CAVCOE is an organization based in Canada that was created in November of 2013 by a team of people with a common interest in leading edge technologies. CAVCOE stands for Canadian Automated Vehicles Center of Excellence. CAVCOE’s tag line is “Driving AV Deployment” and this group in that sense is similar to Driver Transportation because they promote public awareness of the advancement of autonomous and connected vehicle technologies.
In their mission to prepare the world for autonomous vehicles, CAVCOE has focused on three areas: 1) outreach; 2) consulting; and 3) hardware/software service.
1) The outreach portion of the company informs and alerts people about autonomous vehicles and how important they will be in the future. This is done through a variety of means such as public speaking at conventions, publishing newsletters and writing articles for magazines. Some of the events CAVCOE members have been asked to speak at are the M2W Conference for Wireless Communications, the Waterloo Ontario Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers and the IEEE Vehicular Conference in Vancouver.
2) By providing consulting as its second area of focus, CAVCOE offers services to anyone who will be impacted by autonomous vehicles ranging from parts manufacturers to insurance agencies. The members of CAVCOE work on different business models and scenarios based on how autonomous vehicles will affect their respective clients. For example, in the case of an accident involving an autonomous vehicle, who would be accountable to the insurance companies? Would it be the car owner, the driver or the manufacturer? CAVCOE works with their clients to solve these problems.
3) Finally, the hardware/software service area of CAVCOE is what they ruminate is “on their wish list”. They have not yet reached this stage, but hope to get there soon.
One of CAVCOE’s co-founders, Barrie Kirk, shared his prediction of where autonomous vehicles will be in the near future. Mr. Kirk predicts fully autonomous vehicles will be launched by 2018. He believes they will be a bit more expensive than expected and will take some time to become popular amongst consumers. The higher prices of these vehicles will pay off in the long run because of the longevity of the car.
CAVCOE is doing its job in getting the AV word out. Spreading the word and sharing the myriad of details involved around autonomous and connected vehicles can only help drive the industry forward.
