AVS 2014 Ancillary Workshop: Envisioning Automated Vehicles for MPOs

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Shannon McDonald, Assistant Professor of Architecture at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is one of the key organizers of the Ancillary workshop that will be held on Friday of the Automated Vehicles Symposium. The title of the workshop is Envisioning Automated Vehicles within the Built Environment: 2020, 2035, 2050.

Shannon came up with the idea for the workshop last summer and thought people would be interested in attending. The focus of the workshop is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). MPOs are federally mandated and federally funded transportation policy-making organizations in the United States that are made up of representatives from local government and governmental transportation authorities.

MPO staff members have realized that deployment of automated vehicles is going to happen much sooner than anyone had originally thought. At the Transportation Research Board event in January, several people from MPOs all over the country wanted to discuss how autonomous vehicles deployment will effect our planning of roads, environments, and communities. This workshop is a great opportunity to delve deeper into the affects of the deployment of automated vehicles.

The workshop committee includes many people from California and East Coast MPOs. Each MPO has it’s own territory. They are responsible for trying to understand how new mobility and new ideas will impact the environment in their area including streets, neighborhoods, and regional areas.

Some of the people involved in the workshop include Dan Fagnant with the University of Texas, Austin who will be speaking on “A Convergence in Shared Mobility: Demand-responsive fully automated vehicles, for car sharing and ridesharing across Austin, Texas” and Bryant Walker Smith with Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS) who will be speaking about “Government Regulation, Anticipation, and Participation”.

The workshop will cover a broad spectrum of ideas about automated vehicles, shared vehicles, automated transits, and even private automated vehicles. They will raise questions like how will automated vehicles impact parking and what’ going to happen with the way children are transported to school.

Organizers of the workshop have created specific scenarios that attendees will look at and discuss. Some of the scenarios include what will happen with freeway systems, how will transit systems change, what will happen with freight systems, and what are the absolute best and worst case scenarios that can happen with the introduction of automated vehicles. Attendees will be able to choose the scenario they want to work with and break out into small groups. Different sites will be provided along with tools including technologies, planners, and developers to create real world situations.

Shannon feels that the workshop will generate a lot of new thinking trying to figure out what can change and how it will change with the deployment of automated vehicles. It will be an interactive activity that will allow attendees to think more deeply about the impact of automated vehicles and help provide insights to the MPOs.

Shannon hopes to have a wide range of people attend but they have specifically structured the agenda to the MPOs. So far they have approximately 100 people attending the workshop.

 

AVS 2014 Breakout Session: Near-term Deployment

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The 2014 Automated Vehicle Symposium is coming up in San Francisco this month (July 15-17th). Some of the organizers and panelists of the show have provided insights into several of the breakout sessions that will be held. Driverless Transportation will be sharing some of those insights throughout the next two weeks. For more information about the event and the individual sessions, click here.

Title: Near-term Connected/Automated Technology Deployment Opportunities.

A brief overview of the session:
Automated vehicles by themselves can deliver many but not all of the benefits possible through automation.  Automation assisted by connection to other vehicles and the infrastructure and by roadway features such as managed lanes may be needed to unlock the full potential inherent in automation. Connected automation systems that include a role for an engaged driver can provide many benefits in the nearer-term, as part of the decades-long transition to a fully automated highway system. This breakout session will focus on ways to advance the development of an automated and connected highway system that will support increasingly capable vehicles and deliver safety and highway system operational benefits both in advance of and in addition to the benefits associated with fully automated vehicles.

According to Ginger Goodin, Senior Research Engineer for the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and one of the organizers of the breakout session, one of the goals of this session is to focus on defining what the near term deployment opportunities are, how can the safety and the benefits of fully automated vehicles be advanced, what does the near term look like and how do we get to the long term.

The session will focus on three forces and groups that play a role in accelerating early deployment and realizing safety and congestion benefits in the near-term.

  1. The first force is technology, and the OEMs and suppliers that will be developing it. What are the connected technologies that are on the horizon that can deliver benefits over the next several decades?
  2. The second are the innovators from the infrastructure side. Basically finding out who the owners and operators are and what are the barriers that will need to be overcome.
  3. The third force is determining what the value proposition is for both private and public sectors.

