[AutonomousVehicles] Harvard Think Tank Releases Policy Paper on Self Driving Vehicles

[Cornelius Butler]

Hi Everyone,
A Harvard Think Tank has just released a research report that will be super
helpful to policymakers as it relates to self driving vehicles. I'm going
to try to get my hands on this report and distribute it to this group but
below is an article that was just published about it.
Article link and text is below.

Article Link:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2021/11/15/harvard-thinktank-releases-latest-research-on-vital-mobility-policymaking-encompassing-autonomous-vehicles-including-self-driving-cars/?sh=205267036eb9

Article Text:

Harvard Think-Tank Releases Latest Research On Vital Mobility Policymaking
Encompassing Autonomous Vehicles Including Self-Driving Cars

Lance EliotContributor
Transportation
Dr. Lance B. Eliot is a world-renowned expert on Artificial Intelligence
(AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

Are our cities and urban areas ready for the advent of Autonomous Vehicles
(AVs) such as public roadway roaming self-driving cars, sidewalk-going
self-driving delivery bots, campus-based self-driving shuttle buses, and a
plethora of other assorted driverless vehicles?

Maybe yes, or maybe not (more likely not so).

A newly released research report entitled “Developing Urban Mobility Policy
in Response to Autonomous Vehicles” has been posted by the Harvard Kennedy
School (HKS) via the Taubman Center for State and Local Government. Doing
so under the auspices of their Autonomous Vehicles Policy Initiative (AVPI)
program, this latest paper is part of an ongoing and overarching analysis
that explores the practical and pragmatic considerations underlying the
implementation of AVs at the city, state, and federal government levels.

I’m honored to indicate that this is a report that I’ve co-authored with
esteemed colleague Mark Fagan, lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School and
head of the AVPI program there. For overall info about the AVPI program,
see this link here.

For a free copy of the full report on developing urban mobility policies
regarding AVs that I am briefly describing herein, see this link here.

Avid readers of my column are well-aware of my persistent calls for making
sure that we are all looking at the self-driving forest and not just the
trees alone (see the link here). In essence, it is easy to get caught up in
the day-to-day excitement of having numerous driverless pilots and
prototypes underway in a given municipality. That being said, retaining a
big picture perspective will be vital toward ensuring that AV adoption is a
balanced and satisfactory entrant into your urban area.

With that said, let’s take a quick look at some of the highlights of this
new report.

First, as mindful background, the AVPI program has been actively engaged
for several years in conducting research, teaching, and working with
policymakers that are grappling with how to prepare for and sensibly cope
with the burgeoning testing and fielding of all kinds of Autonomous
Vehicles, especially ground-based self-driving vehicles.

In addition to the in-depth research and instructional efforts, the AVPI is
also known for undertaking intense policy scrums that bring together
governmental policymakers with AV experts, policy analysts, and legal
experts. These are exhilarating face-to-face interactive sessions that
immerse the participants into candid and quite fruitful dialogue about how
to prudently and proactively cope with emerging AVs and self-driving
efforts within their respective communities.

This most recent report contains an innovative scenario-based setting or
simulation-oriented backdrop that can be used for energizing AV-related
policy scrums all told.

In a sense, there is a foundation provided in the report to enable the
undertaking of an AV-exploring policy simulation of sorts. Participants in
a policy analysis session can take on various roles within the simulation
and then see how things go when interacting with their fellow participants
that have momentarily also assumed particular roles.

For example, you’ve got a mayor that is being besieged on all sides,
whereby some local constituencies favor the arising use of AVs and
meanwhile other local actors express notable concerns. Meanwhile, the AV
vendors are pressing ahead earnestly to expand their local self-driving
efforts.

But what about the impacts on the people of the city?

Some studies suggest that self-driving cars are tending to increase traffic
congestion in already clogged city streets (see my coverage at this link
here). That’s a problem worthy of anticipating and not getting blindsided
with.

Some of the fleets of self-driving automobiles are only currently available
in certain areas of the city. Does this deny fuller and more balanced
access toward suitable mobility equity throughout the urban landscape?

There are AV vendors that are beginning to charge various fees for use of
their driverless vehicles. Is the pricing creating a kind of divisiveness
as to those that can afford to use this new transportation option versus
those that cannot?

