Bacon's Rebellion

Gearing up for the Smart Car/Road Revolution

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James A. Bacon
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5 responses to “Gearing up for the Smart Car/Road Revolution”

  1. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    The state could save even more money by laying off all the janitors. If Jetsons’ flying cars are on the horizon how far off can robotic maids be?

    Where is our state’s Secretary of Technology? Shouldn’t he be opining on whether robot cars will make new roads unnecessary?

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      Virginia’s Secretary of Technology, once a high-profile position, is almost invisible these days. I remember Don Upson, Eugene Huang and Aneesh Chopra from the previous three administrations but I’d forgotten that we even have such a secretary under McDonnell. But it seems we do. His name is Jim Duffey. It’s true. Google him. He exists.

  2. TMT Avatar
    TMT

    The Tysons Partnership is looking at a system that would provide real-time transportation information first to all buildings and later to mobile devices. The first efforts would be focused on rail and bus information (e.g., the next three Silver Line trains heading to D.C. will arrive at X,Y & Z. Buses A, B & C will arrive at M, N & O). The system would likely be made more robust by including real-time traffic conditions.

    This is all part of the efforts by the Partnership, Fairfax County, VDOT and DRPT to consolidate mandatory TDM efforts into a single Tysons-wide effort and the soon-to-be-completed folding of Tytran into the Partnership.

    I see this an extremely positive development.

  3. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    the technology work flow goes like this:

    R&D -> system engineering -> production

    you don’t want to stop funding R&D…. even “bad looking” ideas
    can turn around overnight if another related technology has a breakthrough.

    No could could even initially conceive of all the spin-offs that have evolved from cell-tower technology – and it’s still spinning off with smartphones and now “smart cars”.

    this is the point where innovation in the marketplace starts to move but it’s not bureaucratic “approvals” that slow things down IMHO.

    It’s at least two other things:

    1. – standards – or the lack of as they are being developed. Go too far out on a limb on a technology with a proprietary approach and you may find someone sawing the limb you sitting on off.

    WiFi is a good example of the turmoil in developing standards.

    Here’s another as an example: Lightsquared with a truly innovated approach:

    ” LightSquared is a company that seeks to develop a wholesale 4G LTE wireless broadband communications network integrated with satellite coverage across the United States using a block of frequencies located near the band used by the Global Positioning System (GPS). However, the issue of interference (using high-powered ground transmitters in spectrum intended for low-powered signals from satellites) has caused problems.”

    so this company wanted to enable phones that would talk to cell towers when available and to satellites when not – for a seamless “connected” environment.

    that would enable “connected” cars – anywhere whether on an urban interstate or rural wyoming or anywhere.

    so it’s not just “approvals” that’s the problem – it’s standards not yet worked out or agreed to not only by the govt but by industry.

    I have serious doubts that we are going to see truly autonomous cars on interstates especially urban interstates – in our lifetime.

    GOOGLE and others have provide a proof-of-concept with vehicles that are relatively slow moving and still prone to problems. My guess is that we’re going to see actual use of autonomous vehicles in applications not on public roads anytime soon.

    You would think, for instance, that a prime place where you could get rid of a human would be with rail – to have autonomous trains – on dedicated fixed-guideways but that ain’t happening…. as far as I know.

    I do not think we’re going to see this until it’s proven to work in environments where one vehicle (like a train) can operate autonomously without killing people – at crossings, etc and I suspect for the first few years it will work like the autopilot now works in a cockpit.

    Now the other reason – if gov has a role to play – it’s ain’t going to happen with the current crop of elected who lean tea pot… just not going to happen.

  4. reed fawell III Avatar
    reed fawell III

    All this holds great potential. But far too often we forget to use it to attack the root of the problem – the distance between and efficient mix of uses.

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