new program, riders cannot be charged for the tripand a safety driver must be behind the wheel at all times. Three other companies, Zoox, Autox Technologies and Ponyai are also in the project. The permit will be good for three years.

The program is separate from the state's autonomous vehicle testing program. That program has granted more than 60 companies permits from the Department of Motor Vehicles to test self-driving cars in the state.

No date for Waymo commercial ride hailing in California

Waymo already launched commercial ride hailing of autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona late in 2018. As a Verge article of December 5, 2018 announced: "Waymo, the self-driving subsidiary of Alphabet, launched its first commercial autonomous ride-hailing service here in the Phoenix suburbs on Wednesday — a momentous moment for the former Google self-driving project that has been working on the technology for almost a decade."

The Phoenix service serves about 400 test riders. Waymo also struck a deal with Lyft that allowed the ride-hailing company to add ten autonomous Waymo minivans to its Phoenix platform.

For now, the California operation will only give rides to Waymo employees and their guests within a limited service area in South Bay neighborhoods.

A spokesperson for Waymo said:“This is the next step on our path to eventually expand and offer more Californians opportunities to access our self-driving technology, just as we have gradually done with Waymo One in Metro Phoenix."

Waymo is the first company granted permission to operate fully driverless vehicles with no human backup drivers on public roads in California. No other company has been given permission to conduct fully driverless testing in the state. Waymo has already driven autonomous driverless vehicles about 1.3 million miles on California roads according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

Previously published in the Digital Journal

An optimistic view of when autonomous vehicles will be widely available is a decade

While areas such as Pittsburgh and Silicon Valley are actively researching the development of autonomous vehicles, they are not likely to be seen actually carrying passengers or be released for sale for years to come.

How long will it take for release of autonomous vehicles?

Even an optimistic assessment puts general use of the vehicles at ten years. Some even think it will be decades. There are numerous obstacles facing the development of the vehicles.

Vehicles already operate in limited well laid out areas within cities. Their use will spread out from these areas. The fatal accident of an Uber autonomous vehicle in Arizona last March damaged public perception of the safety of the vehicles. As a result research became more careful. Although in the Uber crash that car was in self-driving mode there was also a driver in the car as well. The accident may have been in part caused by the actions of the cyclist victim.

Google's Waymo, as an example of safety measures taken after the crash, decided it would not launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the Phoenix area. For now it is using human backup drivers in the service. Here are some of the problems researchers face.

Snow and weather

When snow becomes deep enough to cover the lane markings that the vehicle's cameras rely on to find their way, the vehicle cannot determine where it is in a lane very well. So far researchers have found no solution to this problem. This is why most research is being done in places with a warm climate such as Arizona or California.

Heavy snow, rain, fog and even sandstorms block the view of cameras that the vehicle use for sensing where it is. Light beams sent out by laser sensors can bounce off snowflakes mistaking them for obstacles. Although radar can penetrate the weather it cannot perceive shapes necessary for computers to decide what an object is.

Software is being developed that can differentiate real obstacles from heavy rain, snowflakes, fog and other conditions.

Pavement lines and curbs

From place to place markings on roadways vary and on many roads do not even exist. Even when there are lane lines they are not standardized. Vehicles must learn how to drive differently in various cities, countries, and conditions.

In addition to these problems, on many roads there are no curbs by which vehicles can judge lane width.

Dealing with human drivers

Human don't always obey the rules of the road. Autonomous vehicles are often not equipped to deal with the situation. Humans often double part for example. In Pittsburgh recently, an Argo self-driving vehicle stopped during a right hand turn and was blocking an intersection as the AI could not decide whether to go around a double-parked delivery truck. Fortunately the vehicle had a backup driver.

Some humans do not like autonomous vehicles. In Phoenix people have been reported harassing Waymo's autonomous test vehicles. Police in suburban Chandler have documented at least 21 instances in the past two years, and one includes a man who waived a gun at a Waymo van, and others in which tires were slashed and rocks thrown at vehicles. A jeep forced vans off the road six times.

Left turns

In places where there is no green arrow, it is often problematic for autonomous vehicles to decide if it is safe to turn left. Even humans find this a bit of a challenge. Waymo CEO John Krafcik said: "I think the things that humans have challenges with, we're challenged with as well."

Public acceptance of autonomous vehicles

Many people fear riding in autonomous vehicles and many others fear being on the road with them or worry as pedestrians or cyclists. Recently AAA found that fully 73 percent of Americans are too fearful to drive in an autonomous vehicle. This is up from just 63 percent in late 2017.

However Krafcik from Waymo pointed out that the more people ride the more they trust the vehicles. Passengers in the test vehicles are shown information on screens about where vehicles are headed and what their sensors are seeing. Krafcik said over time people looked less at the screens and were on their phones or even sleeping.

Cost

On website Quora, plant engineer Justin Culmo notes: "Price: will be the biggest inhibitor of adoption. Self-driving will only be in higher-end cars for a long time, and better versions (levels of autonomy) will come out, first, in the more expensive cars."

Culmo predicts that driving enthusiasts will stay away from self-driving cars. Many people will still treasure driving around in their older cars and sportscars. No doubt many will trust driving their own cars over riding in an autonomous vehicle.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Honda to invest $2.75 billion in Cruise the GM autonomous vehicle subsidiary

Honda has hardly any electric cars in its lineup — yet it is going to invest $2.75 billion in Cruise, the autonomous driving company bought by giant GM.

Investment spread over 12 years

There will be only $750 million in investment that will take place right now. The rest will be spread out over the following 12 years. Cruise has attracted other investment as just five months ago Softbank invested $2.25 billion in the project. Cruise is now valued at more than $14 billion.

What will the new vehicle be like?

Founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cruise, Kyle Vogt said that it would be innovative, space efficient and multi-purpose. He noted that when there is a chance to design a vehicle from scratch, one is not limited to a design that looks like an existing autonomous vehicle, but can work from first principles. He said that everything was in place to move reasonably quickly on the project.

The president of GM, Dan Amman, would not say what the new car would look like, claiming that it would be the next evolution in the future of transportation, and that it would be manufactured in high volumes for global deployment. Amman said: "This is a purpose-built vehicle that will be the first vehicle produced at scale that is freed from the constraints of vehicle design and having a driver at the wheel".

Mary Barra, CEO of GM commented on the close relationship between the two automotive companies that brought about the new project: “This is the logical next step in General Motors and Honda’s relationship, given our joint work on electric vehicles, and our close integration with Cruise. Together, we can provide Cruise with the world’s best design, engineering and manufacturing expertise, and global reach to establish them as the leader in autonomous vehicle technology — while they move to deploy self-driving vehicles at scale.”

A recent CNN article indicates the novelty of such a partnership: "With Honda's engineering and financial assistance, Cruise will begin developing a new vehicle that is not based on any existing car, the companies said. It will represent the next step in autonomous driving, one in which controls for human operation are entirely absent."

Honda, GM, and Cruise hope to expand Cruise network globally

Cruise claims it will begin to offer a commercial ride-hailing service using autonomous Chevy Bolts next year. The service is expected to be in San Francisco where Cruise has its headquarters. Cruise is already testing autonomous cars in the Bay Area.

Both companies have had decades of experienced building cars and this should stand them in good stead for the future in competition with Tesla. As the leader in the field, Tesla is setting sales records in spite of troubles with its founder Elon Musk. Tesla claims it has already equipped every car it makes with the hardware needed for fully autonomous operation. The company's Model 3 car is already increasing production in order to serve a mass market.

Previously published in Digital Journal