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Sustainable Mobility and Autonomous Vehicles: a Q&A with Stanley Young of NREL

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Burney Simpson

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of Q&As with leaders in the automated, connected and driverless vehicle industry.

SYnew1Stan Young is a research scientist with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) who has been active in automated transport systems for more than 20 years. He was critical to the growth of the Advanced Transit Association (ATRA), serving as president for six years, and conducted research on intelligent transportation systems as an engineer at the University of Maryland. At NREL Stan is helping to initiate research into the sustainability implications of emerging automated vehicles and the services they enable.

 What is your role at the NREL, a division of the Department of Energy that promotes sustainable energy?

NREL recognized that as vehicles become automated, there may be drastic changes in how vehicles are used, and how people make trips. Trip making patterns have really not changed much for several decades. Over the past few decades vehicle energy consumption has largely been a straight forward accounting problem -track the fuel economy for each type of vehicle, estimate the portion of each type of vehicle owned by individuals, and estimate miles driven … then add it all up appropriately.

graphic-sustainable-mobility-initiativeWith the onset of fully connected and automated vehicles (and the services they enable), how we access our jobs and recreation will likely drastically change. We are seeing the front edge of this wave of change in services like Uber, Lyft, car-sharing, and ride-sharing. These have all been enabled by the information revolution. Coupled with the automation revolution, well … hang on for an interesting ride.

In the long run, many of the common trips we take like driving to work, or the grocery store, may be served by an automated taxi that chauffeurs you the entire way, without the hassle of parking, fueling, or ever having to go to the DMV, and do so at a cost that is less than what we typically pay for our private vehicles now on a cost per mile basis.

NREL recognized it needed to understand mobility from a behavioral modeling perspective, and understand how automation can and will change trip making patterns in order to understand how surface energy (and greenhouse gas emissions) may be impacted. That is my role with NREL, bringing the more traditional mobility modeling into the mix to complement their vehicle drivetrain expertise.

You’ve also been involved with the Advanced Transit Association (ATRA) and Personal Rapid Transit. Why is PRT important?

Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) was envisioned in the 1960s and demo systems were built in the 1970s. Even as recently as the 2000’s some PRT systems were put into service, but it has never proliferated due to the expense of building exclusive roadways or guideways for its operation.

The mobility service provided by PRT is very similar to that envisioned with automated taxis – small vehicles providing individualized service for people. As such, many of the system studies and lessons learned in PRT demonstrations and research inform planners and researchers on the scope of service that can be anticipated from automated vehicles harnessed for public mobility.

Although the PRT industry continues to move forward, recently adopting the term Automated Transit Networks, they do not receive the attention that concepts emerging from automated vehicles have received in recent years.

SY6 Suncheon-BayHow does advanced transit overlap with autonomous and connected vehicles? Are these transit vehicles driverless?

The two worlds are merging. Technology and business barriers from legacy operations are dissolving. ‘Transit systems’ are traditionally thought of as municipally-owned and operated services, while ‘vehicles’ are traditionally thought of as individually-owned and operated.

Recent advances in shared vehicles and shared rides, combined with ubiquitous communications through smart-phone yielding services like Uber and Lyft, have already disrupted these old paradigms. So that when we think of automated vehicles – many people are considering what the impact would be if they were managed as a fleet to provide point-to-point connectivity.

That idea is similar to the concepts of PRT that have been fostered for decades.

What current/recent projects do you see as leading the way in showing the capabilities of driverless transit?

Google’s pod cars are by far the forerunner. There are industry rumors that Google will introduce a campus or district system, meaning their automated vehicles will be confined to a specific area within a city. At the 2016 CES show Ford President Mark Fields said that he expects full Level Four automated vehicle capability to be available before the end of the decade in ‘geo-fenced areas’, meaning specific districts/campus/pre-defined locations.

There are several shuttle systems, such as the vendors supporting CityMobil, that are working toward the same concept, providing fully automated transit shuttles on public streets. Demonstrations and initial projects are expected before the end of the decade.

CityMob3aReducing the use of fossil fuels and shifting to sustainable mobility is an important part of advanced transit theory. How do you convince transit vehicle OEMs to build electric powered driverless vehicles?

Electrification has made in-roads, but is still a tough sell. If there is a fleet of vehicles providing individual automated taxi service within a district, that fleet will be optimized by the fleet manager for efficiency, cost, and customer satisfaction. That is where there may be opportunities for alternative fuels that are more sustainable – be it electric, hybrid, fuel-cell, and so on.

The size of fleet vehicles will likely match the demand better than what current private ownership does, and the fleet is more easily managed for re-fueling, maintenance, etc., items that are critical in introducing alternative fuels into the market.

