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Controlling the Disruption of Autonomous Technology

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Burney Simpson

Autonomous cars could be the disruptive technology that disrupts just about everything.

A new conference in Canada, “Automated Vehicles: Planning the Next Disruptive Technology” is designed to update transportation experts on the technology and help them prepare for its impact.

The event from the Conference Board of Canada will run April 19-20 in the One King West Hotel in Toronto.

The conference will address autonomous technology and its impact on urban planning, security and privacy, transit, and the movement of commercial goods. See the agenda here.

The conference arises in part from a 2015 paper from the consultant Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence (CAVCOE), and the Conference Board. (See “Autonomous Vehicles to Save Canada $54 Billion, Many Lives”).

One year later, the Conference Board is organizing the event and the timing is right, says Barrie Kirk, executive director of CAVCOE, a conference sponsor.

For instance, a test of autonomous vehicles on public roads began near Toronto in January, and the government just released its 10-year strategic transportation plan that includes some mention of autonomous technology. The Toronto test could bring driverless cars traveling on everything from Highway 401 to suburban side streets, according to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

“We’re seeing the winds of change blow through our federal government,” said Kirk. The newly-elected Liberal government “is more open. They seek partnerships. And policy groups are seeing disruptive technology coming.”

CAVCOE is taking advantage of the open mood to request that 1 percent of the 18 billion (Canadian) the nation spends on infrastructure be devoted to smart infrastructure, says Kirk. That 180 million Canadian converts to $133 million U.S.

Smart infrastructure covers a lot of ground, notes Kirk, including autonomous vehicles, emissions, data and privacy, cybersecurity, weather, and distracted drivers.

The conference is also sponsored by the Canadian Automobile Association and BlancRide, a Canadian carpooling service.

Photo by CAVCOE.

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Michigan Launches 330-Acre Autonomous Vehicle Test Site

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Burney Simpson

Mcity is about to get a big brother. A very big brother.

Michigan will develop a 330-acre test bed for autonomous vehicles, joining the state’s 32-acre Mcity site that opened last July in Ann Arbor.

The new site overlaps much of the historic Willow Run area where B-24 bombers were built as part of the ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ in World War II, said Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat.

“This will be a state of the art autonomous vehicle test ground,” said Peters who was speaking at MobilityTalks, a seminar for Capitol Hill politicos held a day before the 2016 Washington (D.C.) Auto Show.

The site in Ypsilanti Township will be called the American Center for Mobility, according to reports.

ARSENAL OF TECHNOLOGY

The new test bed ramps up the competition to be the leading autonomous vehicle testing ground for auto OEMs, parts suppliers, state DOTs and others. In November, Ford began testing its technology at Mcity.

Virginia Tech Transportation Institute operates several testing sites in its state, and GoMentum Station in California’s Silicon Valley has attracted the likes of Daimler and Honda.

Willow Run produced nearly 8,700 B-24 Liberator heavy bombers during the war. It changed hands several times post-war and in 2010 General Motors closed a powertrain plant there during the Great Recession.

“If our country is to survive we’ve got to have more manufacturing,” said Peters. “And you don’t have manufacturing without an auto sector.”

The MobilityTalks panel discussion featured leaders from Toyota, GM, RideScout, and the Federal Trade Commission.

The seminar was sponsored by Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA). The trade group reports that motor vehicle parts suppliers generate nearly 750,000 direct jobs, and 1.3 million indirect jobs in the U.S.

Photo – Kaiser-Frazer Plant, Willow Run, Michigan by Wystan, 2013.

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$4 Billion and a National Policy for Driverless Tech: DOT’s Foxx

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Burney Simpson

Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx laid out ambitious plans for autonomous vehicles, proposing a 10-year, $4 billion investment in the technology, and pledging to release in six months national guidance for the states and for industry on developing the technology.

The $4 billion in spending will be part of President Barack Obama’s proposed 2017 budget and could fund autonomous- and connected-vehicle testing in designated road corridors. It was announced Thursday by Foxx at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

He also said the National Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will develop within six months a “consistent national policy” for autonomous vehicles. NHTSA will work with both the states and with industry stakeholders to write the policy.

In November Rep. Bill Lipinski, an Illinois Democrat and member of the U.S. House Transportation Committee, told Driverless Transportation there should be a federal office coordinating autonomous vehicle policy (See “Feds Need Interagency Connected Vehicle Office: Rep. Lipinski”).

The DOT has oversight of the nation’s transportation systems. But the rapid development of driverless technology, much of it by the private sector, has left regulators flatfooted.

