Re-defining Mobility

Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) – Connected Vehicle/Autonomous Vehicle (CV/AV) Program

Surface transportation, as we know it today will soon be radically changed with the introduction of Connected Vehicles (CV) and Autonomous Vehicles (AV).  Technology is evolving so that the automobile – once the ultimate symbol of freedom and autonomy – is now becoming autonomous itself!

With 5,000 acres of testing area and over 20 miles of paved roadway, the CCTA’s Testbed, located at the Concord Naval Weapons Station in Concord, CA – is currently the largest secure test bed site in the United States.  Discover how this collaborative partnership structure will support development for tomorrow’s multimodal transportation technology.

Join us for refreshments and hors d’oeuvres

As CCTA’s Executive Director, Randy Iwasaki will present an overview of the CCTA’s CV/AV Testbed and provide an opportunity to learn about this comprehensive research and real-world program.

Where: Marriott Marquis, University of DC (M1)

When: Wednesday, January 14, 2015, 6-8 pm

Mark your calendars to attend the CCTA CV/AV Summit, March 31, 2015 @ Concord, CA

There is so much confusion and variation in the estimates/predictions when you hear the industry experts and forecasters talk about automated vehicles. Despite the challenges, there has been significant progress in the recent years and it is only getting more intense as the auto OEMs as well the tech geeks in Silicon Valley ramp up their investments and the research in the race to reach the holy grail.. Amidst all this chaos, comes this bold prediction.. 180,000 self-driving cars will be shipped globally by 2020.

Based on Frost & Sullivan estimates charted for us by BI Intelligence, there will be about 180,000 self-driving cars shipped globally by 2020. The market research firm adds that “you are likely to commute in autonomous cars” by 2025, which is a pretty bold statement considering that’s only a decade from now. 

And of course the source article doesn’t clearly articulate whether it is all Level 4 autonomy (no human input needed for operation)?  Do you agree with this prediction? Click here to read the article

Image Courtesy: Business Insider

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1. Technical Papers

   Papers should address technical subjects as well as the institutional, policy, business and economic aspects of ITS. All papers must be original and report on recent, significant and substantive achievements. All papers must relate to one of the eight main topics provided.

   Papers must be submitted as final, be at least six pages and no longer than 12 pages single spaced. Technical papers will be reviewed by a peer panel that will look for quality, relevance, and significance of the findings.

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   • The deadline for submitting papers is Friday, February 6, 2015. Papers will not be accepted after this date. This deadline will not be extended.
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3. Technical Support

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TECHNICAL PAPERS

ASSOCIATION BACKGROUND

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) is the nation’s largest organization dedicated to advancing the research, development and deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to improve the nation’s surface transportation network. ITS America was formed to provide a unified voice with respect to the development and deployment of new technology from the perspective of all potentially affected parties, including industry, government, academia and other association partners. ITS America represents the experience, perspective, and interest of both the public and private sectors.

ITS America’s members include federal, state, local government agencies; national and international companies involved in the development of intelligent transportation systems; universities and independent research organizations; certain national associations, and others. The Society has 27 state and multi-state chapters representing more than 40 states.

The Society’s $5+ million dollar budget is supported primarily through dues, fees derived from meetings, including a triennial World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, technical contracts with the U.S. Department of Transportation and others.

REPORTING RELATIONSHIP

ITS America Board of Directors

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The President and CEO provides leadership for ITS America. S/he directly oversees the management of a $5+ million budget and 30 staff in Washington, D.C. S/he serves as an ex officio member of the ITS America Board of Directors and on the ITS World Congress Board of Directors. S/he is responsible for translating the mission of the organization into specific goals and expectations relative to market development, research, education, and government affairs activities. S/he also serves as the lead spokesperson for ITS America before current and prospective members, government leaders, key business partners and stakeholders, media, other associations, and the general public.

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• Serves as the liaison between the Board and ITS America staff.
• Participate in policy formulation actions undertaken by the Board of Directors; Identifies strategic gaps and provides input; interprets major policies and objectives for officers and key executives; recommends courses of action; and establishes operating policies and standards within the general framework established by the Board.
• Ensure that the ITS America Board of Directors and the Executive Committee are kept timely informed about the operations of ITS America.
• Directs the enforcement of the Association Bylaws and the execution of all resolutions of the membership, the Board, and the Executive Committee.
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• Maintain contact with appropriate regulatory and legislative bodies, associations, public service representatives and organizations to achieve ITS America’s objectives and to enhance the image of the Society.
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• Represent ITS America in activities with its international partners, including ERTICO-ITS Europe and ITS Japan, and other national ITS organizations, to support a successful ITS World Congress and promote international cooperation on standards, research and deployment.

QUALIFICATIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS

The next ITS America President and CEO will be a strategic and innovative leader with a minimum of 10 years’ senior executive-level leadership and management experience with an organization of similar size, scale and complexity either in related sectors, a relevant association or government. The ideal candidate possesses the following experience and attributes:

• World class leader with a demonstrated track record as a leader in an organization known for innovation; Growth and customer/member service.
• Senior management experience including strategic planning, financial management, staff leadership, Board relations, market promotion and advocacy.
• Capable of anticipating and proactively addressing significant industry challenges and opportunities.
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• A successful track record of establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with an active volunteer Board, external partners and stakeholders.
• A highly recognizable, marquee executive who will bring high credibility to the organization.
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• Experience attracting, developing, motivating and retaining a high performing, team- oriented staff.
• Ability to manage staff remotely.
• Experience leading the development and execution of strategies for identifying new value-added services and products and generating sustainable revenue streams.
• Experience leading a federation of independent chapters is a plus. Effective at leading through persuasion.
• Excellent interpersonal and team skills for building and fostering key internal and external relationships.
• Outstanding communication skills, including speaking and presentation skills; an active listener.
• Familiarity with sectors and issues related to the transportation and technology industry is a strong plus.
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• Committed to the association, its mission and members, and all the issues that affects their success.
• Servant leader; diplomatic; politically savvy.
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LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS

Keeps on Point: Can quickly separate the mission-critical from the nice to dos and the trivial; quickly senses what’s the next most useful thing to work on; focuses on the critical few tasks that really add value and puts aside or delays the rest.

