The Olympics Were Only a Dry Run – Australia Shines as Host to 8^th  ITS World Congress
IVsource.net
26 October 2001

Visitors from around the globe to the waterfront-situated Sydney Convention & Exhibition Center were treated to a panoply of exhibits, sessions, and speeches aimed at showcasing the state of the art and knowledge on Intelligent Transportation Systems ... and those hoping to see a large Intelligent Vehicle component were not disappointed.

From glitz, sunshine, and parties to technical meat, thoughtful policy discussions, and “real stuff” in the exhibit hall, the 8^th World Congress on ITS provided quite a satisfying experience to attendees.  The WC offered a substantial technical program swathed in a superb cultural and social milieu – in other words, the Aussies really know how to throw a party.

Heavily attended by the Japanese, the Congress also attracted significant numbers of Europeans, in addition to the many Aussies  present.  Representation of the USA was fairly minor: for example, the US Department of Transportation had only 3 people present (the majority of their delegation of 20 or so people cancelled late in the game, under orders from top management).  Total attendance was in the range of 2600.  The numbers broke down approximately like this:

*  Belgium's contingent included members of ERTICO and the European Commission

Speeches and Sessions Feature IV Messages Prominently

Following a welcome from ITS Australia president Lauchlan McIntosh, the WC opening speech was delivered by John Anderson, Australian Deputy Prime Minister for Transport, who described the country's eTransport initiative which focuses on the future of ITS in Australia.   Speakers from Japan, China, Europe, and the US also added their respective welcomes.  A fascinating speech by renowned author Dr. Max Lay gave a view of the world’s transportation system from the eyes of an extra-terrestrial visitor – “you mean they actually have individuals controlling their own vehicles??” asks the incredulous visitor.  (The full speech is to be posted on the ITS Australia website.)

Nearly 300 sessions offered a bewildering, yet welcome, array of options to delegates.  Highlights included:

• Special Session 13 – Smart Cruise Systems: Development and Deployment for the Future.  Status reports of ongoing programs in Japan, the Netherlands, and the US were presented, as was a strong call from consultant Richard Bishop for the industry to “bridge the gap” and move beyond intelligent highway systems and intelligent vehicle systems to implement intelligent vehicle-highway systems (IVHS) ... and, at the same time, to move beyond a safety focus to a congestion-relief focus.  “Congestion relief is what the public really wants from us,” Bishop asserted.  “Combining the ongoing trends of vehicle intelligence, wireless communications into vehicles with telematics, and advanced traffic management techniques will give us the opportunity  to actively manage traffic and optimize traffic flow.”

• Special Session 17:  Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS):  The Human Factor and Public Perception.  This session included presentations on Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA), ongoing driver assessments, and human factors issues for bus transit drivers in the US.  Panel discussion was swamped by the usual array of questions that surround the controversial ISA.  And, while many ADAS human factors issues were raised, it was pointed out that the vehicle manufacturers, before introducing ADAS systems, need to “really do their homework.”

• Special Session 24:  Future Transport Visions.  Speakers from the UK, US, Japan, Netherlands, and Australia each offered their view of the future evolution of the transportation system; most included discussion of the role of intelligent vehicles and cooperative systems in their comments.

• About 15 Special and Scientific sessions addressed the areas of collision avoidance and automated driving.

In noting the ITS goals embedded in the ever-multiplying "visions for 2010 and beyond" that are espoused by various parties -- and broadcast eagerly at the WC -- an interesting set of contrasts emerges.  These were each heard separately at speeches and sessions delivered at the Congress:

What follows is a smorgasbord of items of interest to the intelligent vehicle community.  Look for in-depth follow-up articles at IVsource on some of these in the coming weeks.

While not a hub for vehicle R&D and manufacturing, Australia’s industrial base has motivated innovations which are unique worldwide.  For example, unmanned ore hauling trucks (build by Komatsu) operate in at least one mine, and autonomous straddle carrier cranes can be seen at several ports, taking intermodal containers from shipside to storage areas.

The flagship in Australian IV activity, on display and presented proudly at the Congress, was a SAFECAR vehicle.  A partnership of the State of Victoria (Australia) Transport Accident Commission, Ford Motor Company, and the Monash University Accident Research Centre, SAFECAR has outfitted two Ford Fairmont Ghias with a range of safety-oriented ITS technologies.  Notably, this marks the first time these particular technologies have been installed on a single vehicle.  The technologies include:

• Emergency 'MayDay'

• Following Distance Warning

• Daytime Running Lights

• Route Navigation

• Intelligent Speed Adaptation

• Reverse Collision Warning

Project plans call for a number of additional SAFECAR vehicles to be evaluated within public fleets, to assess their safety benefits and to stimulate demand.

