I was had planned to do a long post on self-driving cars a quite long time. I was planning to do one this spring, but I might not do that, because it seems that predictions that self-driving cars would be here in 2020 were far too rosy. Five years ago, several companies including Nissan and Toyota promised self-driving cars in 2020. So it may be wise to take any new forecasts with a grain of salt. Hare is a worth to check out article of the current status of self-driving cars:
Surprise! 2020 Is Not the Year for Self-Driving Cars
https://spectrum.ieee.org/transportation/self-driving/surprise-2020-is-not-the-year-for-selfdriving-cars
In March, because of the coronavirus, self-driving car companies, including Argo, Aurora, Cruise, Pony, and Waymo, suspended vehicle testing and operations that involved a human driver. Around the same time, Waymo and Ford released open data sets of information collected during autonomous-vehicle tests and challenged developers to use them to come up with faster and smarter self-driving algorithms.
It seems that the self-driving car industry still hopes to make meaningful progress on autonomous vehicles (AVs) this year, but the industry is slowed by the pandemic and facing a set of very hard problems that have gotten no easier to solve over the years.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
California DMV has Tesla ‘under review’ over Musk’s FSD claims
Play stupid games, win regulatory investigations.
https://www.engadget.com/california-dmv-has-tesla-under-review-over-musks-fsd-claims-220447099.html
According the LA Times, the California Department of Motor Vehicles appears to be actively investigating Tesla over CEO Elon Musk’s audacious claims about his company’s Full Self-Driving technology. The news comes barely a week after Tesla engineers privately admitted to the DMV that Musk had exaggerated the FSD system’s capabilities on social media.
The FSD is a $10,000 option for Tesla models and promises to do everything from change lanes in freeway traffic and take exits on its own to independently stopping at traffic lights and signs. However, this does not make them “fully” autonomous. Tesla vehicles currently operate at Level 2 autonomy, director of Autopilot software CJ Moore told DMV investigators on a March 9th teleconference call.
“The ratio of driver interaction would need to be in the magnitude of 1 or 2 million miles per driver interaction to move into higher levels of automation,” a memo obtained by Plainsite obtained regarding the meeting reads. “Tesla indicated that Elon is extrapolating on the rates of improvement when speaking about L5 capabilities. Tesla couldn’t say if the rate of improvement would make it to L5 by end of calendar year.”
That fact, which Tesla itself admits on its website “does not make the car autonomous” (albeit in miniscule font), has not stopped a number of rich knuckleheads from treating these cars like their personal robochauffeurs — with years of deadly results.
Though California law places blame any accidents or damage caused while doing this squarely on the those technically behind the wheel, the DMV does have the authority to penalize any automobile company that misleads its customers under the Lanham Act, Bryant Walker Smith, associate professor in the University of South Carolina School of Law told the Times.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Erik Kay / The Keyword:
Google says it’s working on a new digital car key feature for Android 12 to unlock or start your car, announces Fast Pair for faster Bluetooth pairing, and more
https://blog.google/products/android/better-together/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12160-mems-mikrofonit-tuovat-kuulon-autoihin
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s a potential watershed moment for mainstream EVs, as Ford unveiled the F-150 Lightning, including a $39,974 base price, for a fleet-style work version that could also appeal to budget-minded contractors.
Ford Lightning Strikes as Electric Trucks Battle for Supremacy
https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/advanced-cars/electric-trucks-cybertruck-hummer-f-150-rivian-who-will-be-first-to-deliver
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2021/05/20/uusi-kotimainen-sahkokulkuneuvo-tieliikenteeseen/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12179-maailman-ensimmainen-4d-tutkapiiri
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adverse weather conditions pose a major challenge for autonomous vehicles. To be effective in preventing accidents, they need to accurately detect traffic obstacles in real-time. A new detection system could solve this problem and bring companies one-step closer in making AVs viable for everyday use.
Deep Learning Helps Autonomous Vehicles Operate in Extreme Weather
https://innovate.ieee.org/innovation-spotlight/vehicle-detection/
Similar to human drivers, adverse weather conditions in the form of heavy snow, fog and rain still pose as a major obstacle for autonomous vehicles. Like any new technology, companies have to address these challenges before self-driving cars can become mainstream. Using a deep learning (DL) framework along with sensors, researchers have developed a state-of-the-art vehicle detection and tracking system and dataset, aimed at solving how autonomous vehicles “see” their surroundings.
