International Task Force Addresses Automation Deployment and Government Roles
IVsource.net
31 December 2000

The ITFVHA group has been meeting annually since 1997.  This year's meeting -- held on December 1 in Tsukuba City, Japan -- featured representation from ten countries and addressed issues of IV deployment paths, user acceptance, public acceptance, human factors, and infrastructure as an enabler.  This article briefly summarizes the action and the outcomes.

Check the IVsource Reading Room for copies of presentations from the meeting ... for browsing or downloading

The meeting was attended by 42 invited participants, with representation from Australia, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.  Most of the attendees were with various government agencies, though several represented research laboratories and private sector organizations.  Two European vehicle manufacturers were directly represented (Fiat and Volkswagen), with Japanese manufacturers represented through AHSRA.

The meeting was structured in two parts.  First, on November 30, Session 6 of the Demo 2000 technical seminars provided  Task Force members an opportunity to deliver an overview of relevant program activities worldwide.  Second, the ITFVHA group met again on December 1 to examine several key issues:

• Deployment Paths  -- An examination of the ways in which  advanced vehicle control systems and corresponding highway infrastructure are moving into  public usage, the long term vision  for such systems, and potential pathways.

• User Acceptance/Public Perception/ Human Factors -- An examination of the spectrum of issues in these domains and the degree to which they are or are not being addressed; also, what government roles or initiatives are seen as important.

• Infrastructure as an Enabler -- An examination of the role of the infrastructure in realizing the full potential of these systems, as well as corresponding government roles.

Each of these three topics was addressed by both public and private sector representatives from Asia, Europe, and the USA.  The presentations (which can be found for review or download in the IVsource Reading Room) were followed by discussion.

Toshiyuki Nakamura, General Manager of the Public Works Research Institute (PWRI), gave an opening speech to welcome participants.  He noted that Advanced Cruise Systems are now "on the edge of practical utilization," as clearly reflected by the vehicle systems that could be seen operating during Demo 2000.

ITFVHA's Mission Recapped

Mr. Bishop reviewed the history of ITFVHA, which began with a meeting in San Diego in 1997, then in Delft, Netherlands (1998), then in Toronto (1999).  He offered that the purpose of ITFVHA is to examine the potential of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to deliver societal benefits -- primarily congestion relief and safety.  Vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-highway cooperation plays a central role.  The ITFVHA sees itself as a forum in which to discuss government-industry roles in the development and deployment of ADAS; other objectives of the group include raising awareness, providing a means to exchange views, creating linkages globally, building momentum, and mutually reinforcing similar programs worldwide.

Mr. Bishop put forth that the purpose of this 4^th ITFVHA was to examine the evolution of ADAS.  He suggested that, if the marketplace could be relied upon to deliver optimum systems for individual vehicles, and if highway agencies could be trusted to optimize the road network, then ITFVHA could focus its task on looking at societal benefits achievable through coordinated efforts between government and industry, and between vehicles and highways.

The flow of the day's agenda was designed accordingly to put forth deployment and human issues which might lead to key questions of the role of government and infrastructure in implementing promising system approaches.

Program Focus Varies Worldwide

Based on presentations from programs worldwide, variations in focus among ADAS programs emerged, as shown in the table below.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems:  Program Focus
Comparison Based on Information Presented at Meeting (i.e., not necessarily comprehensive)

Variations in particular deployment attributes are shown as follows:

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems:  Deployment Attributes
Comparison Based on Information Presented at Meeting (i.e., not necessarily comprehensive)

Examining Deployment

The group's discussion on deployment issues produced several insights:

• Safety systems are an area of emphasis for all the programs represented, and congestion relief is also prominent on the radar of most countries. 

• The Japanese program stands out as the most comprehensive and activist with regards to safety; its scope addresses virtually all situations and all vehicle types.

• USDOT's safety program is distinguished by a strong focus on field operational tests of active collision countermeasure systems in order to evaluate actual safety benefits.

• European programs appear to be most comprehensive in addressing the full range of benefit areas.

• Development is underway for various types of cooperative vehicle-infrastructure systems in most countries.  Approaches seem to be well defined in most countries, with the US still in the process of defining their approach.

