The U.S. Department of Transportation at the Automated Vehicles Symposium 2018

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) will participate in the upcoming Automated Vehicles Symposium (AVS) 2018, which is to be held in San Francisco, CA. This symposium convenes industry, government, and academia from around the world to address complex technology, operations, and policy issues involving automated vehicle technologies. The United States is accelerating toward integration of this innovative technology on its roads and highways, so several USDOT leaders and staff will be on hand to discuss the Department's latest efforts in automated vehicles.

The Transportation Research Board and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International partner together to host the annual event, which will be held from July 9 to 12 this year. Secretary Elaine L. Chao will deliver the keynote address on Tuesday at 12:15 PM, and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Deputy Administrator Heidi King will deliver the keynote on Thursday at 8:10 AM.

On Wednesday at 10:30 AM, NHTSA Associate Administrator Nat Beuse will present during the panel "Regulatory Issues for Automated Vehicles." On Thursday at 11:00 AM, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy Finch Fulton will speak on the USDOT's automated vehicle research activities.

In addition, USDOT leaders and staff will be involved in several breakout sessions covering all aspects of automated vehicles.

Participation Highlights

Breakout Session #3: FHWA Road Weather Management Program: Investigating AV Technologies and Adverse Weather; Monday, July 9, 1:30 to 3:00 PM (Room Yosemite B): Paul Pisano, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and Ariel Gold, Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO), will participate in this session, which will explore questions such as, "How does adverse weather affect automated vehicles? Can radar penetrate falling rain or an iced antenna? How well do vision systems handle a dusting of snow? How are drivers informed about vehicle performance?" The session will also demonstrate the results of controlled experiments in adverse weather with three production vehicles.

Breakout Session #4: Test Bed Evolution and Collaboration: A Necessary Path to Roadworthiness; Monday, July 9, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Continental 1): Taylor Lochrane, FHWA, will participate in this session, which will discuss the latest in connected and automated vehicle testing programs and how we can collaborate across those programs to accelerate progress.

Breakout Session #9: An AV Crash Occurs: What Happens Next? Monday, July 9, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Golden Gate 2): James Esselman, FHWA, will participate in this session, which will discuss how liability will be assessed, especially in a mixed-fleet environment. The session will explore several scenarios from performance failures to cyber-attacks and the roles that government, manufacturers, insurers, and juries will play in determining how autonomous vehicles should perform. Topics will also include appropriate fixes and updates to software and how liability will be assessed.

Breakout Session #10: Building Automation into Urban and Metropolitan Mobility Planning; Monday, July 9, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Golden Gate 4): Scott Smith and Elizabeth Machek, both of Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, will participate in this session. The session will explore how cities can prepare for automation while there is still high uncertainty about how automation will develop and its potential impacts.

Breakout Session #11: New Innovations in Intersection Control with Cooperative Automation; Monday, July 9, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Golden Gate 7): Mehdi Zamanipour, National Academies of Sciences -- FHWA, and Dale Thompson, FHWA, will participate in this session, which will consider potential effects of different cooperative automation technologies in controlling signalized junctions. The main goal is to find the roles of both infrastructure and vehicles in decision-making and control decisions. The focus is on how vehicles and infrastructure can cooperate toward safer and more efficient intersection operations. Both national and international research projects in this area will be presented to explore a better understanding of the current issues and future needs.

Breakout Session #12: Life in the Slow Lane: Automated Low-Speed Shuttles; Monday, July 9, 1:30 to 3:00 PM (Yosemite C): USDOT staff, including Josh Cregger, Margo Dawes, Kevin Dopart, Elizabeth Machek, and Mohammed Yousuf, will participate in this session, which will include an overview of the work going on with low-speed automated shuttles around the world. The session will also feature a panel discussion with researchers, project sponsors, and industry as well as a group exercise to discuss the use cases and research needs for this relatively new mode.

Breakout Session #13: Training Needs for Automated Driving; Tuesday, July 10, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Yosemite C): Donald Fisher and Elizabeth Machek, both of Volpe Center, will participate in this session, which will provide critical and timely information to federal and state regulators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), researchers, and system developers relative to automated vehicle systems and driver training. Specifically, the session will focus on: 1) what is known about driver training needs, 2) what the minimum driver training needs are, and 3) what the critical unaddressed research areas are.

Breakout Session #14: Speed Dating; Tuesday, July 10, 1:30 to 3:00 PM (Room Golden Gate 2): James Esselman, FHWA, will participate in this session, during which leaders in the public and private world of automated driving will come together with each other-and with the audience-through focused talks and face-to-face discussions. This dynamic "speed dating" will help to build the connections crucial to effective regulation of automated driving.