The team’s proposed system uses automatic white balance (AWB) to improve the quality and contrast of the image captured. Specifically, it breaks down the illumination and reflection found in the image, while preserving the information needed to accurately detect objects such as, edge detailing, color naturalness and traffic scenes.
To keep track of vehicles in adverse weather, an online tracking system and algorithm was then introduced to address complications caused by missed detection, false positives and obstructions in the surrounding environment. The team also incorporated a new benchmark dataset, called Detection in Adverse Weather Nature (DAWN) to validate the effectiveness of their system.
DAWN is comprised of 1000 images that vary in terms of vehicle category, size, orientation and position. The images, which are taken from real-traffic environments, are divided into four primary categories: fog, rain, snow and sandstorms.
“DAWN is unique because it combines real-world images with different types of weather conditions and environments,” said Khan Muhammad, a researcher at Sejong University in Seoul. “Our system is unique due to its intelligent use of different technologies including DL for accurate vehicle detection and tracking.”
As a next step, Khan and his team are working on extending the DAWN dataset by adding in more data that covers natural disasters, such as hurricanes and severe thunderstorms – and they are not far off. DAWN has already shown to perform well in natural disasters that are similar to weather conditions already configured in the system.
From hype to reality, autonomous vehicles have had their fair share of speed bumps over the years, but with solutions like DAWN and AWB, companies are one-step closer in making them viable for everyday use.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cade Metz / New York Times:
After predicting autonomous vehicles would be commonplace by 2021, the industry is resetting expectations and committing to years of further R&D
The Costly Pursuit of Self-Driving Cars Continues On. And On. And On.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/24/technology/self-driving-cars-wait.html
Many in Silicon Valley promised that self-driving cars would be a common sight by 2021. Now the industry is resetting expectations and settling in for years of more work.
It was seven years ago when Waymo discovered that spring blossoms made its self-driving cars get twitchy on the brakes. So did soap bubbles. And road flares.
New tests, in years of tests, revealed more and more distractions for the driverless cars. Their road skills improved, but matching the competence of human drivers was elusive. The cluttered roads of America, it turned out, were a daunting place for a robot.
The wizards of Silicon Valley said people would be commuting to work in self-driving cars by now. Instead, there have been court fights, injuries and deaths, and tens of billions of dollars spent on a frustratingly fickle technology that some researchers say is still years from becoming the industry’s next big thing.
Now the pursuit of autonomous cars is undergoing a reset. Companies like Uber and Lyft, worried about blowing through their cash in pursuit of autonomous technology, have tapped out. Only the deepest-pocketed outfits like Waymo, which is a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet; auto giants; and a handful of start-ups are managing to stay in the game.
Late last month, Lyft sold its autonomous vehicle unit to a Toyota subsidiary, Woven Planet, in a deal valued at $550 million. Uber offloaded its autonomous vehicle unit to another competitor in December. And three prominent self-driving start-ups have sold themselves to companies with much bigger budgets over the past year.
The tech and auto giants could still toil for years on their driverless car projects. Each will spend an additional $6 billion to $10 billion before the technology becomes commonplace — sometime around the end of the decade, according to estimates from Pitchbook, a research firm that tracks financial activity. But even that prediction might be overly optimistic.
“This is a transformation that is going to happen over 30 years and possibly longer,” said Chris Urmson, an early engineer on the Google self-driving car project before it became the Alphabet business unit called Waymo. He is now chief executive of Aurora, the company that acquired Uber’s autonomous vehicle unit.
So what went wrong? Some researchers would say nothing — that’s how science works. You can’t entirely predict what will happen in an experiment. The self-driving car project just happened to be one of the most hyped technology experiments of this century, occurring on streets all over the country and run by some of its highest-profile companies.
