I just got back from a short trip to Detroit. Every time I go there, the city looks better. Downtown Detroit is now in really good shape, with lots of businesses and activity. Some combination of the casinos, the stadiums, and general urban renewal have really brought life back to downtown.
Iâm also struck every time I go to Detroit by just how central the automotive industry is to the city. Probably half of the people I met worked in automotive, and it seemed like every business I drove past was automotive-focused. Thatâs especially true in the suburbs.
When I worked as a software engineer at AOL in the early aughts, I always got this sense that for all our good work, the real beating heart of the industry was in the Bay Area. Now that I work as an autonomous vehicle engineer in the Bay Area, it feels like the real beating heart of the industry is Detroit.
So far, this seems like a âresearchâ project. For example, the drones are not yet equipped to perceive and identify their targets, so each drone just broadcast its GPS coordinates to its opponents, so they would know where to look.
And the drones arenât shooting real bullets, yet.
But the future of aerial combat is in sight:
Dogfighting tactics have advanced dramatically since the World War I, but the advent of UAV swarms may bring a brand new set of challenges. Unmanned vehicles have freedom to dive, bank, and climb at rates human pilots cannot tolerate. But the real advantage may be in computing power that could track dozens of adversariesâââfar more than any human pilot could doâââand develop new ways to address challenges.
Also, the Navy itself is testing swarms of autonomous vehicles, with governmental acronyms like LOCUST and CICADA. The Navy is primarily building them for purposes of reconnaissance and diversion, or so they say.
I will be in Detroit next Monday and Tuesday, speaking at the CAR HMI USA Conference! If youâll be at the conference, please stop by at 9:30am on Tuesday to say hello.
If you wonât be at the conference, but youâre in the Detroit area, send me an email (david.silver@udacity.com). I am looking forward to meeting with people while Iâm in the area, especially people who are interested in the Udacity Self-Driving Car Nanodegree Program.
And if youâre a Udacity student, join the #detroit channel in the student Slack community! Weâre organizing an event for students.
I jest, of course. Baidu is going to release a âfreeâ operating system for self-driving cars, although the news leaves unclear whether this will be âfree, as in lunchâ or âfree, as in speechâ.
But Baiduâs goal quite clearly seems to be commercialization, whereas Udacityâs project is primarily educational.
The article in the MIT Technology Review supposes that Baidu is undertaking this as a catch-up move in a race with the Silicon Valley giants. Perhaps by getting more companies on its operating system, it can get more data.
If so, this really does look like a repeat of the mobile phone wars, and Baidu might need to be prepared to spend a lot of money to support its free operating system.
Here are posts from five Udacity Self-Driving Car students, sharing what theyâve learned about the program, their projects, Docker, and even how to hack your own car!
Andrew provides the most comprehensive review (in Spanish) of the Self-Driving Car Nanodegree Program that I have seen yet. He covers the forums, the mentors, the hiring partners, the classes, and all of the projects. Itâs a very positive review, which is flattering:
Gungor provides a concise tutorial for students looking to spin up Docker for the Self-Driving Car Nanodegree Program:
âI just realized there are still a lot of people having problem with Docker and starter kit for Self Driving Car Nanodegree program. In this post, I will give you a step by step guide.â
Muddassir covers some really cool data augmentation he performed on his Behavioral Cloning training set. By the end, his network is able to drive multiple laps around the crazy jungle track!
âI used a python generator in order to feed training batches to the network. The generator I designed also augments the data before generating a batch. I apply different types of augmentation to the data such as varying the brightness, color saturation, adding random shadows, translations, and horizontal flips to the images.â
Harish reflects on the challenges of the program, what was awesome about it, and what we need to improve:
âDuring this period, I have spent many all-nighters chugging down on redbull and coffee in an attempt to consume enough caffeine to stick it out and get through the various hurdles the course throws at you. I have on multiple ocassions spent days working on an idea only to get so frustrated with the results and progress to go ahead and scrap it entirely. Only to later realize that I had been right all along but made a tiny error in executing it!
In hindsight(*spoiler alert), it was worth all the trouble!â
Ariel is building a self-driving car from scratch, and has learned all sorts of practical lessons. This is a great list to read if you want to learn from somebody who is hacking a car:
âCan buses are good, dual can buses are great. They allow you to be able to separate key traffic in order to be able to âreplaceâ a factory module like the LKAS or the ACC. Get an Arduino due with dual can. ($70)â
Weâll be filming a Q&A with him this week about self-driving cars and the Udacity Self-Driving Car Nanodegree Program.
This is an awesome opportunity to pick the brain of the winner of the DARPA Grand Challenge, the founder of the Google Self-Driving Car Program, and the driving force between the Udacity Self-Driving Car Nanodegree Program!
Self-driving trucks have been a concept in mining operations for many years, because of the well-structured, private roads and dependable routes. Dump trucks basically drive the same route over and over, which makes them an ideal target for autonomous technology.
âFortescue Mining Groupâs Solomon Hub comprises the Firetail and Kings Valley iron ore mines in the Pilbara region of Australiaâs North West which together have a production capacity of over 70 mega tonnes each year. When the project was scoped in 2010, the initial feasibility study called for 75 manned trucks but in July 2011 FMG ordered 12 autonomous 793F vehicles as a pilot. Now with the mines up and running, FMG operates 54 driverless dumpsters which alone results in a $100 million capital saving on twenty trucks.â
Thereâs also this:
âBy replacing the drivers, Westrac and Caterpillar also found they can make further cost savings by eliminating some comfort and safety features on the trucks with weight savings of up to four tonnes per vehicle.â
Iâve had a few people come to me recently asking about how to get up and running in this industry. Iâm not that knowledgeable about mining, but the fact that people are asking makes me think this isnât yet a solved problem.
David Silver 