Miles Archives - DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS

Cruise Confirms Robotaxis Rely On Human Help Each 4 To 5 Miles

Daily SF News — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 06:29:14 +0000

Lora Kolodny reports via CNBC: Cruise CEO and founder Kyle Vogt posted comments on Hacker News on Sunday responding to allegations that his company’s robotaxis aren’t really self-driving, but instead require frequent help from humans working in a remote operations center. First, Vogt confirmed that the General Motors-owned company does have a remote assistance team, in response to a discussion under the header, “GM’s Cruise alleged to rely on human operators to achieve ‘autonomous’ driving.” The CEO wrote, “Cruise AVs are being remotely assisted (RA) 2-4% of the time on average, in complex urban environments. This is low enough already that there isn’t a huge cost benefit to optimizing much further, especially given how useful it is to have humans review things in certain situations.”

Cruise recently took the drastic move of grounding all of its driverless operations following a collision that injured a pedestrian in San Francisco on October 2. The collision and Cruise’s disclosures around it led to state regulators stripping the company of its permits to operate driverless vehicles in California, unless there is a driver aboard. […] A New York Times story followed last week diving into issues within Cruise that may have led to the safety issues, and setback for Cruise’s reputation and business. The story included a stat that at Cruise, workers intervened to help the company’s cars every 2.5 to five miles. Vogt explained on Hacker News that the stat was a reference to how frequently Cruise robotaxis initiate a remote assistance session.

He wrote, “Of those, many are resolved by the AV itself before the human even looks at things, since we often have the AV initiate proactively and before it is certain it will need help. Many sessions are quick confirmation requests (it is ok to proceed?) that are resolved in seconds. There are some that take longer and involve guiding the AV through tricky situations. Again, in aggregate this is 2-4% of time in driverless mode.” CNBC asked Cruise to confirm and provide further details on Monday. The Cruise spokesperson wrote in an e-mail, that a “remote assistance” session is triggered roughly every four to five miles, not every 2.5 miles, in Cruise’s driverless fleet. […] CNBC also asked Cruise for information about typical response time for remote operations, and how remote assistance workers at Cruise are trained. “More than 98% of sessions are answered within 3 seconds,” the spokesperson said. As far as the ratio of remote assistance advisors to driverless vehicles on the road, the Cruise spokesperson said, “During driverless operations there was roughly 1 remote assistant agent for every 15-20 driverless AVs.”

The post Cruise Confirms Robotaxis Rely On Human Help Each 4 To 5 Miles appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

San Francisco’s ‘Little Russia’ companies feeling main impression of the warfare greater than 6,000 miles away from Ukraine

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 09:03:18 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — More than 6,000 miles from Ukraine, Alex Miretsky is feeling the waves of the war all the way in San Francisco.

“Some Americans call. Some angry people and they say something like ‘are you proud to be Russian now?’ Or ‘get all the Russian products off the shelves’,” said Miretsky.

His store “Europa Plus” is a safe haven for East Europeans in the Bay Area, but since the war, it’s also become a target for some people who are demanding that Russian products should be taken off the shelves.

“One was complaining about Saint Petersburg products. Another one was asking me if I’m proud to be Russian. I explained that I don’t feel like I’m Russian,” said Miretsky and added, “I’m a Jew who emigrated from Russia in 1987. I left Russia but I was raised in Ukraine for the first five years of my life.”

RELATED: San Francisco chef cooks up support for Ukraine, 6,200 miles away from home

If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live

He walked us through his store and showed us the diversity in his products. Ironically, Ukraine and Russian sweets are next to each other. They’ve always been.

“It was not an issue at all. It was all in the same region. The same people. The families are interconnected and people live in both places like I did,” said Miretsky.

Two blocks down from “Europa Plus” is “Moscow & Tbilisi” Bakery. They are being asked to remove the word “Russian” from their advertising.

RELATED: Romanian family helps 600 Ukrainian refugees find shelter and food: Here’s how you can help

Turns out, the owner is from Georgia. Regardless of the name, several employees said the flag on the front window is clear. They support Ukraine.

“Business men who open business for example 20 years ago. They are not in charge. They move to the country and according to the Russian propaganda is the main enemy, America. If they live in the enemy state, how can they be representative for Russia right now? It’s completely different,” said Russian refugee, Daniel Korennoi.

Korennoi supports Ukraine. He fled Russia exactly a week ago in fear for his life.

RELATED: As hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians flee country, Bay Area nonprofits prepare for refugees

“If I stayed there in my city, I would attend meeting, but it’s really dangerous because I can be caught easily by the police,” said Korennoi.

Miretsky said he doesn’t want to stop selling the Russian products at “Europa Plus” because he is buying them from local businesses in Eastern Europe who have nothing to do with the war.

Take a look at the latest updates on the Ukraine-Russia war.

