[Nfbc-sj] AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES IN THE BAY AREA

[Brian Buhrow]

	hello.  Below is a story from the San Jose Mercury News about  Waymo's
plans to begin testing fully driverless cars in Bay Area cities in the next
few months.  Mountain View is supposed to be holding a public hearing
regarding Waymo's plans on December 13 of this year.  that's a week from
tomorrow, thursday the 13th.  I can't be at that meeting, but I think we
should have a representative there.  I'm excited by the possibility of
being able to use an autonomous vehicle, but I'm a bit frightened at the
prospect of being a pedestrian interacting with a car that has no driver.  I
really want to know how they behave, how to know when the thing is about to
take off, stop, turn, etc.  While I can't see, I often use hand gestures to
signal to drivers what my intentions are.  that helps them know what I'm
doing.  And, in many cases, if there's confusion, the driver will roll down
their window and we'll chat to get things straightened out.  I realize
these are issues that sighted drivers and pedestrians will have to deal
with as well, but I think  Waymo and other companies should know we're here.
For example, I read a story about the driverless testing going on in Texas,
referenced in the article below, where the solution to pedestrian confusion
about what the cars were doing was to put an LED  display on the front of
the vehicle with messages about what the car wanted.  For example, if the
car was waiting for a pedestrian to cross in front of it, it would put up a
sign saying it was waiting for pedestrian crossing.  Such a solution
wouldn't work in my case, nor other blind pedestrians who might be
traveling near these vehicles.
	In any case, if anyone  can get to this meeting in Mountain view next
week, I'd be very interested in knowing what they have to say.  Even
better, if it gets us some contacts in Waymo, that would be awesome!

-thanks
-Brian


https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/27/is-silicon-valley-ready-for-fully-autonomous-waymo-vehicles/



Is Silicon Valley ready for fully autonomous Waymo vehicles?

   By Levi Sumagaysay | lsumagaysay at bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News
   Group
   PUBLISHED: November 27, 2018 at 5:30 am | UPDATED: November 27, 2018 at
   10:34 am

   Waymo, the first company to get approval from the Department of Motor
   Vehicles to test fully self-driving vehicles on California roads, faces
   questions and concerns galore as it prepares to roll out the cars in
   Silicon Valley.

   For example, what happens if one of its vehicles -- which won't have a
   driver behind the wheel -- gets into an accident?

   The self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, equipped with a two-way
   cellular communication link, will notify Waymo's fleet-response
   specialists. Those specialists will call 911 if needed. Then Waymo will
   send a response team to help passengers and first responders on the
   scene.

   That's what Waymo has shared on its website and with police, including
   officers in Los Altos, one of the cities where the company will be
   doing the testing.

   "Waymo has been very proactive and very cognizant of community
   concerns," said Captain Scott McCrossin of the Los Altos Police
   Department.
   Waymo will test fully driverless vehicles in the Silicon Valley cities
   within the blue area marked in this map. The company got DMV approval
   in October, but it has not indicated publicly when testing will begin.
   (Courtesy Waymo)

   Waymo first talked to Los Altos city officials in April, when the
   company submitted an application to test its fully driverless vehicles
   to the DMV. In late October, the DMV approved Waymo's application for
   testing in five cities. Besides Los Altos, the cars will be tested in
   Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Palo Alto.

   The Alphabet-owned company has not publicly announced when testing will
   begin, and the cities say they have not been informed of a timeline.

   But Waymo has been engaged in various levels of outreach, according to
   those cities' representatives and correspondence included in the
   company's application with the DMV.
     * Waymo held a safety training for first responders in September
       where the company explained its safety and law-enforcement
       interaction protocols, McCrossin said. In September and October,
       Waymo held public forums in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.
     * Over the summer, Waymo displayed a self-driving vehicle at the
       Sunnyvale library. In September, the company was at a tech expo
       downtown. And Waymo has held a training session with the city's
       public-safety officials.
     * In Palo Alto, there's a public forum scheduled Nov. 27 at 6 p.m. at
       the Cubberley Community Center, where residents will hear from
       Waymo and get a chance to ask questions. The police department is
       in talks with the company about scheduling a meeting.
     * Mountain View has asked the other cities to meet on Dec. 6 and is
       planning a public forum Dec. 13. Mountain View police recently met
       with Waymo, and they are talking about a future training session.