Several states are jockeying to be leaders in the sector. The potential payoff is massive as it would include developing, testing, building, and marketing the vehicles. Theoretically driverless technology will replace the ground vehicles that dominated the 20th Century.

California, Florida, Michigan, Nevada and the District of Columbia allow the testing of driverless vehicles on their roads. Last June Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe opened up its roads for further testing of autonomous vehicles under an executive order (See “VaTech Leaves ‘Em Eating Its Dust in the Race to be the Top Driverless Test Track”).

The DOT announcement comes the week Obama gave his final State of the Union Address. Political appointments like Foxx could be gone by the end of this year.

Foxx announced in December a $30 million Smart City challenge that will award money to a mid-size city that writes a transportation-development plan that includes intelligent transportation systems such as automated and connected vehicles. A Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund put another $10 million in the award pot.

The semifinalists will be announced in February, and the winner is to be named in June by Foxx, possibly in Austin at the SXSW festival.

Photo: NCDOTcommunications, 2015.

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Driverless Transit to Dominate in 2040: Planners

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Burney Simpson

What will transit look like in 2040? Lots of autonomous vehicles, lots of walking, and a bunch of Uber-style personal transit vehicles.

That was the answer for about two-dozen transportation and transit experts at the Envisioning Automated Transit (EAT) event hosted by the Advanced Transit Association (ATRA).

ATRA is an international non-profit that seeks to increase the knowledge of advanced transit systems. Members include academics, researchers, consultants, and businesses.

ATRA held EAT at the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT) at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md. ATRA is celebrating its 40th year.

This year, the ATRA leadership met the day before the start of the Transportation Research Board’s 95th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Participants in the EAT challenge are asked to ‘solve’ the transit needs of a community, though they are only given a few hours to research the area, brainstorm, and come up with a solution. The concept is more to get ideas flowing and ask folks to think outside the box.

“I don’t believe there’s a silver bullet (solution). All ideas will come into play, all have strengths and weaknesses,” said Peter Muller, president of PRT Consulting, and president of ATRA.

This year participants were split into three groups, each one tasked with creating a transit solution for a community in the Washington, D.C., metro area for 2040. The three areas were – downtown Washington, D.C., Annapolis, Md., and White Oak in suburban Maryland.

One assumption – technology will have reached the highest level of automation as described by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That levels means that a vehicle can drive itself, with or without a passenger.

Other than that planners were allowed to be creative in their approach and find something that worked for their area.

*For downtown Washington, the team suggested an auto-restricted area, expanded bike lines and pedestrian sidewalks, consolidated delivery/pick-up areas for freight, and priority transit corridors for autonomous buses and other vehicles.

*For Annapolis, planners sought to take advantage of a historic city built for pedestrian and horse travel. Private cars will be banned from the central business area, replaced by driverless shuttles using existing roads. Commuters, state legislators and tourists will get to the central area via perimeter stations.

As a city surrounded by water, the planners said a gondola or skyway-style system might be built to carry travelers over inlets.

*For rapidly growing White Oak, planners suggested an Uber-style personal travel system delivered by the private sector. The area is now primarily served by personal auto and some public buses. Developers have suggested the area could double in population by 2040.

All three groups seemed to agree that today’s bulky bus, operated by a driver, running on a fixed route and serving several dozen passengers, would go by the wayside by 2040. The participants also generally agreed driverless systems would probably replace most human drivers.

In addition, there would be much less personal ownership of autos. Instead, private companies would meet transit needs and there may be greater ride sharing, at least among some travelers.

The Sponsors of EAT were the National Center for Intermodal Transportation, University of Maryland National Transportation Center, the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT), PRT Consulting, and Leitner-Poma.  

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Transportation Research Board - 95th Annual Meeting

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Register

The meeting program will cover all transportation modes, with more than 5,000 presentations in nearly 750 sessions and workshops addressing topics of interest to all attendees—policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. A number of sessions and workshops will focus on the spotlight theme for the 2016 TRB Annual Meeting, Research Convergence for a Multi-Modal Future.

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Wanted: Data Scientists. Apply to: US DOT. When: ASAP

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Burney Simpson

The US Department of Transportation yesterday drew several hundred city executives to a forum to discuss its $50 million Smart City Challenge that asks cities to use advanced data, technologies like connected vehicles and infrastructure, and other applications to reduce congestion, increase safety, reduce emissions, and build business.

(Get more details on the challenge here; an automatic download of a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) document is available.)