My sense is Americans will be less open to this kind of transit than Europeans. Is that a fair assumption?

Hmmmm … I think it is more a demographic and generational divide. Most of the momentum in the U.S. is for urban and city areas, similar to Europe. In these areas, everyone is looking for better connectivity, something to relieve the congestion, and make life more convenient. I think it will be awhile before we see any of these services in less densely developed areas. That is where automated driving of the more traditional variety (individually-owned vehicles) will likely see inroads.

I mention a generational divide because many younger people see vehicle ownership as a burden and are seeking better mobility.

How do you convince commuters to switch to a driverless bus or train?

Just provide them a better service than what they currently experience. I do not want to force anyone out of their car, I just want to get them to their end destination faster, safer, more conveniently while using less energy.

Thanks Stan.

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Cleaning Up? – Lens Washer dlhBowles Eyes Growth

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Burney Simpson

It’s no secret that much of autonomous driving technology depends on external cameras. So how do you keep the cameras clean of road dirt and other gunk?

One solution — use those nozzles and tubes that already spray fluid to wash windshields. Install them next to the cameras, use the same blue fluid for cleaning, and allow the driver to control the spraying just as they do when they clean their windshields.

Clean and simple.

Last July two firms that supply that cleaning hardware to the auto industry were merged to form a nozzle and tubing powerhouse. Or something like that.

Private equity and venture capital firm Morgenthaler, owner of Bowles Fluidics, purchased that firm’s competitor, the privately-held DLH Industries, and merged them to form dlhBowles.

Bowles was best known for its nozzles, and DLH for its plastic air and fluid handling assemblies, tubes and hoses.

The two had been “fierce competitors” as suppliers to auto OEMs, Tier 1 and 2 suppliers, and in licensing their products, said Jay Bargas, marketing director with the firm. Now, “the playing field is wide open.”

Auto OEMs have been installing cameras on their cars to offer such safety technology as blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, and heads-up display under the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems rubric.

THE TREND IS YOUR FRIEND

That trend will intensify with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requirements that all new vehicles under 10,000 pounds manufactured after May 2018 have a rear camera.

Leadership spots in the new dlhBowles were divvied up among the firms’ executives with John Saxon, who had led DLH, named CEO, and Sri Sridhara, a Bowles chief, becoming the new president.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Morgenthaler invests in high-value North American manufacturing firms valued between $25 million and $150 million and EBITA over $5 million.

According to PlasticsNews, DLH had annual sales of about $50 million.

More good news — Forbes in December called Ford’s Self-Washing Front/Rear Cameras one of 2016’s hottest new-car features. DlhBowles supplies the camera cleaning system for a number of Ford vehicles, including the 2016 Edge and the 2016 Explorer.

The cameras in the two SUVs allow drivers to see around corners, Forbes claims. “(A)n added twist is that (the cameras) incorporate automatic lens washers to keep the view clear under all climactic circumstance,” according to Forbes.

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Distracted Drivers – It’s Heads Up or Heads Off

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Burney Simpson

Heads Up!

Distracted drivers are grabbing attention in Detroit with Head Up Displays (HUD) and Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) being demoed by the likes of BMW, Continental and Denso International.

Denso is showing a simulated car cockpit that displays warning and safety systems that may one day be installed your car, according to The Globe and Mail. The idea is to help the distracted driver sort through all the bits of information that are coming in, Pat Bassett, Denso VP of research and engineering, tells the paper at the North American International Auto Show.

“We want to make it intuitive without the driver taking their eyes off the road,” said Bassett.

Bassett says his firm is researching driver distractions with MIT, Honda, Subaru, and Jaguar Range Rover in an organization called the Advanced Human Factors Evaluator for Automotive Distraction (AHEAD).

Denso says AHEAD is a global, collaborative effort that will create a toolkit to evaluate the growing number of distractions bedeviling drivers, including voice interfaces, touch screens, HUDs, and multi-function controllers. The toolkit can be used to develop new HMI that are intuitive and safe, according to Denso.

SERIES 7 HUD

BMW has been a technology leader with its Series 7 HUD that displays the vehicle’s speed and the road MPH on the lower part of the windshield. The driver doesn’t need to lower her eyes to the speedometer, so eyes are kept on the road.

BMW recently enlarged the display of the HUD info and put it in color, making it even easier to monitor your speed as you drive 20 miles over the limit past that police cruiser you didn’t notice. This video from last October gives a sense of BMW’s work.

Meanwhile, parts supplier Continental continues to build on its Augmented Reality – Head Up Display that shows vehicle speed, navigation, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warnings, and speed limit warnings.