Ginger got involved in the first TRB Road Vehicle Automation workshop in 2012 where she presented on managed lanes. Her background as a researcher is in the area of road pricing, and she was previously the Chair of the TRB Managed Lanes Committee.  Her involvement in TRB connected her with the first workshop organizers.  Since then, she and other workshop organizers have conducted research on policy implications of automated vehicles, supporting policy makers involved in infrastructure at the state and local government levels.

There are seventeen speakers in this breakout session that include individuals from federal, state and local governments, the private sector, the military, and economic development. A list of all of the speakers can be found here.

Attendees of this session can expect lively discussion with thought provoking questions. This is an opportunity to be part of the visioning process of where do we go from here. Ginger hopes for a diverse group of people to attend as she feels the best discussions arise when you have people from different backgrounds.

Automated Vehicles Symposium 2014

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The 2014 Automated Vehicles Symposium is coming to San Francisco next month (July 15-17, July 14-18 with ancillary meetings). The meeting is being designed and organized by AUVSI and TRB. This looks to be one of the, if not the, premier event on Automated Vehicles in 2014.

This is the third year for this type of meeting for both AUVSI and TRB; however, in previous years each organization has had its own meeting. This is the first year that the two groups are working together. Since the two will not be competing, an even stronger program should be provided this year.

The original TRB automated vehicle workshop in 2012, was very education focused. That meeting focused on providing information to the community about the state of the industry and in particular what was happening outside of the U.S. Last year’s TRB workshop focused on developing research needs statements. Some of the research topics identified there have since been used by research groups, commercial entities and government agencies to focus their research in this space, and many are being posted to TRB’s Research Needs website.

The goal for this year’s program is even broader. Although some additional research needs will be defined, many of the breakout sessions will focus on broader goals. These will include synthesizing the existing research, identifying barriers to deployment and incentives to encourage further development in the industry.

One of the goals of this year’s meeting is to make it highly interactive and encourage questions and participation from the audience. Consequently, the plenary program is centered around presenters giving short “TED” like talks followed by interactive panel sessions. The organizing committee is working very hard to avoid “death by PowerPoint”.

Jane Lappin of the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center and Chair, TRB Intelligent Transportation Systems Committee and one of the key planners of this symposium as well as the two previous TRB workshop stated: “We are very excited about this year’s meeting. We’ve lined up a tremendous set of speakers and breakout sessions. I really think this will be out best meeting ever”.

The meeting will open on Tuesday morning with speakers who are leaders from the automotive industry. Tuesday’s keynote speaker is Dr. Ralf Herrtwich, Director Driver Assistance and Chassis Systems, Group Research and Advanced Engineering, Daimler AG. Dr Herrtwich will be followed by Dr. Jan Becker, Senior Manager, Autonomous Technologies Group, Robert Bosch, LLC., Cris Pavloff, Advanced Technology Engineer, BMW Group Technology Office and Dr. Maarten Sierhuis, Director, Nissan Research Center Silicon Valley. After the presentations, there will be a panel where the audience can ask questions of the group.

Following this is a panel on Digital Infrastructure with Ogi Redzic from Nokia HERE and Andrew Chatham, Principal Engineer, Self-Driving Cars, with Google, moderated by Bob Denaro.

Following Digital Infrastructure is a panel discussing Technology Challenges. Many people feel that the technology challenges have been met and the big hurdles are legal and consumer acceptance. However, Dr. Steven Shladover, Program Manager, Mobility at PATH at the University of California at Berkeley feels that this is far from true and thus this is a very important panel. Joining Dr. Shladover is Dr. Alberto Broggi, VisLab; Dr. Markos Papageorgiou, Director, Dynamic Systems & Simulation Laboratory, Technical University of Crete; Dr. John Leonard, Professor of Mechanical and Ocean Engineering Associate Department, MIT; and Michael Wagner, Carnegie Mellon University.

Following this panel, Steve Underwood will present the results of an online survey of the AVS2014 registrants in which they have expressed their opinions about the importance of the various challenges to deployment of automated systems and their predictions about when various levels of road vehicle automation will become commercially available. This will help set the stage for the afternoon breakout discussions by giving the participants an indication of what their peers think about the future of automated driving systems.

