Paul Gluckman

Uber halted autonomous vehicle test operations in the Phoenix area, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto, a spokesman emailed us Monday, after a self-driving Uber SUV struck and killed a pedestrian Sunday in Tempe, Arizona. The company is "fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident," he said. One vehicle operator was in the front seat; no passengers were in the back seat, he said. A Tempe Police Department statement confirmed the accident occurred while the car was in autonomous mode, with a vehicle operator behind the wheel. The automobile hit a female walking outside the crosswalk, said police. She was transported to a local hospital where she died Monday, they said. Late Monday, Tempe police at a media briefing identified the pedestrian as Elaine Herzberg, 49, and said she was walking a bike across the street where she was struck. They identified the Uber vehicle operator as Rafael Vasquez, 44, and said he was "cooperative" with authorities and showed "no evidence" of "impairment." Authorities deferred to Uber questions about what the responsibilities of Vasquez were when the vehicle was in the autonomous mode.The National Transportation Safety Board is "sending team to investigate Uber crash in Tempe, Arizona," it tweeted Monday. "More to come." Uber didn't disclose the vehicle's maker, but authorities said it was a Volvo XC90 SUV. Consumer Watchdog, a frequent critic of commercializing autonomous driving without tight regulatory oversight (see 1709120050), wants “a national moratorium on all robot car testing on public roads until the complete details of this tragedy are made public and are analyzed by outside experts so we understand what went so terribly wrong,” emailed John Simpson, privacy and technology project director. "Arizona has been the wild west of robot car testing with virtually no regulations in place. That’s why Uber and Waymo test there. When there’s no sheriff in town, people get killed.” The accident in Tempe is "a reminder of the risk that comes with rushing to get more and more self-driving cars on public roads before we know they are safe," said David Friedman, Consumers Union director-cars and product policy and analysis. "The promise of self-driving cars is that they can avoid fatalities, but this tragedy makes clear they have a long way to go. Right now, Congress is focused on exempting these cars from safety standards in an effort to get them on the market faster. Congress needs to shift its focus to ensuring these cars are safe."

Harman and automaker Groupe PSA said they're working together on a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy for Groupe PSA’s next-generation connected and autonomous vehicles platform. The two-year relationship involves analyzing potential threats, security design and a feasibility study of advanced intrusion detection systems for advanced driver-assist systems, autonomous and next-generation vehicle network architectures, they said Wednesday at the Geneva International Motor Show.

Automated vehicle legislation will increase safety, improve mobility and make the U.S. more competitive, wrote more than 100 companies and groups Monday. CTA, CTIA, the Internet Association, Qualcomm, Telecommunications Industry Association and major automakers and chipmakers were among those signing a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in support of the AV Start Act (S-1885) that Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., introduced in September. “We are at the forefront of another technology transformation: The autonomous vehicle,” said Global Director and Associate General Counsel-IoT and Automated Driving Policy Marjorie Dickman of Intel, another signer.

Toyota and its automotive components subsidiaries Aisin and Denso will invest a combined 300 billion yen ($2.8 billion) to start a new company this month that will “further accelerate” developments in automated driving, said Toyota in a Friday announcement. Within the newly established Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD), the three companies will pursue joint development of fully integrated, “production-quality” software for automated driving and will hold “further discussions,” in the future, “aiming to conclude a concrete joint development contract,” it said. "Building production-quality software is a critical success factor for Toyota's automated driving program," said James Kuffner, current Toyota Research Institute Chief Technology Officer, who will head TRI-AD in a statement. The new company’s mission “is to accelerate software development in a more effective and disruptive way,” by staffing the project with “world-class software engineers,” he said. “We will recruit globally.” The new company, of which Toyota will own 90 percent and Aisin and Denso 5 percent each, will have 300 employees at the start, growing to about 1,000 through “external recruitment,” said Toyota. Though the company will be based in Tokyo, English will be its primary “business language,” it said.

Renesas Electronics announced an SoC with computer vision and artificial intelligence processing at low power levels designed for automotive front cameras in mass-produced Level 3 (conditional automation) and Level 4 (high automation) autonomous vehicles. The R-Car V3H SoC is optimized for use in stereo front cameras and is said to achieve five times the computer vision performance of its predecessor. Samples of the R-Car V3H will be available from Q4, with mass production slated for Q3 2019, said the company Tuesday.

