Autonomous Vehicle Thread

[muncien]

Not sure if anyone has seen Uber's latest plans for flying taxis... Seems like they are going the wrong direction now.
Large, Complicated, Unweildly, and Expensive.

https://gizmodo.com/uber-s-new-aerial-t ... 1825851694

[Tnexster]

Saw this story earlier today, the one I saw looked a little like a mocked up airplane. I would like to see one of these things fly.

[Tnexster]

If you can see this....

https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news ... -uber.html

[Tnexster]

Dallas architects fly into the future with plans for Uber Elevate terminals

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... -terminals

[muncien]

I don't understand the concept of these massive 'terminals'. Doesn't that kinda contradict the intent of direct A to Z commute? I mean... Shouldn't these things be MUCH smaller (maybe four or five pads) and spread out all over the place? If they intend to make them this big, surely you can't have that many of them, and your 'last mile' problem becomes a 'last 10 miles' problem.

Being that these things are to be automated (over time), you don't really need designated platforms and vehicles. Instead, any vehicle should be able to take you anywhere. If the travelers going to say, Legacy West, happen to show up before those going to Midtown, than they just get on the first vehicle and off it goes.

I must be missing something...

[Tnexster]

^I actually pictured something smaller, almost like an express bus stop you see in the burbs. More smaller style Uber lift stops versus fewer large almost airport like terminals. Maybe this is just a concept stop on the journey to reality.

[exelone31]

https://www.wired.com/story/self-drivin ... o-driveai/

Starting in July, the company will run a fleet of driverless vehicles around Frisco, Texas, a city of 164,000 people on the northern edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Announced today, the six-month pilot—which will keep human safety operators behind the wheel, ready to grab control if the car gets confused or misbehaves—marks Drive.ai’s first large-scale effort to put people in its cars, and the first such deployment in Texas.

Here's further details from a DMN article as well:

The service is made possible through a unique public-private partnership among California-based Drive.ai, the city of Frisco, the Denton County Transportation Authority and the private developments for Hall Park, The Star and Frisco Station. They are all part of the newly formed Frisco Transportation Management Association.

I could very easily see this being something that gets implemented at Legacy West if it's successful up in Frisco. Could we ultimately see something similar to the D-Link that's run autonomously in the near future?

[cowboyeagle05]

I imagine we will still see the safety drivers paid to sit in the driver seat for the next 10 years. I just don't yet see how a combination of the public perception and actual drivers/pedestrians messing things up will change that factor.

[Tnexster]

Corgan offers stackable design for skyports where Uber's flying taxis will takeoff, land

https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news ... where.html

How many landings per hour can the skyports designed by Corgan handle? The way we approached our design allows a lot of modularity and flexibility. There won’t necessarily be a demand for 1,000 landings per hour as an initial investment from Uber’s side. We developed our skyport around a single module that handles 90 landings per hour. Ideally that skyport gets doubled in size into a paired module, which handles 180 landings per hour. The beauty is it’s the same basic building block. Once we hit 180 (landings) it’s real easy for us to continue to scale that by replicating that scaled module up to 1,000 or more landings per hour.

[lakewoodhobo]

VW To Stop Making Iconic Beetle Next Summer
http://t.co/YN4DZJ2H4u

This story has nothing to do with AVs, but discontinuing the Volkswagen Beetle might be a brilliant move if it's later resurrected as a mass-market autonomous fleet, however different it may look.

People will trust a brand that they have this nostalgia for well before some new product they only associate with automation.

[DPatel304]

VW To Stop Making Iconic Beetle Next Summer
http://t.co/YN4DZJ2H4u

This story has nothing to do with AVs, but discontinuing the Volkswagen Beetle might be a brilliant move if it's later resurrected as a mass-market autonomous fleet, however different it may look.

People will trust a brand that they have this nostalgia for well before some new product they only associate with automation.

Nice looking concept. I love the 'out of the box' thinking, and I think this is just the beginning of the emergence of some cool concepts. Many people seem to be stuck on this image that a car needs to look a certain way, or a truck needs to look a certain way. Now that humans don't need to drive cars any more, it opens up a lot of possibilities.

[DPatel304]

Some information about Uber's flying taxi's from CES 2019:
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/the- ... lying-car/

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdlcoU4cO8k

[electricron]

Autonomous flying vehicles will never be approved by the FAA which is staffed, funded, and controlled by pilots.
Watch some Aviation 101 youtube videos to find out how professional flying is - even for private pilots in small airplanes.
The idea that Billy Bob from anywhere Texas is going to be allowed by the FAA to fly wherever they wished in an uncontrolled fashion is not going to happen.

[Tivo_Kenevil]

So much BS rolls out of CES. The majority of the new ideas never get out of R&D.

