Driverless

Resources

Amazon Invests in Driverless Startup Aurora, Valued at More Than $2 Billion, Wall Street Journal (February 7, 2019) (Tim Higgins author)

Aurora cofounder and CEO Chris Urmson on the company’s new investor, Amazon, and much more

GM factory workers get $10,750 in profit sharing; company earnings slip, Detroit Free Press (February 6, 2019), (Jamie L. LaReau author)

GM’s incentive plan for Cruise chief points to IPO: SEC filing, Reuters (February 6, 2019), (Ben Klayman author)

Investing in the Future of Transportation, Aurora Raises over $530 million, February 7, 2019 (Aurora Team author)

Maturing Industry Landscape Reshapes Autonomous Vehicle Transactions, Helpful Mechanic (November 7, 2018) (Tod Northman author)

Nuro Raises $940M From SoftBank Vision Fund For Robot Delivery

One Reason Staffers Quit Google’s Car Project? The Company Paid Them So Much, Bloomberg (February 13, 2017) (Allistair Barr and Mark Bergen authors)

Self-driving truck startup Ike raises $52 million (February 5, 2019) Ike Raises (Kirsten Korosec author)

Bonus coverage on Ike: Kevin Zhang, of lead investor Bain Capital, on Twitter

Show Notes
1:15 GM and GM Cruise are investing smartly
3:30 GM Cruise’s compensation strategy
5:20 Parallels between GM Cruise and Argo.ai
5: 50 Digging into investments in GM Cruise
11:50 Form factor for EV and AV – Where are the trucks?
13:55 Tesla strings together profitable quarters
17:37 Tesla acquires Maxwell Technologies
21:18 Tesla shrinks its workforce but draws muted reaction
23:18 Aurora raises $530 billion in a Series B
24:30 Amazon jumps into autonomous vehicles
28:35 Ike – which is pursuing driverless commercial trucking – raises money to add talent

Resources

Autonomous Driving Fuels Our CES 2019 Public and Private Company Takeaways (January 23, 2019) (Morningstar Equity Research)

5 Trends Emerge in the Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2018 (August 16, 2018) (Kasey Panetta contributor)

11 futuristic cars and vehicles to watch out for at CES 2019 (January 7, 2019) (Business Insider)

Honda is giving cars the ability to see around corners to avoid accidents, October 8, 2018, (AJ Dellinger author)

Nissan helps you see the invisible with new concept at CES, January 10, 2019, (Aaron Turpen author)

Partners for Automated Vehicle Education

PAVE Adds eight more members, (January 30, 2019)

Self-driving car sensor startups may soon detect the end of the road (January 23, 2019) (Joann Muller author)

Show Notes

1:30 Partners for Automated Vehicle Education

3:35 5G Rollout and Vehicle to Vehicle Communication

8:15 What is Level 2 Plus?

11:05 Space Age Form Factors

16:00 Garner Hype Cycle / Trough of Disillusionment

22:45 Pushing Back Against the Trough – Level 4 is Being Deployed

25:25 Adjusting Our Expectations For Level 5 Rollout

Resources

Marc’s Website: Autonomous Cars with Marc Hoag

Marc’s Facebook Page: Autonomous Cars with Marc Hoag

Marc’s Podcast: Autonomous Cars with Marc Hoag

“A Roadmap for Autonomous Vehicles: State Tort Liability, Automobile Insurance, and Federal Safety Regulation,” 105 Cal. L. Rev. 1611 (2017) 

Resources

“~$1 Trillion of Real Estate Is On the Move,” January 2018 (Phil Levin author)

“Airports Cracked Uber and Lyft – Time For Cities to Take Note”, Nov. 20, 2018 (Aarian Marshall author)

“Cars and Second Order Consequences,” March 29, 2017 (Benedict Evans author)

“Minneapolis Moves to Eliminate Mandatory Parking,” Dec. 12, 2018 (Angie Schmitt author)

“No Parking Here”, January/February 2016 (Clive Thompson author)

“Segways Are Back (Sort Of),” August 30, 2018 (Jackie Endres author)

Show Notes

1:32 What changes will autonomous vehicles bring?

7:17 Past efforts have failed. Will this time be different?

11:09 The first signs of change in cities

13:45 As the need for parking spaces wanes, building shapes will change

17:24 First, second, and third order changes

18:46 AV further stresses the economics of mass transit

21:59 Follow the money

24:01 Challenges to AV implementation

Waymo, by contrast, earned applause for its seamless launch of its “robot taxi fleet” – albeit with a safety driver behind the wheel.  Video of a test ride shows how impressive – and boring – a ride in Waymo One can be.  Host and litigator Zach Adams discusses these development with litigator Jon Feczko and transactional attorney Tod Northman.

