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News Roundup: Ford Introduces ‘SmartLink’ Connected-Car Plug-In For Older Vehicles, U.S. Lawmakers Consider Car Cybersecurity Bill, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A roundup of interesting headlines from the driverless and connected-car worlds over the past week:

Ford designs new device to turn older cars into connected cars

Ford Motor Co. has created a new device called SmartLink that can plug into older cars through the OBD link II and turn them into fully connected cars. The SmartLink includes a 4G LTE modem on board, letting it act as a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to 8 devices in the vehicle. It also enables remote start, lock and unlock functions, and can send alerts to a car owner via a companion web and mobile app to let them check the car’s diagnostic health, and get alerts related to security and service requirements. SmartLink was designed to work with Ford and Lincoln cars built between 2010 and 2016. Read more from TechCrunch.

 

Driverless bus debuts in Atlanta before embarking on U.S. tour

The Alliance for Transportation Authority offered rides in an autonomous, 12-passenger bus in Atlanta on Thursday to kick off a U.S. tour. The tour, which will take the bus to other major cities in states such as Texas and California. Representatives of the Alliance hope the tour, and free rides on the shuttle, will improve public perception of self-driving cars, which they see as one of the biggest barriers to the implementation of the technology. Read more from the Albuquerque Journal.

 

U.S. lawmakers introduce bill to study cybersecurity in connected cars

With at least 90 percent of cars on U.S. roads expected to have connected-car features by 2020, U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a bipartisan bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to study cybersecurity in vehicles. Named “The Security and Privacy in Your Car Act,” the bill requires the NHTSA to work with the Defense Department, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Automotive Information Sharing and Analysis Center, SAE International, and academics and manufacturers in the automotive industry to set a standard for safety in all connected cars. Together, the group will study how to isolate software systems in vehicles, create a system to prevent and detect hacks, determine best practices for storing data and create a timeline for how to implement these standards. Read more from GeekWire.

Photo: Ford SmartLink plug-in / Credit: Ford Motor Co.

NHTSA Issues New Proposed Policy on V2V Technology, Connected Vehicles

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Jennifer van der Kleut

The National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) on Tuesday proposed a new national policy that, among other things, would mandate that connected vehicle technology (V2V) be included in all new light-weight vehicles that are manufactured, establish standards for vehicle-to-vehicle messages and transmissions, and mandate that data be made available to the federal government.

The agency released an announcement in the form of a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) that detailed the ins and outs of the new policy, should be it officially adopted by the U.S. government.

Highlights of the proposed policy include:

  • The requiring of all automakers to include connected-vehicle technology (V2V) in all new light-weight vehicles;
  • A mandate that all V2V devices would use dedicated short range communications (DSRC) to transmit data, such as location, direction and speed, to nearby vehicles;
  • The mandating of across-the-board standards for vehicle-to-vehicle communications, to ensure all vehicles “speak the same language;” and
  • Rules that ensure that V2V data being transmitted is protected by strong cybersecurity measures, and not “linkable to any individual.”

NHTSA officials said the Federal Highway Institute plans to issue more formal guidance on V2V communications soon.

Federal officials said in the NPRM announcement that they felt this policy was necessary to help speed up the adoption of connected-vehicle technology to help save lives, and also to help guide auto manufacturers in how to best and most quickly begin implementing the technology into their vehicles.

“This will create an information environment in which vehicle and device manufacturers can create and implement applications to improve safety, mobility, and the environment. Without a mandate to require and standardize V2V communications, the agency believes that manufacturers will not be able to move forward in an efficient way, and that a critical mass of equipped vehicles would take many years to develop, if ever,” the NPRM stated.

“Implementation of the new standard will enable vehicle manufacturers to develop safety applications that employ V2V communications as an input, two of which are estimated to prevent hundreds of thousands of crashes and prevent over one thousand fatalities annually,” the announcement continued.

Read the full announcement online.

Read the proposed policy in its entirety online.

