connected & driverless vehicles: challenges and opportunities for
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Connected & Driverless Vehicles: Challenges and Opportunities for Highway Authorities
Tom Bamonte General Counsel North Texas Tollway Authority tbamonte@ntta.org @TomBamonte TRB Workshop: July 17, 2012
Overview
• Coming reboot of highway operating system • Opportunities for highway authorities • Challenges for highway authorities • Recommendations
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Why Care About Autonomous Vehicles
• Shift in public demand – For connected people driving is the distraction
• Safety • Transportation management
– “If 25 percent of vehicles on a stretch of road are equipped to automatically follow the traffic ahead, journey times can be reduced by 37.5 percent and delays reduced by 20 percent”
• Cost-effective alternative to some transit • Capacity expansion at lower cost • More mobility for many more people
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Rapid Technology Uptake
• 2004-2007 DARPA Challenges • 2010: Google announces it had successfully
tested autonomous cars on California roads • 2012: Nevada licenses first autonomous
vehicle • 2014-2017: “Traffic Assist” in production
vehicles allows self-driving at up to 30 mph • 2020: Japan implements autonomous vehicle
lanes on expressways
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Current Highway Operating System • Current system = legal and operational silos
– Vehicles—OEMs & NHTSA – Vehicle operation—state traffic laws & licensing – Highway building/operation—FHWA & DOTs
• Highway authorities – Limited function—pavement & signage – Communication (e.g., signage) channeled to vehicle
through human operators
• Stable legal environment
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Program Upgrade: Highways 2.0
• New connections – Vehicle to vehicle (V2V) – Vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) – Vehicle & infrastructure to Cloud
• Human operator supplemented then displaced
• M2M communication predominates • New vehicle types and services possible when
travel is safer and more networked
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One Glimpse
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Legal Implications
• How do siloed agencies and legal regimes deal with newly integrated technologies?
• Who is held responsible when things go wrong once driver is supplemented/displaced?
• Who sets rules for vehicle types/operation? – Queue jumping for premium customers – Congestion management – Non-traditional vehicles
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Choice for Highway Authorities
• Ostrich approach—keep laying down the pavement and leave the rest to others
• Facilitate deployment and operation – Safety benefits – Capacity increase w/in existing footprint – Reduced capital demands – Traffic management improvements – Optimal infrastructure/vehicle technology mix – Invent cool and useful stuff
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The Special Role of Toll Authorities
• Revenue: More efficient use of highway space = more revenue per highway lane
• Revenue: Expensive lane expansion projects can be delayed or eliminated
• Revenue: Offering premium experience to customers can support higher prices
• Revenue: Improved traffic management reduces revenue loss from “incidents”
• Revenue: New toll collection possibilities
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Special Role of Toll Authorities-cont.
• Experience with electronic linkages to customers—transponders & customer accounts
• Experience with privacy issues associated with technology
• Experience with managed lanes will translate to autonomous vehicle lanes
• Experience with technology projects
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Other Items State/Local DOTs Can Bring to Table
• Tort liability legal regime – Capable of handling new technology
• Immunities – DOT involvement can help shield deployment
• Speed of deployment • PPP potential • Economic development potential encourages
competition for deployment
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Challenges--Internal
• State/local DOTs not centers of innovation • Ingrained culture of caution • Value proposition seems hard to make in
fiscally-constrained times—fix bridge or chase technology vanguard?
• Road builders, not technology organizations • Need to develop or buy technology project
management expertise
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Challenges--external
• Limited interaction with OEMs, both practically and legally
• Public fears—Big Brother • Federal leadership lacking
– Tepid response to Google car – Slow rollout of 5.9 Ghz DSRC communications – Risk that federal regulation will choke innovation – Where’s that NASA-circa 1965 feeling?
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Recommendations
• DOTs – Partner with OEMs, universities and private sector
• Focus on infrastructure-vehicle links and how infrastructure can best accommodate technology
– Adopt autonomous vehicle legislation – Begin identifying first mass deployment sites—
e.g., autonomous vehicle lanes in congested areas – Innovate on infrastructure side – Factor connected vehicle technology in capital
investment planning
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Recommendations—cont. • Federal government
– Keep pushing against distracted driving—powerful force for work-around innovation
– Facilitate work on infrastructure technology/best practices – Don’t rush to regulate in-vehicle technologies or use one-
size fits all approaches – Protect wireless communications platforms – Factor new technologies in environmental/capital
investment decision making – Break down silos and adopt connected/autonomous
vehicle technology as national goal – Leapfrog Google
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Resources
• Tom Vanderbilt, Let The Robot Drive • Anthony Park & Matthew Nelson,
DriverlessCarHQ • Bryant Walker Smith, Automated Driving:
Legislative & Regulatory Action
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MISSION ● provide a safe and reliable toll road system ● increase value
and mobility options for our customers ● operate the Authority in a businesslike manner ● protect our bondholders ● partner to
meet our region's growing need for transportation infrastructure.
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