California Gives a Green Light To Companies Testing Driverless Delivery Vehicles (zdnet.com) 46
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: California has said it will now allow companies to test light-duty autonomous delivery vehicles on the state's public roads. The State of California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced the new regulations last week, which allows companies with a permit to operate autonomous delivery vehicles that weigh up to 10,001 pounds (4.54 tons).
"This weight category includes "autonomous passenger cars, mid-sized pickup trucks and cargo vans carrying goods such as pizza or groceries", the DMV said. The new rules still excludes testing autonomous vehicles that weigh more than 10,001 pounds. "The adoption of these regulations means Californians soon could receive deliveries from an autonomous vehicle provided the company fulfills the requirements," DMV Director Steve Gordon said. "As always, public safety is our primary focus." Companies will need to ensure their driverless delivery trucks are equipped with a "communication link between the vehicle and a remote operator and the ability to display or transfer vehicle owner or operator information in the event of a collision."
Also, these vehicles must be certified to industry standards for helping defend against and response to "cyberattacks, unauthorized intrusions or false vehicle control commands."
"This weight category includes "autonomous passenger cars, mid-sized pickup trucks and cargo vans carrying goods such as pizza or groceries", the DMV said. The new rules still excludes testing autonomous vehicles that weigh more than 10,001 pounds. "The adoption of these regulations means Californians soon could receive deliveries from an autonomous vehicle provided the company fulfills the requirements," DMV Director Steve Gordon said. "As always, public safety is our primary focus." Companies will need to ensure their driverless delivery trucks are equipped with a "communication link between the vehicle and a remote operator and the ability to display or transfer vehicle owner or operator information in the event of a collision."
Also, these vehicles must be certified to industry standards for helping defend against and response to "cyberattacks, unauthorized intrusions or false vehicle control commands."
Woot! (Score:2)
Between this and GM pushing to be allowed to deploy Bolts without steering wheels, our autonomous driving overlords should soon be here!
Still better than humans (Score:2, Insightful)
Driverless delivery vehicles are probably a better idea at this point than humans.
Human delivery drivers are too tempted to push speed in bad conditions, and like any human driver could easily be distracted and get into an accident.
Autonomous cars cannot get tired or distracted, they just go about what they are doing with a more predictable regularity. On average, they will probably have a better accident record than human drivers.
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Terminator mode now on
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We're currently in the valley between "humans are definitely better than autonomous vehicles in every use case" and "autonomous vehicles are definitely better than humans in every use case."
What gets us out of this valley is time and a whole lot of data. Absent data from autonomous vehicles for the whole gamut of road conditions and use cases, any assertion about accident records is mere speculation.
Before we have that data, we're gambling that promoters of autonomous vehicles can cash the checks they've wr
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Driverless delivery vehicles are probably a better idea at this point than humans.
You say that now, but wait until you get behind one going exactly the speed limit on a one lane road. Or when a small convoy of them is running nose to tail because they communicate with each other so no sudden moves, and you're racing down the highway to try to squeeze in before you hit the exit ramp.
It's bad enough there are people who will put their brakes on going down a small hill for fear of going 1 mile per hour over th
Autonomous Mother Ship (Score:3)
I can easily see this combined with Amazon's 'Scout' delivery robot.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/... [zdnet.com]
Autonomous "mother ship" drives into my neighborhood, releases a fleet of Scouts in the school parking lot to make deliveries, returns that night to pick them back up in the same lot.
The future is a fun place to be living.
Cali is in USA and uses short, not metric, tons. (Score:2)
The State of California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced the new regulations last week, which allows companies with a permit to operate autonomous delivery vehicles that weigh up to 10,001 pounds (4.54 tons).
That's right for LONG (metric) tons.
But California is in the USA and uses short tons, not long / metric tons. When used as "tons" without a modifier in American English, especially in legal matters, "ton" means the 2,000 pound ton. 10,001 pounds is 5 tons plus one pound, i.e. 5 tons and
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But Slashdot is notorious for posting submissions pretty much as submitted, warts and all, rather than doing any checking and correction.
AI powered autonomous publishing. Has been around for a # of years now. Not as advanced as the autonomous vehicle tech, but 'good enough' in most cases (and no risk of running down pedestrians).
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Long tons are not the same thing as tonnes (aka "metric tons"). A long ton is 2,240 pounds, or about 1018 kilograms. A tonne ("metric ton" if you must) is 1000 kilograms, or about 2,200 pounds. They differ by over 1.5% which is quite significant.
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Long tons are not the same thing as tonnes (aka "metric tons"). [explains distinction]
I stand corrected. Thanks.
(I looked that up but misread it.)
Industry standards for security? It is to laugh! (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, these vehicles must be certified to industry standards for helping defend against and response to "cyberattacks, unauthorized intrusions or false vehicle control commands."
Is that anything like "banking grade" on encrypting transaction data for electronic communication? You know, the minimum standardized by the government regulations, using encryption standards deliberately weakened by the NSA?
I've been concerned for some time about the possibility of a foreign entity executing a "cheap war" against
security = dealer only for all work even tires oil (Score:2)
security = dealer only for all work even tires and oil changes.