Climate service spots thunderstorms 200 miles off coast from San Francisco

Sat, 16 Oct 2021 13:49:58 +0000

The National Weather Service shared a satellite loop Tuesday afternoon showing thunderstorms 200 miles offshore from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Storm activity is pushing north and is not expected to affect the region on Tuesday, the weather service said, but there is little risk of thunderstorms in the Bay Area on Thursday.

“It’s part of the same large-scale moisture system that comes in from the south and is directed north because of that high pressure system parked in Nevada-Utah,” said Jeff Lorber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office. “There’s also a small trough off the coast of Northern California. That moisture is channeled south-north between these two systems.”

OK Weather Watchers, does anyone notice the thunderstorms ~ 200 miles offshore? Here is a satellite loop pointing the thunderstorms north. No effects on the country are currently expected. #cawx pic.twitter.com/EfpBNedAVs

– NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) September 7, 2021

The highest likelihood of storm activity in the Bay Area on Thursday is in the far North Bay in Napa and Sonoma counties.

Lorber said the odds were 15 to 20% on Tuesday night.

“The biggest opportunity right now is over North Bay,” he said. “It’s still far out. We’ll have a better idea tomorrow. As of now, the threat elsewhere[outsidetheNorthBay”isprettylimited”[outsidetheNorthBay”[außerhalbderNordbucht”ziemlichbegrenzt”[outsidetheNorthBay”

Any lightning that strikes is likely to be dry and rain that falls could evaporate before it hits the ground.

Although the likelihood of a lightning strike is small, the risk is high as a strike could spark wildfire. California has experienced two consecutive dry winters and the vegetation is parched and flammable.

The high pressure that has driven temperatures up in the last few days will cause another hot day on Wednesday, the weather service said. Temperatures on the coast will be in the 60s and 70s, while the higher inland temperatures will rise to 105 in the 90s.

Temperatures are expected to drop on Thursday when the ocean layer returns and the upper level moisture reaches the region.

The post Climate service spots thunderstorms 200 miles off coast from San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

He walked 50 miles of San Francisco’s district boundaries. The mission: redraw them

Sun, 22 Aug 2021 01:21:49 +0000

It’s understandable that Raynell Cooper had the old Johnny Cash song “Walk the Line” on his mind at times for the past few weeks. After all, he did spend his summer hikes. Almost 50 miles worth it.

They were the boundaries of the 11 regulatory districts of San Francisco. And this wasn’t just a hiking challenge. Cooper laid the foundation for a major task that he and eight other volunteers will take on: Using new census data to draw new boundaries for the boroughs of the city. Dozens of people competed for the spots, with three each being chosen by the mayor, the overseers and the electoral commission. You must subscribe by April 15th.

Each of the city’s eleven boroughs must be equally populated – that’s roughly one-eleventh of San Francisco’s 873,965 residents.

But first Cooper had to know his baseline. And so, last month, he started walking the current lines made 10 years ago by another group of volunteers using the 2010 census data.

I met him Wednesday night on Tank Hill with the Sutro Tower looming less than half a mile southwest.

“That was a prerequisite for me. We’re going to spend a lot of time talking about these lines, ”said Cooper. “I see it as building a foundation on which to throw a lot of other information.”

“Forty-six miles down,” he added. “Two miles to go.”

Cooper and the rest of the redistribution task force won’t get the granular data they need until the fall, but there is already big evidence of which districts need to shrink geographically and which ones need to grow.

San Francisco’s population has grown 8.5% in the past decade – so much for that rumored exodus, right? But the growth was not even.

The data shows that the neighborhoods on the eastern edge of the city have grown the most. Mission Bay had the largest population growth, swelling by a whopping 92%. South Beach, the South of Market, Dogpatch and Bayview-Hunters Point area also grew significantly.

Neighborhoods on the west side, which are known to be resistant to new housing, have hardly changed since 10 years ago. Let us hope that the 2030 census finally shows the necessary growth there too.

In order to keep the population the same, the districts in the east of the city have to shrink geographically, while those in the west have to expand.

Several local groups, including the League of Women Voters of San Francisco and the Asian Law Caucus, are calling on residents to get involved in the redistribution process so they can ensure their communities of interest – cultural districts or neighborhoods or areas where certain languages are spoken be, for example – stick together.

Districts should even be within one percentage point – or can vary up to five points if this is absolutely necessary in order to involve an entire interest group in a district.

For example, the Indian Cultural District of San Francisco is currently divided into Districts Eight and Nine. Perhaps it suits the latter, the Mission, rather than the former, Noe Valley and Castro. Cooper and his comrades could try to draw their new lines with these facts in mind.

Alison Goh, president of the local League of Women Voters, said, “This is your chance to identify yourself. Federal lines are given a lot of shine, but that affects us every day. “

Julia Marks, an employed attorney for the Asian Law Caucus who administers their voting rights and census programs, agreed.

