Self-driving taxi, myth or reality for the current generation? Self-driving taxis are becoming more common Self-driving taxis
Yandex specialists believe that in the near future many cities will probably be similar to the Skolkovo scientific and technological complex, which is located one and a half kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road. That’s why they decided to create Russia’s first test zone there, where an unmanned vehicle can be called through the Yandex.Taxi application: to understand how a drone will work in an environment that is “gradually becoming a standard for urban design.”
The driverless taxi will travel freely around the territory of Skolkovo: to call it, you need to open the Yandex.Taxi application, after which the service will determine the user’s location and, if he is in the territory of the science city, will offer a ride on a drone. Yandex reports that the robotaxi calling service is available only to Skolkovo residents, but later all guests of the innovation center will be able to use it.
To use the drone, you need to accept the terms of the electronic agreement to participate in testing driverless cars - and you also need to be over 18 years old. The cost of the trip will be calculated at the standard rate, and the waiting time for the car depends on demand. An unmanned taxi based on the Toyota Prius hybrid compact van is equipped with lidars, radars and other sensors, as well as a computer vision system that analyzes the environment in real time.
Inside the drone, in the passenger seat, there will always be a Yandex test engineer, monitoring the movement and ready to take control. Only a limited taxi coverage area is available in the application, and boarding is carried out only in certain places. A self-driving car follows traffic rules, detects and avoids obstacles, allows pedestrians to pass and, if necessary, brakes urgently.
Since the end of August Uber start of testing There are driverless taxis on the streets of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). The steering wheel rotates under electronic control, and the robotic car independently moves along public streets using data from sensors. Let's figure out how drones work and what allows them to recognize traffic signals, avoid obstacles and move along a given route.
Self-driving taxi service started working in Pittsburgh in test mode. To become a participant in the program, you need to receive a special invitation. As soon as the drone approaches the passenger, you will need to press a button on the tablet screen and confirm that you are ready to travel.
Uber cars are not fully autonomous. Although the steering wheel turns without the driver's participation, and the car independently navigates in space, there are two engineers in the cabin. One performs functions that are not yet available to a robotic vehicle. These include changing lanes, avoiding obstacles, and dealing with unexpected situations. The second engineer keeps a diary of the trip. In the future, these specialists should be replaced by a remote communication center.
For its fleet of robocars, Uber has modified hybrid models Ford Fusion. Like Google cars, lidars are installed on the roof of the cars. With their help, drones create a 3D map of their surroundings. The color camera adds color to the 3D map - this is how the car is able to distinguish traffic lights.
Lidar modules are also installed in the front, rear and sides of the vehicle. They recognize obstacles in blind spots.
Additionally, along the perimeter of the roof there is a row of 20 mini-cameras that recognize pedestrians and cars that begin to slow down, as well as other obstacles in the path of a self-driving taxi. One of the cameras is hidden in the radiator grille.
An antenna and radars installed on the roof allow the Uber robotic car to navigate in space using GPS. Equipment standards for autonomous taxis have not yet been precisely formulated. In July, it terminated its contract with the Israeli supplier of stereoscopic vision systems Mobileye. Elon Musk's company intends to produce the necessary equipment itself. Later it became known that the companies did not see eye to eye on security issues. According to a hacker and startup founder Comma.ai by George Hotz, Mobileye was simply afraid of innovation. Relations became strained just after a fatal accident in which Tesla's autopilot system was involved.
Later Elon Musk's company presented updated version of Autopilot 8.0. Now the system will collect information, for the most part, using radar. All Tesla electric vehicles produced after October 2014 are equipped with them. Until that moment, the radars had auxiliary functions, but after the update they will become the main source of data. The company claims that now the car will react correctly even if a UFO suddenly lands on the road in front of it.
Tesla is not the only company whose driverless technology has been tested during an accident. Google Robomobile collided with a bus, because he “expected” him to give way. As a result, the drone damaged the front wing, wheel and one of the sensors.
Despite the imperfections of robotic cars, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick believes their time has come. He is convinced that if Uber had not launched a self-driving taxi service, it would have been surpassed by its competitors one way or another. Therefore, the opening of a service for unmanned passenger carriers for Uber was inevitable.
“At first glance, self-driving cars may seem to put drivers out of work, but in fact, they can create even more jobs,” says the head of Uber. – Let us at least remember the appearance of ATMs - many then predicted the disappearance of bank tellers. But in reality, automation has reduced bank costs and allowed them to open new branches, attracting more employees. even more employees. Self-driving Uber taxis will be on the roads 24 hours a day, so they will require many more people to operate them than today.”
An unmanned taxi with intelligent order distribution technology may appear in Moscow. Yandex.Taxi has begun negotiations with automakers. The head of PR projects for the service, Elina Staviskaya, told the site about this. Earlier, Uber launched the first unmanned taxis in the United States; the decision to introduce them in Moscow may be made based on the results of the experiment in the States, noted the company’s representative in Russia, Evgenia Shipova. Moscow authorities have expressed their readiness to cooperate with taxi services on this issue. The Moscow City Duma noted that the emergence of unmanned taxis will require changes to traffic rules and the organization of special dedicated lanes.