That hype drew billions of dollars of investments, but it set up unrealistic expectations. In 2015, the electric carmaker Tesla’s billionaire boss, Elon Musk, said fully functional self-driving cars were just two years away. More than five years later, Tesla cars offered simpler autonomy designed solely for highway driving. Even that has been tinged with controversy after several fatal crashes (which the company blamed on misuse of the technology).
Perhaps no company experienced the turbulence of driverless car development more fitfully than Uber.
But for the deepest-pocketed companies, the science, they hope, continues to advance one improved ride at a time. In October, Waymo reached a notable milestone: It started the world’s first “fully autonomous” taxi service.
“Autonomous vehicles can be deployed today, in certain situations,” said Elliot Katz, a former lawyer who counseled many of the big autonomous vehicle companies before launching a start-up, Phantom Auto, that provides software for remotely assisting and operating self-driving vehicles when they get stuck in difficult positions. “But you still need a human in the loop.”
Self-driving tech is not yet nimble enough to reliably handle the variety of situations human drivers encounter each day. It can usually handle suburban Phoenix, but it can’t duplicate the human chutzpah needed for merging into the Lincoln Tunnel in New York or dashing for an offramp on Highway 101 in Los Angeles.
“You have to peel back every layer before you can see the next layer” of challenges for the technology, said Nathaniel Fairfield, a Waymo software engineer
Like Waymo, Aurora is now developing autonomous trucks as well as passenger vehicles. No company has deployed trucks without safety drivers behind the wheel, but Mr. Urmson and others argue that autonomous trucks will make it to market faster than anything designed to transport regular consumers.
Long-haul trucking does not involve passengers who might not be forgiving of twitchy brakes. The routes are also simpler. Once you master one stretch of highway, Mr. Urmson said, it is easier to master another. But even driving down a long, relatively straight highway is extraordinarily difficult. Delivering dinner orders across a small neighborhood is an even greater challenge.
“This is one of the biggest technical challenges of our generation,”
“If you look at almost every industry that is trying to solve really, really difficult technical challenges, the folks that tend to be involved are a little bit crazy and little bit optimistic,” he said. “You need to have that optimism to get up every day and bang your head against the wall to try to solve a problem that has never been solved, and it’s not guaranteed that it ever will be solved.”
Uber and Lyft aren’t entirely giving up on driverless cars. Even though it may not help the bottom line for a long time, they still want to deploy autonomous vehicles by teaming up with the companies that are still working on the technology. Lyft now says autonomous rides could arrive by 2023.
“These cars will be able to operate on a limited set of streets under a limited set of weather conditions at certain speeds,” said Jody Kelman, an executive at Lyft. “We will very safely be able to deploy these cars, but they won’t be able to go that many places.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tesla is no longer using radar sensors in Model 3 and Model Y vehicles built in North America
https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/25/tesla-is-no-longer-using-radar-sensors-in-model-3-and-model-y-vehicles-built-in-north-america/?tpcc=ECFB2021
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tesla has activated its in-car camera to monitor drivers using Autopilot
https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/27/tesla-has-activated-its-in-car-camera-to-monitor-drivers-using-autopilot/?tpcc=ECFB2021
Tesla has enabled the in-car camera in its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles to monitor drivers when its Autopilot advanced driver assistance system is being used.
In a software update, Tesla indicated the “cabin camera above the rearview mirror can now detect and alert driver inattentiveness while Autopilot is engaged.” Notably, Tesla has a closed loop system for the data, meaning imagery captured by the camera does not leave the car. The system cannot save of transit information unless data sharing is enabled, according to Tesla. The firmware update was cited by a number of Tesla owners, industry watchers and bloggers who are active on Twitter.
Tesla has faced criticism for not activating a driver monitoring system within the vehicle even as evidence mounted that owners were misusing the system. Owners have posted dozens of videos on YouTube and TikTok abusing the Autopilot system —
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cheaper lidar sensors brighten the future of autonomous cars
Leader Velodyne offers a new product at a fraction of the price of former models
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Cheaper-lidar-sensors-brighten-the-future-of-autonomous-cars
Prices of one key type of the sensors used in autonomous cars are falling rapidly, raising hopes of accelerating progress in the development of self-driving technology.
