September October 2017

14 American Traffic Safety Services Association INNOVATION Getting America’s roads ready for the self-driving car Finding a direction for roadway infrastructure as automated vehicle technology advances The automated vehicles (AV) industry is undeniably progressing and expanding, especially in terms of communication and collaboration. A growing population of academics, major auto manufacturers and representatives from federal and state governments are investing time and money into technologies that will advance self-driving cars. Among the remaining questions that must be answered before motorists can experience auto-pilot mode on the road is how infrastructure systems and the traffic control devices necessary for AV technologies to operate will potentially be affected. The technology for AVs, such as machine vision systems, were designed to work with the infrastructure already in place. It wasn’t until recent years that other roadway variables like unmapped work zones or the need for wider lane lines became a part of the conversation. This remains a difficult discussion to have due of the lack of transparency of all parties involved in advancing AV technology. “The problem with addressing infrastructure standards is that the automotive companies provide very little information regarding how their technologies function,” said Rob Dingess, president of Mercer Strategic Alliance. “That understanding gap makes developing changes to documents like the MUTCD extremely difficult. The closest standard development processes are related to Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communication at intersections and road marking standards for machine vision systems.” Dingess, a long time ATSSA member, recently attended the 2017 Automated Vehicle Symposium, which was held from July 10 to 14 in San Francisco, Calif., where he co-organized the “Reading the Road Ahead: Infrastructure Readiness” session with ATSSA’s Director of New Programs Brian Watson, Senior Research Engineer and Division Head at Texas A&M Transportation Institute Paul Carlson and Director of Mobility Technology Solutions at Transpo Group Scott O. Kuznicki. The session addressed the current global state of machine vision systems and how those systems interact with traffic control devices. “Vision sensor manufacturers and automotive original equipment manufacturers need to begin working with the roadway infrastructure industry to create optimum standards for machine vision systems,” Watson said. “Signage, pavement markings, and temporary traffic control devices were created with the human eye and brain in mind, but machine vision is a whole new variable that needs to be accounted for when manufacturing these devices.” Joe Jeffrey, president of Road-Tech Safety Services, Inc. also spoke about where smart work zones fit in when it comes to the world of AV. According to Jeffrey, work zone detection is somewhat related to Levels of Automation (LoA), which designate the automated capabilities of a vehicle, with level 0 translating to no automation and 5 translating to full automation. An AV with an LoV of 5 would be more likely to fair well on a newly paved road with retroreflective striping than it would on a rural road without retroreflective striping because sensors and global navigation satellite systems rely on striping and other traffic control devices to operate. “In the case of work zones, that would be another example [of outside factors that could affect the ability of an AV to function properly],” Jeffrey said. “It might be a road that would support level 5 just fine but once you get to a work zone, something needs to tell the car to relinquish control to the driver as they pass through that work zone. It would have to do that in time for the driver to acclimate and be capable of suddenly taking the vehicle through a work zone with lane shifts and narrow lanes.” Jeffrey said with different levels of autonomy performing on different segments of roadways, there needs to be a way to get information pertaining to upcoming hazards, like short term work zones, to AVs. “If you get flaggers out there, they may only be out there for an hour or two or a few days and a lot of the lane closures right now aren’t being reported to the state transportation departments,” Jeffrey said, adding that this results in many of the work zone sites popping up without being tracked on apps, like Google Maps or Waze, that provide real-time traffic information to motorists. Director of Mobility Technology Solutions at Transpo Group, Scott O. Kuznicki, introduced the speakers of the 2017 Automated Vehicle Symposium session “Reading the Road Ahead: Infrastructure Readiness,” in San Francisco, Calif. on July 12. The symposium brings attendees, who represent more than 11 industries within the automated vehicles community, together for a week of exchanging ideas and insights to make automated vehicles a reality.