Demo 2003: Showcasing the Benefits of Truck and Bus Automation

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Demo 2003Showcasing the Benefits of Truck and
Bus Automation

• Steven E. Shladover
• PATH Senior Deputy Director
• October 2002

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Demo 2003 Outline

• Goals
• Context, audience
• Benefits
• Demo Activities
• Arrangements Location and time

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Demo 2003 Goals

• Overarching
• A watershed event, to capture imaginations
  of stakeholders and the public at large, and to
  energize public and private decision makers
  toward taking concrete steps to make automation
  of heavy duty vehicles a reality.
• By Component
• Experience the Vehicle Demonstration
• Learn at the Conference
• See at the Demonstration Center

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Why do a Demo in general?

• Attract attention and support from senior
  management
• Enable people to visualize and become comfortable
  with something they would not have thought of
  otherwise
• Prove feasibility by direct experience
• Provide a forum for stakeholders to come
  together, where we can then deliver messages to
  them
• Attract favorable attention from a wide range of
  stakeholders, including media and general public
• Provide a hard milestone to push progress

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Recent History of AVCSS Demos

• 1995 Tsukuba, Japan
• 1996 Joshinetsu Expressway, Japan
• 1997 San Diego
• 1998 Rijnwoude, Netherlands
• 1999 East Liberty, Ohio (ITS America)
• 2000 Tsukuba, Japan
• 2002 Versailles, France (IEEE IV Symposium)
• 2003 San Diego
• 2004 Nagoya, Japan (ITS World Congress)

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Political Context (1/2)

• NAHSC Demo 97 was a technical success, but
• Mixed messages from diverse consortium
• examples of AHS demonstrated, but without a
  coherent operational concept
• More emphasis on technologies than applications
• Benefits not highlighted sufficiently
• No deployment staging plan presented
• USDOT had already decided to end NAHSC (six
  months prior to Demo)

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Political Context (2/2)

• Current USDOT emphasis on IVI
• Safety as sole goal, not congestion
• Safety warnings, not vehicle automation
• Autonomous vehicles, without infrastructure
  cooperation
• Low level of attention to automation
  opportunities on national scene now
• Rapidly growing interest in Bus Rapid Transit
• Some interest in truck-only lanes
• Growing interest in fuel-saving opportunities for
  trucks

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Why Buses and Trucks for Demo 2003?

• Economics favor earlier deployment of automation
  technologies on heavy vehicles than on passenger
  cars
• Equipment cost a lower percentage of vehicle cost
• Buyers more sensitive to productivity and
  efficiency benefits, with much higher vehicle
  utilization
• Professional drivers and maintenance staffs
• Easier to incorporate in vehicle production
  process
• Better opportunity to reserve segregated lanes
  for these vehicles
• Focus on smaller number of key decision makers
  (fleet operators)

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Target Audiences

• Public transit
• System operators and managers
• Labor union representatives
• Associations and interest groups (including
  riders)
• Commercial trucking
• Fleet operators and managers
• Manufacturers, subsystem suppliers
• Labor union representatives
• Associations and interest groups (including
  shippers)
• Others
• National, state and local government
• Transportation researchers
• Trade and general interest media

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Benefits of Transit Bus Automation

• Precision docking accessibility, quality of
  service, boarding/alighting time savings, reduced
  driver stress and workload
• Line-haul automation
• Fit buses in narrow right of way
• Enable bus line capacity to match (light) rail
• Provide quality of service exceeding rail
  (integrated collection and distribution) at much
  lower cost
• Help enhance image of bus transit
• Save some fuel and emissions

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Benefits of Long-Haul Truck Automation

• Saving fuel and emissions
• Fitting truck lane into narrower right of way
• Increasing capacity of truck lane, reducing
  number of lanes needed
• Reducing trip time uncertainties, facilitating
  JIT
• Reducing driver stress and fatigue
• Potentially changing the labor needs of the
  trucking industry in the longer term
• Enabling new logistics concepts, between
  conventional trucking and intermodal rail

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Demo 2003 Activities

• Mutually complementary activities, to emphasize
  operational and benefits issues more than
  technical issues
• Vehicle demonstration rides
• Exposition Center
• Conference
• Commercial exhibits
• Stakeholder meetings

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Vehicle Demonstration Rides

• Automated tractor-trailer rigs on I-15
• 3-truck platoon, with diverse trailers
• Control transition, cruising, lane changing,
  merging, platoon split and join
• Automated backing to a loading dock
• Automated BRT buses on I-15
• 3-bus platoon, one articulated diesel and two
  CNG-fueled 40-foot buses
• Control transition, cruising, lane changing,
  merging, platoon split and join
• Precision docking of one bus at a stop
• Inviting other automated heavy vehicles

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Exposition Center

• Displays explaining deployment strategies and
  operational benefits of heavy vehicle automation
• Live video feed from an automated truck
• Computer animations of larger-scale operating
  scenarios than we can show live
• Poster displays of results of related PATH
  projects on truck and bus automation
• Static displays of vehicles and equipment
• Displays by key Demo partners (e.g., San Diego
  Transit)

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Demo 2003 Conference

• Present broader context for heavy vehicle
  automation
• Speakers invited from other states and countries,
  as well as Caltrans and PATH staff, faculty and
  student researchers
• Experiences from other programs
• Environmental and energy implications
• Application case studies
• Technical issues
• Institutional issues
• Bus Rapid Transit automation
• Truck automation

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Commercial Exhibits

• Truck and bus manufacturers
• Suppliers of AVCSS technology
• Associations
• Relevant public agencies
• Demonstrations on nearby public roads of vehicles
  with safety warning or control assistance systems
• Static displays of equipped vehicles

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Stakeholder Meetings

• ITS America Board of Directors
• California Alliance for Advanced Transportation
  Systems (CAATS)
• TRB Committee on Vehicle-Highway Automation
• International Task Force on Vehicle-Highway
  Automation
• Inviting others in trucking and transit
• American Public Transit Association (APTA)
• Truck Manufacturers Association
• California Transit Association
• American and California Trucking Associations
• ITS America stakeholder forums

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Location San Diego

• Vehicle demonstrations on I-15 HOV lanes,
  extending 7.5 miles north from I-15/SR-163
  junction
• Exposition Center and Commercial Exhibits at
  I-15/SR-163 junction (South Control Yard from
  Demo 97)
• Conference at Doubletree Mission Valley Hotel
• Stakeholder meetings at locations chosen by
  meeting organizers

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Time

• August 16-20, 2003
• Saturday and Sunday Demonstration rides,
  commercial exhibits and Exposition Center all day
• Monday and Tuesday Demonstration rides only
  mid-day, but Conference and other activities
  continue all day
• Stakeholder meetings extend before and after
  these central dates