Resources

“Tesla owner attempts Autopilot defense during DUI stop,” (Timothy B. Lee author)

“Waymo’s Ambitious Plans for High-Speed Taxis Could Be Holding It Back,”(Timothy B. Lee author)

“When Will My Self-Driving Car Get Here?” (Editors)

“Why Waymo’s Fleet of Self-Driving Cars Is Finally Ready for Prime Time” (Tom Vanderbilt author)

https://www.tesla.com/autopilot

“Tesla rejected more advanced driver monitoring features on its cars” (Sean O’Kane author)

“Lack of ‘safeguards’ in Tesla’s Autopilot contributed to fatal crash” (Zac Estrada author)

“Riding in Waymo One, the Google spinoff’s first self-driving taxi service” (Andrew J. Hawkins author)

“A Sleeping Driver Highlights Autopilot’s Biggest Flaw” (Alex Davies author)

Show Notes

1:00 Tesla gets a DUI
5:02 Driver monitoring
9:35 Autopilot – Is the problem Tesla or Tesla drivers?
12:40 Level 2 and Level 3 have inherent safety risks
18:22 Emergency workers’ interactions with autonomous vehicles
29:07 Waymo One to other AV companies: “Your move”

Resources

Automakers face fight to stand out in driverless era, The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Nov. 25, 2018 (Ian Thibodeau author)

Detroit Has Had It With Cars, Bloomsburg, Nov. 26, 2018 (Justin Fax author)

Ford Gets Left at the Lights by General Motors, Bloomsburg, Nov. 27, 2018 (Chris Bryant author)

General Motors is cutting 14,000 jobs and focusing on self-driving and electric vehicles, Vox, Nov. 26, 2018 (Aditi Shrikant author)

GM’s Plan to Cut Jobs and Plants Draws Fire From Trump, Others, WSJ, Nov. 26, 2018 (Mike Colias author)

GM just made a big behind-the-scenes move to boost robot cars, Detroit Free Press, Nov 29, 2018 (Jamie L LaReau author)

Show Notes

2:06    GM’s move mirrors the market for sales
5:55    Do sedans have a future?
9:38    Autonomous vehicles won’t look like cars today
17:15    Unintended consequences from autonomous vehicles
 

Columbus aims to deliver more diversified and nimble transportation options by using data and a connected, complete network that supports healthy activity and a more attractive and sustainable urban form. Mark is a terrific guide to Smart Columbus’ impressive efforts.

Resources

Smart Columbus website

Columbus wins $50 million DoT Smart Cities Challenge, July 23, 2016, CNN Business Website (Heather Kelly and Matt McFarland authors)

Why Columbus Won the Smart City Challenge, June 23, 2016, Governing website (Daniel C. Vock author)

Show Notes

3:15 – Why Mark Moved to Columbus
5:02 – What is Smart Columbus
8:30 – Columbus’s Public-Private Partnership Fuels Its Win
12:31 – Electric Vehicles in Columbus
17:55 – What’s in Your Drive Train? ICE versus EV
20:20 – Autonomous Bus Service Hits Columbus
29:30 – Public-Private Partnership
31:15 – Smart City Grant
36:40– Growing Columbus’s Public Transit Options
39:40– Experiments in Micro Mobility
43:48– People Love Electric Scooters
46:45– Connected Vehicle Deployment
51:07– Challenges to Deploying Autonomous Vehicles

Studies Referenced

• Driving to Safety: How Many Miles of Driving Would It Take to Demonstrate Autonomous Vehicle Reliability RAND Corporation (Nidhi Kalra and Susan M. Paddock authors).
• Automated Vehicles for Safety, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website (direct link to 2016 statistics).

Show Notes

• 1:14 – Hurdles to mass implementation of autonomous vehicles
• 3:10 – I wouldn’t have had that accident – What happens when AVs cause accidents that careful human drivers would avoid?
• 6:00 – How does the AV industry shift public perception about the safety of autonomous vehicles?
• 10:38 – Limits to building the safety case for AVs using statistics
• 14:10 – Are we there yet? How safe is safe enough?
• 16:35 – How accidents involving AVs will be different
• 20:26 – Who gets sued if an AV is involved in an accident?

References

• “Hackers Remotely Kill A Jeep on the Highway – With Me In It,” Andy Greenberg, WIRED, July 21, 2015.
• “Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Autonomous Vehicles 3.0,” U.S. Department of Transportation, October 2018.
• H.R.3388-SELF DRIVE Act
• S.1885-AV START Act
• “Time to Jump-Start Stalled Autonomous Vehicle Regulation,” Law360 (October 2018)

Show Notes

• 1:10 – Best of AV 3.0
• 3:45 – What’s Missing?
• 5:42 – Cybersecurity and Privacy
• 8:55 – Regulatory Landscape
• 11:00 – Winners
• 15:07 – Human Drivers for the Win
• 20:47 – Federal Support for the AV Industry
• 22:50 – Impact of Guidance on State and Local Governments
• 25:43 – AV Safety
• 31:20 – Big Auto Meets Big Data
• 37:09 – Information Gathering