US National IVI Meeting -- Impressive Technical Progress and Hot Vehicles (07/2003)

The cognoscenti of intelligent road vehicle R&D in the US came together during June 24-26 in Washington DC for the 3^rd National Intelligent Vehicle Initiative Meeting. The conference -- administered by the Society of Automotive Engineers and attended by a crowd of about 200 -- was sponsored by the US Department of Transportation. The purpose of the meeting was to highlight the results of their ongoing Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI) program, as well as to re-affirm the government-industry partnerships that are a cornerstone of the program.

In addition, an impressive set of demonstrations were offered on the grounds of the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Turner-Fairbanks Highway Research Center.

About two hundred engineers, executives and researchers attended. From the industry side, a large majority of the major automotive OEMs and major suppliers were represented, as well as truck OEMs and their suppliers. Academic research institutions were well represented by California PATH, the University of Minnesota, Virginia Tech, and others. Representatives from leading agencies in bus transit were there, including the Utah Transit Authority and Lane Transit. But given the budget crunches across the country, state DOT representatives were hard to find – their slots on the program were generally filled by in-state university reps. The other major contingent in the audience were the federal staff working on the various facets of the program, who had the opportunity to hear about their colleague’s work and understand the industry perspectives.

Reducing the Crash Rate by 1/3 -- DOT Execs Offer Perspectives

The two day program was opened Jeff Paniati, acting director of the department’s Joint Program Office for Intelligent Transportation Systems. He moderated a panel in which executives from each of the major ITS-interested agencies offered their views on the important priorities facing their organizations with regard to road safety. Jeff Runge, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), led off with a strong call to continuing the effort to reduce crashes on the nation’s highways. A significant new goal was announced –- a reduction in crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled from the current 1.51 to 1.0 by 2008. Achieving this would result in 4,000 fewer lives lost on the nation’s highways (42,350 fatalities occurred in 2002).

Administrator Runge sees the pathway towards this goal as increased use of seat belts, continued reductions in impaired driving, and crash avoidance. “Crash avoidance is truly the fertile ground for reaching this goal,” he said, noting that the “easy gains” have already been made in the seat belt usage and impaired driving areas during the last twenty years. However, in a surprising jab at industry when addressing the agency’s concerns over driver distraction, he said “we keep telling industry to test their new systems for driver distraction, and they don’t listen.”

Next on the podium was Annette Sandberg, administrator-designate for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. She noted that the societal cost of heavy vehicle crashes are $19.6 billion annually, and her agency expects the commercial vehicle portion of the IVI program to remain steady at $4-5M per year. She highlighted the government’s recent award of a field operational test program to Freightliner Corporation to evaluate Electronically Controlled Braking Systems, saying that “brake performance may be a factor in 1/3 of all truck crashes.” Looking towards the future, she emphasized addressing vision enhancement (blind spots), better understanding crash causation in car-truck interactions, and system integration in the driver’s cab.

Barbara Sisson, Associate Administrator for Research, Demonstration, and Innovation at the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) voiced her support for vehicle based R&D, both for safety and operational improvements. She quoted estimates from Lane Transit in Eugene, Oregon, in which they expect to save $15M in their $100M bus rapid transit project, by using the narrower lanes enabled for steering assist for buses. She said that FTA plans to initiate a major project next year to test these lane assist systems in an operational environment.

The panel concluded with remarks by Mary Peters, Federal Highway Administrator. She echoed the emphasis on safety delivered by others, and noted that a new core program for safety is being defined within USDOT. She announced quantitative goals for crash fatality reductions within the next five years:

As an example of her view of a multi-dimensional approach to reach these goals, she noted the high effectiveness of various types of rumble strips along and within highways, as well as the gains expected from intelligent vehicle technologies such as the road departure field operational test currently underway. She also pointed to the recent successes in developing infrastructure-based intersection collision avoidance systems as being “ready for quick rollout and very effective.”

Twenty Percent Increase Proposed for ITS and IVI

The parade of DOT executives continued into the luncheon, with an address by Emil Frankel, Assistant Director for Transportation Policy in the Secretary’s office. He spoke to the Department’s proposal for the new re-authorization of the US transportation program, which is currently being considered by Congress. Called “SAFETEA,” intelligent transportation systems funding of $1.7B is proposed for a five year period, as compared to a $1.3B budget for the preceding period of 1998-2002 under TEA-21 legislation. This is a 20% increase. During TEA-21, 25% of ITS funding was devoted to the IVI program, and Frankel said that he expects this ratio would continue into SAFETEA.

