Ghost Wins the Driverless Vehicle Reckless Hype Competition Hands Down
By: Michael Dekort
Tags: Elon Musk, Autonomous Cars, AI, Machine Learning, Tesla

Ghost just announced they will have a kit available that makes some vehicles Level 3 on highways in 2021. The kicker is how far their pitch goes.

From the article — Self-driving startup Ghost claims Level 3 autonomy is coming in 2021 for US$99 per month — https://techau.com.au/self-driving-startup-ghost-claims-level-3-autonomy-is-coming-in-2021-for-us99-per-month/amp/

Here’s the Hype Pulitzer Prize List

· Real Collision Avoidance

· Superhuman Reflexes

· No Oversight Needed

· No Bugs, No Glitches

Wow. . .you gotta give it to John Hayes. He blows Elon Musk and George Hotz away in the reckless hype department. NO OVERSIGHT, BUGS OR GLITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let’s set aside this is not remotely possible to create a system like this relying on public shadow and safety driving (explained in my first article below), these folks are creating a situation that will harm people for no reason. Primarily caused by inducing a grossly negligent level of false confidence for the drivers. These false promises go way beyond Elon Musk’s hype list which includes calling the system “autopilot” and “Full Self-driving” when it is not. Releasing a “beta” when it’s not close to that level. As well as saying it is “capable of zero intervention”. (In fairness to Elon and Tesla they have also recently said “Full Self-Driving is in early limited access Beta and must be used with additional caution. It may do the wrong thing at the worst time, so you must always keep your hands on the wheel and pay extra attention to the road. Do not become complacent.” and “Faults will never be zero, but at some point, the probability of a fault will be far lower than that of the average human.”

This is likely going to be the moment this country finds once again that letting any industry self-police when it comes to safety NEVER WORKS. And it results in extremely avoidable tragedies. There is zero requirement for proof of any of this. And to date the only company providing even the slightest amount of it has been Waymo. While that data set is severely deficient at least there is data on accidents or near accidents. What is Ghost going to produce? There is zero mention of it on their website. (In my second article below on Waymo you can see where I believe Waymo came up short and what data I believe Ghost should provide.) My hunch here is Ghost did this to increase funding. Later they will say they aren’t ready yet so they can stretch the eventual bankruptcy out as long as possible. However, it is possible they release this system. Given Hotz and comma.ai has been out there for a while they may have no choice. Odds are he will call them out as well.

NHTSA, NTSB, federal and state legislatures, PAVE Campaign and the entire autonomous vehicle industry, this is the Wild West slippery slope you have created. You will reap what you sow. As will the families of those injured or killed by this.

More in my articles here

The Autonomous Vehicle Industry can be Saved by doing the Opposite of what is being done now

https://medium.com/@imispgh/the-autonomous-vehicle-industry-can-be-saved-by-doing-the-opposite-of-what-is-being-done-now-b4e5c6ae9237

Be Wary of Waymo’s New Safety Record and Brad Templeton’s Declaration the System is Superhuman and should be Deployed Today

https://imispgh.medium.com/be-wary-of-waymos-new-safety-record-and-brad-templeton-s-declaration-the-system-is-superhuman-and-ea59f5739567

SAE Autonomous Vehicle Engineering Magazine — Simulation’s Next Generation (featuring Dactle)

https://www.sae.org/news/2020/08/new-gen-av-simulation

Autonomous Vehicle Industry’s Self-Inflicted and Avoidable Collapse — Ongoing Update

https://medium.com/@imispgh/i-predicted-this-a-year-and-a-half-ago-1b47bf098b03

Proposal for Successfully Creating an Autonomous Ground or Air Vehicle

https://medium.com/@imispgh/proposal-for-successfully-creating-an-autonomous-ground-or-air-vehicle-539bb10967b1

Simulation can create a Complete Digital Twin of the Real World if DoD/Aerospace Technology is used

https://medium.com/@imispgh/simulation-can-create-a-complete-digital-twin-of-the-real-world-if-dod-aerospace-technology-is-used-c79a64551647

Simulation Photorealism is almost Irrelevant for Autonomous Vehicle Development and Testing

https://medium.com/@imispgh/simulation-photorealism-is-almost-irrelevant-for-autonomous-vehicle-development-and-testing-136871dee440

Autonomous Vehicles Need to Have Accidents to Develop this Technology

https://medium.com/@imispgh/autonomous-vehicles-need-to-have-accidents-to-develop-this-technology-2cc034abac9b

Using the Real World is better than Proper Simulation for AV Development — NONSENSE

https://medium.com/@imispgh/using-the-real-world-is-better-than-proper-simulation-for-autonomous-vehicle-development-nonsense-90cde4ccc0ce

The Hype of Geofencing for Autonomous Vehicles

https://medium.com/@imispgh/the-hype-of-geofencing-for-autonomous-vehicles-bd964cb14d16

SAE Autonomous Vehicle Engineering Magazine — End Public Shadow/Safety Driving

https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/sae/ave_201901/index.php

My name is Michael DeKort — I am a former system engineer, engineering and program manager for Lockheed Martin. I worked in aircraft simulation, the software engineering manager for all of NORAD, the Aegis Weapon System, and on C4ISR for DHS.

Key Industry Participation

- Founder SAE On-Road Autonomous Driving Simulation Task Force

- Member SAE ORAD Verification and Validation Task Force

- Stakeholder for UL4600 — Creating AV Safety Guidelines

- Member of the IEEE Artificial Intelligence & Autonomous Systems Policy Committee (AI&ASPC)

- Presented the IEEE Barus Ethics Award for Post 9/11 Efforts

My company is Dactle

We are building an aerospace/DoD/FAA level D, full L4/5 simulation-based testing and AI system with an end-state scenario matrix to address several of the critical issues in the AV/OEM industry I mentioned in my articles below. This includes replacing 99.9% of public shadow and safety driving. As well as dealing with significant real-time, model fidelity and loading/scaling issues caused by using gaming engines and other architectures. (Issues Unity will confirm. We are now working together. We are also working with UAV companies). If not remedied these issues will lead to false confidence and performance differences between what the Plan believes will happen and what actually happens. If someone would like to see a demo or discuss this further please let me know.