Unsettled Topics Concerning Autonomous Public Transportation Systems

With the launch of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenges in 2004 and 2005, autonomous driving technology has been slowly making its way toward commercialization. Billions of dollars have been invested in the development of the core technology and potential use models. While the technology required for a fully functional automated vehicle (AV) is quite a few years away from reality, specific restricted-use models such as robo-taxis, truck convoying, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) show great promise. Another use model, which also shows a great deal of potential, is the use of AV technology for public transportation. Technologically, public transportation shuttles are an ideal potential application as they operate at low speeds on fixed routes. From a business point of view, there is already an existing public transit business model, and there are potential opportunities for providing superior quality of service for disadvantaged communities. However, most of the utility is typically found in dense urban environments, which can present unique challenges. Further, the operators of public transportation perform within a public sector regime, which has additional requirements. Thus, it is quite instructive to look at the divergent experiences of leading cities as they engage with AV technology for their specific purposes. In this SAE EDGE Research Report, we will examine the still unsettled topics and generic solutions for the public transportation market and the unique AV deployment schemas for the cities of Jacksonville, Florida; Singapore; Tallinn, Estonia; and finally Orlando/Lake Nona, Florida. NOTE: SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports are intended to identify and illuminate key issues in emerging, but still unsettled, technologies of interest to the mobility industry. The goal of SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports is to stimulate discussion and work in the hope of promoting and speeding resolution of identified issues. SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports are not intended to resolve the challenges they identify or close any topic to further scrutiny.

Over the last 100 years, the automobile has become integrated in a fundamental way into the broader economy. A broad and deep ecosystem has emerged, and critical components of this ecosystem include insurance, after-market services, automobile retail sales, automobile lending, energy suppliers (e.g., gas stations), medical services, advertising, lawyers, banking, public planners, and law enforcement. These components - which together represent almost $2 trillion of the U.S. economy - are in equilibrium based on the current capabilities of automotive technology. However, the advent of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and technologies like electrification have the potential to significantly disrupt the automotive ecosystem. The critical cog governing the rate and pace of this shift is the management of the test and verification of AVs. In this SAE EDGE(TM) report, six senior industry leaders in the impacted ecosystems essay articles which describe sectors of the current automotive ecosystem and the manner in which AV technology can potentially reshape them - providing a mosaic of the massive infrastructure shifts which will be required to absorb AV technologies. NOTE: SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports are intended to identify and illuminate key issues in emerging, but still unsettled, technologies of interest to the mobility industry. The goal of SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports is to stimulate discussion and work in the hope of promoting and speeding resolution of identified issues. SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports are not intended to resolve the issues they identify or close any topic to further scrutiny.

While many transportation and city planners, researchers, students, practitioners, and political leaders are familiar with the technical nature and promise of vehicle automation, consensus is not yet often seen on the impact that will result, or the policies and actions that those responsible for transportation systems should take. The End of Driving: Transportation Systems and Public Policy Planning for Autonomous Vehicles explores both the potential of vehicle automation technology and the barriers it faces when considering coherent urban deployment. The book evaluates the case for deliberate development of automated public transportation and mobility-as-a-service as paths towards sustainable mobility, describing critical approaches to the planning and management of vehicle automation technology. It serves as a reference for understanding the full life cycle of the multi-year transportation systems planning processes, including novel regulation, planning, and acquisition tools for regional transportation. Application-oriented, research-based, and solution-oriented rather than predict-and-warn, The End of Driving concludes with a detailed discussion of the systems design needed for accomplishing this shift. From the Foreword by Susan Shaheen: The authors ... extend potential solutions through a set of open-ended exercises after each chapter. Their approach is both strategic and deliberate. They lead the reader from definitions and context setting to the transition toward automation, employing a range of creative strategies and policies. While our quest to understand how to deploy automated vehicles is just beginning, this book provides a thoughtful introduction to inform this evolution. Offers a workable public transit solution design melding the traditional “acquire-and-operate mode with the absorption of new technology Provides a step-by-step discussion of digital systems designs and effective regulation-by-data approaches needed for a new urban mobility Learning aids include case study scenarios, chapter objectives and discussion questions, sidebars and a glossary

This book combines comprehensive multi-angle discussions on fully connected and automated vehicle highway implementation. It covers the current progress of the works towards autonomous vehicle highway development, which encompasses the discussion on the technical, social, and policy as well as security aspects of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) topics. This, in return, will be beneficial to a vast amount of readers who are interested in the topics of CAV, Automated Highway and Smart City, among many others. Topics include, but are not limited to, Autonomous Vehicle in the Smart City, Automated Highway, Smart-Cities Transportation, Mobility as a Service, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Data Management of Connected and Autonomous Vehicle, Autonomous Trucks, and Autonomous Freight Transportation. Brings together contributions discussing the latest research in full automated highway implementation; Discusses topics such as autonomous vehicles, intelligent transportation systems, and smart highways; Features contributions from researchers, academics, and professionals from a broad perspective.