The focus then shifted to the non-federal side, with a panel composed of representatives from General Motors, Visteon, the Utah Transit Authority, and the Virginia Department of Transportation. The value of their various federal government partnerships was affirmed; for example, Robert Lange of GM noted that engineering development within the early work of the government-industry Collision Avoidance Metrics Partnership was important to their product development and introduction of a second generation adaptive cruise control system on the new Cadillac XLR.

For the scientifically minded, benefits estimation was the next topic on the agenda, with in-depth presentations provided by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, and Battelle. These organizations are each developing various benefits estimation techniques under IVI funding.

The second day opened with a panel entitled “International Opportunities.” Andre Vits of the European Commission offered a description of the extensive work they have recently sponsored in the intelligent vehicles area, as well as an update on the very active eSafety program in Europe. From Japan, Mr. Hiroshi Nishida of the Japan Automobile Standards Internationalization Center described the Advanced Safety Vehicle program, and Mr. Akio Hosaka described the Advanced Cruise-Assist Highway Research Program. The session finished up with a view from Neil Shuster, president of ITS America.

Accelerating Deployment

In one of the most interesting and energetic sessions, industry actors in several key sectors offered their views as to strategies for accelerating the deployment of advanced safety technologies. Scott Smith of Freightliner, David Pierce of Eaton-VORAD, and Marty Fletcher of US Xpress trucking each offered views from the trucking industry, and Kris Weeks of Clever Devices spoke in terms of offering products to the bus transit industry. All were in strong support for what the government is already doing in IVI and offered insights into the process by which promising electronic systems become successful products. Mr. Pierce noted that their collision warning products were at a 7% level of market penetration and significant growth in sales is expected in the next years.

The conference agenda noted that the IVI program is conducting it’s first major assessment of a cooperative system for the intersection collision avoidance problem area. This last forum of the conference was intended to discuss the factors that indicate the need for a cooperative solution as well as the enabling technologies required for implementation. Presentations were provided by Dr. Steve Shladover of California PATH, Stefano Viggiano of Lane Transit, Dr. Tom Dingus of Virginia Tech, and Chris Wilson of DaimlerChrysler.

Check the Web!

The conference representatives promised that many of the presentations would be posted on USDOT’s IVI website immediately, at www.its.dot.gov/ivi.

Hot Action at the Vehicle Demos

For the week of the event, the Washington area emerged from weeks of cool, rainy weather into full-fledged fiery summer. With temperatures in the nineties, a wide area of demonstrations proceeded, accompanied by plenty of water bottles and a large tent mercifully provided by FHWA.

Several advanced vehicles boasting new technology included the road departure countermeasures vehicle being developed by Visteon, UMTRI, and Assistware; the naturalistic driving study vehicle developed by Virginia Tech; and the forward collision warning vehicle developed by General Motors for their ongoing field evaluation of this technology in cooperation with NHTSA. But these were all “static,” non-moving, displays.

The driving demos were numerous. Freightliner offered demonstrations of their lane departure warning device (from Iteris) as well as their Roll Stability and Advisor system, both of which are now available as an option on new trucks. The roll stability system was evaluated in an early IVI operational test and company representatives said that that project was important in bringing the system to the commercial market. Another truck demo was provided by Mack Trucks and McKenzie Tank Lines, who are leading another of the heavy truck IVI projects; this project focuses on detailed evaluation of lane departure warning, trucker safety advisories, and automatic collision notification.

The most advanced functional technology was, predictably, on the transit buses – precision docking down to a finger’s width gap from the passenger loading platform and fully automated operation from the PATH researchers; also, surround sensing and forward sensing from both PATH and a team composed of the Pittsburgh transit agency and Clever Devices.

Clearly, though, the stars of the show were three intersection collision avoidance (ICA) approaches demonstrated in a fully operational mock intersection built by FHWA exclusively for the demo. While the Japanese have led in this area with extensive R&D exhibited at their Demo 2000, this was the first-ever demonstration of ICA in the US. ICA systems, termed “Intersection Decision Support” systems by the US program, were shown which handled both signalized and stop-sign-controlled intersections, and implementations focused on both infrastructure-only systems, as well as cooperative vehicle-infrastructure systems. In one case, for instance, data on the traffic signal state was transmitted to approaching cars, which activated warnings if the vehicle was not slowing for a red signal. Another system detected approaching high speed vehicles on a major road which were obscured by trees, activating a highly visible “No Left Turn” electronic sign for the driver on the minor road until it was safe to turn onto the major road.

IVsource Commentary

The overall conference was a “class act” and appeared to accomplish its purposes of informing the broader world about progress in the IVI program.. An unexpected bonus was the significant media coverage, which resulted in news stories on CNN and NBC, as well as print media, in the US. As far as we know, these stories were upbeat and positive, giving the public hope for these systems to one day make their lives safer. This year’s demo was repeatedly compared to a similar event in 2000 when the IVI program was in its infancy -- “impressive” was the word most used to describe the progress since then.