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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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CES 16 - Ford’s Plucky LiDAR, BMW’s Mirror, GENIVI’s New Member

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Burney Simpson

Today’s top driverless news from the Consumer Electronics Show 2016 (CES 16) in Las Vegas:

  • Ford says it is using Velodyne’s new 360-degree LiDAR sensor in its autonomous test vehicles. Ford will be testing as many as 30 of its autonomous Ford Fusion in Ariz., Calif., and Mich., by the end of this year, according to the Associated Press.

The Velodyne sensor, called the Ultra Puck, is about the size of a coffee can but extends by 200 yards the range of velodyne_ultra_puck2other light and radar sensors, The Verge reports. Many consumers assume LiDAR devices are those clunky air-vent looking contraptions strapped to the top of Google’s Koala car.

  • More Ford – We are a mobility company, CEO Mark Fields tells Jalopnik and several hundred other reporters who were given free screwdrivers (not the hardware for turning screws, the liquid tool for screwing with your brain) at the press conference. Ford will increase its work in the transportation services sector, the term for firms like Uber, Lyft, and the vehicle-version of AirBnB, Fields said.

Jalopnik says Fields didn’t discuss Ford’s recently-announced plan to work with Google/Alphabet, though maybe the screwdrivers had taken affect by then.

  • BMW has replaced the rearview mirror with four cameras in the BMW i8 electric car it is displaying at the show, according to Car and Driver. Well, not exactly, but that’s the idea.

The i8 takes the images from the cameras installed around the vehicle and creates a single image that is displayed on a device located in the traditional rearview mirror spot. The camera system sends warning signals to the driver when it sees possible problems.

The concept could eventually replace or reduce the size of the current side mirrors that impact aerodynamic flow. However, federal regs say a camera can’t replace a mirror, according to C&D, and besides, how do you keep the external cameras clean from road dust and crud?

  • AppCarousel became the 19th Tier 1 supplier in the GENIVI Alliance, joining such players as Continental, Delphi, Denso, Harman, Bosc, Valeo and Visteon. Auto OEMs in the alliance include BMW, Daimler, Honda, Nissan, and Volvo.

Genivi is a nonprofit group that promotes the adoption of in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) software. Genivi says it “delivers an open standard for aligning consumer electronics and automotive software development cycles.”

San Francisco-based AppCarousel operates end-to-end app management platforms for connected devices in market sectors that include connected cars and fleets, smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and other devices connected through the Internet of Things.

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Send Lawyers, Guns and Driverless Tech

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Burney Simpson

Policy makers, regulators and legal departments will find the new “A Look at the Legal Environment for Driverless Vehicles” a valuable introduction and overview of major issues facing the industry.

The free report from the Transportation Research Board uses the word driverless as an umbrella term covering autonomous, automated, connected, and driverless vehicles.

Topics addressed include civil liability, criminal liability, insurance, and privacy and security.

There are also sections on local, state and federal legislation, and administrative regulation. A chapter on sustainability addresses land use, infrastructure, and the environment.

Another section provides historic context by reviewing how regulators once looked at such revolutionary transportation technology as railroads, steamboats and conventional automobiles.

The prepublication version is available as a free PDF.

The authors are Dorothy J. Glancy, Robert W. Peterson, and Kyle F. Graham from the Santa Clara University School of Law in Santa Clara, Calif. Glancy and Peterson are full professors, while Graham is a teacher there who earned some attention last year when he announced he would not seek tenure at the school.

The introduction sums up the report:

 “This report discusses the legal environment that will apply to driverless vehicles. The sections that follow consider how driverless vehicles may fit within or challenge existing rules, and, as relevant and appropriate, suggests how these rules could be modified to better serve the public interest. As a forward looking analysis, this discussion is necessarily speculative, and relies on numerous assumptions regarding matters including how driverless vehicles will operate and how long it will take for them to come into common use. Nevertheless, even at this early juncture, policymakers should benefit from an assessment of how driverless vehicles mesh with the prevailing legal order.” 

The current version is subject to revision. Peterson wrote in an email this month that a section on liability could see some changes to reflect recent announcements by three auto OEMs that they would accept responsibility for accidents when their vehicle is operated in autonomous mode.

Photo by Cal Injury Lawyer, 2015.

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Autonomous Forklifts Speed Equipment Yards

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Burney Simpson

Large-equipment rental firm United Rentals is using technology from 5D Robotics to automate forklifts, scissor lifts and other equipment in its 900 storage yards so the gear can move without running into other objects or people, according to Transport Topics.