 

 

News Roundup: Apple Admits It’s ‘Heavily Invested’ in Automated Driving, Nissan Uses Driverless Leafs to Tow Cars At Its Plants, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

A look at some of the biggest headlines to come out of the driverless and connected-car industries in the past week:

Apple ‘investing heavily’ in driverless car software

In a recent letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration written by Apple’s director of product integrity, Steve Jenner begged U.S. regulators to embrace “fair competition” among companies working on driverless vehicle systems. Excitingly for followers of the industry’s progress, media outlets that wrote to Jenner asking about the company’s motives behind the letter got a statement in reply in which Jenner said he wrote it because “Apple is investing heavily in machine learning and automated systems.” Read more from Fox News.

 

Nissan using self-driving vehicles to tow cars around its plants

Nissan is testing the waters of driverless vehicles by using some to tow cars around its manufacturing plants in Japan. At a recent demonstration, Nissan employees hooked up a driverless Leaf to a full trailer and let the car tow the trailer around with no one at the wheel. Nissan executives say they are excited about the technology and think it will help reduce costs and improve efficiency. They said they may decide to roll the test out overseas as well. Nissan hopes to release an autonomous car by 2020. Read more from the Daily Mail.

 

 

BMW aims to out-cool Uber, starts testing driverless cars in Germany

BMW admitted last week that it will soon begin testing of driverless vehicles in Munich, Germany. The automaker’s biggest focus for the initiative is its goal of becoming the “coolest” ride-hailing firm on the market, competing with big rivals such as Uber. BMW executives said the test will consist of 40 vehicles operating within the inner parts of the city of Munich and plans to eventually roll out testing in other cities as well. Read more from The Daily Mail.

U.S. Government Greenlights Self-Driving Vehicles, Issues Formal Regulations

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Jennifer van der Kleut

The United States federal government essentially gave self-driving vehicles a green light on Tuesday, Sept. 20 by issuing formal regulations as to how they can be tested and eventually introduced to the mass market.

In a conference call hosted by the National Highway Transportation Safety Authority (NHTSA), followed by a formal statement, the government outlined a four-part policy that guides regulations at the federal level and makes recommendations for the states.

In essence, the policy says that any vehicle that can pass a 15-point safety inspection can move forward on the road to public adoption. The guidelines then outline how states can legally allow manufacturers to introduce the vehicle to the mass market.

The four main parts of the new policy are:

  • 15-Point Safety Assessment: “The Vehicle Performance Guidance for Automated Vehicles for manufacturers, developers and other organizations includes a 15-point Safety Assessment for the safe design, development, testing and deployment of automated vehicles.” The assessment examines several areas of performance, such as cybersecurity concerns, how the car reacts to and recovers from system failures, ethics dilemmas, post-crash sharing of data with the NHTSA, and much more.
  • Model State Policy: “Delineates the federal and state roles for the regulation of highly automated vehicle technologies as part of an effort to build a consistent national framework of laws to govern self-driving vehicles.”
  • Current NHTSA Regulations/Options for Expediting Introduction: “Outlines options for the further use of current federal authorities to expedite the safe introduction of highly automated vehicles into the marketplace.”
  • Modern Regulations/Identifying and Removing Obstacles: “Discusses new tools and authorities the federal government may need as the technology evolves and is deployed more widely.”

The statement points out that the new policies address both lower levels of automation, as well as vehicles capable of full automation.

The policy also addresses how recalls of automated vehicles should be handled, if they are ever necessary.

Of note is a section of the policy that appears to address a vehicle’s capability of taking evasive measures to avoid a collision if a driver is distracted or not paying attention and fails to take back control of the car.

The government’s statement appears to indicate a car’s failure to take evasive measures itself, without the assistance of the car’s main occupant (formally known as “the driver”) creates an “unreasonable risk.”

“In particular, [the policy] emphasizes that semi-autonomous driving systems that fail to adequately account for the possibility that a distracted or inattentive driver/occupant might fail to retake control of the vehicle in a safety-critical situation may be defined as an unreasonable risk to safety, and subject to recall,” the statement reads.

Both Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind praised the new guidelines, and said they look forward to the adoption of autonomous vehicles, particularly for their potential to save lives by lowering instances of collisions.

“Automated vehicles have the potential to save thousands of lives, driving the single biggest leap in road safety that our country has ever taken,” said Foxx. “This policy is an unprecedented step by the federal government to harness the benefits of transformative technology by providing a framework for how to do it safely.”

