Category: News & Articles

By: Sandhiprakash (Sandhi) Bhide, sandhibhide@gmail.com
Innovative Business Leader, Technologist, and Strategist; Member of Edison Steering Committee and Expert Judge; President Anwaya Consulting LLC, CEO Balak Drishti; Cofounder/BOD/Investor: FleetNurse Inc.

 

Smart transportation as the name suggests is about putting smartness in transportation but embedded in the heart or in this case the brain of the vehicle. The vehicle could be a train, a bus, a car, an airplane, a hovercraft, a ship, a boat, a submarine or anything else but normally a motorized vehicle either gasoline powered, or hydrogen powered, or electric or using some other source of energy. Smartness is derived at various degrees of embedded intelligence with a single objective: to take you (or goods) from one place to other so the integrity and safety of the vehicle itself including the assets inside are preserved, to continuously monitor the surroundings to ensure impending threats are recognized and acted upon before they become actual threats, to make sure the vehicles does not create harm to other humans and assets, to learn from ongoing encounters so future impositions are dealt with early and fairly and to monitor and predict things before they become a problem. Smart transportation is a spectrum and not a one thing that makes Smart Transportation.

Smart transportation is not about new fuels, or something specifically about electric or hydrogen based cars, or new exotic materials used in transportation, or about attractive dash board or new method of transportation like Air Taxi. It is also not about what is in the environment like a beacon[i], or GPS, or a recommendation program that tells you which is the best way to go from place A to place B. It is all about what is inside the vehicle and of course, vehicle may depend on outside information like location to act with its intelligence. The vehicle may also use various protocols to connect with other cars, people, obstacles, and surrounding assets, doing sensing, processing, and communicating. All these enable Smart Transportation but they are not Smart Transportation.

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines 6 levels of driving automation ranging from 0 (fully manual) to 5 (fully autonomous). These levels have been adopted by the U.S. Department of Transportation. In the first three levels (0-3), the human monitors the driving environment while Level 3-5, an automated system monitors the driving environment. The following is a high level description of these levels.

1. No Automation: Everything at this level relates to manual control. A human performs all the function such as steering, acceleration, braking, turning heater/music on or off, opening and closing the doors. Here, the vehicle is at the mercy of driver’s instruction (Note: In some cases, I do not know some backseat driving does occur, but we are not talking about at here). Most vehicles on the road today fit this category.
2. Driver Assistance: Here the driver gets some assistance through a technical mechanism called feedback control. The vehicle feature a single automated system, e.g. cruise control allows you to maintain a constant speed or temperature control or air circulation based on heater setting for driver and the passenger. The vehicle senses the up or down slope and the accelerator is automatically adjusted. Almost all the functions in the car fall in this category.
3. Partial Automation: For example, in an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), the vehicle can perform steering and acceleration. This is where both the human and the machine are both engaged and human still monitors all the tasks and take over or override control at any time. Here the automation falls short of self-driving because a human sits in the driver’s seat and can take control of the car at any time. Tesla Autopilot and Cadillac Super Cruise systems both qualify as Level 2.
4. Conditional Automation: Here the system has environmental detection capability and can make informed decisions for themselves, such as accelerating past a slow-moving vehicle. This is where the vehicle can perform most driving task but human override is still required and so the driver has to be alert. For example, Audi’s A8 featured Traffic Jam Pilot, which combines a Lidar scanner with advanced sensor fusion and processing power (plus built-in redundancies should a component fail) is an example of Conditional Driving Automation. For example, if the car in the front comes too close, the speed of the vehicle is automatically reduce to maintain car to car distance.
5. High Automation: Here the vehicle performs all the driving tasks under specific circumstance and Level 4 vehicles can intervene if things go wrong or there is a system failure. Here the vehicle can make decisions in most circumstance. Geo-fencing is required and human override is still an option. For example, Canadian automotive supplier Magna’s MAX4 technology (MAX4) can enable Level 4 capabilities in both urban and highway environments. They are working with Lyft to supply high-tech kits that turn vehicles into self-driving cars. These vehicles are geared towards ride sharing. In this particular, in some cases, the driver may be distracted and the vehicle can still take the appropriate decision.
6. Full Automation: The vehicle performs all the driving tasks under ALL conditions. Zero human attention or interaction is required. The dynamic driving task is eliminated. They will be free from geo-fencing, able to go anywhere and do anything that an experienced human driver can do. For many people, this might be too scary. Just look at the amount of information the system has to process in real time (see note below), which also requires tremendous amount of sensing (using a range of sensors), data processing (using processors) and decision making (using AI chips), fast communication (e.g. using 5G), and highest level of security. When it comes to a threat to life, it becomes scary.