“Redistribution may sound boring, but it’s really important,” she said. “When you have a lot in common with your neighbors and split up by the way the district lines are drawn, it is much more difficult, both at the ballot box and in the organization and advocacy, to focus on the issues that are important to you. to make a difference. “

Where are these lines now? I went west with Cooper on his last remaining stretch to find out.

We descended Tank Hill and headed west, with everyone on our right represented in the Town Hall by District Five Supervisor Dean Preston and everyone on our left represented by Myrna Melgar of District Seven became.

Cooper often stopped to check his phone that we were still on the right track because there is nothing sensible about that. It is supposed to flow north into Stanyan Street, but despite a sign to the contrary, part of this street does not exist. Instead, it is one of the many “paper streets of the city” that can be seen on maps, but not in reality. It’s actually a slope behind a wrought iron fence and we had to drive around.

We walked through the Sutro Forest before hiking down the back of the UCSF Medical Center. The route then continues in front of the campus on Parnassus Avenue, our pedestrians wear scrubs and surgical masks before they cut across the dental building like a drill through a tooth. Again we went around.

Cooper is a 26 year old park planner for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. He’s very interested in civic engagement, geography, and trivia – all important things to do when you redraw district boundaries. Growing up in Oregon, he remembers convincing his parents that driving from one end of US Route 20 near his home to the other end in Boston would be great fun. He was only 7 years old and pored over maps for more than 3,000 miles in the back seat.

When Cooper was 9 years old, the family moved to the Washington, DC suburbs and his interest in trivia and geography grew. In 2011 he won the teenage tournament “Jeopardy” – and $ 75,000. He will appear on the ABC trivia show “The Chase” later that month, although he wouldn’t reveal how he fared.

He studied geography at George Washington University and earned a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Maryland in 2017 before moving to San Francisco the next year. He has been the proud resident of District 5 ever since.

On the final leg of our walk, we strolled through the Inner Sunset before reaching the end of our segment, 17th Avenue and Judah Street. The sun was beginning to set behind St. Anne of the Sunset Church, and its pink facade matched the sky. The N-Judah rumbled by.

“Oh my goodness!” Cooper exclaimed, ecstatically his line-walking was finally finished. “We come full circle.”

Well, actually not a circle. But miles and miles of lines.

The San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

The post He walked 50 miles of San Francisco’s district boundaries. The mission: redraw them appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Rowers Set Pacific World Document, 2,400 Miles From San Francisco to Hawaii in 30 Days

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 21:07:09 +0000

It took a crew of four from California and the United Kingdom to row from San Francisco to Honolulu 30 days and set a new world record during the Great Pacific Race.

Team Latitude 35 left San Francisco at 6pm on May 31st and traveled approximately 2,400 miles to the Waikīkī Yacht Club – arriving Wednesday morning. The team exceeded the previous world record by almost 10 days.

They searched hundreds of pounds of freeze-dried food and used tools to produce fresh water and repair their boat.

Angus Collins, 31, is the youngest person to have rowed the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. He acted as a navigator with the help of solar powered technology.

“We have this thing called AIS that shows all the boats that have the AIS system within 30 miles of us and lets us know if we are on a collision course with them,” he said. “We also got satellite phones with which we could send photos and videos home. We could also download weather data and the waves. Every morning we could then set our desired course depending on the wind direction.”

The group took turns during the day, alternating between two hours of rowing and two hours of rest.

Captain Jason Caldwell said the hardest part of the trip was when he wasn’t rowing.

“We are rowers. We are athletes. We know what to do when we have the oars in hand,” he said. “But when you’re not on the shift you need to find a way to feed yourself, address your decaying body (which is inevitable), fix things on the boat, clean the boat, make sure you have team responsibilities, sleep. “

“You have to do all of these things over those two-hour shifts while keeping the fact that it’s freezing cold in the first part and so hot and sweaty by the end that you feel like you can’t get any rest, when you are free, you have plenty of time to think – think about how hard it is, think about how much you want to stop, and think about how far you have to go, ”he said across from Hawaii Public Radio.

The team went through many baby wipes to wash the salt off their bodies and maintain hygiene. With the battery-powered desalination unit in the boat’s cabin, they would get fresh water. Your toilet for the month was a bucket.

When they got to Honolulu, they went ashore with shaky legs for the first time in a month.

“We generally take about 12 steps a day from the cab to the rudder position,” said Collins. “When you row, you don’t use your calf muscles at all, so our calf muscles have completely crumbled. Walking is pretty tough. I’ve probably taken 200 steps by now and my legs are completely shattered.”

The team will enjoy their time ashore by reconnecting with family, using the plumbing system, and eating fresh groceries.

The post Rowers Set Pacific World Document, 2,400 Miles From San Francisco to Hawaii in 30 Days appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.