Velodyne Lidar, the leading manufacturer of lidar sensors, has developed a product with a price only one-hundredth of those up until now. This dramatic drop in price for the sensors at the heart of many autonomous car designs could rev up the speed of the evolution of self-driving vehicles.
Most of today’s autonomous vehicles are equipped with two key types of sensors: cameras and radars.
Sensors using lidar (light detection and ranging) work like radar systems, with the only difference being that they use laser light instead of radio waves.
Lidar technology uses near-infrared light to detect objects around a vehicle. The advantage of lidar is that it can generate precise three-dimensional images of everything from cars to traffic lights to pedestrians in a wide range of environments and under diverse lighting conditions.
Musk has shown such distaste for lidar technology mainly because lidar sensors have been so costly, with a system for one vehicle costing as much as $70,000. He has argued that sophisticated cameras are sufficient for self-driving cars’ vision systems.
Indeed, the biggest hurdle to widespread lidar adoption has been an economic one.
Velodyne has sharply reduced lidar production costs by developing solid-state lidars. This new approach has helped shrink the size of the sensors, eliminate moving parts in the optical mechanisms and enable the kind of mass manufacturing that has brought costs down.
The company’s new model, its smallest so far, could be sold at around $100 in high-volume production. A sensor system composed of multiple lidars is capable of 360-degree vehicle coverage.
“Past 2025, I think you will see the cost of lidars come down even more, in the $700 range” per vehicle, Gopalan said.
Luminar Technologies, a U.S. vehicle sensor and software startup, has also developed low-priced lidar sensors priced at $500 to $1,000.
Luminar’s high-performance lidar sensors can accurately detect objects ahead of the car out to 250 meters away
In recent years, progress in autonomous driving technology has been markedly slower than that for electric vehicles.
A small number of players, mainly U.S. and Chinese tech companies, are dominating the self-driving business landscape due primarily to its high technological and financial hurdles.
General Motors’ autonomous driving subsidiary, GM Cruise; Waymo, which began as Google’s self-driving car project; and China’s Baidu are leading the pack in terms of testing self-driving cars on public roads in California and other parts of the U.S. They have covered far more distance than Daimler or Toyota.
These U.S. and Chinese tech companies, armed with not just accumulated test-driving data but also ample financial and human resources, are likely to remain on the leading edge of the self-driving revolution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/tekniset-artikkelit/12209-lidar-tulee-autoihin-scifista-tulee-todellisuutta
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2021/05/31/sahko-ja-hybridiautojen-renkaat-voivat-kulua-tavanomaista-nopeammin/
Sähkö- ja hybridiauton omistajille saattaa tulla ikävänä yllätyksenä, että vetävien pyörien renkaiden kulutuspinta voi tulla tiensä päähän hyvin nopeasti. Taustalla on Liikenneturvan Tapio Heiskasen mukaan sähkömoottoreiden suurempi vääntö ja akkujen tuoma lisäpaino.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12209-lidar-tulee-autoihin-scifista-tulee-todellisuutta
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/opinion/12167-enta-jos-sahkoauto-syttyy-tuleen
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adverse weather conditions pose a major challenge for autonomous vehicles. To be effective in preventing accidents, they need to accurately detect traffic obstacles in real-time. A new detection system could solve this problem and bring companies one-step closer in making AVs viable for everyday use.
https://innovate.ieee.org/innovation-spotlight/vehicle-detection/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/05/28/the-many-levels-of-autonomous-motoring/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Increasingly automakers are in the business of transportation-as-a-service. Fujitsu, Japan’s biggest computer maker, and AWS are now collaborating to build out the cloud computing toolkit to help car companies ease into mobility services.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/transportation/systems/fujitsu-and-aws-collaboration-aims-to-accelerate-auto-makers-move-into-mobility-services
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why The Tesla Tabless Battery Is So Good
There are two things I love to report on in the automotive sector. One is hybrids and the other is battery technology. Take a look at why I love the Tesla tabless battery as a temporary answer to a long-term problem.
https://www.torquenews.com/8113/why-tesla-tabless-battery-so-good#:~:text=The%204680%20battery%20cell%20(it,the%20model%203%20and%20Y.