Yandex.Taxi is negotiating with automakers regarding an unmanned taxi and about starting testing this technology. We see huge potential in combining unmanned vehicles and intelligent order distribution technologies, taking into account the traffic situation and special wishes of users,” said Staviskaya.
Yandex has signed a cooperation agreement with KAMAZ PJSC to develop a semi-autonomous vehicle control system based on a set of artificial intelligence technologies: computer vision, machine learning, speech technologies. It is planned to develop a driver assistance system capable of keeping the car in the lane, initiating emergency braking, and monitoring the degree of driver fatigue.
“We have just signed an agreement, we are just starting to develop it,” explained Oleg Afanasyev, director of the KAMAZ public relations department.
The Uber taxi service has already begun using driverless cars in test mode in the American city of Pittsburgh. “The driverless taxi service in Pittsburgh is no different from a regular service. The only peculiarity is that at the time of testing there is a specialist in the car who provides control. We would like to test this first before using it on a full scale. There are a lot of user reviews about what they like , a lot of videos. There have been no hiccups or emergency situations at the moment,” said Uber official representative in Russia Evgenia Shipova.
She was unable to clarify when unmanned taxis might appear in the Russian capital. Uber will first look at the results of the Pittsburgh pilot, she said. “This is a very serious step; preparation for the test mode took place over 18 months. This is a project that requires a lot of preparation,” Shipova noted.
Moscow authorities have expressed their readiness to cooperate with taxi companies if they address the issue of unmanned vehicles. Deputy Head of the Department of Transport Dmitry Pronin said that he knows about the Uber experiment. “Of course, the potential for future changes is concentrated in this development. We will clearly look at this, monitor and analyze it. If they come up with a proposal, we will consider it and our capabilities,” Pronin noted.
Ford will launch mass production of self-driving cars that will be available to a wide range of consumers by 2025. In 2021, the car, which does not have a steering wheel and pedals, will be supplied to taxi services. Self-driving cars are being tested by Tesla and Google. The world's first driverless taxi in Singapore in August 2016 by nuTonomy. At the moment, the fleet consists of six cars. But by the end of the year their number may increase to twelve. And the ultimate goal is to replace all taxis with self-driving ones by 2018, which should overall reduce the number of cars on Singapore's congested roads. At the same time, the first driverless buses in Russia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The traffic police have already begun operating autonomous vehicles.
Staviskaya added that while there is no legislative framework for the use of unmanned vehicles, its emergence could accelerate the development of the market. According to the Chairman of the Legislation Commission of the Moscow City Duma, Alexander Semennikov, the introduction of unmanned taxis will require changes in legislation, but minimal ones.
“This is the future, now in many countries this topic is developing. Moscow is a city of the 21st century, and it willingly applies all technologies. Obviously, when unmanned vehicles appear, it is necessary to create dedicated lanes for them, where there is no heavy traffic, there is no need to change lanes, it is necessary just slow down in front of obstacles,” Semennikov said.
The head of the department of transport telematics and robotics at MADI, Vladimir Vlasov, agrees with Semennikov: Moscow needs to prepare for the advent of “drones” and change traffic rules. “We can make dedicated lanes in the center of the road, plus telematics at the scoreboard level. We need to create an infrastructure that will allow driving in an unmanned vehicle,” says Vlasov.
According to him, first there will be rental cars in the capital; these could be city guides. “This will start from the central areas of the city, where there will be excursions to historical places. And then transport services using unmanned vehicles may appear,” the expert concluded.
Evgenia Kislaya, Anatoly Fedotov
Commercialization and innovation have also affected this transportation market. If you study it carefully, it turns out to be huge. On a global scale, the annual demand in dollar equivalent is more than 100 billion dollars. Of which the lion's share goes to pay the driving staff. In Singapore, for example, electric cars equipped with automatic control systems have been adapted for these purposes. Of course, as of 2017, all this is in test mode. But technologies are developing and being refined.
In Dubai, the city government launched an unmanned air taxi in test mode; in fact, the Ehang 180 model is flying there. These are heavy copters for transporting people up to 100 kg. You can see the detailed characteristics of the Ehang 180 by downloading a brochure with a detailed description of the device from our website.
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There are already a number of companies in Singapore developing drone taxis.
One such company is nuTonomy. The company specializes in assembling and programming unmanned taxis. The Ehang 184 unmanned aerial taxi was also recently presented in China. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Government plans to put the first unmanned transport already by 2020.What opportunities will arise with the introduction of drone taxis into the lives of citizens?
- Using a drone taxi for frequent trips to work, on vacation or home will be very convenient, easy and safe. Using a mobile application, you can call a car anywhere in the city.
- There will be no rudeness, the human factor will be excluded as much as possible.
- Travel will become cheaper and service will be better.
- Safety systems will allow fewer accidents to occur, which will significantly increase road safety.