CNBC in America has reported on a key exchange traded fund (ETF) for electric vehicle (EV) and self-driving stocks suffering “an ugly month” in September.
On Friday 30 September, the Global X Autonomous and Electric Vehicles ETF closed 37% off the group’s 52-week high.
CNBC said: “It was the second worst-performing month for the group on a percentage basis on record, behind only March 2020 when the overall stock market saw dramatic declines.”
Self-driving stock
CNBC re EV and self-driving stocks Sep 2022
Global X says the DRIV fund offers high growth potential, noting that: “While global EV registrations increased by more than 40% in 2020, EVs were still less than 5% of new cars sold, highlighting substantial room for further adoption.”
The top 10 holdings (as of 10/04/22) were:
Tesla
Apple
Microsoft
Alphabet
Qualcomm
Toyota
Nvidia
Intel
Pilbara Minerals
Honeywell
At Cars of the Future, we suspect the falls have more to do with the EV side and assisted driving than true self-driving… but rumours of a global recession don’t help!
Zenzic CAM – connected and self-driving – Scale-Up winners all get UK government funding
On 6 October, the UK self-driving organisation, Zenzic, announced the seven winners of its 2022 CAM Scale-Up Programme: Axitech; Calyo; Dromos; Eloy; Gaist; Oxford RF; and PolyChord.
The future of self-driving: Zenzic CAM Scale-Up Winners 2022
The selected start-ups and SMEs each win a share of UK government funding through the Centre of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), access to the world class testing facilities of CAM Testbed UK, and investment support from delivery partner Plug and Play.
They follow in the footsteps of six 2021 winners: Albora; Exeros; Grayscale AI; R4DAR; Xtract 360; and Route Konnect (celebrated at the brilliant CAM Innovators event in March this year). And five 2020 winners: Angoka; Beam Connectivity; Eatron Technologies; Helix Technologies; and RoboK. Will there be eight winners next year?!
Connected / self-driving
Here’s a bit about this year’s cohort:
Leeds-based Axitech for its Connected Collision Management Platform “empowering automotive organisations to deliver transformational customer and claims experiences”.
Bristol-based Calyo for its next-generation AI-enabled perception system, offering “an unprecedented combination of high performance, flexibility and low cost for smart mobile robots and autonomous vehicles”.
German company Dromos – partnered in the UK with designer PriestmanGoode and engineering firms Buro Happold and RLB – for its “high-density urban passenger & freight transport” offering the “highest passenger convenience” at “half the cost/space/time”.
Hertfordshire-based Eloy – a connected and autonomous vehicle software business “focused on multi-vehicle coordination”.
Skipton-based Gaist, “Leading the way in road scape and highways information”.
Oxfordshire-based Oxford RF Solutions, offering “breakthrough radar vision for autonomy”.
And, finally, Cambridge University spinout PolyChord for its “uniquely powerful data science technology”.
Throw in an intro by the CCAV’s Michael Talbot, a fireside chat with Kirsty Lloyd-Dukes of Waymo and Ben Peters of FiveAI, and a closing keynote by UK Automotive Council CAM Working Group chair David Skipp, it really was an action-packed couple of hours.
As programme director at Zenzic, Mark Cracknell, said: “These companies are the future that’s happening now.”
More questions than answers as self-driving delivery robot enters Los Angeles crime scene.
The incident itself – a suspected shooting – thankfully turned out to be a false alarm.
Was it self-driving?
However, the appropriation of blame is complicated by human intervention – a bystander lifting up the police tape to enable the robot to proceed, and the later claim that a human operator was responsible.
On 17 September, Serve Robotics, took to Twitter to clarify that: “This week a Serve robot failed to reroute around a police barrier because of human error. While robots are capable of operating autonomously in most circumstances, they’re assigned to human supervisors to ensure their safe operation, for instance when navigating a blockage. We respect the important work of law enforcement and are taking steps to ensure our operating procedures are followed in the future.”
This week a Serve robot failed to reroute around a police barrier because of human error. While robots are capable of operating autonomously in most circumstances, they're assigned to human supervisors to ensure their safe operation, for instance when navigating a blockage (1/2)
As with the Cruise robotaxi drive-off back in April – “Ain’t nobody in it!” the officer says – in America, autonomous vehicles are having real-world run-ins with the law.
It’s only a matter of time before similar incidents happen here in the UK.
Aurrigo’s self-driving vehicles arrive in Taunton, Somerset, as part of CCAV trial.
The good people of Taunton, Somerset, were treated to rides in Aurrigo’s self-driving Auto-Pod and Auto-Shuttle as The Great Self-Driving Exploration continued this week.
Run by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), and research specialist BritainThinks, a similar trial took place at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland in June.
Self-driving feedback
Lucy Bush, Research Director at BritainThinks, explained: “It offers an opportunity to understand what people think of self-driving vehicles as they are now, and also their expectations for the future.
“This will provide crucial insight to government and industry to support the development of self-driving technology that benefits everyone across the UK.”
