so did you know that last year the state
of Texas lost 455 Souls due to
distracted driving that’s almost as many
people in this room bringing it a little
closer to home
out of the 23,000 traffic accidents in
the city of San Antonio 50 people were
killed because of that cause but I’m
going to come at it from a different
perspective an engineer’s perspective
driving has become the distraction we
want to do other things behind the wheel
we may want to vote in the future we may
want to go play Pokemon go we may want
to eat street tacos there’s lots of
things that we want to do and need to do
to be productive on a daily basis and
the driving task itself is now what’s
getting in the way so the state of Texas
two months ago joined 46 other states in
the nation and implemented policy that
banned that behavior that banned our
ability to utilize those mobile devices
while we’re operating the mobile vehicle
that’s part of the solution but it’s not
the only solution there’s a technology
angle that can be looked at here and
applied in order to allow us to be
productive so enter the automated
driving system robot cars driverless
cars how many people in the room have
heard of these that’s great if I ask
this question five years ago there may
have been one or two hands this
technology is accelerating at a rapid
rate and it’s because of a variety of
different benefits that this technology
can provide one of the big benefits is
safety
November 7th 2000 that was the last day
that Texas had was fatality free on our
highways that’s fifty five hundred
consecutive days 17 years with a
fatality every single day safety is a
big problem in 2015 35,000 people in
this country lost their lives in traffic
accidents that’s equivalent to the
enrollment at UTSA think about that now
an even more staggering fact is that 94
percent of all traffic crashes are
attributable to human error
or our cars our trucks our
infrastructure has become very very safe
we’ve compensated for as much as we
possibly can in order to keep the human
population safe behind the wheel but the
problem is we’re the problem the humans
are the flawed part of the equation so
really we need to get the human out of
that equation and allow us to do more
productive things now how many people
like sitting in traffic jams okay I got
one we’ll talk afterwards so the average
commuter in this country spent 42 hours
doing nothing but sitting behind the
wheel waiting for the car in front of us
to move there’s a lot of other things
that we can do now imagine if vehicles
themselves were able to cooperate in
such a way that they would simply move
like a zipper and merge onto the
freeways they didn’t have to stop at a
traffic light because they were
scheduling their slots to move back and
forth we could tremendously reduce the
amount of congestion that we have
increase the amount of productivity that
we can have and ultimately be safer as a
population now what that leads to is
environmental benefits these and
benefits are like less pollution but one
less known benefit is that through this
technology we mainly actually need less
infrastructure we may need less parking
garages we may need less freeway lanes
heck we might even be able to reclaim
our garages and turn them into man caves
so what is this technology right
everybody believes that an automated
driving system a self-driving car robot
car is when I can take my hands and my
feet off and switch my brain off and
this thing should be able to drive
wherever I currently Drive well that’s
at the end of the evolutionary scale of
all of this technology that started with
that flute that we just heard in the
previous video ending with your ability
to vote or eat the cheeseburger or play
Pokemon go whatever you want to do we’re
somewhere back in a level-2 level-3
state you may have a car now in your
garage that has adaptive cruise control
that has Lane keep assist these are
assistive technologies that keep you
safe when you’re operating your motor
vehicle these are early forms of
automation the next step in that
is when the system is actually able to
do the avoidance not just warning not
just emergency braking but swerving
being able to perform an operation
cognitively by understanding the
environment around it so that level
three is coming it’s coming pretty quick
now level four on the other hand is a
little bit further away this is when the
fallback happens in such a manner that
you are not necessary to be in the
equation because remember those 94
percent of of crashes are attributable
to us as humans so think of that a
system has to handle when an animal or
something crashes into the sensors on
the front of it the system has to fail
safely it has to recognize that there’s
a problem move off to the side of the
road come to a stop and not impact other
traffic now that’s all good but a level
four system will operate in limited
areas so we’re talking about college
campuses dedicated lanes parking
facilities places like that those are
useful but it’s not brain off everywhere
level five is when these systems will
operate in a fully unlimited environment
under all conditions so we’re a ways
