Welcome again to The Driverless Commute, presented by the global law firm Dentons, a weekly digest clocking the most important technical, legal and regulatory developments shaping the path to full autonomy.
1. Snowbirds
It’s no mere coincidence that the most desirable theaters of driverless experimentation—we’re looking at you, Southern California, Arizona and Florida—rarely suffer inclement winter weather.
Because winter weather uniquely confounds the standard hardware suite that enables the safe navigation of an autonomous vehicle, very few of the industry’s biggest players are investing in the requisite research and development to build a car capable of performing a function that eludes even humans: driving in snow.
That could make for a stilted (or even unsafe) deployment of the technology in colder climates.
But Boston-based startup WaveSense, an outgrowth of MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, thinks the answer to the road cover conundrum lies in ground-penetrating radar, which would help autonomous vehicles maintain lanes by measuring geological patterns underground to render a road’s fingerprint even in heavy snow.
First used by the US Army in the Afghanistan conflict to enable precise navigation of large military vehicles on dust-covered roads, the technology is now being used to bridge the navigation gaps left by forward-looking lidar and cameras by instead looking down.
How it works: Radar will penetrate 10 feet below the ground’s surface to measure standard geological cues that indicate a road’s position; researchers claim it’s accurate up to one inch at highway speeds.
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2. AV’s old-world stumbling blocks
What’s tougher than developing a fully autonomous car? Managing a continuously operating fleet of them.
Waymo, whose ever-expanding fleet is logging in excess of 25,000 miles every day, lifted the curtain in a new interview with The Verge on the behind-the-scenes complications it’s encountering in managing its massive driverless squadron.
“At the heart of that activity is the company’s 70,000-square-foot depot, where its fleet of autonomous vehicles are tended to by teams of technicians, engineers, and mechanics, as well as customer service reps and product managers. …
“A day in the life of one of Waymo’s self-driving minivans typically starts around 5AM. That’s when the first ‘pre-flight check’ begins. Waymo builds all of its self-driving sensors in-house, including cameras, radar, and LIDAR. Keeping this hardware in tip-top shape is the job of the company’s fleet technicians, who conduct regular maintenance checks on the self-driving systems.
“Next, the dispatchers determine where to send the vehicles based on trip data gathered from the company’s Early Rider program. This determines how long it takes for a Waymo vehicle to respond to a trip request from an Early Rider. … Waymo still uses backup drivers in most of its trips. So, for now, the minivans return to the depot around midday for shift swaps, so the backup drivers get a break from what can be a fairly mind-numbing task: monitoring a self-driving car. …
“Waymo’s Early Rider program recently became a 24/7 operation, in anticipation of the full-service launch. That means more designated driving opportunities for its cars, and more cleanup duties for Waymo’s depot teams. No one has barfed in a Waymo vehicle as of yet. …
“[W]hile Waymo’s team of technicians handle the software updates and sensor calibrations, Avis’ employees handle the oil checks, tire rotations, and other tasks. But the 72-year-old car rental company sees its role as bigger than just a glorified car wash for Waymo’s robot taxis. For Avis, this is an opportunity to hedge its bets against big changes in the future”
3. The Auto(nomous)bahn
- Mobileye, the Israeli chipmaker, has negotiated a new tie-up with Baidu to speed along the Chinese search giant’s driverless efforts.
- Ford, which is aiming for a 2021 AV production schedule, released a 44-page report this week outlining the ethics and priorities of its self-driving initiative. In it, the Detroit giant said it won’t be making its driverless cars available for ordinary consumer purchase. (Download the full report here.)
- Lyft has completed its 5,000th autonomous ride, the company said. The milestone, still far below the likes of rival Waymo, comes as other legacy ride-sharing outfits have retrenched.
- Kroger commenced its driverless grocery delivery pilot this week in Phoenix. Same- or next-day deliveries, made by Toyota Priuses that have been retrofitted by Silicon Valley startup Nuro, will cost shoppers a flat fee of just US$6.00.
- Meet the teen who has been driven to school every day for a year in driverless car.
4. Know it before your competitors
Our best-in-industry intelligence service, The Console, marries machine learning algorithms with human analysis to create comprehensive, real-time advisories on everything autonomy.
The Console monitors, digests and packages everything of consequence to your business: television and radio chatter, social media scoops, legislative and regulatory activity, legal filings, acquisitions and white papers.
A service of Dentons’ 3D Global Affairs, which yokes traditional legal capabilities to government affairs, corporate competitive analysis and strategic communications, The Console mines the public record to populate an easy-to-navigate platform. Click here to request a no-obligation demonstration of the service with James and Eric.
