Tag: Autonomous Cars

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Goodbye Apple Car, Hello GenAI

Apple’s ambitions to enter the automotive business are apparently history. This is reported by Bloomberg. “Apple Inc. is canceling a decadelong effort to build an electric car, according to people with knowledge of the matter, abandoning one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the company.” (Bloomberg, 27 February 2024) Numerous media outlets around the world have picked up the story. The company actually wanted to launch an autonomous electric car on the market. Apple never communicated this publicly, but it was common knowledge. The project as part of the Special Projects Group (SPG) is now to be wound up and the remaining employees are to focus on the area of generative AI in future, where Apple wants to catch up in the coming months. So you could say: goodbye Apple car, hello GenAI.

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Expansion of Robocar Operations in Frisco

Robot cabs have been seen in San Francisco for years, first by Uber, then by Cruise and Waymo. But there have been various restrictions on their operation in the past. NBC BAY AREA reported on August 10, 2023: “California regulators on Thursday approved an expansion that will allow two rival robotaxi services to operate throughout San Francisco at all hours, despite safety worries spurred by recurring problems with unexpected stops and other erratic behavior that resulted in unmanned vehicles blocking traffic, including emergency vehicles.” (NBC BAY AREA, 10 August 2023) It goes on to say: “The California Public Utilities Commission voted to approve rival services from Cruise and Waymo to operate around-the-clock service. It will make San Francisco first major U.S. city with two fleets of driverless vehicles competing for passengers against ride-hailing and taxi services dependent on humans to operate the cars.” (NBC BAY AREA, 10 August 2023) It is highly likely that accidents will occur, including personal injury. A city is a highly complex environment, and the technology for autonomous driving is far from mature. In addition, the population and tourists are not sufficiently prepared for this form of traffic.

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Disabling Autonomous Vehicles

“Anti-car activists have come up with a novel and effective way of disabling driverless vehicles owned by Waymo and Cruise in San Francisco: placing traffic cones on their hoods. It’s the work of a group called Safe Streets Rebel, which has launched a protest dubbed ‘Week of Cone’.” (Techspot, 11 July 2023) This was reported by Techspot on 11 July 2023. Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel has been pointing out for several years that automated and autonomous cars can be crippled in a simple way. On 6 March 2018, in an article in a Swiss IT journal, he asked, “Does autonomous driving fail because of manipulated sensors?” … A thesis by his student M. Hashem Birahjakli then systematically compiled and examined methods and means. A blog post about it states: “The results of the work suggest that every 14-year-old girl or boy could disable a self-driving car. So far, hacking has been seen as the greatest threat to autonomous driving. But while not everyone can hack, almost everyone carries chewing gum or lipstick. The automotive industry should consider this threat seriously.” The operator Waymo reacts helplessly to the actions. According to the German magazine Golem, a press spokesman emphasized that the traffic cone action shows a lack of understanding of how autonomous vehicles work and is vandalism. In fact, the activists know very well how autonomous vehicles work. And that is precisely the problem.

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Towards Human-friendly Robot Cars

According to a news story by University of Leeds, robot cars and other automated vehicles could be made more pedestrian-friendly thanks to new research which could help predict when people will cross the road. Leeds scientists say “that neuroscientific theories of how the brain makes decisions can be used in automated vehicle technology to improve safety and make them more human-friendly” (University of Leeds, 5 October 2021). “The researchers set out to determine whether a decision-making model called drift diffusion could predict when pedestrians would cross a road in front of approaching cars, and whether it could be used in scenarios where the car gives way to the pedestrian, either with or without explicit signals. This prediction capability will allow the autonomous vehicle to communicate more effectively with pedestrians, in terms of its movements in traffic and any external signals such as flashing lights, to maximise traffic flow and decrease uncertainty.” (University of Leeds, 5 October 2021) In fact, communication between automated vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists is the crucial problem to be solved in cities. Predictive models can be used, as well as communication options such as eye contact and natural language. For this to happen, however, the autonomous car would have to become a social robot.