away and why don’t we have one well I’m
gonna give you a few examples here there
are technology limitations as an
engineer I’m faced with these every day
imagine an automated vehicle that’s
programmed to operate on highway
well that highway happens to be located
in Houston and hurricane Harvey just
came through massive damage to the
infrastructure system hasn’t seen it
before how do you ask an engineer to
program a system to recognize something
that no one could imagine would ever
happen
harsh weather most of the videos that
you’ll see most of the advertisements
this is being done in bright sunshine or
overcast skies not heavy rain not snow
those type of environments those are
very very difficult vulnerable road
users it’s not just people that we have
to deal with it’s not just bicyclists
there are very few systems that have
implemented geese or ducked detectors
and I pity the duckling that will step
out in front of an automated vehicle at
least today cyber security another big
concern very popular here in San Antonio
but the the thought in that
is that the there has to be some access
to the vehicle right somebody has to to
do something nefariously to the vehicle
in order to control it to do something
bad well there was a study a few months
ago that showed that by simply putting
tape on our infrastructure on a stop
sign it could confuse an automated
driving system such that it’s not a stop
sign it’s actually a hundred mile an
hour speed limit sign so there are
vulnerabilities there’s fragility in
these systems and one of the big things
to keep in mind is that only 65 percent
of the roads in the United States are
paved a lot of these systems are going
to operate where we have nice lane
markings where we have road barriers
things like that the system has to be
able to traverse all of these different
conditions in order to really hit level
5 so the height builds up everybody gets
excited about the technology then we
start realizing the limitations then we
start thinking of the negatives is this
the end of humanity as we know it well
no it’s not the the big thing that
people talk about all the time is jobs
because as these systems these vehicles
can become automated there’s concern
about taxicabs the trucking fleets
things of that nature
well I offer a correlation back to the
1950s when 40% of our jobs in this
country we’re in agriculture today
that’s 2 percent those jobs just didn’t
disappear we don’t have massive
unemployment lines there’s no bread
lines out there those jobs changed and
the jobs that are in jeopardy because of
this automation technology will change
as well whole industries will be created
to service these fleets to help prepare
the infrastructure to to do different
things in order to allow us to utilize
this technology so if you thought those
technical challenges that I showed you
were difficult imagine trying to program
a conscience into a robot this is the
trolley dilemma problem very common in
psychology you have the ability to throw
a switch your trolley is headed towards
an infant on a track if you do nothing
the trolley will run over then kill the
infant you have the ability to throw the
switch and if you do you’re going to
injure or kill an adult do you throw the
switch that’s the fundamental question
what about now what about if that
individual was with a disabled person
does that change your calculus my point
is that conscious value proposition
morality that’s an individual thing we
each value human life differently each
geographic region values human life
differently so will you buy a car from a
manufacturer that happens to have a
different morality or different ethics a
different value proposition than you do
should you so it’s happening everywhere
even in San Antonio believe it or not
this country can’t come together on
health care immigration reform tax
reform however both houses in Congress
are actually coming together on
legislation because they realize that
this technology is important and what
that legislation is doing as an engineer
I just cheer inside it’s the creation of
a law that will prohibit the creation of
other laws that actually impede this
technology rolling out so we as a
society can get together behind this and
say this is something we want this is
technology that will benefit us that
will save lives the state of Texas is
also engaged in this they recently
passed a law allowing research
researchers like myself to test and
experiment with this technology in a
safe manner on public roads without a
steering wheel and without pedals so
think of that so they’re they’re getting
behind it in such a way that they value
what this technology can afford to us
it’s also right here in San Antonio
there’s a bunch of vehicles running
around the west side of San Antonio and
Fredericksburg Road has been designated
part of the Texas automated vehicle
proving grounds so someday soon you may
be seeing some of these automated
vehicles running around Fredericksburg
Road so now is the time to sit back
relax embrace your distractions vote and
let the robot do the driving
are you ready
you