“Ninety-four percent of crashes on U.S. roadways are caused by a human choice or error,” said Rosekind. “We are moving forward on the safe deployment of automated technologies because of the enormous promise they hold to address the overwhelming majority of crashes and save lives.”

Foxx added that he understands many are still wary of the technology, but pointed out that long ago, citizens were similarly wary of innovations we all take for granted today.

“New technologies developed in the 20th century, like seat belts and air bags, were once controversial but have now saved hundreds of thousands of American lives,” Foxx said. “This is the first in a series of proactive approaches, including the release of a rule on vehicle-to-vehicle communications, which will bring life-saving technologies to the roads safely and quickly while leaving innovators to dream up new safety solutions.”

The government’s statement says the formal policies issued Tuesday were the result of “significant public input and stakeholder discussions, including two open public meetings this year and an open public docket for comments.”

The Department of Transportation indicated it is also soliciting additional public comments for the next 60 days on the policy, which can be read in its entirety online.

“Through a series of next steps and in response to public comments, DOT intends to update the policy annually,” the statement indicated.

Image: Rendering of people in a self-driving car, by Rinspeed.

News Roundup: Toyota Spending Millions on Driverless Research at UMich, Tesla Fatality Could Actually Speed Up Self-Driving Progress, and More

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Toyota to spend millions on AI, robotics and driverless car research at University of Michigan

Just months after Toyota spent $1 billion to create the Toyota Research Institite (TRI) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the company announced it is spending another $22 million to work with neighboring University of Michigan on research into artificial intelligence, robotics, and self-driving cars. Specifically, the announcement indicates the money will be spent over a period of four years and will focus on the areas of enhanced driving safety, partner robotics and indoor mobility, autonomous driving and student learning and diversity, as well as mobility solutions for the disabled and elderly. Read more about the announcement from The Detroit News.

How the recent Tesla Autopilot fatality could actually speed up autonomous car development

The news was tragic when, in June, a man was killed when his car ran into a white tractor-trailer that his Tesla Autopilot system failed to differentiate from the reflection of the bright white sky on his windshield. In fact, Tesla had three highly-publicized crashes involving its Autopilot system in just two months this year. However, some industry analysts now believe those crashes, and that one tragic fatality, may actually speed up progress toward the development and launch of autonomous vehicles. Representatives from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) say what engineers can learn from such accidents can help improve the technology’s efficiency exponentially-and the desire to do so will be led by the still-great need to help millions of people around the world who have trouble getting around. Read more about industry analysts’ predictions on such matters in The Conversation.

Honda partners with Indian company L&T Technologies on IoT, autonomous drive products

Larson & Turbo Technologies (L&T) announced this week it is partnering with Honda and “betting big” on IoT, electric-powered and autonomous drive technologies. L&T has invested billions setting up several new labs focusing on the research and development of such technology. In particular, its new lab in Dublin, Ohio could help significantly boost their autonomous vehicle work. Read more from the Dublin Villager and Economic Times.

 

Automated Driving Tech Could End Rise in Road Deaths

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Burney Simpson

Deaths in traffic accidents are on the rise but these fatalities could be reduced if automated technology were installed in passenger vehicles.

That’s the conclusion after reading the major findings in two recent reports –

  • Road deaths rose about 8 percent in 2015;
  • Adding three types of currently-available automated technology to passenger cars could reduce accidents by about 25 percent.

Starting with bullet two, a study from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) found that the installation of blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, and forward collision warning systems could stop or make less severe 1.3 million crashes a year.

Those crashes cause 10,000 fatalities and 133,000 injuries annually, the researchers report.

It would cost about $600 per light-duty vehicle to install the technology, according to “Cost and benefit estimates of partially-automated vehicle collision avoidance technologies” by Corey D. Harper, Chris T. Hendrickson, and Constantine Samaras. The three are with CMU’s Civil and Environmental Engineering department.

It would cost about $13 billion to install this technology in all light-duty vehicles in the U.S. but this investment would bring an $18 billion benefit in the first year alone.