• Designated / dedicated lanes -- an important, though not essential, hinge point for automated system deployments -- are under consideration in several countries as part of the long term vision.  Such lanes for trucks and buses are being envisioned as nearer-term.

• Fully automated vehicle operation is included in the vision of programs in  Europe and Asia.  Although the US deliberately has not adopted this vision at the national level, the state of California is a strong supporter of automation.

• The longest of the long term visions were presented by the UK and France (2030), and were quite similar in their inclusion of centralized vehicle control on automated motorway networks.

• Estimates for initial introduction of some form of fully automated vehicles hover around the 2005-2008 timeframe.

• Advanced forms of Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) may play strongly into vehicle-vehicle communications approaches.  While v-v communications hold great promise for better traffic flow, the group felt it was too early to assert that this is a "critical path" item.  The results of ongoing R&D and evaluation will provide a better sense for this issue.

• While their functional applications are very different, there is significant technical overlap between the infrastructure-supported safety systems in Japan's SmartWay program and the "dynamic" mode of Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) in Europe.

• The possibility of mandates in Europe and similar actions in Japan could have a major impact on deployment.

Transit Deployment Sequence Rolling Forward

It was noted that a key deployment sequence is already unfolding for automated transit systems.  Automation is now in operation for rail transit, including driverless operations.  Various automated and semi-automated bus transit systems are now being implemented, and Toyota's IMTS system (which incorporates automated platooning of buses) is expected to be in service in summer of 2001 .  The group felt that a growing awareness of these systems on the part of the public will help overall deployment.

Doing the Right Things?

With respect to user issues and public perception, it was concluded that, for the most part, players worldwide are doing the right things and that the various annual demonstrations in particular have been very useful.  A key challenge exists in ensuring that the public (and individual drivers) understand the actual capability of the systems in their vehicles ("sir, your collision avoidance system will not drive the car for you ..."), even while maintaining a "vision-pull" -- that is, keeping collective sights set on the promise of much more capable vehicles.

Regarding human factors for ADAS, there is extensive work underway worldwide, in the public sector, private sector, and in government-industry partnerships.  Based on the information presented at the Task Force meeting, the general conclusion was that the great majority of the key issues in human factors are being covered adequately by ongoing research.

Activities to examine roles for the infrastructure (both autonomous infrastructure and infrastructure support of in-vehicle systems) are clearly leading towards deployment  -- this is happening at a rapid pace in Japan, and more gradually elsewhere.  In this program aspect there is perhaps the greatest diversity worldwide -- in Japan, SmartWay systems support crash avoidance; in Europe, intelligent speed adaptation is of key interest; and in the US, intersection collision avoidance is the top priority.  There is overlap among these approaches, and increased information exchange on a global level is expected.

Guidelines for Latecomers

One delegate from the Pacific Rim asked what guidelines can be offered to the late-comers -- countries that only now are starting to consider examinations of advanced safety and driver assistance systems?  Comments pointed to the Japanese program as a good roadmap:  the infrastructure agencies identify problems and address them with autonomous infrastructure systems (such as blind curves), and vehicle-makers identify problems and address them with autonomous vehicle systems.  In the Japanese model, cooperation occurs only when the infrastructure community decides to put intelligence in the highway and the compatible systems evolve in the vehicles.  Others noted that since traffic and societal issues vary so much from country to country, individual countries should conduct studies to determine their particular needs.

Looking for a Home

In years past, the ITFVHA has had no institutional sponsor -- meetings have come together each year through grassroots efforts and the persistence of a particular champion.  The chairman noted that the Phoenix project, sponsored by Caltrans, has shown interest in taking over long-term sponsorship of the ITFVHA.  The group was glad to accept the offer -- Phoenix is therefore expected to become the organizational home of ITFVHA sometime before the next meeting.

The ITFVHA 2001 meeting will be held in conjunction with the 2001 ITS World Congress in Sydney, Australia, which will be held September 30 - October 4.  The specific dates for the meeting, relative to the World Congress, will be determined later.

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... contact Richard Bishop at richardbishop@mindspring.com.  Look for the full meeting proceedings to be posted soon at IVsource.

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