In London, which successfully implemented congestion pricing in 2003, drivers now get to their jobs faster, transit users have improved service, cyclists have better infrastructure, and pedestrians have more public space. More people have access to the central city, and when they get there, the streets are safer and more enjoyable. While the politics of implementing congestion pricing are difficult, cities looking to tame traffic and compete in the 21st century can’t afford to ignore a transportation solution that addresses so many problems at once.

via Streetfilms | MBA: Congestion Pricing.

Moving Beyond the Automobile short film series

California Governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. visits the Google Headquarters on September 24th, 2012 to sign SB1298, a bill that creates a legal framework and operational safety standards for the testing and operation of autonomous vehicles on state roads and highways.

via SB1298 Signing Event.

[Self-driving cars] potentially eradicating traffic

Cars driven 3% of the time on average

Self-driving car… The reasons: efficiency, saving energy, utilizing space, utilizing time, the human being gets much more power out of each day.

You can count on one hand the number of years until ordinary people can experience this [self-driving cars].

The bill: SB-1298 Vehicles: autonomous vehicles: safety and performance requirements.(2011-2012)

Prior to the start of testing in this state, the manufacturer performing the testing shall obtain an instrument of insurance, surety bond, or proof of self-insurance in the amount of five million dollars ($5,000,000), and shall provide evidence of the insurance, surety bond, or self-insurance to the department in the form and manner required by the department pursuant to the regulations adopted pursuant to subdivision (d).

Will planes someday fly without pilots? Three EPFL laboratories, commissioned by Honeywell and operating under the auspices of EPFL’s Transportation Center, are working on this possibility by developing collision-prediction, avoidance, and real-time vision algorithms. The project is a formidable technological challenge.

via A step towards total autopilot.

Interdisciplinary research

The group has recently acquired a flight-testing area with a testing room and will soon have a state-of-the-art 3D positioning system. Sensors and algorithms will be tested on small flying robots called quadrirotors. “We will work on integrating trajectory prediction, avoidance, stability, vision, and data-exchange algorithms developed by various laboratories, and see how to get them working together in real time,” explains laboratory director Alcherio Martinoli.

There’s been big debate about the projected cost ($68B to $99B) and the inability of projected revenues to cover interest on the capital let alone operating costs. The project is beginning with a 130 mile segment in the central valley to make use of federal funds. This could be a “rail to nowhere” connecting no big towns and with no trains on it. By 2028 they plan to finally connect SF and LA.

via Can high speed rail compete with self-driven cars, improved airlines and all the technology of the future? – Forbes.

The HSR focus on a competitive downtown-to-downtime time ignores the fact that only a tiny fraction of passengers will want that precise trip.

Problems with HSR include: money cost, time cost, necessity of infrastructure changes, inflexibility of origin-destimations

Symbiotic relationship between HSR and autonomous cars with airports is an interesting idea.

HT Chenxia

On a highway filled to capacity by human drivers which is about 2,200 vehicles per hour per lane, about five percent of the available road space is taken up by cars. Five percent. This is because humans are so bad at driving that we need lanes that are twice the size of our cars, and at highway speeds, we have to keep between 40 and 50 meters away from the car in front of us. 

via Study: Intelligent Cars Could Boost Highway Capacity by 273% – IEEE Spectrum.

This concept is tangentially related to Smoothy in improving highway (long road) capacity and efficiency. Our concept can be implemented without hardware changes to the vehicles. This concept can be implemented if all cars are equipped with adaptive cruise control. Both are technically possible today. However, our concept of course has limited scope and effectiveness. The trade-offs between infrastructure change and effectiveness are apparent.

Columbia University

Chinese car maker BYD has developed a remote controlled car called the Su Rui. The car apparently drives itself at a max speed of 1.2 miles per hour (1.9 km per hour).

via Chinese Remote Controlled Car – Driverless Car HQ and For $10,000, You Can Own A Self-Driving Car Today.

between 90-220,000 [road] deaths per year in China

The Su Rui is priced at $10,365 for the 1.5 liter model or $15,710 for a turbo model. While the car is currently only being sold in China, it proves that a self-driving car, as a commercial possibility, are on their way.