The Tabless Battery Part One: Energy Density
The 4680 battery cell (it is a single unit) is 46mm wide and 80mm tall. The greater overall size allows for more electrical energy storage, 5 times the energy storage compared to the 2170 battery used in the production of the model 3 and Y.
Conclusion
The Tesla 4680 battery is a significant step in the right direction. I do believe that solid-state batteries are the more sustained answer. Still, I applaud Elon and the Tesla Team for taking the action required to make better batteries.
Right now these batteries are a viable solution until solid-state batteries can be produced commercially. According to Elon, in that time we may see this battery compete in the same bracket at solid-state. Time will tell.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daimler and Nokia sign patent licensing agreement
https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2021/06/01/daimler-and-nokia-sign-patent-licensing-agreement/
Daimler and Nokia announced today that they have signed a patent licensing agreement. Under the agreement, Nokia licenses mobile telecommunications technology to Daimler and receives payment in return. The parties have agreed to settle all pending litigation between Daimler and Nokia, including the complaint by Daimler against Nokia to the European Commission. The terms of the agreement remain confidential as agreed between the parties.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12243-hella-siirtaa-autonavaimen-kannykkaan
Tomi Engdahl says:
Even though 2020 saw a drop in total miles driven, it was still the highest year for traffic fatalities in the U.S. since 2007. https://trib.al/HdtULR4
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2021/06/04/elektroniikkamoduuli-tuo-bioetanolin-moottoripyoriin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Once, software was a part of the car. Now, software determines the value of a car,” says Manfred Broy. With the shift to self-driving modes and EVs adding 100s of millions of lines to the code cars run, can auto makers keep up w/ the complexity?
How Software Is Eating the Car
https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/advanced-cars/software-eating-car
Predictions of lost global vehicle production caused by the ongoing semiconductor shortage continue to rise. In January, analysts forecast that 1.5 million fewer vehicles would be produced as a result of the shortage; by April that number had steadily climbed to more than 2.7 million units, and by May, to more than 4.1 million units.
The semiconductor shortage has underscored not only the fragility of the automotive supply chain, but placed an intense spotlight on the auto industry’s reliance on the dozens of concealed computers embedded throughout vehicles today.
“No other industry is undergoing as rapid technological change as the auto industry,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Daymak Spiritus Is the World’s First EV That Mines Cryptocurrency
If all goes to plan, the futuristic three-wheeler will make you money while it’s parked.
https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/daymak-futuristic-new-ev-mines-cryptocurrency-while-charging-1234616964/
While the auto industry is still working on perfecting self-driving cars, one marque is high-tailing it toward self-mining cars. Canadian outfit Daymak has just announced it’s building the world’s first automobile that can mine cryptocurrency.
The new light electric vehicle (LEV), dubbed the Spiritus, will be equipped with high-tech mining hardware and blockchain technology that will allow it to mine all kinds of crypto, from Bitcoin to Dogecoin, while it’s charging.
For those unversed in crypto lingo, mining is a way of earning cryptocurrencies by solving cryptographic equations and algorithms through computers. You can mine via any computer, including the one onboard this pioneering ride.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electric Vehicles Could Be The Grid Storage Solution We’ve Been Dreaming Of
https://hackaday.com/2021/06/07/electric-vehicles-could-be-the-grid-storage-solution-weve-been-dreaming-of/
As nation states grapple with the spectre of environmental and economic losses due to climate change, we’ve seen an ever greater push towards renewable energy sources to replace heavier polluters like coal and natural gas. One key drawback of these sources has always been their intermittent availability, spurring interest in energy storage technologies that can operate at the grid level.
With the rise in distributed energy generation with options like home solar power, there’s been similar interest in the idea of distributed home battery storage. However, homeowners can be reluctant to make investments in expensive batteries that take years to pay themselves off in energy savings. But what if they had a giant battery already, just sitting outside in the driveway? Could electric vehicles become a useful source of grid power storage? As it turns out, Ford wants to make their electric trucks double as grid storage batteries for your home.