Stamford, Conn.-based United Rentals rents construction and other equipment to businesses and government entities in the U.S. and Canada. It estimated 2015 revenues could reach $5.9 billion.

The program was developed by Carlsbad, Calif.-based 5D Robotics, which says its “system can allow multiple vehicles to follow a person or lead vehicle, operate in any weather conditions and even load equipment onto trucks for delivery to job sites.” Check out the video from 5D.

Privately-held 5D Robotics is a software services provider that supports navigation, mapping and localization, search and detection, and dexterous mobile manipulation and various other robot behaviors for unmanned ground and air vehicles.

While there has been considerable media coverage of autonomous cars, there is considerable activity in autonomous technology for public transit (“Successful Driverless Bus Tests Could Pave the Way for Driverless Cars”) and in service-oriented robotics like that provided by 5D.

Photo: Scissor Lift, VIA Rail Station, Belleville, Ontario, Robert Taylor, 2011.

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Feds Need Interagency Connected Vehicle Office: Rep. Lipinski

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Burney Simpson

Autonomous technology could well be part of the multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill making its way through Congress, due in part to Rep. Daniel Lipinski, a Chicago Democrat, transportation committee veteran, and one of the dozen House members with an engineering degree.

Lipinski is a member of the conference committee charged with reconciling the Senate and House transportation bills that have already passed.

Lipinski laid the foundation for federal support for automated technology with three programs that he included in the House version of the transportation bill.

He’d like to see the establishment of an “autonomous and connected vehicle research center … a report on the readiness of the Department of Transportation for connected vehicles,” … and “the creation of an interagency group to coordinate research, technology commercialization, and workforce development” in the automated and connected vehicle sector, according to a column he wrote this month for Roll Call.

Lipinski did not spell out specifics on each of his goals, though he is adamant that a study be done on the DOT’s work in the connected sector, and he has met with Gregory Winfree, the agency’s assistant secretary for research and technology, to discuss a coordinated approach by Washington.

“The federal government agencies do not always communicate with each other,” said Lipinski. “This is designed to try to make sure more coordination is there. They do various related research projects but there is no connection among the different agencies.”

Meanwhile, the DOT itself needs to make autonomous and connected vehicles a top priority. One aspect of that is getting behind a university-based research center for the technology.

TECHNOLOGY BELIEVER

Lipinski is a believer in automated vehicle technology and the safer roads it can bring. About 18 months ago he rode in a prototype autonomous vehicle that Carnegie Mellon brought to Capitol Hill, then visited Silicon Valley to see the work going on around transportation and mobility.

Earlier this year, Lipinski joined with Rep. Joe Heck, a Nevada Republican, to re-launch the Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus, designed to be a bipartisan education center on air-, marine- and land-based autonomous systems.

Lip2Lipinski was first elected in 2004 from Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District, home to Midway Airport, huge rail and truck freight operations, and the Argonne National Laboratory. Prior to Congress, Lipinski taught at Notre Dame and the University of Tennessee. He has engineering degrees from Northwestern and Stanford.

Autonomous and connected vehicles are revolutionary in so many ways – safety benefits, job creation, and changes in mobility just for starters – that it is inevitable that the government will be involved, he says.

“I know that government will play an important role. At its worst it will impede the private sector. At its best it can speed it up and make sure it is to the best public benefit,” Lipinski said.

His concern is that the federal bureaucracy doesn’t understand the topic, will be left behind by the fast-moving private sector, and, even worse, could stand in the way of its development.

“I’m on the Transportation (and Infrastructure) Committee but there’s almost no talk about autonomous and connected vehicles,” he said. “Most of the focus is on building and repairing roads. There’s not a lot of forward thinking, not a lot of focus on how technology can impact the future of transportation.”

PAYING FOR THE FUTURE

Connected vehicles may be that future, but they can’t work at their full potential unless the roadside infrastructure is in place that communicates road conditions, weather, and other travel information to the vehicles, he argues.

“(R)oad infrastructure must be connected to the car. The government has got to put in the infrastructure,” he said. “Government has to do everything it can to get this communication system in place.”

One issue of course is paying for the Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) equipment needed. In a study conducted at Lipinski’s request the General Accountability Office in October reported that installing a single roadside V2I system could cost more than $50,000 (“Each V2I Site Could Cost $51,650”).

“Local governments are largely responsible for this. They need help from the (federal government) and we’re not doing enough now. Cost will be a problem,” he said.

The conference committee will decide if any of Lipinski’s three programs make it into the final transportation reauthorization bill. Political leaders of both parties are eager to see a bill completed and sent to the President, and that should happen before Christmas, says Lipinski.