Yes, that title is a bit exaggerated. But not by much. The issue, as I have written before, is UTM, which does not involve active/passive radar or other “surveillance” measures, is being touted as the primary deconfliction solution through all complexity levels. That includes tens of thousands of simultaneous air ops at UML 6.

Where do you see surveillance in this chart?

Document link — https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20205011091/downloads/UAM%20Vision%20Concept%20of%20Operations%20UML-4%20v1.0.pdf

I am writing this article because of what was and was not stated at NASA’s recent UTM Project Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM).

https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/utm2021tim

While some folks mentioned surveillance being necessary at some complexity level…

In the past I have written on how many VTOL maker’s staff lacks relevant experience, and they use inferior simulation for design and testing of their systems. Now I would like to discuss the major lack of verification due diligence, especially regarding safety. And the FAA enabling this extremely counterproductive and reckless behavior. In a recent LinkedIn posting Joby said this:

With more than 1,000 test flights completed over the last 10 years, Joby Aviation has secured a substantial first-mover advantage in the aerial ridesharing industry. In 2020, the Company became the first to agree to a certification basis for…

Silicon Valley and Agile are Ruining Engineering (AND decimating industries and harming people for no reason)

The scientific nomenclature = The Silicon Valley Agile Holiday Inn Express Syndrome

First, “Agile” bottoms up approaches can be just fine or even the best option. That is where the folks doing the work do not work form someone else, are selling their own product, determine their own schedule, costs, scope etc, and the systems are not complex, or safety related.

Now to the issue at hand. There is a disease infecting the world. It has migrated into governments and even NASA. …

It is mind-boggling that any industry could be on a more untenable and counterproductive path than the ground autonomous vehicle industry. That NASA is largely responsible for it. And that each one of the pending disasters is easily avoidable with existing technology. But that is where we are.

The List — with links to amplifying information

Autonomous development approach is same untenable approach the ground domain uses

· 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

Many eVTOL makers have little actual aircraft design experience

· Some warning signs…

Right next to the hype in the autonomous vehicle industry (air and ground) are the Air Taxis and eVTOL makers. There are a couple red flags one should look for to determine there may be significant problems with the designs and testing approaches of these companies.

The first red flag being experience. If you peruse LinkedIn resumes for these folks, like the other, you will see many with very little domain experience. Meaning, they do not have a lot of experience making aircraft. Before I go on, I should mention that I do not either. However, I have deep experience…

Program references

· https://www.transportation.gov/hasscoe/voices

· https://usdot-voices.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VP/overview

I have reviewed the Virtual Open Innovation Collaborative Environment for Safety (VOICES) Proof-of-Concept (PoC) document and am very encouraged by what it says. It appears may be a paradigm shift at DoT/NHTSA in the works under the new Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

The folks behind this new effort clearly understand that use of the public domain for most driverless and ADAS system development and testing (SAE L1-L5) is untenable from a time, money and safety point of view. And the solution is “high-fidelity” simulation. I put “high-fidelity” in quotation marks because this is…

I just read the NASA UAM ConOps for UML4. Unfortunately, it seems to confirm several things:

· An unreasonable and dangerous over reliance on UTM in complex environments The definition of UML 5 specifically states “UTM inspired ATM” — And that is with up to 9999 SIMULTANEOUS ops

· Inclusion of an independent “surveillance” common operating picture, warning and control system is “supplemental” or optional no matter how complex the environment

· No mention or assistance with the V2X 5G 30mhz limited bandwidth issue — Or that the RF is shared with the ground side V2X systems

· Urban and…

Wow!! So many companies getting rid of “safety drivers” and attaining SAE L4 withing a couple months of each other. More will come soon as the hype and desperation domino tumbling picks up speed, especially avoidable tragedies with the loss of in vehicle safety drivers. (They should not exist at all. Having said this, they are far better off in the vehicle since remote ops adds significant latency.)

· L4 and Removed Safety Drivers — Waymo, Cruise, Yandex, Gatik

· Removed Safety Drivers — Motional, AutoX, Baidu

· Zoox and Voyage appear to pop any day now

Of course, NONE…