Preparing a Nation for Autonomous Vehicles: Opportunities, Barriers and Policy Recommendations
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) represent a potentially disruptive yet beneficial change to the transportation system. This new technology has the potential to impact vehicle safety, congestion, and travel behavior. All told, major social AV impacts in the form of crash savings, travel time reduction, fuel efficiency and parking benefits are estimated to approach $2,000 to per year per AV, and may eventually approach nearly $4,000 when comprehensive crash costs are accounted for. Yet barriers to implementation and mass-market penetration remain. Initial costs will likely be unaffordable. Licensing and testing standards in the U.S. are being developed at the state level, rather than nationally, which may lead to inconsistencies across states. Liability details remain undefined, security concerns linger, and without new privacy standards, a default lack of privacy for personal travel may become the norm. The impacts and interactions with other components of the transportation system, as well as implementation details, remain uncertain. To address these concerns, the federal government should expand research in these areas and create a nationally recognized licensing framework for AVs, determining appropriate standards for liability, security, and data privacy.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB30 Vehicle-Highway Automation. Alternate title: Preparing a Nation for Autonomous Vehicles: Opportunities, Barriers, and Policy Recommendations for Capitalizing on Self-Driven Vehicles
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Corporate Authors:
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001 -
Authors:
- Fagnant, Daniel J
- Kockelman, Kara
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC
- Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
- Date: 2014
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 26p
- Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Autonomous intelligent cruise control; Implementation; Licensing; Policy; Traffic congestion; Travel behavior; Vehicle safety
- Geographic Terms: United States
- Subject Areas: Highways; Policy; Vehicles and Equipment; I90: Vehicles;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01516792
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 14-1281
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Mar 4 2014 11:34AM