   Is that outreach enough? In Silicon Valley, Google/Waymo's self-driving
   cars with drivers behind the wheel have been a common sight for a long
   time. Each accident involving the vehicles -- 17 so far this year --
   has been documented, as required by the DMV. But despite Waymo's years
   of testing, its move to fully driverless vehicles on public roads
   concerns some Silicon Valley residents.

   "I followed a Waymo on Castro, the principal street in Mountain View,
   and it proceeded at 12 mph (in a 25 mph zone) with a queue of cars
   behind and caught us all at a red light," John Joss said last week. "It
   then turned right after stopping but only gave a turn signal after it
   had stopped. Severely dumb."

   The 84-year-old Mountain View resident added that when a Waymo vehicle
   reaches the intersection of Cuesta and Bonita Avenue, "it goes into a
   state of fibrillation, saying, `oh, we can't go, we can't turn!'

   "It's too soon" for fully autonomous vehicles, Joss said.

   Other residents agree. Karen Brenchley said she recently saw a Waymo
   vehicle make a right turn from a left-turn lane.

   "I'm like, `Did that really happen'?" said the 55-year-old Sunnyvale
   resident, who has a master's degree in computer science and works in
   artificial intelligence. "Thirty years ago I took an AI class in grad
   school. One of the things we wrote was how to change lights based on
   traffic patterns. We're still trying to figure that out. How long have
   we had self-driving cars? I'm delighted that they're doing what they're
   doing, but I think they're not ready."

   The company is hearing people's concerns. In September, Barbara
   McCarthy of Los Altos saw a Waymo vehicle fail to stop at an
   intersection with a flashing light, which means pedestrians were
   getting ready to cross. She was concerned enough that she contacted
   Waymo.

   "They were very helpful," McCarthy, 67, said. She spoke with a
   community manager by phone and email. That made her feel like Waymo
   will take residents' concerns into account, she said.

   In Phoenix, Waymo has been testing a fully autonomous program since
   April 2017. There, Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans shuttle
   early-rider volunteers to work, school, the mall and elsewhere. The
   company has signed up more than 400 riders since it began the program,
   and a recent report indicates that it will start a new driverless car
   service in the area next month -- although there will be safety drivers
   behind the wheel of those vehicles, a spokeswoman confirms.

   In Silicon Valley, Waymo's first testers will be its own employees.
   Then it will open up the program to members of the public, as it has
   done in Arizona. The company will test vehicles day and night on city
   streets, rural roads and highways with speed limits of up to 65 miles
   per hour. The DMV approved testing of 39 vehicles, all Chrysler
   Pacifica Hybrids.

   Waymo started as Google's self-driving car division in 2009 before it
   was spun off as a standalone subsidiary in 2016. Last month, Waymo CEO
   John Crafcik boasted that its vehicles had reached 10 million miles
   driven on public roads in 25 cities.

   Merely having all those miles under its belt is not enough, some
   critics say.

   "The DMV is letting Waymo turn all of us into human guinea pigs for
   testing their robot cars, without an adequate explanation of what's
   going on," said John Simpson, Privacy and Technology Project director
   for Consumer Watchdog, a longtime Google critic, in a statement at the
   time the California DMV announced its approval of Waymo's permit.

   In an interview, Simpson expressed concern about Waymo's plan for
   remote "drivers" who will be monitoring the vehicles. A Waymo
   spokeswoman would not say how many vehicles at a time each remote
   driver will be watching.

   "It's like they're playing a video game," he said, "but if something
   goes wrong, somebody might get killed."

   Consumer Watchdog also is urging the DMV to release more information
   about Waymo's insurance coverage, pointing to redactions in its
   insurance documents.

   But DMV spokesman Marty Greenstein said Waymo has met the agency's
   requirements: "The insurance information was redacted from Waymo's
   public application because it was deemed to relate to confidential
   business strategies that have competitive significance."

   This story has been updated with additional information about Waymo's
   upcoming driverless car service.