Things that were abstract dreams and nightmares in the early 1990s have become today’s reality. Specifically, the idea of electronic viruses and cybercriminals wreaking havoc on the real world has sadly become a reality and the resulting gas shortages are a reminder of the 1970 era. Unfortunately, the cyberinfrastructure vulnerabilities we are seeing today are just a sliver of what could be if GPS is compromised, according to an excellent article by former DOT Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology Diana Furchtgott-Roth.
Resilient Positioning, Navigation, and Timing – Right Now
Van Halen’s insight about timing and seizing the moment in its 1991 song, Right Now, is a great metaphor for the current situation with PNT. As background, the most prevalent source of PNT, Positioning, Navigation, and Timing, is provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS has become an essential element to much of the infrastructure for the modern economy. The USDOT has analyzed some alternatives. Now, according to Furchtgott-Roth, it is up to Congress to take the next step to ensure a more resilient PNT infrastructure.
Driverless Lessons from the Sunshine State to the Garden State
“The interesting thing about this [autonomous vehicle] technology is that it has enormous potential for improving quality of life.” With that statement, Princeton Professor Alain Kornhauser set the stage for the penultimate session of the Smart Driving Car Summit, Making It Happen – Part 1. The most impressive thing about the April 8th, 2021 panel, however, has nothing to do with autonomous vehicles. It was a productive and non-partisan conversation facilitated by Kornhauser.
Making Driverless Happen – The Road Forward
Safety, high-quality, and affordable mobility, particularly for those who do not have many options, was a common theme to the 2021 Smart Driving Car Summit. In this final session of the Smart Driving Car Summit, panelists looked at the economics of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) for Trenton and beyond. One of the insights from this final panel is that traditional bus transit is like broadcast television, while MaaS Is Netflix.
Get Ready for Sidewalk Robots – Challenges and Opportunities
“We are not ready for sidewalk robots,” exclaims Harmonize Mobility”s Bern Grush. Grush is qualified to make this statement as he is leading the efforts to standardize the curb interface for autonomous vehicles. It is important to note that in the context of the above conversation, autonomous vehicle means everything from pet-size delivery robots to robotaxis and robovans transporting people and/or goods (e.g. the Nuro vehicle is seen weaving around obstacles in this Domino pizza commercial YouTube).
A Boring Conversation
Lots of great insight from someone who has been helping the tunnel digging process in Las Vegas. For my telecom friends, there are some interesting parallels between tunnels in Las Vegas and broadband. Notes on some of those parallels are captured in the update to this article, which this author referenced in the Smart Driving Car podcast. The Boring Company’s website lists multiple applications for tunneling, including transportation, utility, freight, pedestrian, and bare.
View Here (Smart Driving Car Podcast – YouTube)
Smart Driving Cars Episode 212: #Waymo, #GM, #Tesla and more
It was an honor to join Techstination’s Fred Fishkin and Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser on the @SmartDrivingCar podcast. Listen long enough & you will hear why the @Waymo option could assuage my concern about the potential theft of my car’s catalytic converter. This conversation is a complement to these rough notes about Waymo’s and Valley Metro’s pilot of mobility on demand in Chandler, AZ.
Some Tweets and Short Thoughts:
- VTA, Prospect Motors, and Local Motors officially announced the testing of Olli (YouTue) “to serve transit users with disabilities.” Here is the ViodiTV interview with VTA CIO/CTO Gary Miksel from 2019 that provides additional background regarding the challenges of designing such a vehicle.
- OVs (Occupantless Vehicles) will significantly reduce injuries and fatalities, according to new research from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Although the study was funded and reviewed by Nuro, the results make sense. These vehicles are lighter, narrower, slower, can make more abrupt stops and maneuvers, and don’t have to be designed with a protective cocoon for a driver.
- An autonomous weeder that zaps weeds with a laser, operates without a driver, and covers 15 to 20-acres per day, looks like it pays for itself in operational cost savings, according to this article.
- Thank you to the C-SPAN bus from ACA Connects & background on the bus in this ViodiTV video.
The Korner – The Continuously Evolving Video Platform
Two decades ago, the conventional wisdom was that the triple play of voice, video, and data was an effective way to provide value to customers and reduce churn for operators. In the intervening years, over-the-top providers have emerged and pecked away at a service providers’ advantages in offering voice and video services.
In this interview, we learn how one Wisconsin-based operator and an associated headend/programming transport consortium are countering the trend with their own streaming video offering. This offering eliminates the set-top by using consumer streaming devices, such as those provided by Roku, Amazon, and Apple. Although their new service is starting as an in-home alternative to traditional IPTV for Lynxx Networks, it sets the stage for expansion beyond the home and, potentially, beyond Lynxx’s all-fiber-to-the-home network.
