ITS World Congress
John Estrada
The ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) World Congress was held last week in Detroit. This annual event rotates between North America, Asia and Europe so this is likely the largest ITS event in the US for quite some time. (Actually for at least 6 years since in 3 years time it will be in Montreal).
The event brought together a wide range of organizations from giant multi-nationals like Delphi, Nissan and Mercedes to relatively new companies like RideScout, eTrans2020 and zipcar. In addition there were a number of government agencies, universities, research centers and pavilions for organizations all over the world including Australia, Singapore and Korea. It was quite the gathering of the ITS talent and expertise.
There were a number of major announcements and happenings at last week’s event. A sampling of these include:
- GM’s CEO, Mary Barra, announced that starting with the 2017 model year some Cadillac models will be equipped with GM’s Super Cruise automated driving function and that they would also contain DSRC radios for safety through connected vehicle (V2V) technology.
- US Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Fox, reiterated the governments commitment to the use of V2V and V2I technologies for safety in future vehicles.
- Honda provide test rides in their driverless car.
- Delphi demonstrated their system that determines if the driver is paying attention.
A large part of the discussion the event centered around was how transportation is changing and how the options for people to get from one place to another are really changing. This was a lesson that I wished I learned better for the show. I was in Detroit from Sunday through Thursday. I was staying downtown within walking distance of the convention center. However, I had two meetings planned in the Detroit suburbs that week. Being a product of the 1960’s and a life of mostly suburban living, I felt that I needed to rent a car. This would get me to and from the airport and allow me to get out to the Detroit suburbs for my meetings. Between the rental car and daily parking, I ended spending almost $350 in transportation.
A better and 21st century plan would have been to use RideScout or a tool like it to find a ride from the airport. I’ve found this could be from $20 in a shared van to $50 for a ride with Uber. When I needed to go to the suburbs, I could have rented a Zipcar for about $36. Given that one of my meetings was cancelled and the other ended up happening in the city, I could have saved over $150. Lesson learned for next time.
This is an exciting time in the world of transportation. As could be seen at the ITS World Congress, the rate of change in transportation is accelerating quickly. It is going to be exciting.