 

For further reading:

1. The 6 Levels of Vehicle Autonomy Explained
2. https://www.sae.org/blog/sae-j3016-update
3. https://www.autopilotreview.com/self-driving-cars-sae-levels/
4. https://blog.ansi.org/sae-levels-driving-automation-j-3016-2021/
5. https://www.nextpit.com/sae-levels-beginners-guide
6. https://www.machinedesign.com/a-skeptical-engineer/article/21832324/saes-6-levels-of-selfdriving-cars
7. https://www.sae.org/standards/content/j3016_201806/

 

[1] (For those nerdy out there who want to know some technical details about the IEEE work: Reliable and scalable wireless transmissions for Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) are technically challenging. Each vehicle, from driver-assisted to an automated one, will generate a flood of information, up to thousands of times that of a person. Vehicle density may change drastically over time and location. Emergency messages and real-time cooperative control messages have stringent delay constraints, while infotainment applications may tolerate a certain degree of latency. On a congested road, vehicles need to exchange information badly, only to find that services are not available due to scarcity of wireless spectrum. Considering the service requirements of heterogeneous V2X applications, service guarantee relies on an in-depth understanding of network performance and innovations in wireless resource management. In this talk, we compare the performance of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) beacon broadcasting using random access-based (IEEE 802.11p) and resource allocation-based (C-V2X) protocols and introduce several enhancement strategies to mitigate packet collisions, recover from transmission errors, and support two-user non-orthogonal transmissions. They can become enabling tools toward reliable and scalable V2X for future intelligent transportation systems.)

Set on the scenic Caloosahatchee River in Southwest Florida, Lee County is known as the location of Edison-Ford Winter Estates, where Thomas Edison himself did some of his most innovative work in his on-site laboratory and botanical gardens.

Now, through a partnership between the Horizon Council, Horizon Foundation and the City of Fort Myers & Community Redevelopment Agency, Lee County also is the location where modern-day innovation is celebrated through the Edison Awards. Lee County is home to some of the most innovative companies in the United States, including several Edison Award winners.

In 2021, FGCU’s Dr. Sandra Kauanui accepted a Bronze Edison Award for Education – Dynamic Learning Platforms on behalf of the Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship. Also in 2021, Arthrex, a Horizon Foundation member, earned an Edison Award. John Ciocca, a Florida Gulf Coast University entrepreneurship major, was among the 2021 Gold Edison Award winners for his product, youBelong Voice, an app that provides alternative augmentative communication to those with speech disabilities. Additionally, local students took part in the Innovation Panel and Community Day, and many Lee County businesses participated in panel discussions or as sponsors.

The next Edison Awards events will take place April 19 through 21 with a Gala on April 20 at the Luminary Hotel and Caloosa Sound Convention Center in the downtown Fort Myers River District.

This is the third year the event will be held in Fort Myers.

Experiencing a Storm of Innovation

Given the quick response and strong recovery of Southwest Florida following Hurricane Ian, Lee County will continue to be a spectacular place for the Edison Awards. The community’s resilience and innovative response to the storm has been nothing short of remarkable – and it will make Lee County a beacon as we focus on the sustainability opportunity we have to look at post-hurricane best practices for rebuilding our community. Thanks to swift action from government, local businesses and public-private partnerships, there has been a significant investment of resources for loans and business-recovery support. Many businesses quickly reopened or adapted their business model to continue their operations. Employees were retrained to serve in other capacities such as construction, recovery and repair roles. As a result, Lee County is recovering and continues to offer vistas and experiences that brighten and inspire innovative minds. Follow the recovery and discover resources for planning your trip to Lee County at www.VisitFortMyers.com.

