Posts

Connected, Autonomous Vehicles On Display in Northern Virginia

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Staff and elected officials from Fairfax County in northern Virginia were treated to an up-close look at connected and driverless car technology at a special event last week on May 3.

DriverlessTransportation.com and our sister company, eTrans Systems, which manufactures connected-vehicle software, took part in the event, which examined the logistics and benefits of advancing the technology and also offered test rides in prototype vehicles.

Representatives from Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), Tesla Motors, eTrans Systems and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) brought vehicles with connected and semi-autonomous technology to demonstrate how they work and to show off some of the benefits.

eTrans Systems showed off some of its V2I technology (vehicle-to-infrastructure) on test rides in a large, closed-off parking lot at the Fairfax County Government Center. Through a tablet mounted on the dashboard, riders could see when the system warned the driver if he was going over the speed limit or when the road was about to curve, and informed him of how soon an approaching traffic signal was going to change or when a collision with another vehicle was possible.

Following the demonstration rides, Fairfax County elected officials convened a discussion panel, moderated by David Zipper from the D.C.-based startup incubator 1776, and featuring representatives from eTrans, VTTI, VDOT and the consulting firm RK&K.

John Estrada, founder of DriverlessTransportation.com and CEO of eTrans, began remarks by reminding everyone that some autonomous vehicles are already present in Fairfax County and many other spots around the globe.

“Elevators are autonomous vehicles,” he pointed out. “And anyone who has ever traveled in or out of Dulles Airport has ridden in an autonomous tram.”

Estrada said he thinks the key to slowly introducing the technology to the masses is by starting it much that way-by limiting it to smaller, controlled areas in which they can be the only mode of transportation. He offered the nearby shopping and business districts of Tysons Corner as an example, as well as a few busier spots in Reston such as Reston Town Center and up and down the Sunrise Valley corridor.

In addition to providing a valuable opportunity to perfect the technology in a smaller, controlled environment, autonomous vehicles could also help solve the widespread “last mile” problem of public transit in such areas. This refers to how some people shy away from mass transit like Metro, buses or the subway because it only gets them so far, and then they have no way to get the “last mile” to their needed destination.

Dwight Farmer of RK&K, who previously worked for decades as a planning commissioner in Hampton Roads, Virginia, continued the conversation by pointing out many benefits that municipalities like Fairfax County could enjoy with the advent of autonomous vehicles and V2I and V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) communications.

For example, if safe spacing between vehicles could be reduced, the capacity on our highways could double, Farmer said. This refers to the idea that the distance between cars could be automated through technology so that cars could safely travel very close together without the danger of collision, and the constant start-and-stop that often accompanies gridlock traffic.

Farmer added, with automated safe spacing, cars could also safely increase their speeds by 20 percent, getting people to their destinations even faster and more smoothly.

And, with fewer crashes, those municipalities could save a great deal of money that is normally spent on crash response, which could then be rerouted for much-needed infrastructure improvements.

“I think we’re about to witness extraordinary times,” Farmer concluded.

Moderator Dave Zipper agreed.

“I think [connected and driverless vehicles] are going to bring about the most exciting change in mobility since the Model Ts were first rolled out in 1910,” he said.

Images by Jennifer van der Kleut for DriverlessTransportation.com

Hear From Elected Officials and Tech Innovators and Take Test Rides at Fairfax County, Virginia’s Autonomous Vehicle Event

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

Fairfax County, Virginia is working on positioning itself at the forefront of transportation technology by hosting an autonomous and connected vehicle event.

On Wednesday, May 3 the county will bring together elected officials, transportation experts and technology developers to discuss the future of transportation in the region in a moderated panel as well as offer demonstration rides.

Among the elected officials attending will be Chairman Sharon Bulova and Supervisor John Foust from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

“Virginia has positioned itself as a leader for technological innovation,” Bulova said this week. “With top researchers road testing their products here, local companies have already begun investing in and advancing this technology and contributing to growth in our economy.”

Among the other panelists will be representatives from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). The institute operates one of the commonwealth’s largest “smart roads,” which is 2.2 miles long and includes three bridges, and allows developers to test autonomous and connected vehicles. Controlled weather stations and varying pavement conditions allow for testing in abnormal conditions.

Many Fairfax County officials say they think innovative technology such as self-driving capabilities and vehicle-to-vehicle communications could benefit the local region in countless ways.

“I think it’s an open road when it comes to how driverless cars will impact the county and country as a whole,” said Supervisor Foust, who chairs Fairfax County’s Economic Advisory Commission. “There are huge economic, safety, environmental and mobility benefits.”

There are many experts who theorize that driverless cars can reduce congestion, reduce the need for so much parking in busier cities, and help reduce the mounting costs brought about by thousands of vehicle accidents each year.

