ITSCA

Two weeks ago we went to the CAR meeting in Michigan. Last week it was the California ITS chapter’s annual show. As you may remember, last week we discussed how the two biggest places for emerging driverless technology are southeast Michigan and the Silicon Valley. Both of these shows furthered this theory.

We’ve been to a number of ITS state shows this year and the one in California was the most focused one on advanced technologies revolving around connected vehicles, platooning and driverless technology. In fact, one very panel focused specifically on these topics. There were very interesting presentations from Chris Urman the Directory of Self-Driving Cars from Google, Dr. Steven Shladover Program Manager, Mobility, PATH, and Josh Switkes CEO, Peloton Technology Inc.

Much of the buzz at the show revolved around the announcement of the new Mercedes autonomous car test site at California’s Concord Naval Base. This seems like an ideal test bed and something that will help solidify California as a leader in driverless technology.

One other interesting facet of the show was the Vendor Showcase. ITSCA gave all of its sponsor and exhibitors two minutes to give a quick overview of their products and services. This could be a  very effective way to help get the message out on what types of products and services are available. Our one big complaint with this though, is that quite a few of the vendors need to do a good bit more preparation, in terms of what they want to say and present,before getting up on stage.

All in all it was a very informative show and one we’d recommend people consider for next year.