Don't worry Michael, the founders weren't racist because they only wanted to count slaves as 3/5 of a person. They were racist because they had slaves (except Franklin and Hamilton ).

300,000 Teslas in the U.S. are presently driving around with Full Self Driving (no remote operator). All decisions are made by the vehicle. What makes you think that the Tesla Robotaxi would not incorporate FSD? kzbin.info/www/bejne/h6vdhaWQaaajo7csi=trKYTzX6m4_v4gYS

29:11 "These things are non-autonomous. They don't do anything themselves"??? The Robotaxi is summoned by someone from their App, along with a programmed destination. Unlike Waymo, complete inference is done at the vehicle for the entire journey. The Tesla does do it by itself, not some remote operator. But the OEM should be responsible if anything goes wrong. That will be the difference from Level 2 (FSD Supervised) and Level 3. Just like Mercedes, they take responsibility once it becomes Level 3.

The branch is an interesting use case. It looks like that was a disengagment. kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6m8kHyCqJuMo7M

Smart Driving Cars Podcast, You're awesome! Let's be friends, okay?

😕 Promo_SM

FSD is being tested every day by 400,000 real world drivers. There is no data set of this magnitude that is being acquired by any other manufacturer, including Mercedes, GM Cruise, and Waymo. Being able to drive origin to destination without the roadway HAVING to be mapped or certified is the only way we're going to serve the elderly and disadvantaged. Tesla is doing it all without expensive LIDAR, ultrasonics, radar, and human programming. Vision-only is the way to go if we are to bring inexpensive driverless vehicles to the public.....on any road.

"I know you are listening, Elon"

Perhaps, the driverless services should initially target markets where there are no good public transportation options (which will eliminate pushback from existing transit workers). This would allow the driverless service to still target the early adopters who are willing to pay for point-to-point on-demand service. At the same time, the driverless companies could work with the community to create a demand-responsive transit system (perhaps subsidized by public dollars). These smaller markets are less likely to attract the protesters like have been seen in San Francisco. It could be argued that this approach is the strategy of May Mobility and Beep.

Solar has grown exponentially in recent years, increasing installed capacity by an average of 44% per year from 2009 to 2022, EIA said in November. The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects electric generation from solar to be the leading source of growth in the U.S. power sector through the end of 2025, with 79 GW of new solar capacity projected to come online over the next two years. In the EIA’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, released Tuesday, the agency said it expects renewable energy’s overall share of electricity generation to rise to 26% by the end of 2025, while natural gas drops from 42% in 2023 to 41% in 2025. - utilitydive

BS. Electric car sales have been growing every year. Michael Sena is wrong on this. Tesla Model Y is the #5 best selling vehicle of 2023 in the USA and #1 worldwide. First Sena says people don't want EVs, then he says they are only buying them because of the subsidies. He doesn't seem to realize that what he is actually saying is that at the right price, people DO want EVs. The fact that he is pushing the Hybrid Rube Goldberg machine (The worst of both worlds, low electric range plus all the maintenance of a gas car) is absurd.

Thanks for the shoutout, Alain and Fred. Looking forward to reading the book. A must-read for anyone in the driverless business or anyone who is tangential to the driverless business (e.g. policymakers, city planners, etc.)

Alain's stock in Otis elevator "going up and down, up and down"....best dad-joke of 2024, Michael. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpXFqJeomrB4otU

Indeed, no trucking company would replace human drivers just for increased safety or for novelty. That's why the Aurora - Continental deal to mass produce OEM-ready driverless kits is a big deal. It is the difference between research project companies and product shops. Looking forward to the book!

"There is a need for a collective reimagining of what public transit is." kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2mYm4aopLuJraM

Will the public transit systems run the autonomous systems? Would there even be any development if we were waiting for public transit systems to drive automation? kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpnOpIOpeZKbaKc

Great organizational diagram of Google, Michael.

I think lot of people still not aware of waymo in PHX ....so may be

Cruise should have applied for an "exemption" in China as well in 2020, that would put some pressure on the US bureaucracy if it sees that the Chinese bureaucracy is 200% more efficient. The Origin is an amazing futuristic idea.

Great tool. As Fred implied, this is going to be a great way for communities to get a quick idea of demand without doing million-dollar studies.