Breakout Session #15: Trucking Automation: Deployment Challenges and Opportunities; Tuesday and Wednesday, July 10 and 11, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Golden Gate 8): Gene McHale and Michelle Arnold, both of FHWA, and Kelly Regal, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, will participate in this session, which will build on the results from the AVS 2017 trucking breakout session to provide an updated picture of challenges and opportunities for the deployment of on-road trucking automation. This session will extend the horizon to regions beyond the U.S., particularly Europe, Japan, and China. While the AVS 2017 session mainly addressed truck platooning and exit-to-exit (high-speed) highway automation, this session will address a wider variety of trucking automation use cases. Finally, there will be a stronger focus on higher levels of automation (e.g., Level 4) and their feasibility for near-term deployment.

Breakout Session #19: What's a Digital Infrastructure, Anyway?: Building a Shared Vision for National AV Readiness; Tuesday, July 10, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Golden Gate 1): John Corbin, FHWA, and Ariel Gold, ITS JPO, will participate in this session. This session is an opportunity for global stakeholders to hear from experts and collaborate to develop a common definition of "AV-ready digital infrastructure;" generate a short list of required definitions and models; and review existing frameworks, including a proposed Data Maturity Model.

Breakout Session #21: A Call to Action: It's Time for a Transit Renaissance! Linking Automation, Sharing, and Public Transportation to Advance the Public Good; Tuesday, July 10, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Yosemite A): Elizabeth Machek, Volpe; Steve Mortensen and Danyell Diggs, both of Federal Transit Administration; Robert Sheehan, ITS JPO; and Mohammed Yousuf, FHWA, will participate in this session. It will investigate concerns not being adequately addressed in our current transportation system nor in the overarching vision perpetuated by the development of automated taxis.

Breakout Session #22: Blockchain in the Automated Vehicle Ecosystem; Tuesday, July 10, 1:30 to 3:00 PM (Room Golden Gate 7): Dale Thompson, FHWA, will participate in this session, which will explore the intersection of blockchain technology and automated vehicles. This session will investigate how this emerging technology will transform mobility, facilitate transactions, revolutionize cybersecurity, and enable trusted machine-to-machine (M2M) communications without requiring either a trusted third party (e.g., a bank) or a regulatory agency.

Breakout Session #24: Test Scenarios and Standards for Automation; Tuesday, July 10, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Yosemite B): Anita Kim, Volpe Center, and Ariel Gold, ITS JPO, will participate in this session, which will present the state of the art in test scenario development activities and bring in technical expertise from different organizations. Using past crashes and incidents as a reference, the session will focus on how test scenarios can help evaluate certain types of functionality and failures, as well as the various data needed to address them. Crash reconstruction, simulation, and other techniques will also be discussed as additional source of information for test scenario development. Finally, the audience will participate in an interactive exercise to build out potential test scenarios with model cars to define aspects, such as Operational Design Domain, maneuvers, infrastructure, and performance measures.

Breakout Session #32: OEM/DOT Dialog on Dedicated Lanes, Work Zones, and Shared Data; Wednesday, July 11, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Golden Gate 7): Jon Obenberger and Taylor Lochran, both of FHWA, will participate in this session, which will discuss three key deployment topics with representatives from automotive OEMs and suppliers, infrastructure owners' operators and suppliers, and other key stakeholders. The topics are dedicated lanes for connected automated vehicles, highway work zones, and data for transportation systems management and operation. Three different panel conversations will focus on a deployment scenario with panel members each giving their perspective on what is needed for successful deployment and operation.

Breakout Session #33: Policy Implications of Autonomous Vehicles; Wednesday, July 11, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Plaza A): Anita Kim, Volpe Center, will participate in this session, which will focus on how tools, such as congestion pricing, could address automated vehicle externalities. The session will explore the pricing options that could address automated vehicles, and will also highlight the regulatory challenges that state and local agencies face in implementing such policies.

Breakout Session #35: Data Exchanges to Enable Automated Vehicle Integration; Wednesday, July 11, 1:30 to 5:30 PM (Room Golden Gate 1): Finch Fulton, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy; Ariel Gold, ITS JPO; and Matt Cuddy, Volpe Center will participate in this session, which aims to clarify the Department's role in accelerating voluntary data exchanges. It is part of USDOT's Data for AV Safety initiative  and builds on December 2017's Roundtable on Data for AV Safety.