The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Can Power Your House, a Lot Else—for a While
Doomsday preppers (and, um, power-hungry workers), your electric pickup truck has arrived.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/2022-ford-f-150-lightning-electric-truck-charging-generator-power/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2021/06/09/suomalainen-vetamaan-autoteollisuuden-tietoturvaryhmaa/
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12258-autojen-hakkerointi-pitaa-pystya-estamaan-ennakolta
Tomi Engdahl says:
The German automaker is considering charging an hourly fee for access to autonomous driving features once those features are ready. The company is also exploring a range of subscription features for its electric vehicles, including “range or performance” increases that can be purchased on an hourly or daily basis.
What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour
Automaker also plans to offer video games that drivers can play while charging.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/06/volkswagen-plans-to-offer-subscriptions-for-autonomous-driving-extra-ev-range/
The future of driving may cost you $8.50 per hour if Volkswagen follows through on its boardroom musings.
The German automaker is considering charging an hourly fee for access to autonomous driving features once those features are ready. The company is also exploring a range of subscription features for its electric vehicles, including “range or performance” increases that can be purchased on an hourly or daily basis, said Thomas Ulbrich, a Volkswagen board member, to the German newspaper Die Welt. Ulbrich said the first subscription features will appear in the second quarter of 2022 in vehicles based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform, which underpins the company’s new ID.3 compact car and ID.4 crossover.
The executive said that Volkswagen will also offer video games in cars, similar to Tesla’s arcade. “In the charging breaks, even if they only last 15 minutes, we want to offer customers something,” Ulbrich said. He said the automaker wouldn’t be developing the games themselves, and it’s not clear whether they’ll come preinstalled or be available for purchase through an app store.
Volkswagen’s real moneymaker might be autonomous driving, though. “In autonomous driving, we can imagine that we switch it on by the hour. We assume a price of around seven euros per hour. So if you don’t want to drive yourself for three hours, you can do it for 21 euros,” said Klaus Zellmer, chief sales officer of the Volkswagen brand.
In a swipe at Tesla, he said that by charging hourly fees, VW would make autonomous driving more accessible than “a car with a five-digit surcharge.”
That’s not to say Volkswagen isn’t hoping to make serious money off the subscriptions. In total, Zellmer said he anticipates the subscriptions will eventually make the company hundreds of millions of euros in additional revenue.
Willingness to pay
Automakers have been salivating over the idea of subscription revenue for years. As more features in vehicles are managed through software, the thought of flipping a switch to enable or disable them has grown more and more appealing. And after watching software companies make the switch, it’s no surprise that car companies are taking serious steps to bake subscriptions into their offerings.
Volkswagen isn’t the first car company to mull subscriptions or after-sales purchases. Tesla once offered Model S cars with a 75 kWh battery that was software-restricted to output only 60 or 70 kWh, depending on when the car was purchased. In the case of the 70 kWh models, customers could pay $3,250 to unlock the last 9.33 percent. More recently, Telsa temporarily unlocked extra range in those and other models to give customers affected by hurricanes and wildfires extra juice to drive to safety.
BMW notably charged an $80-per-year subscription for CarPlay in its 2019 models. It was a deal for lessees, who saved $60 over a three-year lease compared with buying the feature outright. But the subscription also meant that BMW could double-dip when reselling the car, offering a similar subscription or outright purchase to the second owner. And if you wanted to keep your car more than three years, the deal was terrible.
Whether Volkswagen’s mooted offerings will be embraced by consumers remains to be seen. Temporary range increases could catch on if the price is right. As someone who is now on his third EV, I can tell you that I’d happily pay for temporary range increases if they would save me money over paying for full capacity upfront.
