Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
š Good morning! The OnePlus Nord 2 launches later today at 10AM ET...
![Waymo screenshot Waymo - best new android apps](https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Waymo-screenshot.jpg)
Thereās a spicy feature in the FT ($) today diving into the autonomous/self-driving vehicle arena.
- The piece highlights the quiet progression of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).Ā
- These are showing signs that the path to a Robotaxi isnāt in one giant moonshot leap, in the way Waymo-Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and possibly Apple, have been backing.
- Instead, itās the ADAS players that might be winning by adding smaller breakthroughs for smaller elements at a time.
- Experts from companies in the field all chime in, though itās worth noting theyāre the ones who would be most enthusiastic about their own hopes.
ADAS right now:
- In a new car today, depending on make, model, and if youāre willing to pay for all the extras, you might well get a number of useful ADAS features: GM has Super Cruise, which offers hands-free driving on certain roads, more or less like very, very good cruise control. (Itās also $6,150 as part of a bundle of features when buying a new car.)
- Less exciting examples are things like adaptive headlights, blind-spot monitors self-parking, speed adaption, and so on.
- Per The Information, 25% of new cars have automatic emergency braking to prevent rear-end and other collisions, another amazing feature.
- Whatās changed is that ADAS has been able to use huge realms of collected data via lidar and radar sensors to do things that previously werenāt thought possible.
The Levels:Ā
- The argument is that if you string together enough of these systems, you start moving upwards in the six levels of vehicle autonomy, as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers.
- Teslaās AutoPilot System is a Level 2 system. Level 3 systems allow drivers to take their eyes off the road, and liability is implied for the car manufacturer, not the driver. At Level 4, in most circumstances, the system drives itself and requires no input from passengers. Level 5 is full and complete automation.
Whatās changed?
- The problem that the FT article discusses is in the jump from Level 2, where assistance and partial automation takes place ā and profitably, for those involved ā to Level 4, where billions and billions have been invested.
- From the article: āChris Urmson, Aurora chief executive, put it eloquently in 2015 when he was Googleās leading driverless engineer: āConventional wisdom would say that weāll just take these driver assistance systems and weāll kind of push them andāā¦āover time, theyāll turn into self-driving cars,ā he said. āWell, thatās like me saying that if I work really hard at jumping, one day Iāll be able to fly.āā
- That logic made sense, until it didnāt. Karl Iagnemma, chief executive of Motional, the autonomous driving unit of Hyundai and Aptiv, is quoted as saying: āIn 2015 I would have agreed with Chris [Urmson] ā¦ Every intelligent observer in the industry believed that was the right path forward. But what that failed to anticipate was the increase in performance, in part enabled by deep learning and other advances, that would allow us to do things with radars and cameras that I would not have thought possible in 2015.ā
- And what matters is that ADAS keeps growing, because it never needs to do everything at once.Ā
- āā¦if ADAS players get stuck at highway-only autonomy, they are not in crisis. But if Waymo, Cruise, Zoox, and Aurora delay their rollout, they donāt have a product.ā
- As for Waymo pointing to its operation in Phoenix being proof of its Level 4 working just-fine-thank-you-very-much, the non-rollout to other cities seems to indicate that itās very, very expensive to do, and societal acceptance isnāt there for driverless crashes.Ā
- āIt will take another 10 to 20 years until [Waymo] go from the suburbs of Phoenix to something that runs across the country,ā says Jan Becker, chief executive of Apex.AI, an automotive software group.
Bottom line: The future is always surprising, and quotes from company reps are always going to be a very narrow point of view into that future.
š° Check out leaked alleged pricing for the full Galaxy Unpacked lineup, though the leaks seem to be in Euros, which doesnāt really translate to US pricing that well, given tax is included in list pricing (Android Authority).
š» Asus just launched a surprisingly powerful 14-inch Chromebook, the new Flip CX5400. (Android Authority).
šØ The Right to Repair movement now has an important ally: the FTC (Android Authority).
š Armās bendy, plastic chip made without silicon has some solid tech behind it, but the limitations are real: 99% of power is used as it idles, just 1% for computing (Android Authority).
š Twitter for iOS begins testing dislike button for some users. Itās not a public dislike, itās data gathering for Twitter to find out which replies are valuable (and which arenāt) (9to5Mac).
š Despite Tuesdayās flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin: āBezos still must pump more than $1 billion into Blue Origin annually to keep the lights on.ā Great read. (Ars Technica).
š A priest was outed by his phoneās location data via Grindr, that said data was encrypted and unidentifiable. Anyone could be next. (Gizmodo).
āļø Activision Blizzard sued by California over āfrat boyā workplace culture (CNET).
š§¶ 12 fantastically complex and mostly pointless Lego Great Ball contraptions (Gizmodo).
š Clubhouse has opened up to anyone. Also, āClubhouse is the Big Stinker that nobody wants to talk about.ā Iād love to find useful Clubhouse niches but find the app, exactly as described: āchaotically shāty.ā Where I disagree is that it obviously could still work if it gets sorted out, potentially, and itās possible the non-English speaking Clubhouse is burgeoning (Ed Zitronās newsletter).
š§ The UAE is using drones to get Dubai more rain (Interesting Engineering).
š¤ Debate: āIMO space tourists arenāt astronauts, just like ship passengers arenāt sailorsā (r/space).
šŖ āCan adrenaline actually give you the strength to lift a car and how does it work?ā (r/askscience)
![gail.com gail.com](https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/gail.com_.jpg)
Have you ever mistyped gmail.com and gone to gail.com? Or sent an email to someone@gail.com, by mistake? Millions do: 1.8M visits a year, and 1.2M emails a week get sent to the wrong address.
How do we know? Thatās because of the venerable gail.com, a lovely little place on the Internet that reminds us of where we came from, and is not for sale, thank-you-very-much.
- Cached versions of the site on the Wayback Machine show gail.com, first registered in 1996, was under-construction for 10 years, and went live as a digital CV, before scaling back to how it is today.
- It was defended from a copyright claim in 2006, by Gail and her husband Kevin Watson, who also owns kevin.org. Both have worked at NASA and come across as all very wholesome.
Cheers,
Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.
![Samsung Unpacked Invitation Samsung Unpacked Invitation](https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Samsung-Unpacked-Invitation.jpg)
![OnePlus Nord 2 canvas mode 2 OnePlus Nord 2 canvas mode 2](https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/OnePlus-Nord-2-canvas-mode-2.jpg)