After lunch, the symposium will split into 10 breakout sessions. Each of these is a virtual symposium in and of itself. These sessions include:

  1.     Evolutionary and Revolutionary Pathways to Automated Transit and Shared Mobility
  2. Regional Planning and Modeling Implications of Driverless Cars 
  3.     Roadway Management and Operations with Automated Vehicles 
  4.     Truck Automation Opportunities 
  5.     Legal Accelerators and Brakes 
  6.     The State and Future Direction of Automated-Vehicle Human Factors
  7.     Near-Term Connected/Automated Technology Deployment Opportunities 
  8.     Personal Vehicle Automation Commercialization 
  9. Technology Roadmap, Maturity and Performance: Operational Requirements for Vehicle-Road Automation Systems and Components 
  10. Road Infrastructure Needs of Connected-Automated Vehicles 

The second day will begin with the Clifford Nass Memorial Lecture, given in memory of Prof. Clifford Nass of Stanford University, one of the leaders in the industry until he passed away last fall. Don Norman, Director, Design Lab, University of California, San Diego and Author of “The Design of Future Things” will be giving the lecture, titled The Human Side of Automation. Don is one of the pioneers in human-computer interaction and worked with Prof. Nass, so this should be a fitting tribute.

Following the pattern of the first day, there will next be a series of speakers and panels from OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in the automotive industry. These include:

  • John Capp, Director, Electrical & Controls Systems Research & Active Safety Technology Strategy, General Motors Research & Development
  • Steffen Linkenbach, Director Systems & Technology, NAFTA, Continental
  • Patrice Reilhac, Innovation & Collaborative Research Director, Comfort & Driving Assistance Business Group, Valeo
  • Dr. Chris Urmson, Director, Self-Driving Cars, Google

Next will be a series of presentations on some of the largest and most important automation projects in Europe. Dr. Adriano Alessandrini, Università degli Studi di Roma will discuss CityMobil2: Automated Road Transport Systems in Urban Environments (including a live video feed from a current demonstration in Sardinia); Dr. Angelos Amditis, Research Director, I-Sense Group, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS) will discuss The AdaptIVe Project: Working on Research, Legal and Deployment Issues in Europe for Automated Vehicles and Anders Tylman-Mikiewicz, General Manager, Volvo Monitoring & Concept Center, Volvo Car Corporation will present The Drive Me Project: Autonomous Driving by Volvo (the major field test planned for 2017 in Gothenburg, Sweden).

Following the reports from Europe, the symposium will then look at Societal Issues and Non-technical Challenges, with a panel moderated by Jane Lappin, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center and Chair, TRB Intelligent Transportation Systems Committee; and including presentations by Ginger Goodin, Texas Transportation Institute, Texas A&M University System; Michael Gucwa, Management Science and Engineering department, Stanford University; and Dr. Ken Laberteaux, Toyota Research Institute-North America.

The final morning will begin with reports on current activities by national and state governments. Speakers will include:

  • Kevin Dopart, Program Manager for Connected Vehicle Safety and Automation, Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, U.S. Department of Transportation
  • Nat Beuse, Associate Administrator, Vehicle Safety Research, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
  • A representative of the European Commission
  • Takumi Yamamoto, Director, ITS Policy & Program Office, Road Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
  • Dr. Bernard C. Soriano, Deputy Director, Risk Management, California Department of Motor Vehicles

These presentations will be followed by brief summary presentations from the ten breakout discussion groups that spent the previous two afternoons in in-depth consideration of important topics associated with automation. This will be the opportunity for all of the meeting participants to learn about the key outcomes from the discussions in the breakout sessions they were not able to attend.

All in all, it looks to be an enlightening three days of presentations and panels, with the real leaders in the industry. When asked about the attendees, Dr. Shladover indicated that this was one of the really great aspects of AVS2014, because the people who have attended the previous meetings and who are expected to be coming again this year are people with a wide range of backgrounds from technology to government and research to manufacturing and everything in between. Furthermore, these were not just any people from these backgrounds but the thought leaders and decision makers.

