Chart of the Day – 180,000 self-driving cars will be shipped globally by 2020

December 23, 2014 at 6:48 pm

There is so much confusion and variation in the estimates/predictions when you hear the industry experts and forecasters talk about automated vehicles. Despite the challenges, there has been significant progress in the recent years and it is only getting more intense as the auto OEMs as well the tech geeks in Silicon Valley ramp up their investments and the research in the race to reach the holy grail.. Amidst all this chaos, comes this bold prediction.. 180,000 self-driving cars will be shipped globally by 2020.

Based on Frost & Sullivan estimates charted for us by BI Intelligence, there will be about 180,000 self-driving cars shipped globally by 2020. The market research firm adds that “you are likely to commute in autonomous cars” by 2025, which is a pretty bold statement considering that’s only a decade from now. 

And of course the source article doesn’t clearly articulate whether it is all Level 4 autonomy (no human input needed for operation)?  Do you agree with this prediction? Click here to read the article

Image Courtesy: Business Insider

 

Infograph: How self-driving cars will change our lives

November 5, 2014 at 6:50 pm

Image courtesy: Automoblog

Add this to one of the million other articles you would see around the web that hypes the arrival of self-driving cars and how they are going to change our lives..

Click here to read the accompanying article.

 

Infographic: Eyes of a Car – How LiDAR enables vehicles to detect and avoid obstacles on the road

July 22, 2014 at 6:04 pm

via WSJ Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal has an interesting article that explores the roadblock posed by sky-high prices of the LiDAR units, which offer the vehicles’ “seeing” and “navigating” capabilities , in the widespread adoption automated vehicles.  That pesky little roof mounted LiDAR unit  atop the Google’s prototype vehicle apparently cost between $75,000 and $85,000, which explains why it will be a problem for mass market. Click here to read the entire article.  What caught me is this simple infographic that accompanied the article. It nicely explains how the LiDAR works.

Image: Eyes of a Car via Wall Street Journal.

Image: Eyes of a Car via Wall Street Journal.

TRB 2015 Annual Meeting – Vehicle-Highway Automation Projects and Programs: Call for Abstracts – Special Poster Session

July 2, 2014 at 6:01 pm

TRB 2015 Annual Meeting – Vehicle-Highway Automation Projects and Programs

Call for Abstracts – Special Poster Session 

Committee on Vehicle-Highway Automation (AHB30)

Committee on Intelligent Transportation Systems (AHB15)

Joint Subcommittee on Challenges and Opportunities of Road Vehicle Automation

Vehicle-Highway automation has generated strong interest within the past year, leading to the initiation of a wide variety of new projects and programs.  Because of the novelty of this field, many of the new activities have not yet advanced to the stage that they can present sufficiently definitive results that would pass the normal peer review criteria for a technical paper.  Nevertheless, the plans and focus areas of these projects and programs are likely to be of significant interest to the TRB Annual Meeting participants. This poster session provides exposure to a wide range of topics and activities in the field of vehicle-highway automation.

Abstracts are invited now. The following topic areas related to vehicle-highway automation are suitable for the poster session:

  •  introductions to research centers or programs
  •  research agendas
  • prospective studies and work in progress
  • qualitative research studies

Please note that abstracts will be peer reviewed.  A limited number of posters will be selected for presentation based on the following criteria:

  • technical quality
  • originality
  • direct relevance to the field of vehicle-highway automation
  •  appropriateness of the methodology
  •  non-commercial nature of the content.

Abstracts are due by September 15, 2014.  Peer review decisions will be announced by October 15, 2014.

  • Please submit your abstract by emailing to TRBposter.automation@gmail.com
  • Abstracts should be limited to 300 words.
  • Abstracts should include:
    • Name, affiliation, and contact information for all authors
    • A descriptive title
    • A short description (300 words) of the proposed poster content

Are you listening, Transportation Planners? Tesla Motors’ CEO Elon Musk says we are only few years from autonomous driving

February 19, 2014 at 7:54 pm

via Bloomberg TV

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk discusses autonomous driving and how it will be available in cars in only a few years. He is confident that Tesla has the best collection of experts and would be the first company to launch a vehicle with significant ‘auto pilot” capabilities. As far as proliferation goes, Mr. Musk says we may be about 10 years away from widespread adoption of autonomous vehicle technology. Do you agree? Listen to his interview with Bloomberg Television.

Video: How Many Americans Want to Live in a Driverless-City? Intel’s Futurist Discusses Future of Driverless Cars and Cities

February 12, 2014 at 5:50 pm

(Source: Bloomberg)

Intel Futurist Steve Brown discusses the future of driverless cars and cities on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.” Transportation and City planners better start thinking already because we know your long-range plans drafted a decade or so ago is rendered useless by the fast paced evolution of computing and automobile technology (agree with Steve that the technology is coming but it may be more than a decade away). It is time to think different and act fast!