“I’ve seen reports that say the economic impact could be upwards of $1 trillion. Self-driving cars could also improve safety, reducing insurance rates. And, this technology could save millions in fuel consumption,” Foust added. “We’re also hopeful that this technology will benefit the mobility needs of our seniors and people with disabilities.”

Members of the public are invited to come out to the Fairfax County Government Center, located at 12000 Government Center Parkway in Fairfax, on Wednesday, May 3 from 12-5 p.m. The event will offer refreshments and networking opportunities at the start, followed by the panel, open discussions, and demonstration rides in test vehicles at both the start and finish.

Among the featured panelists will be John Estrada, the CEO of eTrans Systems, a Fairfax-based company that manufacturers connected-vehicle software and technology. Estrada is also the founder of DriverlessTransportation.com. Estrada will be displaying and demonstrating some of eTrans Systems’ connected-vehicle technology and offering demo rides during the event.

Space is limited, so advance registration is recommended. People can register through the Fairfax County government website.

Traffic Fatalities Rising Again

/0 Comments/in , , , , , ,

Early data show there will be a “significant increase in lives lost on our roadways” in 2015, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), said at the Washington (D.C.) Auto Show.

Deaths due to car crashes had plateaued from 2009 to 2014 but statistics from January through June of last year indicate a rise in vehicle fatalities, NHTSA Administrator Mark R. Rosekind said.

Rosekind noted that new autonomous driving technology can help lower the 94 percent of traffic fatalities that are caused by human error.

He pointed to Automatic Emergency Braking Systems, blind spot elimination, and lane departure warning technology as showing great promise in lowering human-driving errors.

An estimated 16,225 persons died in motor vehicle crashes in the first six months of 2015, according to an analysis of data from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and other sources. That’s a rise of more than 8 percent from the same period in 2014.

In 2014, there were 15,014 traffic fatalities through June, and 32,675 for the year. The fewest fatalities occur in the first quarter, FARS data shows. Crash fatalities dropped about 40 percent from 1973 to 2013, but only 0.03 percent from 2009 to 2013 (See “Road Safety Hits a Plateau: Fed Traffic Stats“).

Driver education on using seatbelts and distracted driving is especially needed for the young, said Rosekind.

SURVIVE THE DRIVE

The new book ‘Survive the Drive’ by two researchers from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute is designed to educate new drivers and their families on driving risks and ways to avoid them.

Authors Thomas A. Dingus, VTTI director, and Mindy Buchanan-King, communications director, note that driving has a fatality rate of 15.2 per 100,000 participants. That’s higher than white water rafting, boating, scuba diving, and other popular sports.  

Teens especially are in danger while driving distracted. For instance, teens that drive and text have a 10 times higher chance of crashing than an adult, according to the Survive the Drive’s analysis of VTTI naturalistic driving studies.

While it’s true that autonomous technology will help lower accidents, it will take about 25 years for today’s cars to be replaced with vehicles with the safer features. That’s because owners hold on to their vehicles for so long, according to the book.

Rosekind announced at the auto show that the Department of Transportation had launched the ‘Safe Cars Save Lives’ public awareness campaign to urge vehicle owners to check for open recalls at least twice a year.  Vehicle owners can search for their Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on NHTSA’s database to find if it is part of an open recall.

There were nearly 900 recalls affecting 51 million vehicles in 2015.

VTTI Report: Self-Driving Cars Have Lower Crash Rates Than Conventional Cars

/0 Comments/in , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

A new study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) declares what many have long suspected would be true-that self-driving cars have lower crash rates than conventional, human-driven cars.

Interestingly (but not surprisingly), the VTTI study was commissioned by Google, though the study’s authors say the findings are solely those of the institute.

As to how the study was conducted: “The report examines national crash data and data from naturalistic driving studies that closely monitors the on-road experience of 3,300 vehicles driving more than 34 million vehicle miles, to better estimate existing crash rates, and then compares the results to data from Google’s Self-Driving Car program.”

According to the report, self-driving cars have a rate of 3.2 crashes per million of miles, where traditional human-driven cars have a rate of 4.2 crashes per million miles. The study reportedly adjusted the data for unreported crashes, and takes into account the severity of the accidents.

Industry followers and news outlets alike have been closely following Google’s reporting of around 17 accidents involving its self-driving test cars in Silicon Valley, and just in the past week, the company’s report of the few hundred times a human passenger in one of their test cars had to suddenly take over control of the vehicle for safety reasons.

Early news outlets picking up on the report are already debating the study’s ultimate conclusions.

As Insurance Journal says, “The [study’s] authors note that the data also suggest that conventional vehicles may have higher rates of more severe crashes than self-driving cars, but there is insufficient data to draw this conclusion with strong confidence, given the small overall number of crashes for the self-driving cars.”