In the coming days, we’ll provide insights into some of the breakout sessions that are part of this symposium. If you are interested in attending, space is limited, click here.

Vehicle Cybersecurity at the escar show

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escarWhile on travel earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the 2nd annual Embedded Security in Cars (escar) USA conference.  It is an off shoot of the successful escar Germany and escar Asia conferences.  The conference was held at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest in Detroit Michigan.  The conference was like many other cyber conferences I have attended over the years accept that life safety is the major concern. For most cyber conferences I attend the focus is on information and computer safety.

I arrived at midnight the morning of the conference and immediately bumped into some of the conference denizens in deep discussions about cyber at where else but the hotel bar.  There was conversation about upcoming talks as well as off topic conversations about lock picking competitions.  Later that morning the conference kicked off and we were treated to a great presentation on hacking the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus to usurp control of the vehicle.  The CAN is a vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other within a vehicle without a host computer.  In laymen’s terms, it allows the various systems in the vehicle to communicate and coordinate with each other.

We were then provided a detailed and brief recap of the escar Germany and escar Asia presentation topics.  The recap made me want more which I think was the intent.

The presentations over the remainder of the day covered applied security, cryptography and a panel on information sharing which is a topic that is very near and dear to me.  The second day provided insight into more research initiatives, automotive vulnerabilities, hardware and connected vehicles.

I had the opportunity to meet many researchers, OEM representatives and a few government entities while at the show.  They are primarily focused on the CAN bus and its potential vulnerabilities.  This is the endgame (or the destination) for cyber-attacks, meaning that if you have access to the CAN bus you can potentially take control of the vehicle.  I feel that the attack vectors (or the journey) on how to access the CAN bus remotely through potentially vulnerable wireless systems were lightly touched.  To me this is a broader attack surface that hackers can focus their attention on.  Wireless systems do not require electronic devices connected to the CAN bus which means the attacker can safely perpetrate their hack without physically accessing the vehicle and putting themselves at risk of being caught by anyone who sees them tinkering with the vehicle.  This is the focus of research being performed at eTrans2020 and the focus of our cyber services being offered.  I believe this research’s time has come and expect to see an abundant amount of information rolling out soon.  There is also an element of standardization that I believe needs to be discussed when it comes to the future security of automobiles.

I cannot wait to see what great new research comes out of escar around the globe.  I look forward to participating in new research and assessment initiatives that will help save lives.  I plan to share this research at next year’s escar USA.

See you in Detroit.

Manuel Villar
Chief Security Officer
eTrans2020

Press release: COM.* 2014 USDOT Keynote Outlines Federal Government’s Vision and Potential Roadmap for Self-Driving Cars

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Washington, DC – June 24, 2014 
Mr. Tim Schmidt, Senior Technology Advisor at FHWA-TFHRC, U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), will deliver a keynote “How Talking Cars Will Transform the Way We Travel” at COM.* 2014 conference which will be held on August 4-6, 2014, Washington, DC. Imagine a transportation system where cars can see things that you can’t. Such cars could warn of a potential crash or icy roads ahead, advise of a traffic jam ahead, or help find a parking space. Imagine if buses could tell if you will make your next connection, mapping software could indicate the greenest travel route, and cell phones could communicate with traffic signals so disabled pedestrians can safely cross an intersection. These developments are closer than you think through the U.S. Department Transportation (USDOT) connected vehicle research. Connected vehicles combine leading-edge technologies (GPS, Wi-Fi, wireless sensors, and dedicated short-range communications) to enable high-speed, real-time communications among vehicles, roadside infrastructure, and mobile devices. The USDOT is investing in connected vehicles because of their promise to save lives, as well as improve traffic flow, reduce environmental impacts, and make our communities safer and more livable.