Uber will “learn from the past,” blogged CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Friday, after the ride-hailing service’s $245 million settlement with Alphabet's Waymo over allegations of stealing trade secrets for autonomous driving. “While we do not believe that any trade secrets made their way from Waymo to Uber, nor do we believe that Uber has used any of Waymo’s proprietary information in its self-driving technology, we are taking steps with Waymo to ensure our Lidar and software represents just our good work.” To Alphabet, Khosrowshahi said: “You are an important investor in Uber, and we share a deep belief in the power of technology to change people’s lives for the better.” The companies are partners and competitors and won’t always agree, said the executive. “We agree that Uber’s acquisition of Otto could and should have been handled differently,” he said of the self-driving company. Self-driving technology is crucial to the future of transportation, he said. Waymo had sought at least $1 billion in damages last year and agreed to a $500 million earlier last week, which was rejected by Uber’s board, Reuters reported.

Ford’s goal in moving into its first test city for autonomous vehicles this quarter is to assess its “business model” in self-driving cars and begin “implementing the first cycle of new prototypes,” said President-Global Markets Jim Farley on a Wednesday earnings call. CEO Jim Hackett didn’t identify the city in his CES keynote, saying the company will spend its time there “learning and incorporating these learnings into our autonomous vehicle experience.” Ford is “engaged with the local government and will announce the city in the months ahead,” said Hackett at CES. This "is the year where you are going to see a lot of progress” on the company’s autonomous-vehicle development, said Farley. Testing and development work will take “the next several years until we launch in 2021,” he said. The automaker will begin by “using existing products because we are developing an all new product which obviously won’t be ready until the prototypes” are finished, he said. “The fleets over the next couple of years will expand but they are going to be different types of hybrid Fords and that will play out over the next 24 months.” The goal “is to get people in the vehicles this year to see” how its autonomous-vehicle platform “works by itself,” said Farley. “We have a very concrete plan to roll out the prototype fleet of those autonomous vehicles over the next two years in multiple cities. So please know that fleet will grow in size. ... A very meaningful investment, money-wise.” The new “cycles” of prototypes will have “updated” algorithms, computing software and “perception equipment,” he said.

Witnesses for Wednesday's autonomous driving field hearing are Randy Avent, president, Florida Polytechnic University; Tim Kentley-Klay, CEO, Zoox; Mike Mansuetti, president, Robert Bosch North America; and Luke Schneider, president, Audi Mobility, the Senate Commerce Committee said Tuesday. The hearing is at the Washington Convention Center, 10 a.m., West Salon Room, before the opening of the 2018 Washington Auto Show.

Self-driving technology would benefit from bipartisan legislation to “prioritize protections for consumers, enhance cybersecurity protections, reaffirm the role and responsibilities of federal and state governments” and update federal motor vehicle standards to account for advances in technology, said Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., in an op-ed in Monday's Detroit Free Press. They said they've been working on the bipartisan legislation, Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research in Vehicle Evolution Act (Self-Drive) Act (HR-3388), which the House passed unanimously in September (see 1709060035) that would grant automakers exemptions from safety standards to test more vehicles and would pre-empt state laws that the auto industry said would create a patchwork of regulations. The North American International Auto Show is this week, exhibiting mobility-focused technologies in vehicles, and some lawmakers will be there. Tuesday, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation recommended policy principles for connected vehicle policy issues: support vehicle-to-everything (V2X) infrastructure; promote national cooperation and interoperability for V2X; incentivize companies to protect consumers; ensure regulations are technology neutral; rely on transparent industry-led standards for data protection; restrict scope creep for regulators overseeing connected vehicle privacy; allow vehicle owners to access and use their own data; and permit after-market modifications and repairs while protecting copyright holders’ rights.

More than 33 million autonomous vehicles will be sold globally in 2040, a substantial increase from the 51,000 units forecast for the first year of significant volume in 2021, said IHS Markit in a Tuesday report. IHS sees the “rapid convergence” of autonomous driving and “mobility services” such as ride-sharing becoming a “central driver of early deployment and growth,” it said. The U.S. will “lead the world in initial deployment and early adoption of production autonomous vehicles” beginning as early as next year, and Europe and China “are expected to begin adding considerable volume from 2021 onward,” it said. That many individual states and the nation as a whole are expected to adopt an “industry-friendly regulatory approach” toward autonomous driving will help speed U.S. deployment, said the report: “The first uses will be in mobility service fleets, which will provide early hands-on experience with the technology and help reduce consumer skepticism. Announcements from General Motors, Waymo and Uber contribute to early projected mobility fleet volumes in 2019 before personal autonomous vehicles become available as early as 2021. Total U.S. volume of autonomous vehicles is expected to reach 7.4 million units per year in 2040.”