Who Are These Innovators?

Support from Lee County’s private sector ensures a thriving business climate for Lee County. The Horizon Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization with the mission and purpose to support, foster and encourage the economic development and diversity of business interests in Lee County, Florida. The Foundation provides financial, advisory and other support for the Lee County Economic Development Office (EDO) and the Horizon Council as well as financial and other support to other organizations and entities that the Foundation determines will promote and complement the interests and mission of the Foundation, the EDO, and/or the Horizon Council. For more information visit www.leecountybusiness.com.

Known as the “City of Palms,” Fort Myers is a thriving destination on the Caloosahatchee rich in history, culture, commerce and nature. Since the early 1800s, settlers and visitors have sought out Fort Myers, most notably inventor Thomas A. Edison, who built his home, laboratory and botanical gardens between the river and McGregor Boulevard. With history at its center, downtown is an economic and government hub where restaurants and cultural attractions draw a multitude of visitors. Those who admire nature will discover a range of outdoor activities such as parks, trails and watersports. Learn more at www.cityftmyers.com.

The movement of people and goods from place to place has been an inherent part of our lives throughout history. Transportation hubs have influenced the rise and fall of great cities and nations. From arterial roads built for horses and carriages emanating from the core of the Roman Empire, to ships and the waterways that powered Britain’s Industrial Revolution, to the rise of the personal vehicle and the creation of FDR’s Interstate Highway System, the key to economic influence has long resided with those who control movement across land, air, and sea.

What will power the next major shift in transportation? Will it be autonomous robots, delivery drones, electric helicopters, or sidewalk robots? How do we rethink mobility to redesign the way we live in our future cities in a way that is affordable, equitable, and accessible while also being delightful and convenient? And what does smart transportation really mean?

The Economist recently reported that transportation patterns have shifted for good post-COVID, moving away from a hub and spoke system to a spiderweb pattern with fewer, shorter journeys.[1] Now that people travel less predictably, there is a stronger case for mobility-as-a-service and on-demand buses and shared vans. We are at an age where sensors are cheap, high-speed networks are robust, data is plentiful, and machine-learning algorithms and dashboards allow us to recognize patterns and manage movement effectively.

Smart transportation systems focus on the movement of people and goods utilizing new and innovative modes and the physical and digital infrastructure that power these systems. When thinking through smart transportation areas, it is oftentimes important to understand the outcomes these technologies will affect, rather than the pure capabilities of the technologies themselves. A self-driving car offers more productive hours in the day and safer roads, if implemented correctly. A decarbonized global trucking network can reduce greenhouses gases by more than 20%. Autonomous transport of goods can improve supply chains and resiliency. A high-speed magnetically levitating train allows one to work in one city while being able to return home to family at night in another. Shared mobility systems offer the potential to better utilize existing infrastructure assets.

The 2023 Edison Awards Smart Transportation categories welcomes submissions by companies working on these innovative products and services that enable the advent of the future of transportation.

[1] https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/05/19/travel-patterns-have-changed-for-good-transport-systems-should-too

Vanderbilt School of Engineering profiled Audrey Bowden’s selection as a 2022 Lewis Latimer Fellow.

https://engineering.vanderbilt.edu/news/

Duke University Department of Physics profiled Ayana Arce’s selection as a 2022 Lewis Latimer Fellow.

https://physics.duke.edu/news/

Cheddar News interviewed 2022 Edison Achievement Award honoree, Carmichael Roberts, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Material Impact and Co-Lead, Investment Committee of Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

https://cheddar.com/

 

The Edison Awards was honored to hold our first Experiential Learning Day at the new Caloosa Sound Amphitheater. This article from News-Press profiles the exciting new space:

https://www.news-press.com/story/entertainment/2022/04/27/

WGCU once again featured the Edison Awards in their podcast, Gulf Coast Life. Give it a listen!

https://news.wgcu.org/podcast/gulf-coast-life/

---

WGCU, the channel for PBS and NPR for Southwest Florida covered The Edison Awards return to Fort Myers, FL.

https://news.wgcu.org/