Just a reminder of how rapidly technology is transforming automobiles and transportation, I submit two stories published yesterday….
From the Daily Progress: Perrone Robotics, a Crozet-based software company, is testing automated and fully autonomous vehicles on Virginia roads. Although driverless cars in Virginia must be manned, the laws regulating autonomous driving are more accommodating here than in many other states. “It’s pretty much an open playing field,” said Greg Scharer, Perrone’s chief operating officer “Virginia has a ‘tabula rasa’ on [automated vehicle] legislation.”
California may be dominating the transportation revolution, but Virginia is a player. Virginia Tech runs one of the nation’s leading transportation research centers in Blacksburg. And in 2015 Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced the opening of the Virginia Automated Corridors, a 70-mile network of highways and arterial roads in Northern Virginia outfitted with high-definition mapping and data acquisition systems to support automated-vehicle testing. Those assets, with a friendly legal climate, makes Virginia an attractive location for research on autonomous vehicles.
Meanwhile, an MIT study hints at what carpooling options created by companies like Uber and Lyft, can accomplish. Smart phones and algorithms can accomplish amazing things. Says lead author Daniela Rus:
Instead of transporting people one at a time, drivers could transport two to four people at once, resulting in fewer trips, in less time, to make the same amount of money. A system like this could allow drivers to work shorter shifts, while also creating less traffic, cleaner air, and shorter, less stressful commutes.
The MIT team found that 95 percent of demand would be covered by some 2,000 10-person vehicles, compared to the nearly 14,000 taxis that currently operate in New York City. The algorithm works in real-time to reroute cars based on incoming requests and can dispatch idle cars to areas with high demand, says the MIT article.
Virginia doesn’t have any localities with the population density of New York. But cut the ride-sharing trips in half or two-thirds and you still have a remarkable reduction in the number of vehicles on the road. It makes no sense to spend multi-billions on new highways and transit projects when this potential lies within our grasp.
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