The SafeCar Vehicle from Monash University (Australia) on Display at the Exhibition Hall
(Photo by www.eventpix.com.au)

The Axcess Australia vehicle was exhibited as a showcase for the Australian high-tech automotive industry.  It featured technologies such as electric traction motor, advanced braking, anti-drowsiness driver alarm system, and rear bumper sensors.  The 'anti-snooze' device monitors the driver’s movement, heart activity, and breathing patterns to determine fatigue levels.

For the Chinese, ITS is billed as one of the top priorities in a massive ongoing building program; construction is obviously the key focus there.

Korea plans a $7.5B investment over the next 20 years in ITS.

In Japan, a set of national goals have been articulated:

• 50% reduction in fatal crashes within 30 years

• 80% reduction in traffic congestion within 20 years

Evolving from VERTIS, the original Japanese ITS organization, ITS Japan is now firmly established and enjoys the support of the full range of government ministries attending to transport and telecommunications, including the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications, the National Police Agency, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, and the Ministry of Economic Trade and Industry.  The organization is ramping up eagerly for the 10th ITS World Congress in 2004 to be held in Nagoya.

The exhibit staff of ITS Japan toasts another successful ITS World Congress
(Photo by www.eventpix.com.au)

The Highway Industry Development Organization (HIDO) independently offered a series of timetables for deployment of ITS in Japan, which included:

• Assistance for Safe Driving – collision warning/avoidance being deployed between now and 2005; automated driving deployment beginning in 2005 and complete in 2010. 

• Increasing efficiency in commercial vehicle operations – Automated platooning of commercial vehicles beginning in 2005 and complete in 2010.

HIDO noted the success of an infrastructure-based Rear-end Collision Warning System deployed on National Highway No. 25 at the Seki Tunnel.  The system detects information such as traffic volumes and speed differentials and displays appropriate warnings on message signs to drivers.  Crashes are also detected and alerts provided to drivers in an attempt to avoid secondary crashes.  Annual hours of delay dropped by 85% on the 'down-lane' of the tunnel, and by 41% on the 'up-lane.'

The HIDO report also noted the following statistics with respect to IV systems installed in passenger cars:

The Yokosuka Research Park, present and exhibiting at the Congress, includes inter-vehicle communications in its research program, with a focus on millimeter-wave communications.  Current work on system design will be followed by prototyping in 2002.  They plan to propose in 2003 a standard for 'system realization' (deployment).

The ITS Council of Aichi Prefecture offered a comprehensive view of their future ITS system, with numerous IV components, including:

• Automated trucks in convoy formation

• Automated cruise control for passenger cars

• ITS View Aid System

• Information provided on traffic congestion, upcoming crash sites, and slippery surfaces

• Alerts for driver drowsiness

The Council has become a dominant player in Japanese ITS: the initial deployment (2003) of the Japanese SmartWay system will happen in this prefecture, on the Second Tomei-Meishin Expressway, and they play host to the Nagoya ITS World Congress in 2004.

Automotive suppliers within the Aisin Group presented their SERENITY concept, which has a two-fold focus:

• Vehicle Surroundings Monitor System.  This concept, similar to others in development in North America, increases safety by providing drivers a 360 degree view of their surroundings; additionally, sensors and intelligent algorithms monitor the situation and alert drivers of dangerous conditions.  The component functions include a backing guide system, front blind spot monitoring, side viewer, lane departure warning, and obstacle detection. 

• Assistance for Safe Driving.  This concept aspires to automated driving by integrating situation monitoring, decisionmaking, and steering/ brake/ throttle control to maintain safe operation.  Radar data, image recognition, infrastructure information, and navigation data are all brought together within an “Electric Drive Assistant ECU,” which in turn issues commands to brake and steering actuators. 

Toshiba offered a vision of how they fit with the future vehicle-highway system, with a focus on “harmonizing decisions made by humans with those made by vehicles.”  The electronics company is involved heavily in both the automotive sector and the ITS infrastructure business.  They envision support to areas including “car multimedia” (including vision based sensing technology for rear/side surveillance, obstacle detection, face monitoring) and inter-vehicle networking.

Toyota has just about everything you can think of in the IV area -- at least in prototype form.  Their “Car Intelligence” literature notes a progression from autonomous vehicle systems to road-vehicle communication (2005) to vehicle-vehicle communication (2010), with automated driving becoming a reality after 2010.  Driver Assistance technologies are divided into three areas:

• Recognition Assist:  night vision, etc.

• Judgment Assist:  parking assist, lane deviation warning, etc.

• Operation Assist:  inter-vehicle distance keeping, lane keeping, etc.

Toyota -- as noted previously in IVsource -- has also implemented the Intelligent Multimode Transit System for transit buses, which offers fully automated platooned operation.  Shown last year at Demo 2000, the buses have since been put into service at an agricultural theme park on Hyogo Prefecture’s Awaji Island.