Our conclusion is that the IVI program is stable, producing results, and moving forward within the framework of a solid partnership with industry. It appears that the US vehicle industry respects and values the IVI program, which is an accomplishment in itself. All indications are that, as future Congressional legislation evolves, the IVI program will remain a fixture of the USDOT ITS program.

Exhibits at the National Intelligent Vehicle Initiative Meeting and Demonstration
June 24-26, 2003

1. Rear-end Collision Avoidance for Passenger Cars

When a threat is detected, the Advanced Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) will either alert the driver or, if adaptive cruise control is in use, take control of the accelerator and brakes to maintain a safe distance. The waming/alert features can be a combination of visual, auditory and haptic clues. The system relies on Forward Radar, Forward Vision System, In-vehicle Sensors and Global Positioning System (GPS) Map.

2. Road Departure Collisions for Passenger Cars

This system warns drivers when they are about to drift off the road and crash into an obstacle, or when they are traveling too fast for an upcoming curve. The system has the potential to prevent road departure crashes caused by driver inattention, distraction, drowsiness, or excessive speed. The system relies on a forward looking lane tracking camera to provide lane drift warning while forward and side looking radar detects obstacles. The curve speed warning function uses a GPS receiver for position location and digital maps annotated with speed information.

3. Intersection Collision Avoidance

Four systems will be demonstrated that are effective at preventing different aspects of intersection collisions. The first is a vehicle-based system that warns drivers if they are going to violate a stop sign or traffic signal. The second is an infrastructure-based system that also warns drivers if they are going to violate a stop sign or traffic signal. The third scenario uses a roadway-based system to warn a driver if a vehicle is crossing its path. And the final scenario provides an infrastructure-based warning to help the driver determine when it is safe to make a turn at a non-signalized intersection.

4. Rollover of Heavy Trucks

The Rollover Stability Advisor/Control System (RSA/C) warns drivers or takes corrective action if they are approaching the rollover threshold for their vehicle. This countermeasure uses real-time on-vehicle sensors to compute the rollover margin.

5. Commercial Vehicle Rear-end Collisions

A rear-end collision warning system that includes adaptive cruise control and advanced braking will be demonstrated. Although collision-warning systems are widely deployed in commercial vehicles, this project is the first independent evaluation of the performance and benefits of a collision-warning system in commercial service on public roads. The rear-end collision warning system is a radar-based device that provides both visual and audible warnings to the driver. The driver is warned of objects that are close in front, and in the same lane-such as stopped, or slower moving vehicles. The adaptive cruise control system uses the same radar to maintain the driver's preset speed and following distance.

6. Multiple Collision Types (Rear-end, Road Departure and Lane Change/Merge)

These vehicles are equipped with multiple advanced safety systems including the trucker advisory system, an automatic collision notification system, and a lane departure warning system. The trucker advisory system uses a satellite-based location system and a map database to wam drivers when they are approaching a geographic location that has a high frequency of commercial vehicle crashes. The automatic collision notification system sends an emergency signal by satellite communications to the fleet operators' emergency control center if the vehicle is involved in a crash. This enables company officials to contact the appropriate local authorities with information about the driver, cargo type, and precautions that may be necessary. Among other benefits, automatic notification can speed response to a hazardous material incident. The vehicles are also equipped with a lane departure warning system, which alerts the driver when the truck inadvertently drifts out of its lane. The lane departure warning system uses vision processing to "read" the road ahead to determine the position of the host vehicle in the lane.

7. Naturalistic Driving Study

100 cars belonging to volunteer drivers will be instrumented with data collection systems. The study will provide detailed information on all of the events leading up to a crash, or a near-crash event. This study will provide information about drivers' performance in their own vehicles in real traffic conditions (as opposed to most driver performance studies, which occur in a controlled environment, or result from analysis of crashes after they occur). Based on the results of the pilot study, broader research involving thousands of instrumented vehicles is being planned in cooperation with industry and transportation agencies. This study will provide information that addresses all crash types.

8. Transit Vehicle Lane Change and Merge Crashes

A transit bus will be demonstrated that warns the driver of imminent side collisions. The warning system is based on an ultrasonic sensor.

9. Transit Rear-end Collisions:

The Transit System in San Mateo, California (Samtrans), in partnership with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and PATH, is evaluating a radar- based collision avoidance system that wams transit drivers of an impending collision with the vehicle ahead. The system has been installed on two buses and tested for six months. Bus routes will vary in order to obtain a wide variety of operating scenarios.

10. Transit Vehicle Lane Keeping

A transit bus developed by the California Department of Transportation is equipped with a system that permits automated lane keeping and precision docking. This permits the vehicle to operate safely in narrow lanes.