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Yeah, the "banking system," what could POSSIBLY go wrong? All the really smart guys like you and me will just keep bartering chickens for dental service and avoid all the computer security risks which, according to slashdot, make contemporary life theoretically impossible.
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Yeah, the "banking system," what could POSSIBLY go wrong? All the really smart guys like you and me will just keep bartering chickens for dental service ...
You really aren't getting it.
The crummy security on bank encryption isn't about trying to safeguard the money. It's about having an excuse when some of it is stolen so they don't get blamed for it by the regulators and insurance companies.
The banks have a LOT of our money, and make a lot from handling it. So they can accept a small fraction of losses a
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just kick the package out the side door (Score:3)
How does this work? Does a robotic arm just kick the package out the side of the van onto the curb or driveway?
Do they drive over my lawn?
Is there still a guy to take the package to the door? But he just isn't allowed to drive?
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The intent seems to be things like the delivery vehicles to gas station mini-marts, auto parts deliveries, restaurant supplies, and the like. Not a huge market, but not tiny either.
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it was already the worst job in the world..
You've never been a roofer. (Yeah, I know there are even worse jobs than that, too.)
When I worked in a mini-mart the guy would dump the stuff out of the back of his truck into a pile on the sidewalk under the roof overhang, make me sign for it, and leave. Not much of difference.
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it was already the worst job in the world..
You've never been a roofer. (Yeah, I know there are even worse jobs than that, too.)
When I worked in a mini-mart the guy would dump the stuff out of the back of his truck into a pile on the sidewalk under the roof overhang, make me sign for it, and leave. Not much of difference.
I was a roofer when I was young.. until one day when I learned that all the other guys had fallen off a roof at some point, and that the company was originally a partnership, one partner died falling off a roof.
I switched careers.
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I suspect they give the shop a discount if their employees unload the truck instead of the (now gone) truck driver. Whether it's worth it depends on the owner. For example, he/she may realize the employees don't have much to do at certain hours. By having them unload the auto-truck during that time, they can save money on delivery without hiring more people or adding work hours. Whether that's "good" for
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Whether that's "good" for the workers is another matter.
It depends on how static the job is, I shouldn't do it, but if I can help the warehouse guys, I do. Otherwise I would spend 8 continuous hours sitting in this chair, and that's bad for the articulations and blood flow. Plus, I get to see a nice view of the mountains for a minute.
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It's a good question. At some level, of course, the state doesn't really care. They're licensing the vehicles, but it's up to the companies using them to figure out how to make it work as a business.
For the companies, there are two obvious options. The first is for a company like Amazon that's delivering to a lot of different locations. They could use the truck as a mothership for a fleet of d
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Something like Spot [youtube.com] perhaps? 3 mph top speed, 90 minute runtime (can recharge between car stops), carries 14kg, rain and dust protected, walks stairs, can open gate with arm, traverse muddy/snowy paths etc. and should handle the insurmountable task of getting from the curb to your porch just fine. It's just a matter of cost. That is to say if people are really willing to pay that much extra for delivery at the door, people often say they're willing but then they end up throwing on a coat to collect it anywa
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Amazon already has a product that they're almost ready to deploy (been in testing for a while), the Scout. Doesn't do stairs, but doesn't get bored waiting for you to walk down to the sidewalk.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/... [zdnet.com]
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How does this work? Does a robotic arm just kick the package out the side of the van onto the curb or driveway?
No, a robotic arm knocks your package onto the floor of the van, and then a robotic leg kicks it out the side of the van onto the curb or driveway.
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How does this work? Does a robotic arm just kick the package out the side of the van onto the curb or driveway?
No, a robotic arm knocks your package onto the floor of the van, and then a robotic leg kicks it out the side of the van onto the curb or driveway.
You had me laughing my ass off over here. Thank you.
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Is all this really worth not paying a guy 50-60K a year to drive a truck? I guess they ran numbers - initial equipment costs, Maintenance, replacement, support etc...
Weigh, or gross weight? (Score:2)
Our mid-length 2006 Sprinter 2500 mid-length weighs under 5000 pounds wet. 10,000 pounds is actually quite a bit. I bet full-sized UPS trucks are under 10k, because they use a custom aluminum box. Or is that 10k GVWR?
the human touch (Score:2)
I hope they don't replace the guy who delivers weed from the dispensary here in California. He's a real-life Jeff Spicoli and he's a hoot to talk to. He's also given me some bitchin' recommendations on surf spots here on the Central Coast. He drives a little panel van and it's like a ray of sunshine when he shows up.
Unsafe at any speed (Score:1)
will remote operator be criminally liable? (Score:2)
will remote operator be criminally liable?
What about areas with no data?
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They can build their own wireless signal maps by monitoring data from vehicle trackers mounted to vehicles with human drivers, and send the robot trucks on subsequent trips. Presumably they will use them to send trucks to businesses, which have receiving departments. Then they'll robocall the receiving agent to let them know the truck has arrived, so they can come out and take their packages off the truck.
Nighttime would be better (Score:2)