This doesn't even qualify as technobabble which is what BAIDU does best. This is nonsense with no believeable information. Starting with 200 robotaxis. Starting. And have 2,000,000 rides completed. And everybody loves them. There is nothing here but PR BS. Lady has worked for Waymo and Google and Intel. Would love to know what she did. Surprised you got 8 thumbs up in 4 months.

Bravo- awesome ! Smart,👋

Way ahead of Tesla

"Robotaxis gain support of disability advocates"? Really ? Why in the hell ? Are you still sane ? Who will heave their ass off the wheelchair into the car, in future ? Who loads the suitcases in the trunk ? Who brings the luggage upstairs to the 5th floor ? Who gives informations, runs errands and assists with elder passengers all around ? A Robotaxi ? Not at all ! Only classic Cabs with a real flesh-and-blood taxi driver, can do all this (what is a self-evident service in Germany). ☝️🧐 The only thing this new Robotaxi can do "better" is, that it doesn't need any staff. And that's exactly what the profiteers of this business have in mind. To privatize profits and to socialize losses, because the negative consequences of this system are all let at the expense of the general public. Like Ubers before them, Robotaxis do not replace only one single private car, but rather create additional vehicles and traffic on our cities streets. This leads to a "canibalization of local public transportation", meanwhile nobody in San Francisco knows, from whose money BART should maintain their infrastructure in future. Robotaxi is purely just an engeneers gimmick for technical freaks, nothing else. A big misnomer, without any additional benefit for those, who it's all about ... the passengers. 👋 🇩🇪

I respect you.

Great interview. Alain's comments about hitchhiking trigger the question of why apps like BlaBlaCar haven't taken off in the U.S.

kzbin.info/www/bejne/sKqqnoZmotB6mac - Perhaps SF isn't good enough for Proof of Technology and Proof of Market trials.

Which company I’m your opinion is the furthest in self driving?

Thanks for having me on the podcast. It is always informative and enjoyable.

Alain's comment paraphrased as "If God intended for us to have Lidar, she would have given us Lidar," reminds me of this guy kzbin.info/www/bejne/d5TQqX9oop6Kfas

Good point about the challenge for the government (municipal, state, or federal) to be a reliable transmission path for V2X data and that government wouldn't want that liability.

How far ahead is baidu's driverless tech ?

It will be interesting to see how autonomy changes the rental car business. To maximize asset utilization I would think they would turn into a ride hailing service. Then when a customer wants to rent a car (as opposed to just a ride) they schedule the delivery and later dispatch the requested vehicle type to the pickup point for the customer, could be home, hotel, work, the airport, etc. The only difference is the rental customer keeps the vehicle for some duration. Anyway, interesting conversation. I've been running Tesla FSD Beta for about 2 years and seen steady improvement. But the driver still needs to intervene for pot holes, road debris, some construction scenarios, police commanded detours around accidents, heavy rain, backing the car up, etc. But eventually these and other surprising edge cases will be handled getting them to level 4-5. IMHO the first product release of FSD city streets will be at level 2-3. Ditto for the highway. Even so the Beta reduces the driving load considerably and makes me a safer driver, especially on long road trips.

Great editing, Fred. The broll is a nice touch.

Alain you need to stop rambling and let the lady speak.

Beep has worked with a couple of transit systems in Florida.

Great point about the DOT grants neglecting AV mobility.

Chat ALK 😅

I thought Waymo had some accidents. And doesn’t Waymo drive out of their way to avoid unprotected left turns?

Hvader sounds like Darth Vader's wimpy cousin

Soup to nuts today. Transformation of cities to tires to existential universal issues. And more! Undoubtedly the smart driving car podcast is the cats meow.

Only in an university and government environment can there be such a discrepancy between a persons ability and her own perception of herself.

Where are the buttons, guys?! WHERE ARE THE BUTTONS!

Ratings come with high points if the FSD platform comes with ASIL Level D? Ford and Blackberry QNX could provide this?

"Whatever" - classic Alain on the 300th episode. And a big congratulations to both Fred and Alain for this entertaining and informative podcast!

It was great to spend the week with Dr Kornhauser and Dr. Monroe. It was ironic that there would be issues with the elevator.

Alain, pls try not to talk over your guests

The cul-de-sac of Elon Musk!

KFC? Kentucky Fried Chicken?

Love the videos! Fast results only = *PromoSM* .