The Smart City Forum was a combination educational event and booster affair, with the usual talk of requiring bold visions and transformative solutions from millennial entrepreneurs who can build holistic paradigms across silos.

DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx spoke briefly, saying the Challenge should get cities thinking how to use technology to safely move more people in tighter spaces while maximizing quality of life.

“The transportation community – we get a tunnel vision. (The Challenge) is transportation showing how it plays a role in the life of a community,” said Foxx. “This is how you make transportation punch above its weight.”

DATA SCIENTISTS

There were five break-out sessions to address issues like freight, mobility, and Washington’s role in smart city design.

One vital need is finding a way to gather, securely store, and analyze the massive amounts of data generated from the 10-times-a-second messages coming from connected vehicles and road infrastructure.

This is the data that must be analyzed to figure out how to move more people in those tight spaces, and many local and state DOTs don’t have them on staff.

Cut to the chase — “How do we get data scientists into the transportation business?” asked Brian Cronin, team lead in the DOT’s Intelligent Transportation System office of research and demonstration, during a breakout session.

There was no immediate answer at the Forum but at least the problem was acknowledged.

The initial deadline for Challenge applications is February 4, 2016. The DOT will announce five finalists in March 2016, and the winner will be named in June.

The winning city will receive $40 million from the DOT and $10 million from the $2 billion privately-held Vulcan Inc., which seeks to cut greenhouse gas emissions. (“The $50 Million Driverless City Challenge”).

Foxx’s DOT has become a force for connected technology, assuring funding for projects in the recently-passed $305 billion transportation bill, launching its Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment Program, speeding up soon-to-be-released guidance and rules on V2I and V2V, and launching the Challenge which could “generate press and attention,” noted Mark Dowd, the DOT’s deputy assistant secretary, office of research and technology.

Image ‘data slide’ by Tom Woodward, 2008.

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The $50 Million Driverless City Challenge

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Burney Simpson

Driverless technology is central to a $50 million urban design challenge along with proposed changes to the 5-Star Safety Rating System that the U.S. Department of Transportation announced this week.

The agency’s “Smart City Challenge“ asks city planners to demonstrate how they would use “advanced data, technologies, and applications” to cut congestion, improve safety, be green, and add jobs.

A city applicant must show how “innovations will connect people, vehicles, public transportation, and infrastructure through ITS, sharing economy, and other technologies.”

To participate, a city must submit its high-level vision of a Smart City by February 4, 2016. The DOT will announce five finalists in March, and the winner in June.

Get more details on the challenge here. Visit here to access a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) that spells out the challenge for applicants.

The plan could include such technologies as self-driving vehicles, connected vehicles, and sensor-based infrastructure, according to the NOFO.

The winning city will be awarded $40 million from the DOT and $10 million from Vulcan Inc. The winner must work with Vulcan to secure the funding, the DOT said. Vulcan is focused on support infrastructure for electric vehicles.

The DOT is holding a Smart Cities Forum on Tuesday, Dec. 15, at its Washington, D.C. headquarters.

5-STAR SAFETY ADDS CRASH AVOIDANCE

Also this week, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx proposed changes to the 5-Star Safety Ratings system that incorporate crash-avoidance and other driverless vehicle technologies. See release for a more detailed explanation.

A DOT video suggests blind-spot detection, nighttime visibility, lane departure warning, automatic emergency braking, and forward collision warning could be included as part of the changes.

The agency also seeks to use a new version of the crash-test dummy, and to change the crash tests to better determine how crashes affect passengers.

The proposal is available for public comment for the next 60 days, and the Federal Highway Traffic Safety Administration must review the ideas by end of 2016. If approved, the new ratings would go into effect in 2019 model year vehicles.

Last Friday Foxx popped the champagne to celebrate as President Obama signed a five-year, $305 billion transportation bill (“Big Bucks for V2I, V2V in Transport Bill”).

Photo by Ted McGrath, 2015 Vancouver – The Next Train is to the Waterfront

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Big Bucks for V2I, V2V in Transport Bill

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Burney Simpson

Congress and the President have included millions in funding for autonomous and connected vehicle research and implementation in the just-enacted $305 billion surface transportation bill, a demonstration of the bipartisan support for the technology.

The proposal signed by President Obama last Friday includes 20 major programs related to autonomous and connected vehicle development and implementation, according to ITS America, the Washington, D.C.-based intelligent transportation systems trade group. (An ITS America brief on 20 of the FAST Act’s transportation technology components is available).

The bill, nicknamed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation, or FAST Act, includes a provision that provides annual funding of $100 million for intelligent transportation systems research with a focus on freight systems and cybersecurity.

