Autonocast

137: How Cities and Companies Collaborate On New Mobility

On March 18, 2018, one of Uber's autonomous test vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian named Elaine Herzberg as she crossed a street in Tempe, Arizona. In the year since the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle a lot has changed in the sector, both internally at developers and in public perceptions of the technology. Alex, Kirsten and Ed look back at the tragic event and tumultuous aftermath and discuss what went wrong and what we can learn from the incident.

The Autonocast took advantage of its on-stage panel at SXSW to discuss one of the few issues that has real life-and-death consequences: the consequences of language used to describe automated driving technology. Whether caused by sensationalism, ignorance or just laziness, language that oversells publicly-available driver assistance systems and conflates it with autonomy can actively contribute to dangerous uses that actually endanger peoples lives. Kirsten, Alex and Ed are joined by the "Godfather" of the Autonocast, Reilly Brennan of Trucks VC and the Future of Transportation Newsletter, as they deconstruct this insidious problem and start to look for solutions to it.

Brought to you in partnership with INRIX, this episode features a discussion from CES about the lessons Las Vegas has learned from its early AV deployments. Recorded live from The Wynn, the panel includes Brian Hoeft (Director-FAST, RTC Southern Nevada), Steve Vozar (CTO, May Mobility), Chris Barker (VP New Mobility, Communications and Partnerships at Keolis) and Avery Ash (Head of Autonomous Mobility at INRIX). Moderated by Team Autonocast, and followed by an audience Q&A, this episode brings real-life lessons for anyone looking at bringing autonomous vehicles to their city.

This week's episode casts a fearless glance at the scariest things in the autonomous drive technology space: trying to sell an AV developer company in the "trough of disillusionment," getting asked a tough question by one Kirsten Can't Hack, and (of course) Laser Bears! The gang teases out the many implications of Waymo's move into lidar sales, ponders who might buy Drive.ai, and high-fives Kirsten for asking Elon Musk a question he's been avoiding for too long. Plus, a reminder that the whole crew will be at SXSW starting on Saturday, and will be hosting a panel on automated driving terminology on Tuesday.

It's been a long time since Alex, Kirsten and Ed sat down to just discuss the recent news in the mobility space so this episode begins with a recap of some of the gang's recent stories and activities. The news of Daimler & BMW's cooperation on automated driving technology sparks a conversation about consolidation among AV and other expensive technology efforts, as well as the challenges of distinguishing brands and product in commodified mobility services.Plus: Polestar 2 takes on the Model 3, Elon Musk gets into more SEC trouble, and The Autonocast has plans for SXSW.

For decades Tier One suppliers like ZF have quietly become some of the most powerful players in the auto industry, steadily eating more and more of the automotive value chain. Now, like the OEMs, big suppliers have to hedge their traditional automotive businesses with investments in the technologies of the future. Oliver Briemle heads up a big part of that effort at ZF, leading development of a range of of Level Four solutions for the supplier's $12 billion bet on automated driving. He sat down with Ed and Alex at CES to explain how ZF is trying to support its partners in this massive transition while carving out an even bigger piece of the future mobility value chain.

Just before the big Autonocast CES party, Sterling Anderson joined the gang at their lavish Las Vegas suite to discuss his earlier work with augmented driving, why he moved into Level 4 autonomy, how to think about California's autonomous testing disengagement reports and how Aurora approaches development and validation. Plus, why you won't see Aurora participating in any cross-country autonomous cannonball races.

The second half of our conversations from the Micromobility California Conference really gets into the meat of The Great Scooter Boom, discussing the good, the bad and the ugly of the hottest trend in mobility technology. That means everything from unit economics and infrastructure to charger fraud, theft and regulatory compliance. To tackle all this we're joined by an all-star group of scooter mavens: Reilly Brennan, of Trucks VC (and godfather of The Autonocast), Michael Naka of RideReport and the Movements newsletter, and Victor Pontis of ScooterMap.

The Autonocast comes to you this week from the first Micromobility California Conference, held at a former Ford Model A factory on the San Francisco Bay. After Alex, Kirsten and Ed catch up, the gang is joined by all-round transportation expert Courtney Erlichman of The Erlichman Group and the Pennsylvania Autonomous Vehicle Policy Task Force to discuss how cities can balance the needs of autonomous vehicles and micromobility. Later we check in with two tweet-happy lawyers, Jim McPherson (aka @SafeSelfDrive) and Jesse Halfon, to find out if lawyers are going to ruin scooters for everyone.

With fully autonomous vehicles mired in the trough of disillusionment, the industry's focus is shifting towards shorter-term opportunities to use sensor and AI technology to improve human driving performance. To understand where this trend is going, we invited three companies working in this area to stop by our car-based recording studio on the CES floor: we spoke with Nick DiFiore from Seeing Machines, Rana el Kaliouby of Affectiva and Neil Boehm of Gentex. In this free-flowing conversation, we discuss everything from driver monitoring to emotional recognition to the future of rear-view mirrors, all with an eye toward Alex's paradigm of augmented driving.

Our PAVE doubleheader rolls on, as we are joined from the CES show floor by Kelly Nantel of the National Safety Council and returning guest Avery Ash of INRIX. Both members of the Partners for Automated Vehicle Education, Ash and Nantel explain what issues PAVE is trying to address, which audiences it is targeting, how it will try to reach these constituencies and why it will try to listen as much as speak.

Recorded live from the show floor at CES 2019, The Autonocast is joined in our Ford Fusion by two distinguished doctors: Dr Mark Rosekind, Chief Safety Innovation Officer at Zoox and former NHTSA Administrator, and Dr Jeffrey Michael of Johns Hopkins University. The two good doctors joined us to discuss their participation in Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE) and the perceptions and realities of automated vehicle safety.

The Autonocast's CES coverage rolls on, with another conversation recorded from our Ford Fusion on the show floor courtesy of Avis Budget Group. This time we are joined by the sponsor of our CES party Ro Gupta of Carmera, as well as Chris Heiser and Jason Stinson of Renovo, who talk about the subdued tone around the autonomous car and mobility technology sector at this year's CES. We were all a little bit tired and drained from the amazing party that we threw the night before with Carmera, but that didn't stop us from coming to a provocative insight into the much-discussed autonomous drive "trough of disillusionment": behind the ups and downs of public perception, a lot of business and investment in the space continues as usual. Maybe we're actually overhyping the hype cycle?

Our very own Alex Roy talks about his new gig as Director of Special Operations at Argo AI, becoming a father, and how his contributions to The Autonocast (and elsewhere) will change. A brief discussion covering the show's partnerships and ethical considerations ensues, before we begin our CES coverage by talking to... our coverage sponsor! Jeff Kaelin, VP of Product Development at Avis Budget Group, and Jeff Pruse, head of product and customer experience at Zipcar, join the show from an Avis car on the floor at CES to talk about fleet management and the future of car rental.