Mr. Tim Schmidt has served the U.S. Department of Transportation in multiple senior executive capacities involving technology advocacy, strategic planning and thought leadership, and has been involved with various aspects of connected and automated vehicle activities. His keynote will outline various aspects of the federal government’s vision and potential roadmap for self-driving cars. Mr. Schmidt is currently the Senior Technology Advisor at FHWA’s Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center. He was formerly the U.S. DOT’s Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He has also held technology and corporate leadership positions at the FAA, IRS, White House and multiple private sector corporations. Mr. Schmidt is a retired Army officer having served over 20 years within the U.S. Department of Defense.

com.starpressrelease

Conference Updates: Call for Hot Short Talks, Demo Videos by June 30
The Hot Short Talks session (each talk with 10-minute presentation and Q&A) is an opportunity for presenting your hot products, late-breaking results, ongoing projects, speculative or innovative work in progress, application or case studies, development techniques, and technical services. Furthermore, this session does provide the extra opportunities specially for start-ups, exhibitors, vendors, consultants as well as potential billionaires, innovators, and so on. Poster is an option of the talk.
The Demo Videos session is intended to showcase innovative geospatial computing related implementations and technologies. It is also intended to provide speakers and participants with the ability to network with each other and to engage in technical discussions about the work.

For more details, please see the http://www.com-geo.org/conferences/2014/

About COM.* Conference
COM.* 2014 has expanded to three more emerging tech areas, Big Data, driverless cars, and geospatial computing. COM.Geo has been playing a guiding role to advancing the technologies in computing for geospatial research and application since it was initiated 5 years ago.
This year, COM.* conferences and summits will focus on COM.BigData 2014, COM.DriverelessCar 2014, and COM.Geo 2014. All three will take place in the same time frame and conference center in August in Washington DC, USA as well as COM.* online Virtual Conference center.
Several leading keynotes and insightful panels from U.S. federal government and world-class industries and universities will be open to all the attendees of the three conferences and summits. There will be a great opportunity for everyone to learn trends, share visions, exchange ideas, discuss details, and expand networking circles.

 

Shuster, Carnegie Mellon University Bringing Driverless Car to Washington, DC

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June 23, 2014

Washington, DC - Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) has invited Members of Congress for a ride through the Nation’s capital in Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) driverless car. Shuster will commence the demonstration of the vehicle and the importance of technology to the future of transportation with a press conference adjacent to the Capitol.

What (updated):

  • Press Conference and Demonstration of Autonomous Vehicle Technology
  • U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, Chairman, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Peter Rogoff, Acting Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy, U.S. Department of Transportation
  • Dr. Cora Marrett, Deputy Director, National Science Foundation
  • Dr. Raj Rajkumar, Carnegie Mellon University

When:

  • 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Where:

  •  Maryland Avenue SW, between the United States Botanic Garden and the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool, Washington, DC

Following the press conference, Members of Congress will have the opportunity throughout the day for a 20- to 30-minute ride in the driverless car along a route through the Washington area, which will include complex traffic patterns and highway travel.

After the driverless car demonstrations, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Members Larry Bucshon (R-IN) and Bob Gibbs (R-OH) will participate in a live Facebook Q&A about their experiences in the driverless car and the importance of innovation to the future of transportation.

Last September, Chairman Shuster received a demonstration of CMU’s autonomous vehicle technology in Pennsylvania during a 30-mile ride from suburban Pittsburgh to Pittsburgh International Airport.

Click here for video of Chairman Shuster’s previous ride in CMU’s driverless car

 

Metro Access: Dependent Independence

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I have a difficult time getting around in this world. I’m blind in my left eye and don’t see well in my right eye so I am unable to drive a car. In order to go anywhere by myself I have to walk or ride my bike. If the distance is too far or not accommodating for some reason I either have to get a ride from someone else, which isn’t always possible or take a taxi, which is prohibitively expensive. This year however, I was presented with a new option, an option that’s increased my mobility more than ever before. A state run transportation program for the disabled called Metro Access.

metroaccess

Created by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in 1994, Metro Access is a paratransit door-to-door transportation service dedicated to serving disabled individuals who cannot utilize a rail or bus service to get where they need to go. Eligibility is determined by Metro based on a potential customer’s written explanation of his or her disability as part of an application. This application must be backed by a certified medical professional in writing. If everything is satisfactory, a meeting is scheduled for the potential customer at the Metro Headquarters in Washington D.C for intake, an orientation into the program and to have their picture taken for their Metro Access I.D card. Metro Access provides free transportation to and from this meeting and trips can be booked immediately afterward. It takes about a week to get the official I.D card out to the customer but they are able to use any photo I.D in the interim period.