Another provision is designed to assist states and localities address the possibly prohibitive costs of deploying Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication systems. The $60 million grant program will fund five to 10 grants a year for the deployment of this advanced technology to improve safety.

A recent Government Accountability Office report estimated that a V2I site could cost more than $50,000 (“Each V2I Site Could Cost $51,650”).

The FAST Act also includes $67.5 million annually for a technology and innovation deployment program, and a $4.5 billion, five-year grant program to be spent on intelligent transportation systems for freight.

“This bill reflects Congress’ support for the new wave of transportation innovation and its understanding that connected and autonomous vehicles will transform the nation,” said Paul Feenstra, ITS America interim executive vice president.

Feenstra noted that both the U.S. House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill last Thursday, and President Obama signed it on Friday, a sign that innovation in transportation technology has become a bipartisan issue.

Momentum on the topic includes plans by the U.S. Department of Transportation to release guidance next year on V2I to the states and local agencies, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration policy that V2V technology be in all new vehicles, and reports that DOT could soon announce a new automated vehicle policy.

GET TECHNOLOGY IN THE FIELD

These developments and FAST Act funding answer the question, “How do we get technology out to the field?” said Feenstra.

FAST Act projects without specific funding include a technology deployment program for ITS projects in commercial vehicles, a fleet safety program, and the requirement that auto sales stickers include information about the collision avoidance technology included in the vehicle.

Rep. Daniel Lipinski, a Chicago Democrat and a member of the U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, successfully included several of his projects in the finished bill (“Feds Need Interagency Connected Vehicle Office”).

Between $72.5 million to $77.5 million annually will go to the creation of University Transportation Centers that will focus on traffic safety, congestion, connected vehicles, connected infrastructure, and autonomous vehicles. The language is open to interpretation but currently both Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in Ann Arbor, fit that definition.

Lipinski also received a commitment that U.S. DOT would create a comprehensive database of its research projects, and that the GAO will research and write an assessment of autonomous transportation technology policies that have been developed by public entities in the U.S.

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V2I Spectrum-Sharing Field Test is Ongoing

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Burney Simpson

Field tests of a program that allows Wi-Fi and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications to share a sector of the radio frequency spectrum are scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.

The testing of the 5.9 Gigahertz (GHz) band follows the May 13 announcement by Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx that the DOT would expedite research into sharing the band with unlicensed users, such as consumers and businesses.

In 1999 the Federal Communications Commission set-aside the 5850 to 5925 segment of the spectrum for Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) to improve roadway safety. The Department of Transportation has been devoting this space, known as the 5.9 band, to V2I communications. The FCC regulates the use of the spectrum.

The week before Foxx’s announcement, officials from Cisco Systems, GM and others met with FCC commissioners to discuss testing a program Cisco called “Listen, Detect, and Avoid” protocol that could allow for use of Wi-Fi in the 5.9 band without interfering with DSRC.

Cisco has allied with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Global Automakers, two trade groups representing auto OEMs, in its development and promotion of Listen, Detect, and Avoid. A second DSRC-sharing proposal from Cisco competitor Qualcomm was turned down by the FCC.

A letter from Global Automakers to the FCC pledged to complete field testing of the Cisco concept by the end of this year.

Spectrum sharing proponents argue that Wi-Fi needs more bandwidth due to the exponential growth in the use of tablets and smart phones since the 1999 FCC set-aside.

However, some in the transportation industry active in DSRC and autonomous vehicles have been wary of the idea.

Shortly before Foxx requested the speed up of work on V2V and V2I technology, an independent committee of transportation experts recommended the DOT move slowly with sharing the DSRC spectrum with Wi-Fi uses.

The Transportation Research Board in April sent a report to Foxx that warned “proposed spectrum sharing in the 5.9 GHz band is the most serious risk and uncertainty for the program, but it is not the only one.”

The report, prepared at the request of the DOT, noted that there were many “unknowns and uncertainties” regarding implementation of DSRC by the government and industry.

In addition, Peter Sweatman, director of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, testified to a Congressional committee this year that he had reservations about spectrum sharing (“GM to Congress: We’ll Test Wi-Fi in DSRC Spectrum”).

“Our entire ecosystem of companies (are) committed to V2V using the 5.9 GHz spectrum,” Sweatman told the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade. “Spectrum must be protected for (V2V) safety performance (which) depends on the absolute reliability of messages, as well as certainty in spectrum availability, in the mode that has been fully tested.”

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