Autonomous driving is what will likely make or break Volkswagen’s subscription ambitions. Seven euros—$8.50—per hour is a lot of money to spend to let the car drive itself. Yes, it allows people to do something other than drive, and for some drivers, the extra time will be worth it. But for most, the decision will be harder. In studies of willingness to pay for autonomous driving, the range tends to be $1,000–$7,000, which would buy you between 120–820 hours on Volkswagen’s plan. In 2018, commuters drove an average of 225 hours per year. Drivers typically value their time at 20–40 percent of their wages, and given that the average American wage is around $52,000 per year, or about $26 per hour, Volkswagen isn’t necessarily being unreasonable with its pricing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Deep Learning Helps Autonomous Vehicles Operate in Extreme Weather
https://innovate.ieee.org/innovation-spotlight/vehicle-detection/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nyt on viimeinen hetki ostaa käsivalintaisella vaihteistolla varustettu auto, jos sellaista jostain syystä haluaa – Kolme tärkeää syytä vie manuaaleja marginaaliin
https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/nyt-on-viimeinen-hetki-ostaa-kasivalintaisella-vaihteistolla-varustettu-auto-jos-sellaista-jostain-syysta-haluaa-kolme-tarkeaa-syyta-vie-manuaaleja-marginaaliin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Suomen autokanta ei ole erityisen saastuttava
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12272-suomen-autokanta-ei-ole-erityisen-saastuttava
Autoalan tutkimusjärjestö JATO Dynamics on laatinut vankan raportin eurooppalaisen henkilöautoliikenteen päästöistä. Tulokset näyttävät kumoavan myytin Suomen saastuttavasta autokannasta. Suomi kuuluu JATOn vertailussa lähes parhaaseen A-ryhmään.
Liikenne aiheuttaa noin viidenneksen Suomen kasvihuonepäästöistä. Henkilöautot tuottivat vuonna 2018 noin kuusi miljoonaa tonnia CO2-päästöjä (hiilidioksidiekvivalenttia). Tätä määrää halutaan nyt eri toimin vähentää reilusti. Keinoina ovat sähköautoilun suosiminen ja polttomoottoriautoilun hankaloittaminen verotuspäätöksin.
JATOn mukaan kuva Suomen liikennepäästöistä ei kuitenkaan ole niin synkkä kuin millaiseksi sen moni haluaisi maalata. Olemme yksi kuudesta EU-maasta, jossa henkilöauton keskimääräiset päästöt jäävät alle sataan grammaan kilometriä kohti.
Sähköautojen yleistyminen näkyy suoraan EU:n alueen henkilöautojen päästöluvuissa. Vuonna 2019 henkilöauto EU:n alueella aiheutti keskimäärin 121,6 gramman päästöt kilometrillä. Viime vuonna lukema putosi 106,7 grammaan kilometrillä eli 12 prosenttia edellisvuotta pienemmäksi.
Vaikka meillä sähköautojen osuus uusista henkilöautoista on edelleen marginaalinen, henkilöautomme tuottavat keskimäärin 99,6 grammaa päästöjä kilometrillä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Autosi turvallisuus riippuu ohjelmiston testauksesta
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12274-autosi-turvallisuus-riippuu-ohjelmiston-testauksesta
Hollantilainen Solid Sands on esitellyt SuperGuard-työkalun, joka on keskeisessä roolissa autojen toiminnallisen turvallisuuden varmistamisessa. Työkalu tarkistaa, että autojen ohjelmistojen C-kirjastot täyttävät vaaditut standardit. Tämä on välttämätöntä, sillä nykyisen ajoneuvon järjestelmät koostuvat miljoonista, eri toimittajilta tulevista koodiriveistä.
SuperGuard on C-kirjastojen kvalifioinnin työkalu. Järjestelmän ohjaimilla ladattavien kirjastojen viallisuus johtaa järjestelmän luotettavuuden pettämiseen. Pahimmillaan kyse on yhtä fataalista viasta kuin mekaanisten jarrujen pettämisestä.
Solid Sandsin teknologiajohtaja Marcel Beesterin mukaan testaaminen on periaatteessa helppoa. C-standardi pilkotaan toiminnallisiin vaatimuksiin, jotka tulevat standardista (autoissa ISO 26262, teollisuudessa IEC 61508 ja raideliikenteessä EN 50128). Työkalulla kirjastot testataan, jotta standardin asettamat vaatimukset täyttyvät.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Teslan hylkäämä lidar tulee koko ajan paremmaksi
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12283-teslan-hylkaama-lidar-tulee-koko-ajan-paremmaksi
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Software Is Eating the Car
The trend toward self-driving and electric vehicles will add hundreds of millions of lines of code to cars. Can the auto industry cope?
https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/advanced-cars/software-eating-car
Predictions of lost global vehicle production caused by the ongoing semiconductor shortage continue to rise. In January, analysts forecast that 1.5 million fewer vehicles would be produced as a result of the shortage; by April that number had steadily climbed to more than 2.7 million units, and by May, to more than 4.1 million units.