In truth, only one of Google’s roughly 17 accidents involved any reported injuries. That crash reportedly involved minor whiplash for the Google employees in the vehicle, and after being evaluated at a hospital, they were cleared to return to work. The driver of the other car also reported minor back and neck pain.

The study’s authors assert that there is “statistically-significant data that suggest less severe events may happen at significantly lower rates for self-driving cars” than conventional vehicles.

Insurance Journal also points out a January 2015 report by University of Michigan and the Sustainable Worldwide Transportation consortium of researchers, which said that “It is not clear that a self-driving vehicle would ever perform more safely than an experienced, middle-aged driver, and during the transition period when conventional and self-driving vehicles would share the road, safety might actually worsen.”

Another point many parties have brought up is that early data is not truly representative of the situation because self-driving cars have not yet been tested in varying weather conditions.

It has been less than two months since Ford began testing its self-driving prototypes in Michigan’s fierce winter weather, including snow and ice, at the Mcity testing grounds. Early findings from those tests have been positive, and Ford executives say the cars have been performing well in such conditions.

 

 

Major Test Beds Gear Up for Autonomous Vehicles

/1 Comment/in , , , , ,

Burney Simpson

Lonely test bed seeking turned-on autonomous vehicles for afternoon frolic. Sun, rain, or snow, let’s go, go, go. P.S. Will consider connected vehicles if the mood is right.

One intriguing aspect of the growing driverless transportation field are the autonomous-vehicle test beds where researchers laboriously test their Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I), and Vehicle to Pedestrian (V2P) elements.

Broadly speaking, these test beds are used to research, test, and validate connected-vehicle and autonomous-vehicle technologies through collaborative partnerships with auto OEMs, parts suppliers, communication firms, technology companies, academia and other researchers, government agencies, and others.

It should not be a surprise that the major sites are located in states where the testing of driverless cars has been legalized — California, Michigan, and Florida. Maybe the other two, Nevada and the District of Columbia, will soon announce test beds.

Here are a few of the most important autonomous-vehicle test beds.

CALIFORNIA’S GOMENTUM STATION, CONTRA COSTA TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, CONCORD

The newly-branded GoMentum Station in Concord, Calif., grew from a U.S. navy weapons station that officially closed in 2007. Concord is about 30 miles from San Francisco and around the corner from Silicon Valley.

GoMentum brags it is the largest autonomous vehicle/connected vehicle test bed site in the country, offering 5,000 acres and 20 miles of paved roads, a variety of cityscapes, numerous intersections with and without traffic signals, and straight and curved roads laid out in an urban grid style.

This March, Honda announced it would begin testing its Acura RLX sedan on the site, joining Mercedes as a major OEM with vehicles at GoMentum. Mercedes signed a one-year testing deal with GoMentum last October.

The current GoMentum Station partners are Contra Costa Economic Partnership, Contra Costa Transportation Authority, Honda, ITS America,  Stantec, and TIA.

FLORIDA’S LEE ROY SELMON EXPRESSWAY, TAMPA HILLSBOROUGH EXPRESSWAY AUTHORITY, TAMPA BAY

This 10-mile test bed from Tampa to Brandon, Fla., is led by the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) and the Automated Vehicle Institute at the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

The managers say the expressway offers reversible elevated lanes with a controlled closed circuit network that allows up to 12 hours of uninterrupted testing, and a system that integrated with the city of Tampa’s local roads and intersections.

Last year, Audi generated headlines when it tested a self-driving A7 on the Expressway, going up to 25 mph with Gov. Rick Scott in the driver’s seat.

MICHIGAN’S M CITY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MOBILITY TRANSFORMATION CENTER, ANN ARBOR

Officially opening this July is the 32-acre M City, the $6.5 million facility that will have five miles of roads, 40 building facades, angled intersections, a traffic circle, a bridge, a tunnel, gravel roads, and a four-lane highway with entrance and exit ramps. (The photo here is an aerial shot of M City).

Proponents say the building facades can be rearranged, and the streets will feature “mechatronic pedestrians” that jump in and out of traffic.

The university, the state of Michigan, the city of Ann Arbor, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began preparing for M City with the testing in 2012 of connected vehicles and infrastructure technology on active Ann Arbor roads. This used 5.9 GHz Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC). Plans call for further expansion of connected-vehicle testing on live roads throughout Southeast Michigan.

M City proponents note that it is more than just a technology testing center, as it offers researchers the ability to learn about the possible impact of autonomous and connected vehicles on everything from infrastructure design, to cybersecurity, legal issues, value to the customer, and societal impact.

