Get Me B-roll! - Driverless Car Test a Hit with Local TV

Burney Simpson

Virginia Tech opened its vehicle testing grounds in Blacksburg to reporters last Friday, and gained positive exposure on its plans to become a leading research center for driverless technology.

At least three local TV channels from southern Virginia and the local National Public Radio affiliate sent out stories after the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) gave reporters rides in its Cadillac SRX SUV automated vehicle and Cadillac SRX SUV connected vehicle on its two-mile Smart Road test track.

The reporting is consistently thorough and feature inside-the-vehicle shots of the cars operating with a driver with his hands off the wheel and feet off the pedals.

Instead, the driver turns and speaks with the reporter and camera person, pointing out the vehicle monitors and various road hazards that the auto avoids. (Eagle-eyed viewers will see in one story a monitor with the image of ‘SPAT’ for Signal Phase and Timing, a technology that monitors traffic lights and other road signals).

The three TV stories are:

The ABC affiliate in Lynchburg - ‘Self-Driving Cars? Va Tech Part of New Frontier’;

NBC affiliate in Roanoke – ‘Va Tech Transportation Institute Tests Automated Vehicles’;

CBS affiliate in Roanoke – ‘Va Tech Transportation Institute Demos Automated Car’.

The NPR story is here – ‘The Cars of the Future are Already Here’.

VTTI announced this month that it would open a one-stop-shop for automated vehicle testing on 70 miles of roads near Washington, D.C., that range from interstate highways to state roads to rural lanes. See “Va Tech Leaves ‘Em Eating Its Dust in the Race to be the Top Driverless Test Track,” June 7.

The Virginia Automated Corridors (VAC) will offer testers everything from congested highways to bucolic mountain roads. VTTI also operates the Virginia International Roadway test track in Halifax.

Va Tech’s VAC is facing off against Michigan’s M City in Ann Arbor, and California’s GoMentum in Contra Costa as the major U.S. driverless test tracks.

Virginia this month became the fifth state to officially allow driverless vehicles on its roads, following a proclamation by Gov. Terry McAuliffe. California, Florida, Michigan, and Nevada, along with Washington, D.C., have enacted legislation allowing the testing.