When it comes to how autonomous vehicles see the world, humans come first, literally. Autonomous vehicles (AVs), like the kind operated by Pittsburgh-based Argo AI, use Machine Learning to detect and classify the objects in their surroundings, identifying people first and then their accessories. For example: a person and a bike. A person and a…

One of the many things I learned in my two decades in the engineering profession is that communication is not a strength of most engineers — at least to those that aren’t engineers. They tend to use way too many technical terms to express concepts in ways that come across as an alien language to…

Growing up in a small town in Michigan, I saw the full spectrum of transportation options: passenger cars, farm tractors, bicycles, even horses. And I saw all sorts of other things using the roads, from people out for a walk, to wildlife, to the occasional farm animal. But in the era of the automobile, I…

The 2022 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR 2022) is nearly here. Thousands of computer scientists, software engineers, and researchers from around the globe will gather in New Orleans to review and discuss their latest work in artificial intelligence and developing other computer programs to advance the way we work, live, play, create, and move…

“They came out of nowhere!” You’ve probably heard this phrase uttered while riding in a car (maybe you’ve even said it yourself) if another vehicle, pedestrian, or bicyclist appears suddenly in front of your vehicle without warning.  Safe drivers will react by slowing, stopping, or moving their car appropriately to avoid contact with the fellow…