Tampa, Florida Gets Federal Approval For Autonomous Vehicle Test Bed

February 10, 2014 at 8:30 am

via WTSP.com

The city of Tampa (Florida) gains a Federally-approved test bed for autonomous vehicles.. Local TV station News 10 offers the following scoop:

The Selmon Expressway just got a big approval from the federal government. It’s now one of only ten roads in America set up to test “connected cars,” leading to totally driverless cars. The Selmon’s elevated express lanes to Brandon are a car designer’s dream. During traffic downtimes, engineers can block off all of the entrances and have the whole highway as a ten-mile-long laboratory. The expressway authority that runs the Selmon will team up with a USF group, the Center for Urban Transportation Research, to find companies that want to come here to test their technology. Click here to learn more

 

Job Alert: USDOT Looking for Transportation Specialist to Coordinate Connected Vehicle and Automated Vehicle Research Programs

November 12, 2013 at 6:04 am
The Federal Highway Administration has an exciting and challenging research position available in the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office. The position is located at U.S. DOT headquarters in Washington, DC.

The selectee will serve as the focal point within the ITS Joint Program Office (JPO) formanaging, coordinating and supporting activities related to the connected vehicle safety and vehicle automation portions of the Department’s ITS program.

The candidate for this position will have excellent communications skills, expertise in ITS research and development topics, such as technology-based vehicle safety and road vehicle automation.  They will work closely with the vehicle safety, highway, motor carrier, rail, and transit industries to promote ITS initiatives and will work with the ITS community to ensure that vehicle safety systems needs are being accommodated.

The selectee will work with the ITS community to develop and implement a road vehicle automation program and will champion the capabilities and interests of the ITS community, often to a constituency that is not knowledgeable about or sympathetic to its needs.  In this capacity, the incumbent works to increase consensus building among its partners and work towards meeting National ITS program goals and objectives related to improvement of roadway safety and transportation mobility through the use of ITS solutions.

The vacancy announcement closes on Wednesday, November 13, 2013.

Click links below to see the full vacancy announcement

U.S. Citizens: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/354504900

Current or former federal employee with status OR Veterans eligible under VEOA:

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/354505000

[Video] Your Next Car Will Drive Itself – All things autonomous vehicles discussed in one video

October 17, 2013 at 5:01 pm

via Jalopnik

Chanced up upon this awesome video on /Drive’s YouTube channel, with some of my favorite automotive writers (Travis Okulski and Mike Spinelli of Jalopnik with Andrew DelColle from Popular Mechanics) talking about the nagging questions many of us have about autonomous vehicles. I’d say that this video  is more like a e-Primer for all things on autonomous vehicles for those interested (and some more) but offered in a nice, and conversant package without getting you all bored. Check it out.

Video description: When are the first self-driving cars coming, how will they work and — the most important question — will I be able to take a nap in traffic? All of those questions and more will be answered. With Andrew Del-Colle, associate editor of Popular Mechanics magazine and Travis Okulski, senior writer at Jalopnik.

Related resources

Job Alert: Technology Policy Analyst (GS-13) – Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) @ Cambridge, MA

June 12, 2013 at 5:50 pm

The Volpe Center seeks multiple Technology Policy Analyst, GS-0101-13 in the Technology Innovation and Policy Division, (RVT-91) within the Advanced Transportation Technologies Technical Center. This division provides the technical and analytical support for research initiatives and decision-making at all levels of government and industry supporting all modes of transportation.  The Technology Policy Analysts primary duty is to participate as a member of a team that conducts research and applies analytical methodologies on a broad set of topics as a means of developing, comparing, and evaluating policy options in support of successful transition of technologies (e.g., connected vehicles, automated vehicles, new transportation applications, or vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, among others) from research into adoption and use.

The ideal candidate will have experience working in an environment with little policy precedence and where policy options have to be developed and created concurrently and iteratively with transportation related technology development.  This position is not focused on application of existing policies to IT or other systems, but is focused on the objective and rigorous development of new policies for new and emerging transportation technologies.

You must have superb analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills, and be able to excel in an entrepreneurial, fast –paced environment. Transcripts are required (see details in “How to Apply” tab). If you are invited to interview, you will be asked to submit writing samples prior to your interview.

Note:  Please note that the application deadline is Monday, June 24, 2013Click here to learn more and to apply.

AboutAn innovative, fee-for service organization, the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (VolpeCenter), part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (U.S.DOT’s) Research and Innovative Technology Administration in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is an internationally recognized Federal center of transportation and logistics with a world-class, multidisciplinary technical team with expertise across all modes of transportation.

 

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