A mysterious unnamed contributor writes:
U of Iowa has started testing an autonomous vehicle under rural conditions--long routes, roads with no lane markings, snow/ice, and eventually gravel roads as well (in a later phase). This link includes a summary of their work during the first year of the project, https://autonomoustuff.com/velocity-magazine/velocity-2022/on-the-rural-road-to-autonomy The study was, "initiated by the University of Iowa's National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) transportation safety research center and funded by a $7 million USD grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT)..."
In true big-Federal-budget style, they have commissioned and built a test vehicle into a Ford Transit 350HD with every known (to me) autonomous sensor and buzz-word technology:
The Customized Research & Development Platform includes:
PACMod by-wire kit
AStuff Spectra rugged GPU computing edge AI platform
AStuff Spectra 2 rugged dual-GPU computing edge AI platform
Multiple Continental ARS 408-21 RADARs
Hexagon | NovAtel PwrPak7D-E2 with dual VEXXIS GNSS-502 antennas
Mobileye Camera Development Kit (includes lane modelling, lane type, obstacle detection, obstacle classification, pedestrian detection, application warnings, traffic sign recognition)
Multiple Velodyne Puck and Velodyne Puck Hi-res LiDAR sensors
Cohda Wireless MK5 OBU communication solution for receiving smart infrastructure vehicle-to-everything (V2X) data
Multiple Leopard imaging cameras for traffic light detection
Stand-alone data logger for redundant data acquisitionThe technology stack, including power distribution, high-speed ethernet switches, two computers (one for LiDAR and RADAR perception processing and classification, one for the autonomy system), data loggers and the communication system, sits in the cowl panel of the vehicle. The sensors are positioned per Figure 1.
Once AutonomouStuff delivered the equipped vehicle, the UI team added more sensors to monitor the weather and for the physiological assessments. UI and AutonomouStuff completed the initial development and testing of the ADS Transit vehicle in early 2021.
They also hired a survey firm to Lidar & video-map the test area.
By the end of the study, the ADS for Rural America project will gather and generate a wealth of publicly available data on rural roadways that can address a variety of questions among a diverse set of end-users to safely integrate ADS into all types of U.S. roadways.
I suppose this study will be useful to someone, but some personal experience (long ago) with the operating staff at the U of Iowa monster-sized driving simulator (NADS) was not encouraging. At the time it sure looked like they knew more about writing big grants than they did about vehicle dynamics engineering.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @06:21AM
So you's gotta have NADS
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 22 2022, @11:50AM (5 children)
Why didn't they do this in the Cascade mountains? Or, even the Poconos. Iowa is so flat. There are so many different real world challenges that are absent in Iowa. Things like rolling down a steep hill, nice long straightaway, with a sharp curve at the bottom, with a village and a school zone around the curve. No cliffside driving, with high winds and icy roads. I've always loved the places where you come over a rise, and the road just kinda disappears in front of you because it's headed back down the other side of the rise. Add in a curve or a dogleg just over the crest of the hill, and it will pucker up the best driver's anus.
The difference in highest elevation and lowest elevation in Iowa is less than the change in elevation in many farmer's pastures in mountain states.
Will never forget the day I sat in a restaurant with a blue eyed Mexican (that was his radio handle) and he stared out across the road at the hillside. Nicely mowed lawn, with crown vetch planted on the steeper parts of the lawn, and a couple vehicles parked in front of the brick house with an attached garage. I asked him what he was staring at.
"I couldn't live like this. If I went out for some drinks, when I got home, I'd fall off the lawn and break my neck!"
But, seriously, there is little challenge in driving in such a flat state.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday October 22 2022, @01:26PM (2 children)
Why didn't the Wright brothers try to cross the Atlantic for their first flight? Why did NASA waste time going to the Moon when they could have tried to go directly to Mars like they are trying to do today? Why didn't medical science start with a brain transplant rather than muck about with just changing lesser bodily organs? It looks like people don't know how to progress in science and technology nowadays. They only want to solve the easy problems. /s
The problem is not so trivial that it is not worth trying so solve it in stages. Most people don't spend their time in cars driving down steep inclines or battling with strong winds and icy roads (the latter ARE part of the testing plan - it actually tells you that). They spend their time commuting to and from work. The choice of vehicle that they have made is not because it is what the most people actually drive, it is to hold all the testing and measuring equipment that they need to gather the data for subsequent analysis.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @05:57PM
Then they should stick to getting it to work well enough for trucks on certain "easy" highways. There'd be more profitable applications for trucks that can drive themselves on easy highway routes. Maybe you could have a pilot/guide taking over or helping for the final leg of the journey e.g. from highway to warehouse near the highway. But if that's also an easy safe route that doesn't require human intervention then that's even better.
If you have kids running on highways and getting squished, people are more likely to blame the parents or something else than the robo-truck that accidentally squishes them. So it'd be less of a PR disaster and less likely to cause knee-jerk regulations/laws to be introduced.
After a few years if the tech etc improves they could increase coverage to more and more highways/routes.
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday October 23 2022, @12:37AM
That's because it's here; right now one can point a Tesla and it will drive itself through the Poconos.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @01:52PM
Why are you a racist?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @08:44PM
> Why didn't they do this in the Cascade mountains? Or, ....
Submitter here: perhaps you missed my ending jibe about U Iowa?
> At the time it sure looked like they knew more about writing big grants than they did about vehicle dynamics engineering.
While I don't know for sure, I think that is a likely reason that Iowa won this job.
Perhaps there will be follow on work using their gov't paid-for test vehicle after they've done their two year project?
(Score: 3, Informative) by dltaylor on Saturday October 22 2022, @07:39PM
There are enough Harley-Davidsons around there that this time, unlike current model Teslas, perhaps they cn be sure that the system suite can "see" a motorcycle and respond safely. It shouldn't be too hard to model sport motorcycles, also.
The Tesla fans will likely mod this down, but
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-investigating-utah-tesla-crash-that-killed-motorcyclist-2022-07-26/ [reuters.com]