Road Vehicle Automation 5

This is a report on the latest SIP-adus activities. SIP-adus is a five-year research program on connected and automated driving led by the Japanese government that began in 2014. Beginning in 2016, the project prioritized five themes (Dynamic Map, human-machine interfaces (HMI), cyber security, pedestrian collision reduction, and next-generation transport). Large-scale field operational tests started in October 2017 around Tokyo area in order to integrate and evaluate achievements. The tests are open to global entities, and more than 20 entities have participated to date.

This chapter is summarizing the current initiatives in support of connected and automated driving taken by public authorities, academia and industrial stakeholders in Europe. It is covering the actions by the European Commission, such as the GEAR 2030 strategy, the C-ITS platform, the cooperation of automotive and telecom industries for connectivity, and the strategic transport research and innovation agenda (STRIA). At the same time, the roadmaps of European technology platforms and public private partnerships such as EPoSS, ERTRAC, ECSEL and EATA are explained. Also, an analysis of funding calls and projects for the Automated Road Transport (ART) topic of Horizon 2020 is given, and additional programs such as ICT, ECSEL, PENTA, and the Urban Innovative Actions are introduced. The results of a worldwide benchmark study are reported as well. Finally, the two Coordination and Support Actions forming the connectedautomateddriving.eu initiative, SCOUT and CARTRE are presented and their efforts to establish a comprehensive roadmap to accelerate innovation of connected and automated driving in Europe are summarized.

This chapter provides a discussion of the important research topics for understanding behavioral responses to highly automated vehicles (AVs) as discussed at a breakout session at the Automated Vehicle Symposium (AVS) 2018. The session, and thus this chapter, highlights the need for valid behavioral data on which to base assumptions, models, forecasts, and impacts to inform AV adoption behaviors, the pathways of AV ownership and use, and the potential impact of AVs on human activity-travel behaviors and longer-term location choices.

This chapter presents a summary of the 2017 AVS Breakout Session 2.1, Judging a Car by its Cover: Human Factors Implications for Automated Vehicle External Communication. The session was scheduled for four hours with half the time dedicated to presentations from three speakers and half the time for interactive exercises. The three speakers presented on a range of topics which included related research projects across multiple different countries, as well as activities underway exploring the potential value of international standardization. Key points included the importance of communicating vehicle intent, the need for investigating the unintended consequences of deploying new forms of communication, and the need for automated vehicles to be consistent in the design of these new interfaces.

How to ensure trust and societal acceptance of automated vehicles (AVs) is a widely-discussed topic today. While trust and acceptance could be influenced by a range of factors, one thing is sure: the ability of AVs to safely and smoothly interact with other road users will play a key role. Based on our experiences from a series of studies, this paper elaborates on issues that AVs may face in interactions with other road users and whether external vehicle interfaces could support these interactions. Our overall conclusion is that such interfaces may be beneficial in situations where negotiation is needed. However, these benefits, and potential drawbacks, need to be further explored to create a common language, or standard, for how AVs should communicate with other road users.

There is a lot of discussion about the different levels of vehicle automation and when respective products will come to the market. When taking a closer look, one actually observes that different experts often talk about different scenarios even when contemplating the same level of automation. In order to generate a more comprehensive perspective on the different levels of automation and their timelines for market deployment, this contribution analyses expert interviews and extensive media research. The picture that emerges from this spans a deployment roadmap from automated shuttle services launching still this decade to automated highway driving and delivery services some 20 years into the future. Hypothetical scenarios for the San Francisco Bay Area are provided as potential examples.

Many automated vehicle (AV) developers and technology companies are fast pursuing the public deployment of these vehicles as part of a shared fleet. To the best of our knowledge, this chapter is the first comprehensive compilation of 17 active shared automated vehicle (SAV) pilot projects in the U.S., as of February 2018. This chapter also reviews AV regulatory efforts at the federal, state, and local levels. By tracking trends and classifying the differences between SAV pilots, we foster a better understanding of how this technology might roll out in the coming decades. While 30 states have enacted legislation or executive orders related to AVs, only two states’ regulations contain provisions related to SAVs. Although future impacts of SAVs are still uncertain, this chapter begins the dialogue around the need for proactive SAV legislation to help guide beneficial societal outcomes of these emerging services.

Based on the outcomes from the automated trucking breakout session at the 2017 Automated Vehicles Symposium, this Chapter reviews the current state-of-the-art of automated trucking applications and discusses key factors expected to influence their deployment. It is suggested that a key challenge for the deployment of automation in the trucking domain is that the business models are typically linked to specific and strongly heterogeneous transport operations, each of which associated with a specific set of deployment factors. To handle this complexity, strategic partnerships are expected to be formed between stakeholders, where business models and other deployment factors can be addressed jointly, and in a step-wise fashion, for specific automated trucking operations.

Automobile clubs like AAA were often established in the early days of the automobile and have served its Members well over the decades with mobility related services such as roadside assistance, insurance, travel, and other related products. Now 100 years later, the question arises how such a well-established mobility service with a trusted brand can evolve into a world of automated vehicles when also car ownership might be a thing of the past. A closer look at this situation shows that especially with increasing automation of the vehicle, consumer education along with safety advocacy and related mobility options are needed as ever before. The mission is to make sure that the transition of mobility stays consumer oriented and safety focused. With the complexity of the mobility sector further increasing, partnerships will be key to fulfill this mission.

