Autonomous Vehicles

290 Pages·2021·15.039 MB·English

by  Nyle Phillips

TRANSPORTATION ISSUES, POLICIES AND R&D

A V
UTONOMOUS EHICLES

S , D E
AFETY EPLOYMENT AND FFECT
I
ON NFRASTRUCTURE

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T I ,
RANSPORTATION SSUES
P R&D
OLICIES AND

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TRANSPORTATION ISSUES, POLICIES AND R&D

A V
UTONOMOUS EHICLES

S , D E
AFETY EPLOYMENT AND FFECT
I
ON NFRASTRUCTURE

NYLE PHILLIPS
EDITOR
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN: 978-1-53619-0(cid:25)(cid:28)(cid:16)(cid:23)(cid:11)(cid:72)(cid:37)(cid:82)(cid:82)(cid:78)(cid:12)

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York
CONTENTS

Preface vii
Chapter 1 Smart Cars and Trucks: Spectrum Use
for Vehicle Safety (Updated) 1
Jill C. Gallagher and Bill Canis
Chapter 2 Issues in Autonomous Vehicle
Testing and Deployment 9
Bill Canis
Chapter 3 Issues in Autonomous Vehicle Deployment 47
Bill Canis
Chapter 4 Innovation and America’s Infrastructure:
Examining the Effects of Emerging Autonomous
Technologies on America’s Roads and Bridges 77
Committee on Environment and Public Works
Index 269

PREFACE

Fully autonomous vehicles, which would carry out many or all of their
functions without the intervention of a driver, may someday bring sweeping
social and economic changes and “lead to breakthrough gains in
transportation safety.” At present, no fully autonomous vehicles are
available for public use. Many new vehicles have automated some driver
functions, but all require a human to monitor the driving environment and
control the vehicle. However, rapid advances in technology have made it
likely that vehicles with high levels of automation will be on the market
within a few years, raising questions about the adequacy of existing methods
of safety as discussed in chapter 1. For this and other reasons, federal
oversight of the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles has been of
considerable interest as reported in chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 4 examines the
implications of autonomous vehicles on America’s roadway infrastructure.
Chapter 1 - Increasing the autonomy of cars and trucks is seen as an
effective way to reduce the 94% of vehicle-related accidents that are caused
by human error. While some semiautonomous safety technologies, such as
automatic braking and adaptive cruise control, are in use today, autonomous
safety technologies under development would require cars and trucks to
communicate with each other (vehicle-to-vehicle, or V2V) and with their
surroundings (vehicle-to-infrastructure, or V2I). V2V communication is
expected to reduce the number of accidents by improving detection of
viii Nyle Phillips
oncoming vehicles and providing driver warnings. V2I communication is
expected to help highway operators monitor and manage traffic and provide
drivers with information such as weather and traffic conditions. These
technologies are part of a congressional mandate to invest in and advance a
broader set of intelligent transportation systems to improve traffic flow and
safety. For vehicles to communicate wirelessly, they need access to radio
frequencies. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) manages commercial use of the radio frequency spectrum, and
allocates spectrum for specific uses. In 1999, the FCC allocated 75
megahertz (MHz) in the 5.9 gigahertz (GHz) band to Dedicated Short-
Range Communications (DSRC) uses. DSRC technologies, installed in cars
and trucks and on roadways, enable V2V and V2I communications.
Integrating DSRC technologies in vehicles and on roadways is in its early
stages. Meanwhile, the proliferation of cell phones and other devices has
increased demand for spectrum, and a competing technology, Cellular
Vehicle-to- Everything (C-V2X), has emerged as an alternative to DSRC for
vehicular communications. In December 2019, the FCC proposed rules that
would reallocate the lower 45 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band for unlicensed use
(e.g., Wi-Fi), and allocate the remaining 30 MHz for transportation and
vehicle-related use. Of the 30 MHz, the FCC proposed to grant C-V2X
exclusive use of 20 MHz of the segment. It is seeking comment on whether
the remaining 10 MHz should remain dedicated to DSRC or be dedicated to
C-V2X. The FCC commissioners noted that DSRC has evolved slowly and
has not been widely deployed, and the rules are intended to ensure the
spectrum supports its highest and best use. This decision has competitive
implications for the automotive, electronics, and telecommunications
industries, and may affect the availability of safety technologies and the path
toward vehicle automation.
Chapter 2 - Autonomous vehicles have the potential to bring major
improvements in highway safety. Motor vehicle crashes caused an estimated
36,560 fatalities in 2018; a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) has shown that 94% of crashes are due to human
errors. For this and other reasons, federal oversight of the testing and
deployment of autonomous vehicles has been of considerable interest to