Countdown to Mainstreaming of Self-Driving Vehicles
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- Challenge to the Countdown: Collision avoidance is the Achilles heel of self-driving; who would trust a self-driving car if it can’t be relied upon to avoid crashing
- Challenge to the Countdown: NHTSA should require the installation and use of collision avoidance systems in order for vehicle drivers to turn on their in-vehicle entertainment systems.
| Challenge to the Countdown: Should insurance policies be issued to drivers or to vehicles, or both? Should vehicles be required to have collision avoidance technology installed and operational as a requirement for use of in-vehicle entertainment systems, just as registering a vehicle requires brakes, steering and throttle to be installed and operational?
“Connected” and “Autonomous” approaches to self-driving must be integrated “where it counts”, specifically, at intersections with high risks of cross-traffic collisions. Image: US DOT Joint Program Office for Intelligent Transportation Systems Government agencies and several automobile manufacturers are funding connected vehicle research projects with time horizons that far exceed (by decades) those of auto manufacturers and entrepreneurial start-up technology companies that are focused on autonomous vehicles. The two camps have a mutual dependency, and that’s collision avoidance at roadway intersections. Champions of both approaches agree that communication between vehicles and with the infrastructure at intersections is likely to be the optimal—maybe the only way--to truly prevent cross-traffic accidents. Challenge to the Countdown: It would make sense to identify intersection crash avoidance as a mutual objective and start to find ways in which the brain trusts of the autonomous and connected camps can work together to solve this problem. Anti-collision technologies must be at least as robust and reliable as human drivers Implicit in the notion of a self-driving car is that it will be able to avoid collisions. That’s easier said than done, and today in 2014, neither the experts in the autonomous camp nor those in the connected one can claim a lead, let alone a victory. There’s a long way to go before the auto industry achieves a level of integrated anti-collision defense that will enable self-driving. Challenge to the Countdown: Collision avoidance is the Achilles heel of self-driving; who would trust a self-driving car if it can’t be relied upon to avoid crashing? In-vehicle entertainment systems must be held accountable for the effects of distraction from their products on the driver 
Image: Apple® While it took thousands of tragic accidents resulting from distracted drivers and years of effort for government and volunteer organizations to find a voice to preach the obvious and simple “Don’t text while you drive,” the world’s leading technology, media and telecommunications companies are pushing interactive distractions in front of drivers with lightning speed and with the world’s leading auto manufacturers as their willing partners (see sidebar). There’s even an effort underway to develop a standardized platform “to allow car makers to more quickly deliver new infotainment features by synchronizing their production schedules with the life cycles of consumer electronics.”7 Challenge to the Countdown: NHTSA should require the installation and use of collision avoidance systems in order for vehicle drivers to turn on their in-vehicle entertainment systems. Land use and transportation planners must acknowledge and develop long-range objectives, strategies and tactics for accommodating self-driving vehicles into existing and future communities. Image: Bigstock® When fully autonomous vehicles are permitted on the roadways, the fundamental nature of vehicle trips will change. Vehicles can shuttle empty to position themselves where they are needed. Parents could let vehicles drive their children to school and soccer practice. Congestion patterns at local and regional levels are likely to change with the addition of self-driving vehicle flows.8 Land use and transportation planning policy makers are stepping up to the plate and engaging in the visioning and strategic planning for the emergence of self-driving vehicles. Challenge to the Countdown: There is already a high level of awareness of the momentum that is building behind a world of driverless transportation—true “personal rapid transit”—and it is being embraced as much as it is being viewed with skepticism in the land use and transportation planning professions. Now, that awareness needs to begin getting translated into policy development and implementation. Self-driving vehicles are coming. The items on this list won’t prevent this from happening, just like fears in the 1960’s of automated elevators running amuck without human operators at the controls didn’t stop the inexorable transition of nearly every elevator in the world to full automation. But the faster each professional sector acknowledges that self-driving vehicles are coming and adapts accordingly, the sooner—and safer—we’ll all be. 1 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/27/us-autos-nissan-autonomous-idUSBRE97Q0VI20130827, accessed April 24, 2014. 2 Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone in 2007, and now, seven years later, there are more than 1.75 billion smartphone users around the world (ref. http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphone-Users-Worldwide-Will-Total-175-Billion-2014/1010536). Few, if any, experts in 2007 predicted that in less than three quarters of a decade, the smartphone revolution would completely redefine the nature of how people around the world listen to music, get the news, communicate by voice and text, do their banking, monitor their health, watch movies, sports and TV shows, and take, store and transmit photos and videos. That’s the power of “ease, safety and enjoyment.” 3 Adapted from J. Lutin, et. al., “The Revolutionary Development of Self- Driving Vehicles and Implications for theTransportation Engineering Profession,” ITE Journal, July 2013. 4 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/10156099/Volvos-self-parking-car-on-video.html, accessed April 24, 2014. 5See http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/U.S.+Department+of+Transportation+Releases+Policy+on+Automated+Vehicle+Development, accessed April 24, 2014. 6 Op.cit. Adapted from Lutin, et. al. 7 Genivi, http://www.genivi.org, acceessed April 24, 2014. 8 Op. cit., Lutin, et. al. Directory: ~alaink -> SmartDrivingCars -> Papers SmartDrivingCars -> Personal Rapid Transit in Cape May County SmartDrivingCars -> Existing Transit Service patco high Speed Line SmartDrivingCars -> Prt proposal \chapter{Ocean County} Papers -> Research needs statement SmartDrivingCars -> Releases Policy on Automated Vehicle Development SmartDrivingCars -> A scenario: The End of Auto Insurance SmartDrivingCars -> Deliberations from Expert Workshop on Shared Mobility and Automation from the Road Vehicle Automation Workshop Objective Papers -> Comment about ca dmv av regulatory Proposal Prof. Robert Peterson, Santa Clara University draft 1/4/15 Download 9.21 Mb. Share with your friends:
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