Remarks on connected vehicle technology for safety, mobility and operations.

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UMTRI GLOBAL SYMPOSIUM – PANEL ON STRATEGY & OUTLOOK – OPENING REMARKS
 I’m willing to bet that nearly everyone here today has some personal story or experience
that’s drawn from a crash.
 Perhaps you were in a “fender bender” that you know could have been much worse; maybe
you were that person who couldn’t have been in a worse crash…short of losing your life.
 Some of you may have lost loved one or a friend in one of those terrible moments…or knew
someone who did.
 Even just passing the sight of twisted metal and emergency vehicles can inspire thoughts of,
“What if that was me? Or my wife? My husband? My child?”
 Motor vehicle crashes are in many ways, a devastatingly unique public health threat.
 Unique because the safety threat of motor vehicle crashes is both personal and global; and,
often, entirely preventable.

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 And though here in the United States we’ve made great strides in reducing the number of
deaths on our roadways, threats like distracted driving could undermine the progress we’ve
made.
 Passive safety measures like safety belts and airbags, in tandem with safety standards and
laws, have been crucial to this trend over last four decades—but improving survivability is a
limited solution.
 The roadway safety issue is as dynamic as the human individual.
 The stand-up comedian Louis C.K. recently said, “When you’re driving, that’s when you need
to be the most compassionate and responsible person of any time in your life…and yet it’s
the worst people get.”
 His point strikes at the heart of the problem—even if someone behind the wheel is focused,
responsible and doing everything right…someone else may not; or an unexpected, vicious
rainstorm makes everything outside a 20 foot radius an uncertainty.

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 This is why the United States needs connected vehicle technology in our new vehicle fleets
and on the roads and in the infrastructure of our cities and communities.
 This is why we need to continue to work with our friends in the international community
advance their own efforts to deploy vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure
communications technology.
 U.S. DOT established an Implementing Arrangement with European Commission to
coordinate research on cooperative vehicle systems and a Memorandum of Cooperation
with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to develop a standardized safety
communication message between vehicles.
 Additionally, we have a Memorandum of Cooperation in place with MLIT of Japan to advance
cooperative work on standards harmonization and research into vehicle probe data.
 And our staff exchange program has provided an opportunity for Dale Thompson, one of our
ITS Program Managers, to work in Japan while we have the honor of hosting Mr. Shingo
Mawatari…our current MLIT fellow.

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 These efforts only are not fully inclusive of our cooperative work with our international
partners, but these are great examples of how we are reaching out the world community to
help advance connected vehicles at home and abroad; efforts which have allowed us the
honor of working with Mr. Hӧfs and Mr. Wannatabe.
 On Monday, you heard from the Director of our ITS research program Ken Leonard, who
talked about how we can build on the results of our Safety Pilot and the recent NHTSA
decision on vehicle-to-vehicle safety communications in new vehicles and pivot toward the
future.
 It should be clear that our focus is on continuing to lay the groundwork for deployment and
commercialization.
 A critical component of this effort is the demonstration of vehicle-to-infrastructure
communications under real-world conditions, which is why we are moving forward with
regional connected vehicle pilots to test DSRC-enabled V2I devices.

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 Our research program and ITS researchers across the transportation community should
explore the viability of the myriad wireless communications technologies to support V2X, but
DSRC is proven, viable and absolutely crucial element underpinning the data needed for
future guidance by NHTSA and FHWA.
 Ultimately, we want the outcome to be one that fully supports the safety benefits of
connected vehicles while
 Testing real-world V2I capability and showing that the technology is effective, promises to
make the connected vehicle platform fully interoperable and something that can fully
potentiate both the safety benefits and those that extend into mobility, roadway
management and convenience.
 The connected vehicle platform can only reach its full potential if it’s implemented across
motor vehicle types and the data output is accessible to both transportation managers and
users, which is why we have focused our research program on advancing interoperable

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devices that can be implemented in light-, heavy- and transit vehicles…as well as
motorcycles.
 And in some respects this is the most difficult challenge facing the technology—the biggest
obstacles are not the technical questions, but those associated with the policy and
institutional frameworks needed to bridge the public benefit, business case and public
acceptance.
 Having partners like UMTRI and the auto industry consortia represented by CAMP at the
table, provides a pipeline to thought leadership and expertise that is a huge part of why we
have shifted the V2X paradigm from research and development, to implementation and
commercialization.
 The network of test beds we’re establishing with our regional partners across the country
show that we’re committed to continuing our cooperative work with industry and the
academic community toward the common goal of deploying technology with enduring
benefits—technology with an eye toward the future.

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 Transportation’s evolution into an ever more data-driven and interconnected network of
vehicles, people and devices will surge ahead regardless of whether the U.S. Department of
Transportation achieves its vision for connected vehicles; regardless of where the auto-
industry directs it’s R & D investments.
 The question is…what will the future look like…and does it reflect a nation—a global
community—that took full advantage of an unprecedented opportunity to usher in an era
where transportation fully harnesses the tide of innovation for the better.
 The implications of vehicle automation and autonomy—for safety, for the economy, for our
quality of life—could very well dictate policy-making and decision-making, as well as the
commercial marketplace, rather the other way around.
 From the NHTSA decision this year on heavy trucks this year and onward, what we do now
can be the difference between a future of missed opportunities—lives lost and untold
transportation benefits unrealized—and one that’s defined by vehicles that are capable of
seeing danger where or when we cannot.

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 The great news is that together with those who have a vested interest in bringing this
technology to vehicle fleets and communities, we’ve made a clear case for advancing V2V
and V2I and continue to lay the foundation for a future defined by connected vehicles.
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