Courteous Autonomous Cars

Typically, autonomous cars optimize for a combination of safety, efficiency, and driving quality. But as we get better at this optimization, we start seeing behavior go from too conservative to too aggressive. The car's behavior exposes the incentives we provide in its cost function. In this work, we argue for cars that are not optimizing a purely selfish cost, but also try to be courteous to other interactive drivers. We formalize courtesy as a term in the objective that measures the increase in another driver's cost induced by the autonomous car's behavior. Such a courtesy term enables the robot car to be aware of possible irrationality of the human behavior, and plan accordingly. We analyze the effect of courtesy in a variety of scenarios. We find, for example, that courteous robot cars leave more space when merging in front of a human driver. Moreover, we find that such a courtesy term can help explain real human driver behavior on the NGSIM dataset.Comment: International Conference on Intelligent Robots (IROS) 201

Courteous Cars: Decentralized Multiagent Traffic Coordination

A major goal in robotics is to develop machines that perform useful tasks with minimal supervision. Instead of requiring each small detail to be specified, we would like to describe the task at a high level and have the system autonomously execute in a manner that satisfies that desired task. While the single robot case is difficult enough, moving to a multirobot behavior adds another layer of challenges. Having every robot achieve its specific goals while contributing to a global coordinated task requires each robot to react to information about other robots, for example, to avoid collisions. Furthermore, each robot must incorporate new information into its decision framework to react to environmental changes induced by other robots since this knowledge may effect its behavior

Road courtesy : a prerogative of gender, age and car size

This study addressed the hypothesis that courtesy on busy Maltese roads was dependent on, or influenced by, independent factors relating to the driver and car, or both. Courtesy was defined when a driver with the right of way ‘allowed access’ to another car onto a main road leading to a congested roundabout, whereby ‘courteous passage’ was the only reasonable means of access for the second car. ‘Allowed’ access to the same car (British Vehicle Classification [BVC] class 2, 17.5 years old in poor condition), with one driver aged 50+ and one passenger aged 17 years, approaching the same junction between 07:15 and 07:45 on school days was assessed. Details of all cars including BVC group that refused or allowed access, their drivers’ gender and age (± 10 years), any accompanying passengers and the prevailing weather was recorded onto a standardised pro-forma. Data from 88 schooldays over 6 months resulted in 141 refusals plus 44 courteous passes (analysed), and 46 access events through gaps in traffic (not analysed). The weather conditions and presence/absence of any co-passengers, whether adult or children, had no bearing on road courtesy. Courtesy was significantly enhanced with family saloons (BVC Groups 4–6) when compared with small cars (Group 1–3, p = 0.04), and luxury or work vehicles (Group 7–11, p = 0.0065), especially in those with male drivers aged 40+ (p = 0.022). Drivers of large and work vehicles, almost exclusively male (92%), were significantly less courteous (p = 0.025).peer-reviewe

Annual Report, Bangor, Maine: 1934

From the Traffic report: The handling of automobile traffic today is rapidly becoming the most difficult and the most important part of a Police Department. The traffic situation in Bangor has been handled in a more satisfactory and efficient manner than ever before due to improvements in operating the Traffic Division to changes in the personnel and to modern equipment. The Bangor Police Department is now making a thorough check-up of all public automobiles and trucks as regards proper lights, brakes, etc. and requires defective equipment to be placed in proper condition before these cars are allowed on the highway. In order to make streets safe, this department is carrying on a determined war against speeders, reckless drivers and drunken drivers, in a firm, courteous but impartial manner.https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/city_ban_report/1031/thumbnail.jp

Annual Report, Bangor, Maine: 1934

From the Traffic report: The handling of automobile traffic today is rapidly becoming the most difficult and the most important part of a Police Department. The traffic situation in Bangor has been handled in a more satisfactory and efficient manner than ever before due to improvements in operating the Traffic Division to changes in the personnel and to modern equipment. The Bangor Police Department is now making a thorough check-up of all public automobiles and trucks as regards proper lights, brakes, etc. and requires defective equipment to be placed in proper condition before these cars are allowed on the highway. In order to make streets safe, this department is carrying on a determined war against speeders, reckless drivers and drunken drivers, in a firm, courteous but impartial manner.https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/city_ban_report/1031/thumbnail.jp

Pedalling for safety: Schoolchildren and safe active transport

This research will add to the international body of knowledge around safe active transport and its benefits for individuals and their communities. In order to achieve this, the report begins with a brief description of the risks associated with active transport, 3 and considers why active transport to school should be encouraged, despite the risks. Our dependence on cars is discussed in relation to the prevailing chauffeuring culture, before the objectives of the research are outlined. Chapter one concludes with an account of the methodology used to undertake this research, which combined a literature review and a search for educational resources with some participant observation field research. In chapter 2 we present a summary of the resources available to parents in Hamilton and provide a profile of the city, which is in many ways ideally suited to active transport, though participation rates are low. Chapter 3 discusses the benefits of active transport and the barriers to participation in it. Following a discussion that draws all the various strands together, we evaluate existing strategies with a view to endorsing those most likely to enhance safety, while also offering some further ideas on how to minimise the risks of active transport for children

Socially-Compatible Behavior Design of Autonomous Vehicles with Verification on Real Human Data

As more and more autonomous vehicles (AVs) are being deployed on public roads, designing socially compatible behaviors for them is becoming increasingly important. In order to generate safe and efficient actions, AVs need to not only predict the future behaviors of other traffic participants, but also be aware of the uncertainties associated with such behavior prediction. In this paper, we propose an uncertain-aware integrated prediction and planning (UAPP) framework. It allows the AVs to infer the characteristics of other road users online and generate behaviors optimizing not only their own rewards, but also their courtesy to others, and their confidence regarding the prediction uncertainties. We first propose the definitions for courtesy and confidence. Based on that, their influences on the behaviors of AVs in interactive driving scenarios are explored. Moreover, we evaluate the proposed algorithm on naturalistic human driving data by comparing the generated behavior against ground truth. Results show that the online inference can significantly improve the human-likeness of the generated behaviors. Furthermore, we find that human drivers show great courtesy to others, even for those without right-of-way. We also find that such driving preferences vary significantly in different cultures.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. January 202

UNLV Basketball Alumni Association 2nd Annual Roundball Classic

Team roster for both schools. UNLV Schedule Governor\u27s Message Mayor\u27s Message Player photos Behind the Scenes UNLV\u27s 1978-80 Outloo

How much anatomy do medical students remember?

Pure anatomy teaching at the University of Malta is completed by the second year, and is not formally revisited later. This study aimed to determine the extent of anatomical knowledge retention in each year of medical school.peer-reviewe

The grey area : self-evaluation of performance in medical students at the University of Malta

Precise self-evaluation and a keen insight into one’s performance and limitations are essential in medical practice. We sought to assess the accuracy of medical students’ assessment of their own performance in a written clinical anatomy test.peer-reviewe