The security of Automated Vehicles (AVs) should be addressed to prevent and mitigate cyber-attacks. This includes securing the vehicle itself, and the supporting infrastructure. Securing the ecosystem requires multitude of security controls and privacy enhanced techniques. However, stakeholders do not have sufficient resources to cover everything. Therefore, where to start is often context-dependent and based on a thorough risk assessment of the ecosystem. In this chapter, we first summarize the discussions around cybersecurity at the Automated Vehicles Symposium 2017, and then present a stakeholder analysis to guide them in their cybersecurity effort.

PEGASUS (Project for the Establishment of Generally Accepted Quality Criteria, Tools and Methods as well as Scenarios and Situations for the Release of Highly Automated Driving Functions) is a joint project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) which seeks to close the gaps in the testing and release of automated vehicles (see Fig. 1) and supports the rapid transfer of existing functions and prototypes into series production (Fig. 2). PEGASUS intends to answer these central questions. What is the minimum performance level for an automated vehicle? How do human beings perform (as a reference value)? What can and must automation deliver (and what not)? How can it be demonstrated that the automated vehicle performs reliably?

This session explored opportunities and best practices regarding connected and automated vehicles (CAV) testing throughout the industry. CAVs offer the promise of improved safety and performance, compared to the current human driver paradigm. Both closed course and open road testing are critical components of technology evaluation, improvement, integration and acceptance. Diversity of testing sites and attributes will multiply the scenarios tested and mitigate operating risk once the technology is implemented. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has cited acceleration of learning and development expected from the mandatory Community of Practice within their Automated Vehicle Proving Ground Pilot Program. The first activity was a CAV Proving Grounds Showcase, followed by a panel and discussion on Roles and Partnerships in CAV testing, then a panel and workshop on Next Steps to Collaboration.

This chapter presents a summary of AVS 2017 Breakout Session 13, Challenges and Opportunities for the Intersection of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) and AVs. This session built upon a brief session in AVS 2016 devoted to reducing conflict between VRUs and automated vehicles [1]. As last year’s brief session resulted in significant engagement and discussion, this year’s session was expanded to a full afternoon to broaden the scope of presentation topics and discussion. Nine speakers presented on a range of issues related to the intersection of VRUs and AVs, ranging from lessons from the real world, to themes in human factors, to simulation and urban planning considerations. The session was organized around two main panel themes, focused on Vulnerable Road User Safety Needs and Concerns and Technology, Infrastructure and Policy Considerations. Significant discussion during and following the formal presentations resulted in identification of a range of research needs, including in the domains of AV design and human factors research, communications, legal and ethical questions, and data requirements.

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) offer a new entryway into society-wide conversations regarding transportation, functions of cities, the use of streets and, ultimately, urban sustainability. AVs are likely to disrupt urban spaces from city centers to the suburbs and rural edges of cities. This chapter focuses on these places. It tests potential changes to the built environment in two different urban contexts; a street-car suburban location (circa 1920s–30s) and a post-war suburban location. The outcomes from these tests are used to offer insight into how autonomous technology may have different impacts across space. The outcomes also reveal AVs may impact modal decisions differently based on location, and how planners and policy makers might frame built environment solutions to promote sustainable and livable urbanism.

Modeling the impact of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) on the environmental sustainability, mobility and safety of roadway traffic at the local link level or the regional network level requires a significant amount of currently non-available data. Multiple CAV test-beds and data collection efforts utilizing the latest sensing and communication technologies have been however publicized over the past few years. Such efforts have been led by the industry and public agencies in the US and abroad. Accordingly, (1) researchers and practitioners should be aware of the type and quantity of data needed to calibrate and validate traffic models while taking into account the impact of CAV technological specifications, the driver behavioral characteristics and the surrounding driving environments. (2) Moreover, the gap between such emerging data needs and the data made available to researchers or practitioners should be identified. This chapter summarizes the presentations of speakers that are investigating such gap during the Automated Vehicles Symposium 2017 (AVS17) held in San Francisco, California on July 11–13, 2017. These speakers participated in the break-out session titled “Enhancing the Validity of Traffic Flow Models with Emerging Data”. The corresponding discussion and recommendations are presented in terms of the lessons learned and the future research direction to be adopted. This session was organized by the AHB45(3) Subcommittee on Traffic Flow Modeling for Connected and Automated Vehicles.

There seems to be great concern and perhaps even greater uncertainty about how autonomous vehicles (AV) in cities may possibly affect not only mobility and transport but also infrastructure, land use, and the natural environment. Along with the debate on the impacts of AV the question arises what urban and transport planning strategies will be needed to ensure that the transition towards a fully automated transport in urban areas will contribute in the best possible way to urban sustainability goals and make it compatible with existing key urban policies. This paper addresses the question: What do city planners and policy makers have to know about the technology, its impacts and how can they prepare? It reviews the status of planning and implementing automation in cities and metropolitan areas in the US and in Europe. The paper draws on the presentations, discussions and conclusions from a breakout session ‘Making automation work for cities’ at the Automated Vehicle Symposium in July 2017.