Road Vehicle Automation 7

SIP, the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion program, was started in 2014 with 11 research projects, and those projects are proceeded by initiative of Council for Science, Technology and Innovation of Japanese government. SIP-adus, automated driving system for universal service, is one of the SIP projects and aims to realize innovation of the Automated Driving System through fundamental research to practical application and commercialization. The second phase started from 2018 and is planning Field Operational Test at Tokyo waterfront area in 2020. This paper introduces Society 5.0, Japan’s proposal in the 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan, and an overview of the 1^st and 2^nd phase of SIP-adus and its challenges and contributions.

Australia’s laws do not currently support the use of automated vehicles. Australia is currently working towards a goal of developing end-to-end regulation to support the safe commercial deployment of automated vehicles at all levels of automation. This chapter outlines the problem that Australia is trying to address and the key challenges. It outlines five key reforms that the National Transport Commission is leading on control, safety at first market entry, on road safety, insurance and data.

Shared autonomous systems are an opportunity for cites to improve mobility, yet little discussion has framed their business model and how public and private stakeholders can plan for their deployment. This chapter frames the range of shared services as well as the anticipated opportunities and challenges to shared autonomous mobility ecosystems. It anticipates opportunities of “platform” and opportunities of “place”, and frames these within the context of autonomous vehicle development, concluding that partnerships, both business-to-business and across sectors, are a key to solving many business challenges for shared and autonomous mobility.

The technologies and models linking individual vehicle control and network operations, despite their critical role in determining whether automated vehicle (AV) technologies can eventually evolve to massive real-world deployments, seem to be an under-represented topic at the Automated Vehicles Symposium (AVS) in the past years. This chapter documents lecture notes of the first AVS breakout session on network modeling, which discusses the latest developments in network AV operations, modeling and simulation from academia, government, and industry perspectives. Specifically, the consensus reached in an attempt to answer questions on how to manage AV fleets in a networked environment, and control mixed traffic to optimally utilize network capacity and challenges ahead, as well as directions for research, practice and policy making are summarized.

This chapter presents information on low-speed autonomous shuttles, which are being piloted, demonstrated, and deployed in downtown areas, university campuses, business parks, entertainment complexes, and other areas. The chapter focuses on the presentations and discussions at a breakout session at the 2019 Automated Vehicle Symposium (AVS). Updated information on some demonstrations and projects is included. The session and this chapter highlight the experience with pilots and demonstrations and present elements to consider in planning, procuring, operating, and evaluating low-speed autonomous shuttles to help inform future decision-making. Areas for additional research and ongoing information sharing are also summarized.

The main premise of this chapter is that researchers, policy makers, and industry can learn a lot about the future adoption (and impact) of fully automated, self-driving vehicles by examining consumer acceptance, understanding, and trust of lower levels of automation (SAE Level 1 and Level 2). These are the levels of vehicle technology that exist on vehicles operating on public roads today. The willingness (or not) of consumers to purchase and use the lower levels of automation will serve as a mirror on their potential interests in higher levels. This chapter provides a synthesis of issues and recommendations that resulted from a breakout session at the 2019 Automated Vehicle Symposium (AVS) on this topic.

This chapter summarizes the results of a survey among 1,000 interviewed persons that was conducted in Germany. The aim was to obtain a current picture of the population’s expectations from self-driving (automated) vehicles. Twelve questions were asked to get an overview of the participants’ opinions on the potential of self-driving vehicles regarding climate impact, time and monetary savings, the willingness to use automated vehicles, as well as their safety and risks. The results are compared to the current state of expert knowledge. The main finding is that the German population is skeptical towards self-driving vehicles. In comparison to a scientific perspective, the population is underestimating the potential and possible benefits of automated vehicles, while the risks are assessed similarly. In the conclusions, the findings of the studyare assessed in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Self-driving cars (automated vehicles or AVs) are no longer just a laboratory experiment. In some parts of the world, prototypes are starting to appear on public roads. The thoughts of developers have understandably turned to their relationship with the members of the public who could become the users of the technology, stakeholders in its development or interested bystanders. The people involved in innovation are likely to have confidence in their technology and emphasise its potential benefits and its safety. Members of the public may see things very differently. With past technologies, the tendency has been to reject the views of members of the public as ill-informed or seek to change public attitudes. The evidence from previous controversies is that just talking without listening represents a bad approach. There is a need for ongoing public dialogue, not just top-down salesmanship. This is particularly important when a technology is being developed, as AVs are, not just in private laboratories, but in public.

This chapter provides an overview and recap of the AVS 2019 Breakout Session AVs & Vulnerable Road Users: Representing the Under-Represented, including summaries of research and perspective presentations from leading experts in the field and needs identified through discussion among panelists and the session audience. The session identified a range of necessary actions and research needs including defining technological, improving education about automation and advanced technology, and using these to build public trust.

Simulation offers the potential benefit of testing many miles in a variety of situations and environments. Not only can virtual testing environments be run quickly and in parallel, but a greater focus can be brought to bear on rare edge cases that need to be understood by ADS. They support simulation of sensor suites, environmental conditions, full control of all static and dynamic actors, maps generation and much more that enable automated vehicle simulations. They have large and growing communities that can contribute to the simulation ecosystem and develop use cases. This chapter presents ADS simulation research and capabilities discussed at the breakout session entitled “New Simulation tools for Training and Testing Automated Vehicles” at the 2019 Automated Vehicle Symposium in Orlando, FL. The section reviews key highlights and conclusions from three studies presented at the breakout session: 1) Responsibility Safety Sense (RSS) and software-in-the-loop (SiL) simulation; 2) augmented-reality-based testing with accelerated scenario design; and 3) human-in-the-loop testing for freeway cooperative merge.

The Automated Vehicle’s ecosystem relies on four main components: Human, Machine, Sensor, and Infrastructure. Each component is designed with its own threat model and requirements in mind. However, to ensure end-to-end security and resilience against cyberattacks, we should consider the interoperability of each security model. In this chapter, we give an overview of the state-of-the-art of security in Human Factors, Machine Learning, Sensors, and Infrastructure, before highlighting the research challenges to solve in order to design end-to-end resilience in AVs.

This session discussed mostly long-term questions around automation and shared mobility, summarizing the work that the TRB Forum on Preparing for Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility has done in its year and half of existence. Panelists summarized workshops that the Forum members held during 2019 and described the key workshop takeaways to the audience, and then engaged the audience in a discussion about what research topics are still needed.

Autonomous vehicles (AV) have dramatic potential not only to reshape cities. This research surveys 602 US cities to investigate how they are preparing for urban autonomy. To conduct this evaluation, roughly 20 key indicators are evaluated. Based on the evaluation most cities in the United States do not have AV policies. Of these the majority have some sort of white paper or policy acknowledgement. Key themes are in management (of transit, systems, parking, curb, data, etc.) and design (primarily streets and electric vehicle infrastructure), but not on travel behavior or demand management. This offers an opportunity for planners, engineers, policy makers and innovators in the coming years.

This chapter summarizes and expands on the breakout session at the 2019 Autonomous Vehicles Symposium in Orlando, FL, titled “Ethical Algorithms in Autonomous Vehicles.” First, the content of the workshop presentations is summarized, covering technical and nontechnical detail. Second, the discussion during, and on the margins of the workshop is summarized from the perspective of the authors, consistent with the Chatham House Rule. Conclusions are posed for industry, academia, and government readers.