And so on it goes.

You see, a robust scenario is laid out that depicts a typical city caught
in the midst of the relatively widespread adoption of self-driving
vehicles. It can be a nightmare for those that have allowed events and
efforts to proceed on a pell-mell basis alone. Though admittedly only a few
cities are at this juncture or nearing it, right now, you can bet that in
the next several years there will be many more localities that find
themselves in this same boat.

Rather than waiting until the horse is already out of the barn, this
multi-party policy development simulation can open the eyes of those that
want to be ahead of the game. By anticipating the soon-to-be-upon-us
future, policymakers have a crucial opportunity to guide their locality in
a direction that will either avoid or at least mitigate many of the
inadvertent adverse consequences that can arise with widespread and
possibly uncontrolled AV use.

As stated in the report: “This simulation enables policymakers and
stakeholders to develop the operating environment and regulations that
position a municipality to tap the opportunities that AVs offer while
minimizing the adverse consequences. This exercise is based on an
anticipated scenario of how AVs may arrive in cities in the coming few
years. It details the players and their interests. Using the descriptions
provided, participants engage in a three-round simulation to reach a
consensus on the best path forward. The simulation is designed as a
facilitated simulation for use by both practitioners and students. It
concludes with a framework for how policymakers can migrate from their
current position to their desired state.”

A framework containing a curated set of potential policy actions is also
provided.

Policymakers can consider which of the policy actions seem suitable for the
scenario portrayed. More importantly, these are then intended to become
active handy-dandy tools for the participants, allowing a leveraging of
these same tools and techniques within their own respective localities.

A range of tools is proffered. These include fostering a cohesive
mobility-as-a-service approach across the otherwise disparate transport
options in a modern-day municipality. Local residents and visitors in
today’s cities are overwhelmed with multi-modal transportation
capabilities. Which should they use? How will the self-driving options fit
within the transport fabric or landscape of the locality? Etc.

Another looming issue is going to be the question of data-sharing (note
that in my columns, I’ve referred to this as the data collected via the
“roving eye” of self-driving vehicles, see the link here). If a fleet of
self-driving cars is collecting copious amounts of data about where locals
are traveling, when they travel, and so on, who owns that data? Suppose the
AV operator decides to use or sell the data, could this be a privacy
intrusion?

Also, this collected data could be valuable information for local
policymakers that wish to plan for and adjust transportation and
infrastructure elements in their municipality. Will the AV vendors provide
the data openly or insist that it is their own proprietary data and refuse
to share it?

One other handy indication in the report consists of a matrix for guiding
where a city sits currently on the scale of AV adoption and where it is
heading.

 As per the report: “The results of the simulation provide a point-in-time
view of how a city wants AVs to support mobility. Rarely will the desired
outcome be the current state. The results of the simulation can be used to
help the city migrate from its current position to the desired state. A
propensity matrix may be helpful in facilitating the transition. When
examining urban mobility policies in the context of AV deployments, two
major factors are useful to consider: (1) The pervasiveness of AVs in the
municipality; and (2) The maturity of urban AV mobility policies.”

Where is your municipality in terms of its existing readiness for AV
adoption considerations?

Many are behind the eight ball.

They are either relatively untouched as yet by self-driving efforts, or
they have allowed self-driving efforts to arise organically or sporadically
(doing so in a benevolent but rather unplanned manner).

Conclusion

As alluded to earlier, the emergence of self-driving options is taking
place in a somewhat semi-random or haphazard manner in our cities.

This makes sense when you consider that AVs are a new form of
transportation and there is a staggered start-stop phenomenon involved. One
AV vendor makes solid progress. Another one perhaps finds themselves
stymied and has to regroup. Some of the AV vendors are utterly focused on
the technological facets and either unaware or not versed in the societal
impacts that the introduction of self-driving options imbues upon an urban
area.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, namely that it takes a village
to bring to proper fruition the plethora of driverless transportation
options. I continue to implore policymakers, AV vendors, AV experts, legal
experts, policy analysts, and every stakeholder to get up-to-speed, begin
your preparations now (don’t wait), and make sure that your city is not
caught off-guard.

An ounce of preparation is worth a pound of cure.
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