This month's CIHT Masterclass was focused on planning for an autonomous vehicle (AV) future. Talks from James Long, Head of Technical Consulting at Smart Mobility Living Lab and Rob McDonald, Director of Future Mobility and Smart Cities at Stantec focused on the complexities of the sector and how to ensure AV technology is ready for future mobility needs. Below we highlight five key takeaways from the Masterclass
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1. Cities, towns and rural areas are diverse in nature and the types of interactions we see in these places are complex
An AV needs to be ready to read and interact with a multitude of scenarios. This can range from the sorts of situations we could expect to find on most roads such as other cars, road markings, pedestrians; to situations that may be unique to an area such as sheep on a road; to one off, unusual, interactions such as pedestrians in fancy dress costumes (why did the inflatable t-rex cross the road?).
There are multiple solutions that can meet a use case. For example, making a large shopping center based on the outskirts of a town more accessible for someone with mobility needs could be solved with automated passenger services, or, automated parcel package delivery. The range of operational environments also has an impact on the solutions we design. Something that works in a controlled environment such as an airport will be different to what is designed for a city, which will again be different from what’s designed for a rural area, and so on and so forth…
As individual technologies shift to services, it is crucial that conversations are held that bring together those technologies with places and users to ensure that the right outcomes and achievements are met. Infrastructure (network design, road furniture, internet connection) and data (mapping, driving rules, real-time conditions, road user movements, behavioral patterns) can be used to support these conversations and inform decisions around these services.
Roadside detection and processing can be used for vehicle-infrastructure communication. For instance, CCTV cameras can share data with vehicles to assist with lane changing, pulling out of junctions where there is limited sight of the road and with signal control to help traffic flow more efficiently. This could lead to AVs requiring fewer sensors on the vehicle which could improve business cases and lead to faster deployment of AVs.
By planning for multiple outcomes and scenarios we increase the chance of new technologies meeting targets. This includes preferable outcomes (what you want the technology to provide), probable outcomes that are likely to happen and plausible outcomes that could happen, based on current trends and knowledge; through to planning for possible outcomes based on future knowledge and preposterous outcomes that seem impossible. This then ensures that there are a range of futures that can deliver the required outcome.
If you would like to discover more about planning for an autonomous vehicle future the link to the video recording of our Masterclass can be found here
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