With the rise of shared and networked vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and other transportation technologies, technological change is outpacing urban planning and policy. Whether urban planners and policy makers like it or not, these transformations will in turn result in profound changes to streets, land use, and cities. But smarter transportation may not necessarily translate into greater sustainability or equity. There are clear opportunities to shape advances in transportation, and to harness them to reshape cities and improve the socio-economic health of cities and residents. There are opportunities to reduce collisions and improve access to healthcare for those who need it most—particularly high-cost, high-need individuals at the younger and older ends of the age spectrum. There is also potential to connect individuals to jobs and change the way cities organize space and optimize trips. To date, very little discussion has centered around the job and social implications of this technology. Further, policy dialogue on future transport has lagged—particularly in the arenas of sustainability and social justice. Little work has been done on decision-making in this high uncertainty environment–a deficiency that is concerning given that land use and transportation actions have long and lagging timelines. This is one of the first books to explore the impact that emerging transport technology is having on cities and their residents, and how policy is needed to shape the cities that we want to have in the future. The book contains a selection of contributions based on the most advanced empirical research, and case studies for how future transport can be harnessed to improve urban sustainability and justice.

This book presents the latest, most interesting research efforts regarding Intelligent Transport System (ITS) technologies, from theory to practice. The book’s main theme is “Mobility for everyone by ITS”; accordingly, it gathers a range of contributions on human-centered factors in the use or development of ITS technologies, infrastructures, and applications. Each of these contributions proposes a novel method for ITS and discusses the method on the basis of case studies conducted in the Asia-Pacific region. The book are roughly divided into four general categories: 1) Safe and Secure Society, 2) ITS-Based Smart Mobility, 3) Next-Generation Mobility, and 4) Infrastructure Technologies for Practical ITS. In these categories, several key topics are touched on with each other such as driver assistance and behavior analysis, traffic accident and congestion management, vehicle flow management at large events, automated or self-driving vehicles, V2X technologies, next-generation public transportation systems, and intelligent transportation systems made possible by big data analysis. In addition, important current and future ITS-related problems are discussed, taking into account many case studies that have been conducted in this regard.

Autonomous vehicle (AV) technology represents a possible paradigm shift in our way of life. But complex challenges and obstacles impose a reality at odds with the utopian visions propounded by AV enthusiasts in the private and public sectors. The new volume in the Urban Agenda series examines the technological questions still surrounding autonomous vehicles and the uncertain societal and legislative impact of widespread AV adoption. Assessing both short- and long-term concerns, the authors probe how autonomous vehicles might change transportation but also land use, energy consumption, mass transit, commuter habits, traffic safety, job markets, the freight industry, and supply chains. At the same time, the essays discuss opportunities for industry, researchers, and policymakers to make the autonomous future safer, more efficient, and more mobile. Contributors: Austin Brown, Stan Caldwell, Chris Hendrickson, Kazuya Kawamura, Taylor Long, and P. S. Srira.

This book presents a comprehensive coverage of the five fundamental yet intertwined pillars paving the road towards the future of connected autonomous electric vehicles and smart cities. The connectivity pillar covers all the latest advancements and various technologies on vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications/networking and vehicular cloud computing, with special emphasis on their role towards vehicle autonomy and smart cities applications. On the other hand, the autonomy track focuses on the different efforts to improve vehicle spatiotemporal perception of its surroundings using multiple sensors and different perception technologies. Since most of CAVs are expected to run on electric power, studies on their electrification technologies, satisfaction of their charging demands, interactions with the grid, and the reliance of these components on their connectivity and autonomy, is the third pillar that this book covers. On the smart services side, the book highlights the game-changing roles CAV will play in future mobility services and intelligent transportation systems. The book also details the ground-breaking directions exploiting CAVs in broad spectrum of smart cities applications. Example of such revolutionary applications are autonomous mobility on-demand services with integration to public transit, smart homes, and buildings. The fifth and final pillar involves the illustration of security mechanisms, innovative business models, market opportunities, and societal/economic impacts resulting from the soon-to-be-deployed CAVs. This book contains an archival collection of top quality, cutting-edge and multidisciplinary research on connected autonomous electric vehicles and smart cities. The book is an authoritative reference for smart city decision makers, automotive manufacturers, utility operators, smart-mobility service providers, telecom operators, communications engineers, power engineers, vehicle charging providers, university professors, researchers, and students who would like to learn more about the advances in CAEVs connectivity, autonomy, electrification, security, and integration into smart cities and intelligent transportation systems.