[muncien]

Autonomous flying vehicles will never be approved by the FAA which is staffed, funded, and controlled by pilots.
Watch some Aviation 101 youtube videos to find out how professional flying is - even for private pilots in small airplanes.
The idea that Billy Bob from anywhere Texas is going to be allowed by the FAA to fly wherever they wished in an uncontrolled fashion is not going to happen.

Who said it would be 'untrolled'? lol

I remember wild flying car concepts from back in the 80's. I've never dug into the details much, but I always figured it would be a much simpler concept to control than freeways. Once you have three dimensions to work with, it gives you a lot more room to operate. It seems like designating specific flight corridors at confined altitudes can easily facilitate a boat load of air traffic.
When you factor in autonomous systems (assuming they are proven reliable), it actually becomes more controlled than the traditional version. At that point, it'll be the meatbag pilots with lack of sleep or that stopped at the lounge for a bit too long who you have to worry about.
I agree that it won't happen overnight. The generation on charge of this stuff is wary of technology in their day to day lives, much less taking over complex systems that they trained on for years. But to say it will 'never' happen is just silly.

[Tnexster]

Uber wants to fast-forward to 'cities of the future,' starting in Dallas

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/bus ... ing-dallas

[Tnexster]

Dallas architects unveil Uber Elevate flying taxi hubs for Dallas and Frisco

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... las-frisco

[muncien]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/greggardne ... 5112e2aa4e

Uber To Collect Mapping, Other Data For Possible Autonomous Service In Dallas

Uber will expand data collection for potential autonomous vehicles in Dallas, beginning in November, the ride-hailing service said Tuesday.

The data will be collected by a human driver, or as Uber calls it, a mission specialist. The data will be used to develop high-definition maps, that someday could enable self-driving vehicles to carry passengers on certain streets in downtown Dallas.

The company also hopes the research will help it better understand everyday driving scenarios that can be recreated in simulation labs and test tracks

Uber has already begun collecting comparable data in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto.

[DPatel304]

I'm not surprised, but super glad and excited that DFW seems to be at the forefront of the coming autonomous vehicles. It makes a lot of sense, as we are a rapidly growing metroplex that is too sprawled out to be efficiently serviced by public transportation.

[Hannibal Lecter]

Forbes: Waymo Taps Texas As Its Robot Truck Hub With Dallas Depot.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsma ... las-depot/

"Waymo, the leading U.S. self-driving vehicle company, is expanding its robot truck program by moving into Texas with a new depot in Dallas that will serve as the hub for road-testing its fleet of 18-wheelers."

[electricron]

Forbes: Waymo Taps Texas As Its Robot Truck Hub With Dallas Depot.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsma ... las-depot/

"Waymo, the leading U.S. self-driving vehicle company, is expanding its robot truck program by moving into Texas with a new depot in Dallas that will serve as the hub for road-testing its fleet of 18-wheelers."

Stories about robot 18 wheel trucks should be posted under highways, not railways. imho.

[DPatel304]

https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/08/uber- ... -moonshot/
https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/08/uber- ... -moonshot/

I know Dallas was on the short list of cities where Uber was going to introduce 'elevate' too. I wonder if that'll change now that they have sold that to another company?

[cowboyeagle05]

Uber had made agreements with Bell Helicopter so that deal obviously is gone as well since Joby has its own helicopters they are getting approved for commercial flights. Hopefully Joby will see Dallas as a good testing ground for these commercial flights. The Dallas Convention Center has a heliport but it doesn't have gas and cant fit the proper emergency truck up the ramps but since these Joby are all electric could the city make a deal to add charging infrastructure?

[utgf]

https://sfstandard.com/community/its-fi ... -the-city/

It’s Finally Here: Real Driverless Cruise Cars Spotted Picking Up Passengers Around the City

https://twitter.com/i/status/1496608874211647488

[northsouth]

Regional Transportation Council to pilot automated vehicle project in DFW

https://communityimpact.com/dallas-fort ... ct-in-dfw/

They're going to try running new autonomous vehicles on the Las Colinas APT. Reading the NCTCOG report, it looks like the plan is to remove the tracks and run self-driving vehicles on a flat guideway. Ironic that instead of just fixing the existing system, which had mastered the technology of turning automatically by using trackways, with the fancy new technology of "steering."

[IcedCowboyCoffee]

"Dallas start-up Mozee bringing self-driving technologies to businesses, government"

The start-up, Mozee, is building a fleet of trolley-like self-driving vehicles. And soon you’ll start seeing them around North Texas.
. . .
Their first pilot program is slated for March with a government entity they can’t publicly name yet.

- WFAA
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/transportation-dallas-start-up-mozee-self-driving-technologies-feb14/287-cde70ef7-115d-482c-8a36-24ab22bceb8e