of Texas lost 455 Souls due to
distracted driving that’s almost as many
people in this room bringing it a little
closer to home
out of the 23,000 traffic accidents in
the city of San Antonio 50 people were
killed because of that cause but I’m
going to come at it from a different
perspective an engineer’s perspective
driving has become the distraction we
want to do other things behind the wheel
we may want to vote in the future we may
want to go play Pokemon go we may want
to eat street tacos there’s lots of
things that we want to do and need to do
to be productive on a daily basis and
the driving task itself is now what’s
getting in the way so the state of Texas
two months ago joined 46 other states in
the nation and implemented policy that
banned that behavior that banned our
ability to utilize those mobile devices
while we’re operating the mobile vehicle
that’s part of the solution but it’s not
the only solution there’s a technology
angle that can be looked at here and
applied in order to allow us to be
productive so enter the automated
driving system robot cars driverless
cars how many people in the room have
heard of these that’s great if I ask
this question five years ago there may
have been one or two hands this
technology is accelerating at a rapid
rate and it’s because of a variety of
different benefits that this technology
can provide one of the big benefits is
safety
November 7th 2000 that was the last day
that Texas had was fatality free on our
highways that’s fifty five hundred
consecutive days 17 years with a
fatality every single day safety is a
big problem in 2015 35,000 people in
this country lost their lives in traffic
accidents that’s equivalent to the
enrollment at UTSA think about that now
an even more staggering fact is that 94
percent of all traffic crashes are
attributable to human error
or our cars our trucks our
infrastructure has become very very safe
we’ve compensated for as much as we
possibly can in order to keep the human
population safe behind the wheel but the
problem is we’re the problem the humans
are the flawed part of the equation so
really we need to get the human out of
that equation and allow us to do more
productive things now how many people
like sitting in traffic jams okay I got
one we’ll talk afterwards so the average
commuter in this country spent 42 hours
doing nothing but sitting behind the
wheel waiting for the car in front of us
to move there’s a lot of other things
that we can do now imagine if vehicles
themselves were able to cooperate in
such a way that they would simply move
like a zipper and merge onto the
freeways they didn’t have to stop at a
traffic light because they were
scheduling their slots to move back and
forth we could tremendously reduce the
amount of congestion that we have
increase the amount of productivity that
we can have and ultimately be safer as a
population now what that leads to is
environmental benefits these and
benefits are like less pollution but one
less known benefit is that through this
technology we mainly actually need less
infrastructure we may need less parking
garages we may need less freeway lanes
heck we might even be able to reclaim
our garages and turn them into man caves
so what is this technology right
everybody believes that an automated
driving system a self-driving car robot
car is when I can take my hands and my
feet off and switch my brain off and
this thing should be able to drive
wherever I currently Drive well that’s
at the end of the evolutionary scale of
all of this technology that started with
that flute that we just heard in the
previous video ending with your ability
to vote or eat the cheeseburger or play
Pokemon go whatever you want to do we’re
somewhere back in a level-2 level-3
state you may have a car now in your
garage that has adaptive cruise control
that has Lane keep assist these are
assistive technologies that keep you
safe when you’re operating your motor
vehicle these are early forms of
automation the next step in that
is when the system is actually able to
do the avoidance not just warning not
just emergency braking but swerving
being able to perform an operation
cognitively by understanding the
environment around it so that level
three is coming it’s coming pretty quick
now level four on the other hand is a
little bit further away this is when the
fallback happens in such a manner that
you are not necessary to be in the
equation because remember those 94
percent of of crashes are attributable
to us as humans so think of that a
system has to handle when an animal or
something crashes into the sensors on
the front of it the system has to fail
safely it has to recognize that there’s
a problem move off to the side of the
road come to a stop and not impact other
traffic now that’s all good but a level
four system will operate in limited
areas so we’re talking about college
campuses dedicated lanes parking
facilities places like that those are
useful but it’s not brain off everywhere
level five is when these systems will
operate in a fully unlimited environment
under all conditions so we’re a ways
away and why don’t we have one well I’m