The semiconductor shortage has underscored not only the fragility of the automotive supply chain, but placed an intense spotlight on the auto industry’s reliance on the dozens of concealed computers embedded throughout vehicles today.
“No other industry is undergoing as rapid technological change as the auto industry,” says Zoran Filipi, Chair of the Department of Automotive Engineering at Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research. “This is driven by the need to address impending, evermore stringent CO2 and criteria emission regulations, while sustaining unprecedented rate of progress with development of automation and infotainment, and meeting the customer expectations regarding performance, comfort, and utility.”
The coming years will see even greater change, as more auto manufacturers commit to phasing out their internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicles to meet global climate-change targets by replacing them with electric vehicles (EVs) that will eventually be capable of autonomous operation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Today’s luxury cars contain 150 ECUs and more than 150 million lines of code. As more EVs hit the road with AI doing the driving, the amount of code in cars is set to explode. How will carmakers cope with even more complexity?
https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/advanced-cars/software-eating-car
Tomi Engdahl says:
BMW and Ford-backed Solid Power will go public via SPAC merger in $1.2B deal
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/15/bmw-and-ford-backed-solid-power-will-go-public-via-spac-merger-in-1-2b-deal/?tpcc=ECFB2021
Solid Power, a solid-state battery developer backed by Ford and BMW, is going public. The company said Tuesday it would head to the NASDAQ via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corp III at a post-deal implied market valuation of $1.2 billion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/tekniset-artikkelit/12296-jopa-10-ampeerin-virtaa-auton-jarjestelmiin
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12297-sensible-4-testaamaan-robottibussien-kiihtyvyysanturia
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2021/06/17/kuusiakselinen-imu-anturi-suomalaistesteihin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Poltergeist attack could leave autonomous vehicles blind to obstacles or haunt them with new ones https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/18/poltergeist_autonomous_vehicles/
Researchers at the Ubiquitous System Security Lab of Zhejiang University and the University of Michigan’s Security and Privacy Research Group say they’ve found a way to blind autonomous vehicles to obstacles using simple audio signals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12297-sensible-4-testaamaan-robottibussien-kiihtyvyysanturia
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2021/06/17/kuusiakselinen-imu-anturi-suomalaistesteihin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Laser headlights from BMW and Aliexpress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fRjMHtnShs
A look at some car headlights that uses laser based light sources to get very narrow beams
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andrej Karpathy (Tesla): CVPR 2021 Workshop on Autonomous Vehicles
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NSDTZQdo6H8&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12324-suomalainen-ohjelmisto-pysakoi-autot-automaattisesti
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12161-sahkoautojen-akkujarjestelmat-kaipaavat-standardointia
https://etn.fi/index.php/opinion/12167-enta-jos-sahkoauto-syttyy-tuleen
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2021/06/25/volvo-tuo-uudet-lidarit-ja-nvidian-superpiirit/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Field-oriented control #FOC as a #MotorControl scheme is indispensable for #EV powertrain noiseless and smooth motor operations
Embitel-Technologies-India-Pvt-Ltd
Field-oriented-control algorithm enhances motor control in EV designs
https://www.edn.com/field-oriented-control-algorithm-enhances-motor-control-in-ev-designs/?utm_content=bufferd2d9e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=edn_facebook&utm_campaign=buffer
High-performance motors need a control mechanism that ensures enhanced smoothness, reliability, and efficiency. One of the most apt examples of such an application is the motor used in electric-vehicle (EV) powertrain, which can be controlled by a field-oriented-control (FOC)-based system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tesla shows off the AI supercomputer training https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/27/in_brief_ai/
Tesla is using a 1.8-exaFLOP AI supercomputer packed with 5, 760 GPUs that train neural networks it hopes one day will power autonomous vehicles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12330-vihdoin-realistinen-simulaattori-robottiautojen-kehittamiseen
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.eetimes.com/price-range-choice-are-keys-to-bev-success/