It may sound like far-fetched science fiction, but as companies such as Google, Uber and Tesla continue to roll out new advances in driverless vehicle technology, Pennsylvania doesn't want to be caught off guard if and when the cars hit the streets here.
Thus, the state recently created a task force charged with developing policies for testing self-driving "autonomous" vehicles, and its members already are considering eliminating the one rule governing those vehicles it has on the books now — that an operator be behind the wheel at all times.
"There's nothing unique today about Pennsylvania," said Kurt Myers, a PennDOT official and Autonomous Vehicle Testing Policy Task Force co-chairman. "If we do change these policies and we do have the law changed, then it opens the door for a lot of different testing scenarios that can't be done in other states."
The task force had its inaugural meeting in June, soon after legislation was introduced in the state Senate. The legislation provides rough guidelines for testing self-driving cars, including marking the vehicle if no driver is in it, reporting crashes and requiring testing companies to provide proof of insurance. It directs the Department of Transportation to come up with more specific policies, which department officials hope to have ready by the time the legislation is passed.
Task force members said they'll suggest policies for vehicle testers — likely representatives of tech companies, car manufacturers and universities — as they work on the driverless technology. Elimination of the driver-at-the-wheel requirement would make Pennsylvania stand apart from other states, according to members of the task force, which includes state agencies, state police, the Federal Highway Administration, AAA, a Pittsburgh councilman and industry representatives.
Myers said there's not yet a need to regulate autonomous vehicles for the average driver because the technology isn't advanced enough yet.
A Look Into the Future
Although some people might imagine a terrifying future where driverless, intelligent cars take over the roads — think of the malevolent car Christine from the eponymous movie — experts imagine a rosier scenario.They say self-driving vehicles will reduce deaths and injuries caused by human error and give mobility to those who aren't able to drive themselves. Many companies — from automakers to tech companies — are developing autonomous vehicles, and colleges and universities are working on projects of their own.
The vehicles tend to use a combination of cameras, sensors and GPS to sense where they are and what's going on around them.
Some autonomous vehicle technology is already used on commercial cars. Features such as lane guidance, automatic braking and adaptive cruise control are available in new models of traditional vehicles.
State officials hope companies will see Pennsylvania's testing potential because of its seasonal changes and varied terrain, which differ from that of other states with rules for testing such as California, Texas, Nevada and Florida.
Eight states and Washington, D.C., have enacted some sort of autonomous vehicle legislation. Many more, including Pennsylvania, are in the process of doing so.
Trucking and travel trends provide a window into the future of potential autonomous vehicle uses.
Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association President Jim Runk imagines a future in which tractor-trailers travel along Interstate 78, linked together in a caravan through a Wi-Fi connection, with a driver in the first rig and the rest without a human at the wheel.
It's even possible that the process, known as platooning, could allow cars to join the caravan and then break off when their exit approaches.
"You could just sit back and read," Runk said.
With the rise of e-commerce in recent years, the Lehigh Valley has seen an explosion in warehouse operations because of its proximity to major highways and markets on the East Coast.
Freight volume in the Lehigh Valley is projected to grow by 96 percent to 80.2 million tons by 2040. By then, trucks are expected to move 92 percent of the volume freight, according to a Freight Advisory Committee that was set up late last year by the Lehigh Valley Transportation Study.
Roger Cohen, PennDOT policy director and task force co-chairman, said self-driving vehicles could make it easier to provide mass transit options from the Lehigh Valley to New York City. The Wi-Fi-connected train of vehicles is one example, for instance.
He said roads wouldn't require much transformation, perhaps some electronics or designated lanes.
"Where the development of new rail surfaces from Allentown and Bethlehem and Easton and New York is so expensive it becomes almost prohibitive to contemplate, you could get automated transit vehicles and transit corridors," he said. "It could create enormous new opportunities that could be tremendously beneficial to places like the Lehigh Valley."