For this event, it supplied three different vehicles:
Aurrigo self-driving vehicles at Alnwick Castle, June 2022
On the left, the ten-seater Auto-Shuttle is the first road legal vehicle to be manufactured by the Group. It can operate fully autonomously or be driven manually.
In the middle is the Auto-Deliver, a one-off prototype designed for home deliveries.
On the right is the four-seater Auto-Pod, designed for non-road passenger transportation, such as airports, university campuses and care communities.
At Taunton, the Auto-Pod operated at the picturesque Vivary Park, close to the town centre, while the Auto-Shuttle ran at Somerset County Cricket Club, where the Auto-Deliver was also on display.
Aurrigo self-driving Auto-Delivery vehicle at Somerset County Cricket Club, September 2022
At Alnwick, the Auto-Shuttle took passengers from the bus station up to the castle – a 1.2km route shared with cars, bikes and pedestrians – while the Auto-Pod carried passengers on a shared 500m path between the castle and Alnwick Gardens.
Aurrigo self-driving Auto-Pod at Alnwick Castle, June 2022
Ricky Raines, Operations Manager at Aurrigo, said: “We believe these types of first and last miles transport will be key to supporting people with mobility issues.
“These events are extremely useful in helping understand how individuals in rural locations feel about self-driving technology.”
Further afield, also in September, Aurrigo had a Pod at the joint Department for Transport (DfT) and Innovate UK stand at the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) World Congress 2022 in Los Angeles.
Aurrigo self-driving Pod at ITS World Congress 2022
On Tuesday 20 September, Nvidia unveiled a new computing platform, DRIVE Thor, designed to centralise self-driving and assisted driving, along with other digital functions such as in-car entertainment.
Succeeding the successful DRIVE Orin, Nvidia founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, describes Thor as “a superchip of epic proportions… an incredible leap in deep neural network accuracy”.
The system-on-a-chip (SoC) is built on the latest central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) advances, delivering 2,000 teraflops of performance.
Self-driving superchip
“DRIVE Thor unifies traditionally distributed functions in vehicles — including digital cluster, infotainment, parking and assisted driving — for greater efficiency in development and faster software iteration,” said Huang.
“Manufacturers can configure the DRIVE Thor superchip in multiple ways. They can dedicate all of the platform’s 2,000 teraflops to the autonomous driving pipeline, or use a portion for in-cabin AI and infotainment.”
Nvidia DRIVE Thor: distributed v centralised computer
Nvidia says the SoC is capable of multi-domain computing, enabling a car to run Linux, QNX and Android simultaneously on one computer. Realistically, it could be fitted into carmakers’ 2025 models.
Danny Shapiro, head of Nvidia’s automotive business, told Reuters: “You can imagine a tremendous savings in terms of cost, in terms of reduced cabling, in terms of reduced weight, in terms of reduced energy consumption overall.”
As we noted in our “Connected car data surge” feature last year, there are pressing questions around data privacy, but there’s no doubt this technology is phenomenal.
Computational horsepower
Check out the “computational horsepower” of DRIVE Thor compared to Orin, which was itself highly rated:
New research by a team at The University of Tokyo indicates that fitting robotic eyes to self-driving vehicles could improve pedestrian safety.
The images below show first-person views of an experiment conducted using virtual reality (VR), with participants deciding whether or not the cart had noticed them. The researchers called it the ‘gazing car’.
Toyko uni scenarios on giving eyes to self-driving cars
The team set up four scenarios – two where the cart had eyes and two without. Was the eyeless cart intending to stop? How did results change when the cart had eyes, either looking towards the pedestrian or looking away?
University of Tokyo gazing car video
The study was small: only 18 participants – nine women and nine men, all aged 18-49, all Japanese – but there did seem to be differences in reaction according to gender.
Self-driving gender differences
More male participants reported “feeling that the situation was more dangerous” when the eyes were looking away. While more female participants said they “felt safer” when the eyes were looking at them.
Project Lecturer Chia-Ming Chang, a member of the research team, commented: “The results suggested a clear difference between genders, which was very surprising and unexpected.
“While other factors like age and background might have also influenced the participants’ reactions, we believe this is an important point. It shows that different road users may have different behaviours and needs that require different communication.”
Self-driving communication
Professor Takeo Igarashi, from the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, added: “There is not enough investigation into the interaction between self-driving cars and the people around them.
“Moving from manual driving to auto driving is a huge change. If eyes can actually contribute to safety and reduce traffic accidents, we should seriously consider adding them.
“I hope this research encourages other groups to try similar ideas. Anything that facilitates better interaction between self-driving cars and pedestrians, which ultimately saves people’s lives.”
Here at Cars of the Future we have, of course, explored similar concepts before. Notably, in our interview with Yosuke Ushigome, Director at design innovation studio Takram.
For further info on The University of Tokyo study, see the team’s project page.
UK self-driving organisation Zenzic issues statement on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
The longstanding connection between Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the automotive industry is well documented. She famously drove an army ambulance in World War II and trained as a mechanic.
Representing the UK self-driving sector, Zenzic said: “We are saddened to hear of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and send our deepest sympathies to the Royal Family at this time.”
