Cars have greatly shaped American cities, sometimes in ways that have not optimized livability for city residents. As driving automation technology allows us to rethink our current transportation system, we have the opportunity to imagine cities and the ways we get around them as a co-developed system. In this PAVEcast episode, we look at the relationship between urban development and urban mobility, and how to harmonize these concepts in the city of tomorrow.

Guests

• Avery Ash – Head of Autonomous Mobility, INRIX
• Sarah Kaufman – Associate Director, Rudin Center for Transportation at NYU Wagner Graduate School
• Greg Rogers – Public Policy Manager, Nuro

Moderator

• Ed Niedermeyer - Director of Communications, PAVE

Following up on our conversation of “The Road Ahead with PAVE Chair and Executive Officers", PAVE Executive Director Tara Andringa sat down with members of our board of directors executive committee to discuss the state of the sector and automated vehicle education in the year ahead in the part 2 episode. 

Featuring the diverse perspectives of members representing established automakers, autonomous vehicle developers, automated trucking companies and trade groups, this wide-ranging conversation provides an overview of where we are and where we’re heading.

Learn more about the AV industry’s views on regulation, safety engineering, the economic factors driving automated vehicle investments, insurance, accessibility and much more in this fascinating discussion with industry leaders.

Guests

• Brad Stertz – PAVE Chair & Director of Government Affairs at Audi of America
• Mitch Kominsky – PAVE Vice-Chair & Director of Government Affairs for Self-Driving Vehicles at CTA
• Melissa Froelich – PAVE Secretary & Director of Government Relations at Aurora
• Finch Fulton – PAVE Treasurer & Vice President of Policy and Strategy at Locomation

Moderator

• Tara Andringa - Executive Director, PAVE

PAVE was not at CES in person this year, but we did take the opportunity to check in at Aeye’s virtual booth for a conversation with the lidar company’s head of marketing Steven Lambright.

Starting with the basic principles of lidar, our conversation goes into the deterministic nature of these sensors, how they complement an automated driving system’s probabilistic functions, how Aeye is making lidar more intelligent, what it takes to get those sensors onto production vehicles, and much more.

If you’re interested in digging a bit deeper into lidar, and exploring its role in an automated driving system and understanding the difference between deterministic sensing and probabilistic inference, you’ll be sure to get a lot out of this conversation.

Most AV research focuses on urban and suburban areas, where the technology could improve congestion or other urban mobility challenges. But how might driving automation improve the lives of rural Americans? That is the question that the University of Iowa’s National Advanced Driver Simulator seeks to answer with their “ADS for Rural America” automated shuttle project. In this PAVEcast episode, we welcome leaders of this project to find out what they’ve learned about the challenges and opportunities facing rural automated mobility. 

Guests

• Omar Ahmad – Deputy Director, National Advanced Driver Simulator
• Dr. Dan McGehee – Director and Associate Professor, Industrial & Systems Engineering at University of Iowa

Moderator

• Tabitha Colter - Director of Operations, PAVE

The Insurance Institutes of Highway Safety is one of the premiere auto safety organizations in America, drawing on massive amounts of insurance industry data to analyze and address road safety issues. 

IIHS President David Harkey joins the PAVECast to discuss one of the most important and misunderstood issues at the intersection of automation and road safety: the safety issues related to human factors in the partially-automated Level 2 driver assistance systems available on today’s cars.

Harkey walks us through IIHS’s recently-announced seven principles for Level 2 system design, explores the psychological factors and behavioral risks underlying them, and explains where this important work is headed.

Journalists play a key role in forming the public’s views of automated vehicles, serving as the filter for much of what reaches through. Covering this complex and rapidly-changing space is full of unique challenges, so we try to regularly set aside time to hear from our friends in the media.  We are finishing up our month of “year ahead” panels to chat with some AV reporters about what it takes to cover this fascinating technology, how journalists keep themselves up to date, the challenges they navigate in day to day coverage – and what they see coming in 2022.

Guests

• Andrew Hawkins – Transportation Editor, The Verge
• Tanya Snyder – Transportation Reporter,  POLITICO

Moderator

• Ed Niedermeyer - Communications Director, PAVE

PAVE’s Board of Directors is made up of broad representatives across the AV ecosystem, including corporations, start-ups, and nonprofit organizations. For our next “road ahead” conversation, we welcome the members of PAVE’s Executive Committee, representing Audi of America, the Consumer Technology Association, Aurora, and Locomation, to share their vision of the AV landscape in 2022.

We hope you enjoy this opportunity to hear from these AV sector leaders, and take in their thoughts on everything from the state of the AV industry to how to cut through the hype and misunderstandings that plague the public’s understanding of this technology. They will reflect on the progress of the last year and discuss the challenges of AV education that PAVE will tackle in the year ahead.

Guests

• Brad Stertz – PAVE Chair & Director of Government Affairs at Audi of America
• Mitch Kominsky – PAVE Vice-Chair & Director of Government Affairs for Self-Driving Vehicles at CTA
• Melissa Froelich – PAVE Secretary & Director of Government Relations at Aurora
• Finch Fulton – PAVE Treasurer & Vice President of Policy and Strategy at Locomation

Moderator

• Tara Andringa - Executive Director, PAVE

We are excited to launch our first-ever PAVEcast episode with an exclusive conversation with Lynda Tran from the U.S. Department of Transportation. 

During its first year, the Biden administration spotlighted several issues related to driving automation technology, from new crash reporting rules to warnings about the need for drivers to remain attentive while using driver assistance features. 

Ms. Tran, the senior advisor and director of public engagement at DOT,  joined us to talk about the administration’s first year in office, their goals and priorities for the year ahead, and the importance of education in preparing for the autonomous future.

Guest:

• Lynda Tran – Senior Advisor and Director of Public Engagement, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation

Moderator:

• Tabitha Colter -  Director of Operations, PAVE

PAVE member, SafeAI, is bringing driving automation to some of the hardest-working vehicles on earth. We sat down with founder Bibhrajit Halder to learn more about his background in the DARPA Challenge, his early work for Caterpillar developing autonomous mining trucks, his work in on-road autonomy and his return to off-road mining and construction vehicle automation with SafeAI. As we explore Halder's diverse background, we learn about the differences between different use cases for driving automation, what makes them more and less viable, and where the technology is headed.

Guest

• Bibhrajit Halder - CEO and Found, SafeAI

Moderator

• Ed Niedermeyer - Communications Director, PAVE