Gets Work Done Through Others: Manages people well; gets the most and best out of the people he/she has; sets and communicates guiding goals; measures accomplishments, holds people accountable, and gives useful feedback; delegates and develops; keeps people informed; provides coaching for today and for the future.

Organizationally Savvy: Maneuvers well to get things done; maze bright; knows where to go to get what he/she needs; politically aware and agile; knows the right thing to do; presents views and arguments well.

Communicates Effectively: Writes and presents effectively; adjusts to fit the audience and the message; strongly gets a message across.

Manages Up: is ambitious and is comfortable marketing himself/herself to higher management; knows how to relate effectively with top management.

Relating Skills: warm, friendly, and interpersonally agile; easy to approach and talk to; relates well to all kinds of people; makes a pleasant first impression and builds solid relationships.

Manages Diverse Relationships: Relates well to a wide variety of diverse styles, types, and classes; open to differences; effective up, down, sideways, inside, and outside; builds diverse networks; quick to find common ground; treats differences fairly and equitably; values diversity and treats all people with respect and dignity.

Education: An undergraduate degree is required. An advanced degree is highly desirable.

Compensation: A competitive compensation package will be provided to attract outstanding candidates.

Search by ITS America: Please submit your letter of interest and resume to Human Resources at CEOsearch@itsa.org. pinterest-1f3bb

Image courtesy: Automoblog

Add this to one of the million other articles you would see around the web that hypes the arrival of self-driving cars and how they are going to change our lives..

Click here to read the accompanying article.

Photo by cogdogblog

The Federal Highway Administration plans to produce deployment guidance in 2015 on connected vehicles to transportation infrastructure owner/operators.  Tell us what would best support decision making and deployments at the state and local level.

National Associations including AASHTO, ITE and ITS America are working together to form a Vehicle to Infrastructure(V2I) Coalition.  What type of organization will best meet your needs?

Please provide comments based on the materials distributed on these topics at the September 12, 2014 public meeting including the initial draft guidance, a handout on the proposed coalition, and the list of supporting V2I products/tools under development. The V2I Deployment Guidance Draft is an initial draft document. USDOT is seeking feedback from State and local Departments of Transportation, transit operators, other operating agencies, and infrastructure owners who are starting to plan for the deployment and use of connected vehicle technologies in their area. Any interested parties may provide comments on the initial draft guidance through Friday, November 14, 2014.

Questions to Consider on the Proposed CV Guidance

• Will the topics covered in the proposed guidance and the companion products being developed provide you with enough support to successfully deploy connected vehicle technologies in your area?
• Are there additional tools, training, or resources that you would like to see developed?
• Any other concerns/comments?

Questions to Consider on the V2I Deployment Coalition

• What are your thoughts about the structure of the proposed coalition?
• How should associated organizations’ and agencies’ leadership be involved?
• What challenges are likely to arise and need to be addressed?
• Any other concerns/comments?

Review source materials and provide comments at: http://www.its.dot.gov/meetings/v2i_feedback.htm by Friday, November 14, 2014.

via Visual.ly

Infographs are always a nice way to tell a story visually and this one below gets adopts that visual story telling to explain the complex societal impacts that are in the offing as the auto & tech heavy-weights like Google are vying to bring their self-driving technology to the mass market.. Imagine a world with no crashes, no traffic lights and no parking?  Mind boggling stuff for today’s drivers but that future doesn’t seem too distant anymore.. Though I think  Level 4 automation (i.e.,  completely autonomous) is at least a decade away, anyone would get excited about the prospect of not waiting for a light to turn green (or for that matter to not drivearound in circles looking for parking)…

The Amazing Ways The Google Car Will Change the World

via WSJ

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece that covers the various efforts underway in the world of autonomous vehicles (aka driverless cars i lay people speak) and how manufacturers are working with legislators to introduce their products to the tech-hungry driving public at least in a few states across the  country.. here is a video that accompanies that article.

What caught me by surprise is the sheer volume of activity and how certain people are that they will see autonomous vehicles on the roads in just a few short years.. As much as I would like to believe, full automation (Level 4) is still a decade away and we still have a lot of hurdles on the technology, policy and infrastructure side.  As one of the interviewed researchers points out, there are many concerns that dog this challenge incl. the high cost of laser vision, the risk that radar and camera sensors won’t see properly in bad weather, and complex legal issues raised by giving control to a robot. Let’s hope we overcome these hurdles soon because we, as a society, are paying a heavy price in terms of human lives and hard earned treasure as we continue to drive with manual control (~33K people killed on American roads during 2012).

Click here to read the entire article.

via BBC

Today the British government has announced that testing of automated cars will be allowed on public roads from January next year. The tests are then intended to run for between 18 to 36 months. What more innovative is the approach they have taken to doing this.  The government has invited cities to compete to host one of three trials, which would start at the same time.  Cities interested in hosting the trials have until early October to declare their interest and the Department for Transport has created a £10m fund to cover their costs (BBC says the sum to be divided between the three winners but not sure what the criteria would be for this split). Quite novel! Good to see the British government pushing the envelope on its road safety agenda using the driverless cars. Hope this nudges other EU countries (and the rest of the world) to get their act together and pave way for the automated vehicles.

Related articles

• UK could lead the way on driverless cars
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