Leadership Partners that have donated a minimum of $1 million to the M City project include Denso, Ford, GM, Honda, Iteris, Qualcomm, State Farm, and Toyota.

VIRGINIA SMART ROAD, VIRGINIA TECH TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE, BLACKSBURG

The test bed that may be the most low-key is the Virginia Smart Road managed by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and owned by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).

The Smart Road is a closed-research-facility with a 2.2 mile test track built to interstate standards with two paved lanes, three bridges, a signalized intersection, 24/7 controlled access, and 14 pavement sections, including an open-grade friction course, and in-pavement sensors that can track moisture, strain, vibration, and other driving and weather impacts on the road.

Smart Road has the ability to make its own weather, creating rain, snow, and fog, and claiming it can produce four inches of snow within an hour. For its summer-time simulation, it can make rain drops of various sizes, to create everything from a mist to a cloud burst.

The Smart Road has a variable-lighting test bed, and features an on-site data acquisition system, a differential global positioning system (GPS), road access and surveillance, and a signalized intersection.

A control room is staffed 24/7 by a full-time staff. Engineers control the lighting and the weather, and researchers observe highway traffic and driver performance using surveillance cameras.

The Smart Road is near Blacksburg in Virginia’s southwest. Plans call for it to be extended to 5.7 miles and connect Blacksburg to Interstate 81.

Driver Distraction an Epidemic: Va. Tech’s Fitch

/1 Comment/in , , , ,

Driverless Transportation

Greg Fitch is a research scientist who leads the User Experience Group at the Center for Automated Vehicle Systems at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute in Blacksburg, Va. Fitch will be presenting a case study on automated vehicle interface and human interaction at the USI 2015 Conference in Las Vegas in September, with research from Virginia Tech and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

This is an edited version of an interview conducted by USI. Visit here for the complete interview.

What are you working on?

I’m investigating the human factors pertaining to automated vehicles, the distraction potential of automotive head-up displays, the reliability of automatic emergency braking systems on commercial vehicles, and driver performance and crash risk when using portable aftermarket devices.

How will vehicle automation impact distracted driving?

Driver distraction is a growing epidemic, primarily because of the number of devices people bring into the vehicle and use while driving. We need to ensure drivers understand when they need to be monitoring the road, and when they are allowed to withdraw from the driving task (in the case of highly automated vehicles).

NHTSA has added automatic braking technology to its recommended safety features for new vehicles. What similar technologies will follow suit?

Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) is a tremendously promising safety system. It stands to prevent or substantially reduce the severity of rear-end crashes by initiating a braking maneuver if the driver fails to do so. Drivers often fail to brake because they are visually distracted. Keeping the driver’s eyes on the road, particularly when operating partially automated vehicles, is imperative.

There are several technologies that will help accomplish this goal. First is advanced voice recognition systems. Voice interfaces have been developed to allow drivers to interact with technology while keeping their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel. However, these systems can be unreliable and difficult to use for some drivers. This can lead to drivers performing visual and manual interactions instead, which are well-known to be riskier. Once voice interaction with technology resembles voice interaction with humans, I think we’ll see a widespread adoption.

Another promising technology is Head-Up Displays (HUDs).The type of information HUDs project will greatly change over the next five years. Designed well, they can help drivers keep their eyes on the road while monitoring the state of the automated vehicle system, and alert the driver when control needs to be transferred back to them.

According to NHTSA, half of all traffic fatalities result from roadway departures. Current Lane Keeping Assist (LKA) systems help keep vehicles in their lane on straight roads. However, extending LKA system operation to maintain a more central position in curved lanes will greatly reduce single vehicle roadway departures. Improved vehicle sensors and digital maps will bring great improvements in centering.  

How will the timeline for truck-automation compare to car automation? Will certain features be more critical to one than the other?

Car automation will be driven by improved convenience and comfort, while truck automation will be driven by return-on-investment decisions. For cars, systems like traffic jam assist and self-parking cars will be in high demand and undergo rapid development. Given that truck fleets want leaner operations such as improved fuel efficiency and logistics, I think systems like platooning will be sought after.

Although safety is a fundamental reason automated vehicle technology should be developed, it will likely not be the primary reason people purchase the technology. Fortunately, safety improvements stand to be potential secondary benefits of the above technologies because of the automatic braking these systems provide.

What are the most critical obstacles to overcome to move from near-automation to fully- automated vehicles?

Surveys of subject matter experts indicate that regulation will be the greatest barrier to overcome for the deployment of highly automated vehicles. The main question is who will be at fault if a highly automated vehicle crashes. Another is what sensors are needed to yield reliable performance in inclement weather. This is of interest to me because we routinely perform controlled vehicle testing in artificially-created snow, rain, and fog on the Virginia Smart Road test track at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

Photos from Va. Tech Transportation Institute.