TRAFFIC FATALITIES RISING

The CMU study comes just as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that 2015 traffic fatalities rose nearly 8 percent from 2014 following decades of decline.

An estimated 35,200 people died in traffic accidents in 2015, while total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) rose 3.5 percent to 107.2 billion miles, according to NHTSA.

The fatality rate per 100 million VMT last year rose to 1.12, up from 1.08 in 2014.

Those who weren’t even in passenger vehicles saw “significant increases” in deaths from traffic accidents, NHTSA found.

For instance, traffic fatalities rose 13 percent for bicyclists, 10 percent for pedestrians and 9 percent for motorcyclists last year, while fatalities of drivers and passengers rose by 6 percent and 7 percent respectively.

The 2015 findings remain estimates. An annual statistical report will be released later this year.

The numbers for last year run counter to long-term trends. From 1973 to 2013 crash fatalities dropped about 40 percent due to the use of seat belts, the installation of air bags, education campaigns on the dangers of drunk driving, and greater police enforcement.

However, these improvements have largely stayed the same since 2009 (See “Road Safety Hits a Plateau: Fed Traffic Stats“).

Photo: Flipped car at 22nd and Hawthorne by Aaron Parecki, 2010.

Video: NHTSA Driverless Guidelines Coming in July - Rosekind

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Federal regulators will release deployment guidance and state model policy on autonomous driving technology in July, Mark Rosekind, administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told Autoline Network at the TU-Automotive Detroit 2016 show on Thursday. (See the interview below).

The state guidelines are designed to give some uniform structure to autonomous regulations across the nation, said Rosekind.

At the same time, NHTSA must be nimble and flexible in its regulatory approach to driverless vehicles so the rules can evolve as the technology changes, he said.

In addition, we have to make sure the federal role and the state role are clearly identified, Rosekind tells Autoline. Broadly, the feds have oversight of the vehicle while states have oversight of the driver.

For instance, the leader of Volvo complained to US DOT recently that Europe’s patchwork regulatory approach to autonomous driving technology is a hindrance to the technology there, said Rosekind.

“We have a chance in the United States to create a platform that would accelerate (driverless technology) rather than be a barrier,” Rosekind said. “I’m hoping in July when we announce we create a new framework that people around the world will (review). They might say, ‘That’s an approach that works’”, said Rosekind.

NHTSA is working with the American Association Motor of Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) on the guidelines to ensure that the states are on board with the policy, said Rosekind. The AAMVA is the organization for leaders of state departments of motor vehicles.

NHTSA also will probably ask Congress in July for greater leeway in its oversight of the testing of new vehicles, and for “new kinds of approval process” to speed deployment, said Rosekind.

He noted that NHTSA now has exemption authority over tests of vehicles and equipment, giving it the power to allow a test of a maximum of 2,500 vehicles over two years.

NHTSA might ask Congress for the authority to allow the testing of larger fleets over a longer time frame. That would give it the ability to gather a larger sample of data to be analyzed.

 

Michigan Might Match Florida’s Driverless Rules

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Burney Simpson

The Michigan legislature may soon consider a proposal that would allow the state to match the freewheeling driverless vehicle laws just enacted by Florida.

Michigan now allows the testing of autonomous cars on its roads under certain conditions by certain operators, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Michigan’s state Sen. Mike Kowall plans to introduce a bill that would jettison the testing requirement for the operation of driverless vehicles on the state’s roads, according to a report from Crain’s Detroit Business.

In April Florida enacted a law that gives those with a driver’s license the right to operate an autonomous vehicle on its roads without any testing requirement.

The potential Florida/Michigan match-up is the latest in the competition between the states for autonomous driving bragging rights and research dollars. States from Massachusetts to California are opening driverless test tracks or considering loosening rules for firms seeking to develop the technology in their borders.

Kowall, a Republican from White Lake and the Senate’s Majority Floor Leader, has already introduced a bill that would make it a felony to intentionally damage and/or take control of the computer system of a motor vehicle.

And in March the Michigan Senate passed a Kowall resolution calling for the adoption of intelligent transportation system technology throughout Michigan, and urged further testing of autonomous and connected vehicles.

