Ginger Goodin, director of TTI’s Transportation Policy Research Center (PRC), recently joined other national automated-transportation experts for the 2014 Automated Vehicles Symposium in San Francisco. The Transportation Research Board and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International sponsored the event.
The symposium focused on the challenges and opportunities presented by automated vehicles and the roadway systems in which they will operate. Workshops featured state-of-the-practice developments in automation research, and also explored the societal and non-technical implications of automated vehicle transportation.
Goodin’s presentation focused on the state and local perspectives related to public policy implications of automated vehicles. Those implications affect a broad range of state agencies and local authorities and involve a variety of functions, from planning to system operation to safety and accountability. She also shared findings from recent TTI research, highlighted by:
- how uncertainty in AV capabilities, benefits and development contribute to the lack of clarity needed for state and local public policy development,
- how unresolved public policy and institutional issues will play a role in slowing deployment, and
- how forces unrelated to vehicle technology will dominate the focus on state and local transportation policy.
“Automated vehicle development and deployment efforts are moving very rapidly,” Goodin says. “That makes it all the more important that the public-policy considerations of this emerging field are informed by reliable research findings.”
PRC work in the automated-vehicle arena is ongoing, with current research addressing state policy and legislation pertaining to testing, safety, certification, licensing, liability and insurance, data management, privacy and cyber security.
See Ginger Goodin’s presentation: Automated Vehicles and Public Policy: State and Local Perspectives