The European Commission (EC) has published a White Paper titled “European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide,” which was published on 12 September 2001.  Other news related to the EC:

• An action plan on safety is due to be complete by end year

• The EC “Intelligent Vehicle” cluster has 33 projects, funded at 136M euro total (including cost sharing), which includes 72M euro EC funding.

• The stated EC goal is to reduce deaths by 50% in ten years (Europe has 41,000 deaths annually, nearly exactly the same level as the US.)

• The EC has begun a new project called DENSETRAFFIC which is developing use of stereo vision and radar to assess complex traffic situations.

• The EC 5^th Framework ROSETTA project is consolidating key results and findings of recent research to support future application of transport telematics in Europe.  One of the eleven topic areas is “Vehicles and Highway ITS Infrastructure,” which is defined as “in-vehicle technology and infrastructure- based technology developed in parallel and integrated for interaction benefits to both:  advanced driver assistance, active safety, lateral control, speed enforcement/adaptation, communications.”

ERTICO, the pan-European ITS organization, issued its own version of Vision 2010, which includes:

• Ability to equip every new car with traffic information, route guidance, emergency call units, and remote diagnostic sensors

• 20% of new cars equipped with some form of driver assistance system

Germany has kicked off its INVENT project, a joint research effort of German car-makers and the German government.  INVENT, which succeeds MOTIV, will examine the next generation of advanced driver assistance systems.

In the United Kingdom, according to Richard Eastman of the UK Highways Agency, £40M (64M euro) has been allocated for “road freight management.”  Within this area, potential areas of investment include “Freight Friendly” measures such as electronic towbar and automated freight lanes, and cooperative vehicle-highway systems.

The Highways Agency has set safety targets for 2010:

• 40% reduction in the number killed and seriously injured (for non-motorways)

• 1/3 reduction in the number killed and seriously injured (for motorways)

• 10% reduction in slight casualties (both motorways and non-motorways)

• 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured (all roads)

As far as combatting congestion, the HA chairman Lord Larry Whitty stated in HA literature that they seek to “reduce congestion on strategic roads below present day levels” by 2010.  Further elaboration shows that the goal is a 5% reduction, even though 28% increases in congestion are forecast.

ISA

Intelligent Speed Adaptation continues to play a prominent role in road authorities’ view of intelligent vehicles.  To counter claims that the public does not want ISA, the Swedish National Road Authority (SNRA), leaders in the field, offered examples of “user pull” from partner Volvo, and noted that even Mercedes has 2000 ISA-equipped cars operating on Swedish roads.  Among other things, the SNRA sees ISA as a more palatable alternative to speed humps and other speed-calming measures which inconvenience everyone on the road, whether they are speeding or not.

Activities to develop or evaluate ISA are also happening in Australia, the Netherlands, and France.  The French effort was announced only in the last month.

Eric Sampson Wraps It Up

At the closing plenary of the Congress, a superb summary was provided by Eric Sampson, head of the Transport Technology and Telematics Division within the UK Department of Transport, Local Government, and Regions.  He divided his comments into the following three areas:

Areas Where We Need to Do Better:

• Safety:  Remove administrative barriers and create a strong partnership between vehicle manufacturers and governments.  This needs to happen better, faster.

• Driver Workload:  Drivers can’t cope with the complexity we are introducing into the vehicle.  We must develop a better in-vehicle environment.

• Payment Processes:  Users want better, seamless payment processes.

• Standards:  Data standards are critically needed for progress to occur.

• Privacy:  Find the right approaches to support both business and consumer interests. 

• Cooperative Vehicle-Highway Systems:  Develop this area, which offers benefits in both safety and traffic congestion relief.

Emerging Trends:

• Vehicle-Vehicle Communications:  sharing information  between vehicles, possibly with floating car data collection techniques, is “very promising”

• Seamless end-to-end journeys with personally-relevant information provided

• Moving into marketing

• Data mining of the huge volumes of traffic network data now being collected

• The potential to reach the limit of our wireless communications capacity, even for 3^rd generation systems

Where We Need to Do More:

• Standards (very high priority)

• Understanding safety and driver behavior

• Environmental factors

• Techniques for assessing costs and benefits at a “whole society level”

• Optimization of freight movement

• Education: creating the ITS workforce of tomorrow

After the largely "warm and fuzzy" feeling regarding the state of ITS knowledge that attendees received (due to the sheer wealth of information presented at the Congress), Sampson's comments hit just the right tone by pointing out the many challenges and opportunities that still lay ahead ... providing a sketch of what we might expect to see addressed at the next ITS World Congress in Chicago.

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Eric Sampson of the UK Government Provides the Wrap-Up Address at the Closing of the World Congress (Photo by www.eventpix.com.au)