The contract provider for Metro Access is MV transportation. Their budget for the 2011 fiscal year was $103.1 million dollars. They service the Washington metropolitan area like the rest of Metro and since their inception have grown from 200,000 to over 2.4 million trips a year. This is largely due to the growing number of disabled people in the D.C area and the decreasing number of social programs that cater to this demographic. Metro Access has a current vehicle fleet of 504 vans and 95 sedans and also supplements this fleet with local cabs when needed. The vans are their most visible part of the fleet. They are large white vehicles that sport their red, white, and blue logo on the front of the hood. They are fully wheelchair accessible and load a wheelchair using customer by means of a double side door on the right side of the vehicle next to the primary entrance.

Metro Access provides door-to-door shared ride services most days of the year. It does not run on many holidays and does not run on weekends in some areas, such as where I live. Rides must be scheduled at least one day in advance and up to seven days in advance, either over the phone via an operator or through their website at metroaccess-wb.wmata.com. After logging in with a proper Metro Access ID and self-created password, customers are taken to a page where they have the option to review scheduled trips, schedule new trips, manage their account and cancel existing trips. Scheduling a trip consists of filling out a form detailing where a customer is going, where to be picked up, what day the trip is desired and a desired time to be picked up or dropped off. The system stores any previously used destinations in a drop down menu and checks new ones against a database of available addresses. If the address is invalid or outside Metro Access’ effective range the trip cannot be booked. Once a trip is booked the customer is taken to a review screen to see if all of the information is correct and then confirms the trip. The actual pickup time is shown on this screen and there is an opportunity to accept the trip and create a return trip or refuse the trip. The pickup time consists of a 30 minute window that the customer is expected to be ready during as Metro Access can arrive at any time during that window. Payment ranges between three and seven dollars each way and varies depending on distance and time of day. Payment is either received by the driver in cash or done beforehand through Metro Access EZ Pay. A customer receives an EZ Pay account upon joining Metro Access and can add any amount of money to the account to be used on future trips. Customers cannot add money while scheduling a trip however. Missed trips that were not scheduled in advance are fined a no-show fee and repeated no-shows result in temporary suspension from the service with each offense generating an increasingly long suspension.

As a user of Metro Access, I have found it to be a reliable, dependable and highly valuable service. It’s enabled me to commute to jobs otherwise beyond my reach and lets me travel most places I want to go at almost any time of any day, so long as I plan for it. This is where problems occur for me. Everything has to be planned a day in advance, meaning I cannot get to places on short notice. When I worked at Target over the holidays for example I was called on my day off and asked if I wanted to come in that day. Although I wanted to work, I could not do so because I didn’t have a Metro Access trip set up and calling for a cab would have cost more money than I would have earned. I have also found that Metro Access does not go everywhere every day. In my area for example it does not run on the weekends, thus making it difficult to travel without the aid of my parents, brother or friends. Since I often worked on the weekends I had to arrange for alternate transportation. There were many nights where I had to take a cab home which costs about double my usual fare. If I were lucky I could get a ride home from another employee but that didn’t happen too often. Even though the service always arrives within my trip’s pickup window it often isn’t the one I ask for. When making a trip over the phone, I can only choose the times the operator offers and these could be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before I want to leave, or be picked up for return trips. When scheduling a trip online, I don’t know the exact window that the van will arrive until I’ve booked the trip so I have to schedule a trip time based on what they might give me. I’ve made trips that are between 30 minutes to two hours before my desired pickup time and have to refuse the trip and remake it between 2 and 4 more times to get a time I want. If I play around with the pickup time enough I eventually find a time that works. However, the system would be much more convenient if it offered a list of available times rather than assigning me a random one based on what it thinks I need. Even so, I enjoy the online system more than talking to an operator because I can make a trip any time of day, not just normal business hours. I also don’t have to listen to the operator confirm everything; I can just scan it to make sure everything looks right.