gonna give you a few examples here there
are technology limitations as an
engineer I’m faced with these every day
imagine an automated vehicle that’s
programmed to operate on highway
well that highway happens to be located
in Houston and hurricane Harvey just
came through massive damage to the
infrastructure system hasn’t seen it
before how do you ask an engineer to
program a system to recognize something
that no one could imagine would ever
happen
harsh weather most of the videos that
you’ll see most of the advertisements
this is being done in bright sunshine or
overcast skies not heavy rain not snow
those type of environments those are
very very difficult vulnerable road
users it’s not just people that we have
to deal with it’s not just bicyclists
there are very few systems that have
implemented geese or ducked detectors
and I pity the duckling that will step
out in front of an automated vehicle at
least today cyber security another big
concern very popular here in San Antonio
but the the thought in that
is that the there has to be some access
to the vehicle right somebody has to to
do something nefariously to the vehicle
in order to control it to do something
bad well there was a study a few months
ago that showed that by simply putting
tape on our infrastructure on a stop
sign it could confuse an automated
driving system such that it’s not a stop
sign it’s actually a hundred mile an
hour speed limit sign so there are
vulnerabilities there’s fragility in
these systems and one of the big things
to keep in mind is that only 65 percent
of the roads in the United States are
paved a lot of these systems are going
to operate where we have nice lane
markings where we have road barriers
things like that the system has to be
able to traverse all of these different
conditions in order to really hit level
5 so the height builds up everybody gets
excited about the technology then we
start realizing the limitations then we
start thinking of the negatives is this
the end of humanity as we know it well
no it’s not the the big thing that
people talk about all the time is jobs
because as these systems these vehicles
can become automated there’s concern
about taxicabs the trucking fleets
things of that nature
well I offer a correlation back to the
1950s when 40% of our jobs in this
country we’re in agriculture today
that’s 2 percent those jobs just didn’t
disappear we don’t have massive
unemployment lines there’s no bread
lines out there those jobs changed and
the jobs that are in jeopardy because of
this automation technology will change
as well whole industries will be created
to service these fleets to help prepare
the infrastructure to to do different
things in order to allow us to utilize
this technology so if you thought those
technical challenges that I showed you
were difficult imagine trying to program
a conscience into a robot this is the
trolley dilemma problem very common in
psychology you have the ability to throw
a switch your trolley is headed towards
an infant on a track if you do nothing
the trolley will run over then kill the
infant you have the ability to throw the
switch and if you do you’re going to
injure or kill an adult do you throw the
switch that’s the fundamental question
what about now what about if that
individual was with a disabled person
does that change your calculus my point
is that conscious value proposition
morality that’s an individual thing we
each value human life differently each
geographic region values human life
differently so will you buy a car from a
manufacturer that happens to have a
different morality or different ethics a
different value proposition than you do
should you so it’s happening everywhere
even in San Antonio believe it or not
this country can’t come together on
health care immigration reform tax
reform however both houses in Congress
are actually coming together on
legislation because they realize that
this technology is important and what
that legislation is doing as an engineer
I just cheer inside it’s the creation of
a law that will prohibit the creation of
other laws that actually impede this
technology rolling out so we as a
society can get together behind this and
say this is something we want this is
technology that will benefit us that
will save lives the state of Texas is
also engaged in this they recently
passed a law allowing research
researchers like myself to test and
experiment with this technology in a
safe manner on public roads without a
steering wheel and without pedals so
think of that so they’re they’re getting
behind it in such a way that they value
what this technology can afford to us
it’s also right here in San Antonio
there’s a bunch of vehicles running
around the west side of San Antonio and
Fredericksburg Road has been designated
part of the Texas automated vehicle
proving grounds so someday soon you may
be seeing some of these automated
vehicles running around Fredericksburg
Road so now is the time to sit back
relax embrace your distractions vote and
let the robot do the driving
are you ready
you
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