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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

Emerging Vehicle Technologies and their Impact on the Transportation Professionals

Whether transportation engineers love it or are skeptical about it, emerging vehicle technologies have led an evolution converting traditional gasoline driven vehicles to connected vehicles, electrical cars, and autonomous vehicles. Connected vehicles are already here in certain forms and reportedly by some to be fully functional by 2023. Today we communicate with other drivers around us and are connected to the world via the internet. The car manufacturer Volvo has announced that all their cars will be made electric in two years. In the progress of autonomous vehicles we are at level two or three out of the five levels of development as defined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with some optimists boasting that full automation can be achieved as early as 2025. Irrespective, the question is not if but when transportation engineers will come face-to-face with such reality. The implications are profound. It will mean that transportation engineers need to equip themselves with new skills to avoid becoming obsolete. Universities will have to conduct researches in this area and to reassess their transportation curriculum to see if they are still relevant and sufficient. Professional organizations such as the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) may have to re-adjust their programs and change its agenda to suit the needs of the industry and their members. Government bodies and highway authorities must re-position themselves if they are to continue to function effectively. These agencies will be faced with the dilemma of how to balance the retrofitting of existing infrastructure with the construction of new facilities to allow the new breed of vehicles to operate smoothly. Historically the study of transportation is a multi-disciplinary science but this emerging trend will bring it to a new and higher level. Future transportation engineers will be expected to have at least a working knowledge in areas such as information technology, communication science, computer algorithm, human factor safety engineering, public engagement, business and legal environments, and social media management. The knowledge which we have accrued in the past at universities such as geometric design, traffic flow theory, transportation planning, travel demand modeling, etc., may no longer be sufficient. Standards organizations will have to work on setting up protocol architectures that are interchangeable, interoperable and expandable. This paper explores the many issues facing the transportation engineers and the industry and discusses how best they should position themselves for the future. It sets the stage for further research. Commercial sectors including automobile manufacturers (hardware) and IT companies (software) are already on board. The time for transportation professionals to jump onto the bandwagon is now; and arguably not a moment too soon.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Web
  • Pagination: 1 PDF file, 40KB, 11p.
  • Monograph Title: TAC 2018: Innovation and Technology: Evolving Transportation - 2018 Conference and Exhibition of the Transportation Association of Canada

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01683283
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Transportation Association of Canada (TAC)
  • Files: ITRD, TAC
  • Created Date: Oct 16 2018 2:04PM