Overall, Metro Access is an invaluable service but an inflexible one. I’m largely independent under it but not completely independent. Not like the independence I would have if I were able to drive. Three to seven dollars a trip also adds up quickly. It ends up being about twice as expensive as taking metro rail or bus and about as expensive as driving and servicing a motor vehicle, but without the true dependence it offers. The only true alternative for someone like me would be a driverless car. Something that I can hop into like anybody else and go as far as my gas tank will take me. It would offer more range than Metro Access and more flexibility with none of the inconveniences. I would have to learn how to maintain a car, something that I’ve never had to do before, but the benefits would be well worth it. A driverless car would end my dependent independence.

 

 

 

 

Press Release: Invite Experts to Join COM.* 2014 Hot Panels on Big Data, Self-driving Cars, Geospatial Computing

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Washington, DC – June 11, 2014

 COM.* 2014 is organizing several emerging tech hot panels related to Big Data, Self-driving Cars, Geospatial Computing, but not limited to:

  • Panel 1: Big Data is a “Big Deal”
  • Panel 2: Challenges and Solutions for Big Data in the Cloud
  • Panel 3: How Self-driving Cars Could Change the World?
  • Panel 4: Big Data and Driverless Cars — How Big Data Drives Smart Cars?
  • Panel 5: Visual Computing — Eyes of Self-Driving Cars
  • Panel 6: Big Data and Geospatial Computing
  • Panel 7: Geospatial Computing for Driverless Cars
  • Panel 8: Big Data and Driverless Vehicles for Defense ;

COM.* 2014 invites individuals to apply to become the panel moderators/organizers or panelists/members. Applications should be completed online. Accepted applicants will be offered 50% OFF discount for 3-in-1 conference registration.

In addition, you are welcome to submit  Hot Short Talks, Demo Videos, Demo Talks to COM.* 2014 by June 30

For more details, please see the http://www.com-geo.org/conferences/2014

About COM.* Conference
COM.* 2014 has expanded to three more emerging tech areas, Big Data, driverless cars, and geospatial computing. COM.Geo has been playing a guiding role to advancing the technologies in computing for geospatial research and application since it was initiated 5 years ago.
This year, COM.* conferences and summits will focus on COM.BigData 2014, COM.DriverelessCar 2014, and COM.Geo 2014. All three will take place in the same time frame and conference center in August in Washington DC, USA as well as COM.* online Virtual Conference center.
Several leading keynotes and insightful panels from U.S. federal government and world-class industries and universities will be open to all the attendees of the three conferences and summits. There will be a great opportunity for everyone to learn trends, share visions, exchange ideas, discuss details, and expand networking circles.

ITSVA Annual Conference 2014

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The Intelligent Transportation Society of Virginia (ITSVA) held their 20th Annual Conference last week (June 5-6) in Richmond, VA. Representatives from numerous organizations affiliated with the transportation industry attended the event. The conference focused on how the transportation industry is currently developing and will continue to improve with technology advances. The conference opened with a few remarks from Dean Gustafson who is the State Operations Engineer/ Division Administrator for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). VDOT is currently working on several new projects like the Connected Vehicle Program to create and maintain a world-class transportation system.

The first session covered MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st century) and Performance Measures. Speakers from FHWA (Federal Highway Administration), VDOT, and ITERIS discussed their roles with MAP-21 and where they are headed. Rich Taylor with the FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) discussed MAP-21 and Performance Measures. The goal of MAP-21 is the transition of the highway program to a performance and outcome -based program. Rich discussed the goals for the Federal Highway Program which include safety, infrastructure improvement, congestion reduction, system reliability and freight movement. Next, Paul Szatkowski with VDOT discussed the VDOT dashboard which measures congestions, travel times, hours of delay, and incident duration. He talked about some of the root causes of congestion which include capacity, traffic incidents, work zones, and bad weather. Finally, Rob Hranac with ITERIS discussed implementing MAP-21 performance measures. He talked about the definitions of delay, threshold, and reliability and the data needed to measure delay and reliability.

Over lunch, Paul Feenstra with ITS America spoke about ITSA and VDOT’s role in moving ahead with vehicle-to-vehicle communications to ultimately reduce congestion and accidents. He discussed MAP-21 and the GROW America Act which will both help fund V2V and V2I research. Currently, their funding as been reduced from $100 million to $50 million and they hope to regain full funding with the GROW America Act.