A Safe Ride
Safety is at the forefront of everything, officials say.It was a point driven home in May when a Tesla Model S crashed into a tractor-trailer while in autopilot mode in Florida, killing the driver of the Tesla.
The crash doesn't change anything for Pennsylvania's task force, PennDOT spokeswoman Erin Waters-Trasatt said. She said state officials are looking to provide guidance for testing self-driving vehicles as safely and with as much flexibility as possible. She also noted Tesla's autopilot isn't intended to be self-driving — it requires a driver to keep hands on the wheel. The task force is looking exclusively at self-driving vehicles, she said.
There were more than 35,000 road fatalities in the United States in 2015. Bryan Thomas, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said human error or human choices led to 94 percent of those crashes.
"Any number of decisions that a human driver makes ... that is a huge chunk of the safety problem on our roads," Thomas said. "Autonomous vehicle technologies can really help address a lot of that."
Myers, Pennsylvania's task force co-chairman, said he's also excited about the possibilities not only to increase safety, but accessibility.
He said on a daily basis, he and his staff receive calls from doctors requesting licenses be taken from people who are no longer healthy enough to drive.
"We've taken away that freedom, that basic item that all of us cherish, that mobility to come and go as they please, and now they're dependent upon a family member or friend or mass transit or whatever means they might have to get around," Myers said. "Imagine a day in the future, where autonomous vehicles were available and those individuals were no longer captives of their medical condition that keeps them from being able to drive."
The state's efforts to regulate autonomous vehicle testing come as the U.S. Department of Transportation is planning to release its own guidelines in the coming months.
Department officials plan to lay out three documents: one that covers what manufacturers should be concerned about, one that acts as a model policy for states and one that outlines what new tools the federal government might need to deal with vehicle safety in an era of autonomous vehicles.
Universities Lead the Way
Pennsylvania is already known in the autonomous vehicle world for award-winning research done at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Researchers there are still tweaking their autonomous but manned vehicle — a Cadillac they take for a spin for specific experiments.John Dolan, a principal systems scientist at the school's Robotics Institute who's involved with several autonomous vehicle projects, said they test the software that maps the car's trajectory and technology that makes sure the vehicle doesn't come too close to parked cars, among other experiments. They've also tested the car's ability to go onto entrance ramps on Pittsburgh's Bloomfield Bridge.
Someone is always in the vehicle, he said, and he doesn't expect fully autonomous vehicles to be ready and available for five to 10 years.
"I think it's going to take a long time for somebody to be able to just sit back and not pay attention," he said.
Carnegie Mellon's 2011 Cadillac SRX Crossover is familiar with Pittsburgh's streets and Uber has several manned but autonomous vehicles on the roads too.
Stan Caldwell, executive director of the Traffic 21 Institute, a research project at Carnegie Mellon focused on technology-based ways to address Pittsburgh's transportation issues, said autonomous vehicle technology became more prominent in the last decade.
The interest can be traced back to a 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, in which the Department of Defense's research agency pitted autonomous vehicles against each other.
Carnegie Mellon and a joint University of Pennsylvania and Lehigh University team participated, with Carnegie Mellon taking first place. The joint UPenn and Lehigh team, called the Benjamin Franklin Racing Team, came in fifth with a Toyota Prius.
Jason Derenick was a PhD student in the computer science department at Lehigh University who worked on the car. Although now Derenick works on autonomous aerial robots at Exyn Technologies in Philadelphia, he said he's still using some of the lessons he learned at Lehigh.
Derenick said he worked on how the Prius, nicknamed Little Ben, perceives its environment, mostly using Lidar, or sensors that beam light and then measure how long it takes for the signal to return to get a sense of the environment.
"To see something basically start from scratch and in 11 months go from nothing to driving 60 miles by itself, that's exhilarating, especially as a student," he said. "You know algorithms and that sort of stuff, but when you take it and apply it and see it do what it's supposed to and do something intelligent, it's pretty remarkable."
©2016 The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
