CMU's Autonomous Cadillac SRX in DC
June 25, 2014 @ 8:00AM
Thanks to the popularity of our autonomous vehicle on Capitol Hill, the vehicle was running continually for more than 6 hours on June 24, 2014. It also turned out to be a hot day, typical for summer in DC. After 6 hours of non-stop operation, a subsystem in the vehicle overheated and refused to restart. The vehicle was parked, and not moving when this occurred. We therefore stopped giving rides for the day, allowing the system to cool down and testing/diagnostics to complete, thereby letting the vehicle return to an operating state. With June 25, 2014 expected to be a hotter day, a limited set of rides will be done that day.
June 25, 2014 @ 10:00PM
Our autonomous Cadillac SRX took many members of the House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) and Science & Technology (S&T) Committees today (June 25, 2014) between 10:30 am and 2:30pm. House representatives appeared to be pleased - please stay tuned for some videos. Congressmen Larry Buschon and Bob Gibbs took a ride in the car, and also participated in a Facebook Q&A session answering questions from viewers. Our rides were briefly interrupted due to a gridlock-causing protest/parade around the Capitol, and decisions announced today by the US Supreme Court.
June 27, 2014 @ 1:00PM
There have been some reports in the media pointing to a Congressperson as bringing our autonomous vehicle down on June 24, 2013 with some claiming that the vehicle's capabilities could not be demonstrated at all. We set the record straight here. The vehicle performed safely and as expected throughout these two days.
Our autonomous vehicle was ready for rides at 8 AM on June 24, 2014, and performed multiple test-runs around Capitol Hill. After the media event which started at 10:30 AM, Chairman Bill Shuster and USDOT Acting Under-Secretary of Policy, Mr. Peter Rogoff, took the first official demo ride starting before 11:00 AM. Multiple other legislators and federal agency representaives also were given rides. Please see rides listed here.
Around 2 PM, a congressperson inadvertently hit our "Emergency Stop button".
As noted above, a subsystem had overheated after 6 hours of
non-stop operations on a hot day and did not re-start. We canceled
the very few remaining rides for the day, let the equipment cool down,
performed detailed diagnostics, re-caliibration and testing, and were
ready for the rides we gave
successfully the next day.