While the Origin looks larger than most autonomous vehicles, it is similar in size to a regular SUV; the reason it looks this way is as a result of the Origin’s minimalistic design. As a driverless, electric vehicle it removes unnecessary elements such as driver controls and rear-view mirrors, replacing them with space for passengers.

The interior of the car has six seats that face towards each other, below the seats are USB ports and above them are screens that provide status updates such as seatbelt reminders, pickups and drop-offs. This design aligns Origin well with its goals of safety, affordability and sustainability – although its hardware is what makes it even more interesting. Origin is a modular vehicle, making it easily upgradable, and more affordable than cars that need new fleets to be rolled out as new hardware is developed. Furthermore, Origin has a “multi-layered sensor suite” powered by machine-learning AI that can make decisions quicker than the human brain and track multiple objects from long distances, in low light and in poor weather conditions.

As a ride-hailing service, Origin vehicles are summoned to the user via a smartphone app. Upon requesting a car, passengers are shown a number, this number is displayed on the exterior for easy identification by the user. This service is owned by Cruise and operates 24/7, allowing users to travel at any time of the day.

Origin is the culmination of years of work between General Motors, Cruise and Honda. Starting in 2016 as GM acquired Cruise, testing their autonomous technology with Chevrolet Bolts and developing in 2018 as Cruise received major investments from Softbank, Honda and T. Rowe Price. 2019 saw Cruise’s vehicles accumulate over one million, autonomously-driven miles.

While it has been a successful journey for Cruise so far, there are still issues for them to tackle before Origin is available to the public. For instance, Cruise have not yet mentioned when they expect Origin to enter production, nor did they mention the price of an Origin taxi ride. Additionally, the car doesn’t yet meet U.S. federal regulations (FMVSS) regarding design, construction, performance and durability requirements for motor vehicles.

Cruise have provided a unique, innovative opportunity for the autonomous sector. Through emphasising user convenience, sustainability and affordability as integral parts of Origin, they have set themselves apart from other key players. However, with obstacles ahead of them, only time will tell if Origin can fulfil its promise to deliver a unique autonomous experience.

By Kurt Dusterhoff

Owned and operated by AAA Northern California, GoMentum Station is one of the nation’s largest secure testing facilities for connected and automated vehicle technology. As part of the ADS pilot program, GoMentum Station will facilitate SAV testing on its closed-course with the goal of ensuring vehicle safety before vehicles are deployed to provide service to the public. Throughout the testing, CCTA will share data with the USDOT.

CCTA’s ADS pilot program was designed in collaboration with AAA Northern California, County Connection, Advanced Mobility Group, and other public and private sector partnerships. It builds on the success of CCTA’s Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Program, which utilizes GoMentum Station as a test track, and has successfully advanced automation to improve vehicle safety and address challenges related to the safe integration of automated driving systems.

About AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah

AAA has a proud history of serving Members for over 100 years. AAA is on a mission to create Members for life by unleashing the innovative spirit of 4,000 employees representing more than 6 million Members across Northern California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska. In addition to legendary roadside assistance, AAA offers home, auto and life insurance, and extraordinary travel services. According to Via Magazine’s Smart Guide, being a AAA Member can save you more than $1,200 a year. Learn more at AAA.com.

The eIQ Auto toolkit allows customers to develop for automotive production on desktop/cloud/GPU environments and to deploy their neural network onto a supported S32 processor. NXP’s toolkit and automotive grade inference engine enable easier deployment of neural networks in applications with intensive safety requirements. A good example is speeding up the transition from traditional computer vision algorithms to deep learning-based algorithms in vision-based systems.

Deep Learning holds the promise of delivering better accuracy and better maintainability in object detection and classification over “traditional” computer vision algorithms, but the barriers to full automotive implementation bring complexity and steep costs.

The eIQ Auto toolkit aims to help customers reduce time to market by lowering the investment costs required to select and program embedded compute engines for each layer of a deep learning algorithm. The automated selection process leads to 30 times higher performance for given models compared to other embedded deep learning frameworks. This performance is achieved by optimizing the use of available resources and reducing time and development effort¹. These dividends allow developers to evaluate, fine tune and deploy their applications for maximized overall performance.

Compliance with automotive-grade development standards and Functional Safety requirements are key benefits of eIQ Auto and S32V integration. eIQ Auto’s inference engine was developed in accordance with stringent requirements and is Automotive SPICE compliant. The S32V processors offer the highest levels of functional safety supporting ISO 26262 up to ASIL-C, IEC 61508, and DO 178.

The partnership continues a public education effort across the country on the safety benefits of autonomous vehicle technology. On October 2nd, 2109, MADD will participate in Velodyne Lidar’s second annual World Safety Summit on Autonomous Technology at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The summit is designed to advance understanding of the safety benefits that can be achieved with autonomous vehicle technology.

Drunk driving is a violent and preventable crime that kills someone every 48 minutes in the United States. MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving is working toward eradicating this crime through four key elements that include supporting high visibility law enforcement, ignition interlocks, support for advanced vehicle technology, and building public support. Velodyne’s work with autonomous vehicle technology is a natural complement to MADD’s support for future technologies.

Velodyne’s World Safety Summit will bring together business, government, public safety and community leaders to share a broad range of perspectives and creative solutions to address safety issues and public concern regarding autonomous vehicles. The agenda is designed to promote stimulating conversations that advance understanding of the safety benefits that can be achieved with autonomous vehicles. Attendees will have the opportunity to ride in autonomous vehicles and learn from experts at informational displays and booths.