The afternoon sessions included Active Traffic Management (ATM) and Managed Lanes and a Local Government Roundtable. The ATM and Managed Lanes session included speakers from VDOT, FHWA, Delcan/Parsons, and Fluor. It covered the lessons learned and operational considerations of planning, design, and implementation of ATM and Managed Lanes projects. The Local Government Roundtable included speakers from Arlington County, Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO), and the City of Richmond who discussed the local government’s coordination of issues and activities with surrounding jurisdictions, VDOT and other related agencies regarding development and deployment of local ITS.

The second day opened with two concurrent sessions, one of which was on Innovative Technology. This session included speakers from Blacksburg Transit, Luck Stone, FHWA, and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI).

Tim Witten with the Blacksburg Transit discussed the public transportation system in Blacksburg, VA and the cost and lifecycle of a bus. He emphasized on the fact that “transit is poorly understood” by many people. Following Tim, Travis Chewning with Luck Stone discussed the innovation and growth process of Luck Stone. Luck Stone has created a paperless service that has improved their delivery efficiency. Next, Neil Spiller, with the FHWA discussed the ICM (Integrated Corridor Management) program and the role it plays in improving transportation. Finally, Andy Alden with VTTI discussed a project VTTI is working on that allows vehicles to predict the condition of the roadways by measuring how the vehicles tires are interacting with the road. As roadway conditions change due to pavement properties, weather, or contamination this information can be shared across the Connected Vehicle system to provide alerts to approaching drivers as well as modified operational parameters for use by their vehicle’s onboard safety systems. There is still much research to be done with this project.

The last session was on ‘Connected Vehicles’ with speakers from VDOT, FHWA, Atkins, and ITERIS. Melissa Lance with VDOT discussed the Pooled Fund Study which prepares state and local transportation agencies for the deployment of connected vehicles. She discussed deployment projects, their benefits and challenges and the VA connected vehicle test bed that UVA, VTTI, and Morgan State University developed at the UVA University Transportation Center. Next, Deborah Curtis with FHWA discussed V2I research program. The goal of this program is to develop and integrate the infrastructure components necessary to provide the foundation for V2I deployment. She stated the challenges with mapping as there is no standard for it. Mapping plays a key role in V2I deployment. Following Deborah, Suzanne Murtha with Atkins discussed Connected Vehicle Deployments as well. Currently there are 16 existing deployments including intersection collision avoidance, traffic monitoring, curve speed warning, and airport taxi monitoring. Finally, David Brinkley with ITERIS discussed Connected Vehicle Reference Implementation Architecture (CVRIA) and the tools associated with CVRIA that are currently being developed to integrate connected vehicles. He stated that 10-20 years from now, 80% of vehicles will be equipped with connected technology in some way. Standardization is a critical component of implementation. CVRIA is providing input into the standardization process. Lastly, he briefly discussed SET-IT which is a tool for connected vehicle systems engineering. It will be released later this month.

The ITSVA Annual Conference provided attendees with a lot of information about what is currently happening in the transportation industry especially here in Virginia and where they are hoping to be in the next few years. We are looking forward to watching this technology and innovation unfold.

 

 

Elektrobit Opens Up New Horizons For Automated Driving

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Elektrobit represents one of the most important suppliers of embedded software solutions for the automotive industry. EB is introducing new functions to improve driver assist systems. EB’s electronic horizon combines navigation software and driver assistance software that ultimately offers a smoother experience.

“EB is one of the few automotive suppliers offering an electronic horizon solution that combines both navigation software and driver assistance systems software, thus offering a seamless experience from one single source. EB’s electronic horizon features the most detailed road geometry data currently in the market. It offers the same precision as data used for highway engineering and thus allows for smoother and more accurate driver assistance functions like predictive curve lighting and range determination. The EB Assist Electronic Horizon Solution is also able to deliver this information both to EB’s own driver assistance software development environment and to a wide range of other driver assistance platforms from various supplies. In addition, electronic horizon data can be visualized on EB’s new driver assistance testing tool, the ED Assist Car Data Recorder.“

For the Full Press Release Click Here