Kowall told Crain’s he plans to introduce a series of bills on driverless vehicles that would discard the rules requiring testing, set insurance liability requirements for connected vehicle equipment manufacturers, and officially name the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti, Mich., a national center for the study of autonomous and connected vehicle technology.

FLORIDA SUN SHINES ON DRIVERLESS CARS

Florida300aOther states aren’t standing idly by, nor are they waiting for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to release its state policy guidelines on driverless vehicles this summer.

Florida roared ahead when it allowed the operation of autonomous vehicles on its roads by someone with a valid driver’s license (See “Florida Takes Brakes Off Driverless Tech”).

That law removes a previous testing requirement, and it allows the ‘driver’ to operate the vehicle even if she is not physically in the vehicle.

Tennessee last week enacted a bill allowing for the live testing of driverless vehicles that have been certified by the state, as long as a driver is present in the vehicle that has certain safety equipment installed. The law also creates a per-mile tax structure for the vehicles.

Tennessee calls itself the leading state for automotive manufacturing with GM, Nissan, Volkswagen, parts supplier Denso, and many others operating plants there.

Massachusetts is reportedly preparing to allow the testing of autonomous vehicles at a 60-acre site on the decommissioned Devens military base about an hour from Boston (“Driverless Testing in Massachusetts ‘in a Few Weeks’”).

Devens would be convenient for autonomous researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Volpe Transportation Systems Center.

That could compete with Michigan’s 335-acre American Center for Mobility that could become a big brother to Ann Arbor’s 32-acre Mcity autonomous vehicle test site that opened in 2015.

Michigan and Florida, along with California, Nevada and the District of Columbia, have enacted legislation allowing for the operation of driverless vehicles on their roads.

GOLDEN STATE SEES GOLD IN DRIVERLESS TECH

CaliforniaMap1California has approved 12 firms to conduct driverless testing. Many of the global auto OEMs and Tier 1 auto suppliers have operations in Silicon Valley.

The California General Assembly this month moved on several proposals that would reduce the authority of the state Department of Motor Vehicles over autonomous vehicles.

Some legislators have argued the DMV is hindering the development of the technology with unnecessary regulations (See “California Pols to DMV: Relax Draft Driverless Regs”).

Last week a bill that would require the DMV to hold public hearings on the NHTSA guidelines was approved by a 76 to 0 margin. Sponsor Assemblywoman Ling Ling Change has made no secret that she believes the DMV needs to get out of the way.

And the Transportation Committee approved AB 2862 that would allow the testing of autonomous vehicles without a driver, steering wheel, and brake and accelerator pedals. Autonomous testing leader Google had a hissy fit when the DMV in December released draft rules requiring such equipment.

The governors of Arizona and Virginia last year allowed for greater testing on their roads, while North Dakota and Utah have called for further research on autonomous vehicles.

Photos by Michigan Municipal League, 2011; California_map by Julie Jordan Scott, 2010; Florida February 2008 by Image Editor.

Google to DOT: We should be able to sell driverless cars if they can pass federal road test

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Jennifer van der Kleut

News outlets are reporting that Google executive Chris Urmson sent the U.S. federal government a proposal Friday suggesting that self-driving cars should be legal on public roads, and legal to sell to consumers, if they are able to pass a road test satisfying federal safety standards.

Furthermore, Google’s proposal said the rule, if approved, should apply to any company manufacturing self-driving cars, not just Google.

“Google would rather not wade through government bureaucracy and red tape, so it has penned a proposal that will hopefully allow autonomous vehicles to be federally approved for road use sooner,” Hot Hardware reported Saturday.

“It’s hard to argue with Google’s reasoning,” Hot Hardware writers said, appearing to agree with Google.

This past week, representatives from several top companies such as Google, General Motors, Lyft, Duke University and Delphi Automotive, which are all heavily invested in autonomous car research and development, appeared on Capitol Hill to testify before members of Congress on the merits of the rising technology.

While it appears some progress was made in the meeting, in the same week, a new report from the Department of Transportation made headlines.

In its efforts to create a consistent national policy regarding self-driving cars, the DOT proposed that any self-driving cars on public roads must include a driver’s seat, steering wheel and brake pedal.

