Slashdot Mirror
Robot Delivery Vans Are Arriving Before Self-Driving Cars (bloomberg.com)
The future of driverless driving looks like a giant toaster with a funny hat. From a report: That's an approximation of a new autonomous vehicle unveiled Tuesday by Nuro, a Silicon Valley startup that's been cryptic about its business plan since it launched about 18 months ago. Nuro's shiny, minimalist appliance on wheels doesn't have doors or windows to speak of, because it will be carrying packages -- not people. As every major automaker and dozens of tech companies race to replace drivers in Uber cars and taxi fleets, Nuro is ignoring humans altogether and steering for Amazon.com, United Parcel Service and any retailer looking to build its e-commerce business.
when no one is home. How do these packages make it out of the van and to my porch/lobby/mailbox?
I have never understood why one tries to do the car first. - its the most complex environment as there is anything from a cat to bike or other car that can suddenly get into your way. There is no fixed track, there are other participants that don't always obey the rules. Traction may vary etc. - personal cars are a margin business. Expensive sensors, computing units etc are a much larger percentage than in a truck, train, plane or ship. Its just uneconomical.
Because self driving cars are already here, and have been for months.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/12/driverless-cars-became-a-reality-in-2017-and-hardly-anyone-noticed/
So to "arrive before self-driving cars" would take some amazing new time machine technology.
I saw someone get hit by an automated pizza delivery vehicle last month when I was staying at the Medina Plaza Hotel.
#DeleteFacebook
There is one flaw: neither self driving delivery vans OR cars exist today. So arguing about which one is going to come first is pointless.
They've had much larger, regular sized automated delivery vehicles at EU and the Tokyo auto shows...
How will they keep people who want a free ride off the car?
Henry Ford as a young man:
"Neither automobiles nor interstallar spacecraft exist today, so arguing about which one is going to come first is pointless"
yeah see how much sense that makes?
Yay!
#DeleteFacebook
nm
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
Probably driven by this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I plan on getting a custom cycling jersey made that has a full-sized octagonal "STOP" sign on the back (with the words "for cyclists" in small print underneath) for the sole purpose of trolling and sabotaging self-driving vehicles of all kinds -- to illustrate the inherent weaknesses and flaws in the technology.
I'll also be sueing the living daylights out of any SDC manufacturer and any company that operates one if they EVER hit me, walking, riding, or driving.
This is being driven by a business need to reduce expenses. UPS driver union fighting UPS to keep self driving trucks and drones off the road is just asinine. It will ultimately cripple UPS as a company and set them back a good decade.
Seeing any significant number (several a day) of self-driving cars in an urban area on the road way is 10-20 years off still and the day where more than 5% of cars on the road are self driving is still beyond that. Remember people, we have to cycle all the old inventory off the road. Electric cars are first and they are still a tiny fraction of the market, self-driving cars are still in such an infancy stage they will be following years after everyone has already been driving all electric cars for a few years. I remember when the first electric cars were being shipped. I live in the Seattle area and it still took a couple of years to start seeing more than just 1 or 2 a week. Now I see multiple all electric cars daily. Still as far a significant portion of the cars on the road, they are not even close.
If you want to talk rural areas, add another 20 years to all of those estimates and you may never see a self-driving delivery truck in a rural area for at least another 50+ years. Where I grew up, there is no technology today where self-driving cars would have been able to navigate to even 10% of the homes. The closest they would be able to get without getting stuck, figuratively or literally is somewhere between 1/2 to 5 miles from most homes in the area where I grew up. Hell, when I was growing up, only UPS would deliver and you had to give directions, there were no addresses.
that's why. You can occasionally pay them like crap (parts runners come to mind) but then you have to deal with ex-cons, drug dealers and retirees. When it comes to drivers your choices are paying at least 2x minimum wage or hiring basket cases or folks who don't really need the money. Businesses are eager to change that.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
This still looks too much like a vehicle instead of a delivery system. It even wastes money on glass - curved glass! At 35 mph, are aerodynamics that important?
My expectations for mass delivery are more along the lines of a platform that carries a couple of bots and a container that can be readily swapped.
The platform would be an ugly looking frame contraption that supports the wheels, motors, computers, sensors, lights, bumpers, a door delivery bot or two, etc., but not the battery or anything at all probably above the level of the lights.
The container would have the battery at the bottom and nestle down in the frame. The container would essentially form the upper body of the vehicle from front to back. It is unlikely to have many curves because curves make it difficult to fully pack it.
Bots might charge from the container's battery in between package deliveries so that they can't run out of juice on the route. Their batteries could be downsized with the more frequent charge expectations.
The packages would be packed in freshly charged containers at the depot in an order calculated at the same time as the traffic optimized route. When the vehicle arrives, containers are swapped by machine and off it goes again.
At delivery locations, a bot would pull the package from the container and take it to the door.
Each platform could operate 24 hours a day stopping only for scheduled maintenance. Assuming a robotic picking and loading system at the depot too, very few humans would need to be involved for normal operations. The staff's business would be to handle anomalies which will decrease over time.
In other words, I expect a system designed in conjunction with the depots from scratch around the task. This does not look like that system.
As such, Nuro believes cargo vehicles have a clearer, quicker path to profit than the 30 or so outfits that incorporate sentient beings who must emerge unscathed. “Passenger self-driving, to [these companies], is an existential threat; they have to get it right,” Ferguson said. “Whereas, for us, there are just some things we don’t need to worry about.”
Exactly what you want to hear - we don't have to car about people inside our car..... not like they won't be walking around or driving every other fucking vehicle on the road. This is every bit as dangerous as any other self-driving vehicle.
I'm sorry. I was drunk when I posted that.
APK
What if I discover I'm out of towels after I call for toilet paper? Will the robot understand me when I also ask for towels as well? Will I at least get a two way conversation to the front desk?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
The non-stop talk about level 5 (i.e. "fully, no human intervention required") autonomous vehicles has me wondering if I'm the last person on this planet who knows how computers work. The only way I can see any significant degree of autonomous operation working is if we do at least one of two things: Create special, auto-only vehicle lanes/roadways to keep robocars and human-driven ones away from each other, or add a LOT of hardware to public roads. Current plans to have cars work on stored information (e.g. maps), real-time sensor input, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication won't be nearly enough to deal with accidents, EMS vehicles, bad road conditions, bad weather conditions, missing or vandalized road signs, awful/drunk human drivers, etc.
I have fucking had it with the asshole drivers on US roads, so truly autonomous vehicles can't get here too soon for my taste. But anyone claiming we'll get there anytime soon -- within 7 to 10 years -- is lying or delusional.
I never click on the links, but did this time and was hit by a loud auto playing video ad. I need to remember to never click on the article links...
So be prepared to need to agree to as many sensors access to their phone app as you already need to agree to Uber, Lyft, etc.
(and tiny-micro print that boils down to "allow them to resell the data to 3rd parties for marketing purpose", but written in a way that sounds completely differentü).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
How would multiple autonomous vans compare to an HGV for palletised/boxed freight? With the cost of multiple drivers gone, it seems like you could ship one or 2 pallets (or 4-8 pallets in a larger van?) per cheaper-to-maintain, easier-to-accommodate and more flexible vans. Platooning might (?) make multiple vans to the same destination as cheap in fuel as a large multi-axle delivery vehicle.
At least there will be no job losses. All the drivers can be re-purposed as armed guards to ride along and protect the cargo.