State Of Autonomy: July Recap

Every month, I recap the news articles I’ve consumed around autonomous vehicles, calling out the highlights and keeping track of market projections. This is also your chance, dear readers, to nominate a topic for discussion in the following month.

I had planned on writing an article in July about “fumbling the hand-off”, which was going to touch on the infamous Tesla crash. But, given how active the market reaction has been, I’d like to hold off until the dust settles so that I can deliver more than uninformed speculation. There’s plenty of that on the Internet already, if you want it.

Part of the dust-up includes a rarely-seen public divorce between a car manufacturer and its parts supplier: Mobileye informed the market that they are dropping Tesla as a client due to disagreements about how self-driving products should be developed and applied.

Mobileye’s stock dropped as a result, and I was one of the people who dropped it. They had the chance to stand up for innovation, but instead decided to scurry back to the warm blanket that is traditional auto manufacturers — while giving Tesla a very public middle finger, at that. In my eyes, it’s the kind of behavior that gets you left behind by competitors like NVIDIA, whose stock is up 150% since I purchased it earlier this year.

This Month’s Highlights:

• Tesla Claims Mobileye’s Auto-Braking Equipment Is Primary Cause Of Fatal Autopilot Crash
• Mobileye Claims Their Equipment Was Not Designed To Manage Fatal Tesla Crash Scenario
• China Places Temporary Ban On Public Testing Of AVs Until Regulations Are In Place
• Udacity Launches Intensive One-Year Nanodegree For Aspiring Self-Driving Vehicle Engineers
• Nissan Deploys More Timid Version of Tesla Autopilot
• Nashville Among Leading U.S. Cities Actively Developing Urban Plans To Support Driverless Fleets
• NHTSA Opens Data-Intensive Investigation To Fatal Tesla Crash
• Michigan Continues Autonomous Vehicle Research Investments With $17MM Loaned To Develop Willow Run Test Facility
• Arizona State University Researchers Propose Practical Algorithm To Optimize Autonomous Fleet Routing (PDF)
• Apple Shifts Titan Management & Focus Towards Autonomous Software

Market Predictions:

• Baidu moved from 2019 to 2020: simply because they have numerous claims in the market as to how they’ll apply their technology and when. 2019 is their estimate for “commercial applications” and has been referenced by their AI lead. 2021 is their estimate for “mass production”, frequently referenced by their company officials.
• Apple moved from Hybrid-Piloted to borderline Self-Piloted: Apple’s Project Titan has repeatedly waffled in its claims (although, the company is still attempting to be as secretive as possible about the project, so any “claims” are a bit of a reach.) The latest waffling is that they’re focusing on “autonomous” software, going against their previous statements that they were not building significant self-driving capabilities into their initial product. My personal take is that Apple doesn’t deserve to be seriously considered as a player until they start showing their work and stop playing musical chairs with their management.

Coming In August:

• Prioritization: The Language Of Machine Morals (mid August)
• Fumbling The Hand-Off Between Driver And Driverless (late August)
• Your suggestion? Send a tweet to @mitchturck

Reactions From The Public:

Re: NTSB Opening Investigation On Fatal Tesla Crash

Re: Urban Planning Around Shared Driverless Fleets

Re: Airline Industry Warning Against Fast Adoption Of Driverless Tech