Thanks to James Long of Smart Mobility Living Lab (SMLL) on Linkedin for alerting us to the fact that Matchbox have made a self-driving bus toy.
Well, it took a few days but I now own one! A yellow MN1212 from 2019 by designer Abe Lugo.
Cars of the Future editor Neil Kennet with his Matchbox self-driving bus
The website Matchbox Fandom tells us there are others. A blue and white version is reviewed here by BusBoy501 Productions on Youtube:
BusBoy501 Productions on Youtube reviews a Matchbox self-driving bus
Unfortunately, he considers it something of a disappointment in modelling terms. “I don’t really care for it,” he says, noting that it is not to the usual 1/64 scale.
He isn’t convinced about real-world deployment either, saying: “I don’t think this is something we’ll see in school transportation for quite some time, if ever.”
As a bonus, I just so happen to own a rather battered example of the first ever Matchbox model – 1953’s Coronation Coach with its team of eight horses.
So, just for fun, here’s the past and future of clean fuel transport:
Matchbox self-driving bus and 1953 Coronation Coach
New survey on ADAS and self-driving by The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in America raises questions for UK legislators and motorists
A new survey on full and partial self-driving by The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in America has found significant mistrust of automated lane changing systems, with drivers preferring to stay hands-on and initiate the manoeuvre themselves.
The IIHS – a respected non-profit educational organization dedicated to reducing deaths from motor vehicle crashes – surveyed over 1,000 drivers on questions related to partial automation between September and October 2021, with the results published in June 2022.
The headline finding was that 80% wanted to use “at least some form of lane centering” – a strong endorsement for what we Brits call automated lane keeping systems (ALKS).
Report covers ADAS & ADS
IIHS report on consumer demand for ADAS and self-driving June 2022
36% preferred “hands-on-wheel” lane keeping, compared to 27% for “hands-free”, with 18% having no preference between the two types, 16% not wanting to use any form of lane keeping and 4% being unsure.
If you think that shows an appreciation of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) but a mistrust of conditionally automated driving systems (ADS), the next finding appears to confirm that.
Asked about lane changing assistance (as opposed to just lane keeping), 73% said they would use some form of auto lane change. However, 45% said they’d prefer to use driver-initiated auto lane change compared to only 14% for vehicle-initiated auto lane change. 23% said they wouldn’t use either type, 13% had no preference and 5% were unsure.
What’s more, on self-driving technology, 35% said they found it “extremely appealing” while 23% said it was “not at all appealing”.
Alexandra Mueller, the IIHS survey’s primary designer, commented: “Automakers often assume that drivers want as much technology as they can get in their vehicles. But few studies have examined actual consumer opinions about partial driving automation.
“It may come as a surprise to some people, but it appears that partially automated features that require the driver’s hands to be on the wheel are actually closer to one-size-fits-all than hands-free designs.”
Another eye-catching finding was the high number of people “at least somewhat comfortable” with in-cabin driver monitoring to support such systems: 70% for steering wheel sensors, 59% for camera monitoring of driver hands and 57% for camera monitoring of driver gaze.
“The drivers who were the most comfortable with all types of driver monitoring tended to say they would feel safer knowing that the vehicle was monitoring them to ensure they were using the feature properly,” said Mueller.
“That suggests that communicating the safety rationale for monitoring may help to ease consumers’ concerns about privacy or other objections.”
Self-driving questions
For us, the study is particularly interesting in terms of the UK government’s plan to list vehicles approved under the Automated Lane Keeping System (ALKS) Regulation as self-driving.
Further still, the acceptance of driver monitoring seems relevant to point four of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Connected and Automated Mobility’s seven expert recommended red lines: “Establish minimum standards for data sharing and handling to ensure transparency and effective governance”.
On 27 June, the Transport Select Committee announced a new inquiry into self-driving vehicles and issued a Call for Evidence.
Chaired by Huw Merriman MP, with a remit to hold Transport Ministers to account and to investigate matters of public concern, the influential cross-party group will scrutinise the development and deployment of self-driving road vehicles.
Transport Select Committee chair Huw Merriman MP to scrutinise self-driving
It follows confirmation that the Transport Bill announced in the recent Queen’s Speech will introduce comprehensive legislation for self-driving vehicles in the UK.
Other heavyweight issues currently before the Transport Select Committee include the integrated rail plan, the national bus strategy and road pricing.
Call for evidence on self-driving
The Call for Evidence on self-driving vehicles reads: “We are particularly interested in receiving written evidence that addresses:
Likely uses, including private cars, public transport and commercial vehicles;
Progress of research and trials in the UK and abroad;
Potential implications for infrastructure, both physical and digital;
The regulatory framework, including legal status and approval and authorisation processes;
Safety and perceptions of safety, including the relationship with other road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and conventionally driven vehicles;
The role of Government and other responsible bodies, such as National Highways and local authorities; and potential effects on patterns of car ownership, vehicle taxation and decarbonisation in the car market.”
The deadline for evidence is Monday 22 August 2022.