This was met with disappointment from Google, whose cars are famously steering wheel-less.

Engadget reports that the proposal was sent in an informal letter to top DOT officials on Friday, but that an official draft proposal has not been submitted to legislators yet.

Nevertheless, Google representative Johnny Luu told the Associated Press that the tech company’s proposal was “the beginning of a process” to create “the right framework that will allow deployment in a safe and timely manner.”

If approved, analysts see the proposed road tests as a “fast-track” approach to getting self-driving cars to market, as opposed to the current, more lengthy process automakers usually have to abide by.

“The typical process for making new rules takes years,” Associated Press reporter Justin Pritchard reports.

There is no word yet on what legislators think of Google’s idea.

“The department will take input from lots of stakeholders as we develop [a] plan,” Gordon Trowbridge, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is overseeing the regulation of self-driving technology within the broader Department of Transportation, told the Associated Press last week.

 

 

 

Maryland Moving on Autonomous Vehicles

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Burney Simpson

Maryland recently launched the Autonomous Vehicle Working Group to research the impact of driverless technology on safety, insurance, licensing, privacy, cybersecurity, and other major issues.

The group includes about 20 leaders  from its state agencies, along with reps from auto and trucking trade groups.

The second meeting of the working group ended last week with a sense that autonomous technology could impact virtually all ground transportation in the state. Indeed, the group decided to rename itself the Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Working Group to better reflect the growth of connected technology.

During the meeting there were presentations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) of the Transportation Research Bureau (TRB).

Nat Beuse, NHTSA’s associate administrator for vehicle safety research, discussed the U.S. Department of Transportation’s call for $4 billion in driverless research dollars, its plans to release this year a model state policy on autonomous vehicles, and the Smart Cities competition.

TALKING CYBERSECURITY

Beuse noted that NHTSA is talking cybersecurity with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Md.

Ray Derr, NCHRP project manager, said his organization receives $40 million in pooled funds annually from the states. It is in the midst of several research projects related to driverless technology, including its impact on society, regulations/policies, freight, and transit.

Derr said that trucking freight firms may be early driverless technology adopters as they consider platooning of trucks.

Platooning, also known as tethering, refers to the practice of two or more trucks connected on the highway with Wi-Fi communications technology. The trucks travel closely in tandem, improving aerodynamics and lowering fuel costs by 5 to 10 percent. (See “Truck Slow Down Could Speed Truck Platooning”).

MOVING RAPIDLY

Tethering makes sense for “firms that make multiple runs, where a truck visits the same place several times on the same day,” said Louis Campion, president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association.

Trucks operated by Wal-Mart and other large retailers make these kinds of trips between their stores and distribution centers, Campion said. “This is moving fairly rapidly,” said Campion.

If platooning catches on, trucking firms will need more talented and trained technicians, he said.

Beuse and Derr also made several next-step recommendations.

In the near term, start looking at current laws that will be impacted by the technology, said Beuse.

Keep your eye on aftermarket technology and ‘shade tree mechanics’ that want to install driverless equipment in their vehicles, said Beuse. This is all so new its unknown how the technology will perform.

AVS 2016

Derr suggested working group members attend the Automated Vehicles Symposium 2016 to be held July 19-21 in San Francisco. The event, sponsored by the TRB and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, will include seminars on issues the working group is considering, said Derr.

In the meantime, check out what such leaders as California and Michigan are doing in the driverless arena, said Derr.

Long term, be prepared for public push back when there are accidents or the technology doesn’t perform as promised by some of its advocates, said Beuse.

In addition, there will be discussion on privacy issues related to the data collected by the state from connected technology.

The Maryland working group is chaired by Christine Nizer of the state’s Motor Vehicle Administration.

Members include reps from Maryland’s departments of disabilities, information technology, aging, legislative services, and others. The Maryland Insurance Administration, the state police, the State Highway Administration, and the Transportation Authority (tolls), are also involved.

There are also reps from AAA–Mid Atlantic, the truck group, and an auto manufacturer’s trade group.

The working group met as Maryland’s legislature failed to pass a proposal that would fund its own study group (See “Autonomous Vehicle-Testing Dollars Entice States”).