Implications of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Roundtable

By Ms. Deborah Rouse posted 08-06-2013 02:41 PM

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John Lower, Associate Vice President, Iteris, and Richard Beaubien, Managing Director, Beaubien Engineering LLC, facilitated a discussion on Connected Vehicles; its current state, the role ITE plays, and where to go from here.

The transportation management and engineering profession has been on the sidelines of creating connected vehicles, but Lower, in a presentation, illustrated that it will be impacted by connected vehicle technologies in the not too distant future (not too distant future being 2014/2015). There are opportunities, such as guidance for safety; perspectives on this issue varied--some feel it may be a decade or two away while others expect to see benefits of this technology by 2015.

One of the questions raised by the roundtable was is how is the infrastructure going to be involved in the world of Connected Vehicles? Major costs are going to be involved in this. There are lots of opportunities in the area of intersection safety, collision avoidance, and others…but these all depend on USDOT and standard-setting organizations completing their work and on someone coming up with the cash to invest in infrastructure. One roundtable member suggested that this may be an issue, as the roads in their current state aren’t being cared for in the manner they should.

The roundtable agrees ITE will be impacted and that ITE needs to play a role as an advocate for helping those with non-connected vehicles understand the safety of Connected Vehicles. Lower offered the statistic that the Connected Vehicle reduces accidents by 82%. He says it also offers economic productivity for region it is operating in.

Other suggestions for ITE involvement include having ITE embrace the Connected Vehicles capabilities and plan for utilizing the capabilities while guiding the public—i.e., with hot lanes and carpooling, as well as developing policies and standards for transition. A suggestion for looking at being a leader in “Smart Roads” (like smartphones) so roads will work with the Connected Vehicles was also discussed.

Additional suggestions include having ITE take the lead in how the current transportation system needs to be converted as well as working with center for new urbanism in looking at parking sites.

Discussions also centered around the question of ITE reaching out to developers and manufacturers—to find out what they want. Lowe says the Task Force for Next Generation Technology looked at SAE and IEE as two agencies to contact on this issue.

Fully autonomous vehicles will likely add $5,000k to $10,000 to the cost of vehicle but this cost is expected to be beneficial in the long run, as they will be lighter in weight and savings will be made in relation to research on infrastructure.

Interactions between automated and manually operated vehicles will need to be managed Lowe says and there will be a mixing of vehicles, some autonomous and some not, for some time.

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Mr. John Lower FITE

08-07-2013 02:41 PM

This session was intended to get input of ITE members. It accomplished this goal by generating great dialogue from members as they reacted to survey results from the 70 M&O/ITS members tht responded to a series of questions on connected and automated vehicles.
93% of the respondents agree that our profession will be impacted by connected vehicle tehnologies in the near future. The above blogged comment re: safety benefits still being decades away is inaccurate. That was one survey responders comment. Most recognize these benefits can be realized in the near term, with standards setting organizations completing their work (NHTSA DSRC decisions in 2013 and 2014, and FHWA guidance in 2015).
As to the question of whether 2013 will be the breakout year in terms of awareness of the "connected vehicle ecosystem" (CVE), 55% survey respondents disagreed. It was agreed that the most pressing need for our involvement in the CVE is with Signal Phase and Timing (SPaT). We need to be at the table as apps are developed to increase fuel efficiency, safety, and mobility for traffic through our traffic signals. And we need to raise the app developer awareness of local traffic engineering and community issues. A good place to start is to comment on the draft ITS Strategic Plan for 2015 - 2019 at http://itsstrategicplan.ideascale.com/.
60% of survey respondents correctly answered that connected vehicle apps are developing for vehicle safety, vehicle mobility, and vehicle environmental apps.
75% answered that yes, automated vehicles will work on existing roads. One shared the view that "Autonomous vehicle development needs to be independent of any infrastructure requirements; Get the vehicles on the road for most of the benefit, and then the specialized infrastructure can come later to get the last 20% of benefit".
Concerns were raised over the potential impacts of increasing lane capacities by a factor of 4. If 8,000 vehicles per hour per lane dump into our arterial networks there will be huge issues. Policies need to be developed, and ITE members need to have a say in them.
75% of survey respondents agreed that fully autonomous vehicles would add $5k to $10k to the vehicle cost. Most of the session attendees felt it would be less. It was also noted that infrastructure costs may reduce.
90% of survey respondents agreed that interactions between automated and legacy/manually operated vehicles will need to be managed. One stated his expectation that the autonomous vehicles will do better than our typical drivers, so that the hype of an 83% reduction in traffic accidents can be delivered.

Mr. Paul Godsmark

08-07-2013 02:25 PM

It should be noted that the Connected Vehicle accident reduction statistic is the potential of reducing collisions for un-impaired drivers by a theoretical maximum of 82%. When you consider that approximately 40% of fatal collisions are a result of impaired drivers, then the overall maximum potential for connected vehicle accident reductions may only be around 49% - this is approximately half of the theoretical maximum predicted for the NHTSA Level 4 automated vehicles of around 93-95%.
I also note that Google appear to be leading the way in automated vehicle development and have said that they aspire to have their technology available as soon as 2017. Google have also stated that they expect the additional cost of their technology on a vehicle on a production line will be in the order of a couple of thousand dollars.
I also note that Google have made it very clear that their automated vehicles are designed to work on existing roads and infrastructure - with no infrastructure changes necessary. However, the roads authorities may wish to make infrastructure changes to optimize the road system to take advantage of the additional benefits that automated vehicles bring. That is entirely up the roads authorities, who are mostly struggling within their existing budgets and maintenance commitments.
It also seem strange that the panel suggest that interactions need to be managed between automated and manually operated vehicles - which is certainly not the case with the current testing of the Google cars on public roads, other than the developers are required to follow current testing and development regulations which other road users do not need to be aware of.
Given that the connected vehicle is reliant on market penetration and road authorities spending money on infrastructure installations, and that the key safety benefits may be at least a decade away, then it seems more appropriate, in my opinion, to focus discussions on the NHTSA Level 4 automated vehicles that could be with us as soon as 2017 and that will have a much greater impact on road transportation and society.

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