Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been getting a bad rap recently, but Scott Belcher is on a mission to ensure that tried-and-tested passenger shuttles aren’t tarred with the same brush as malfunctioning robotaxis – and that the public sector is not pushed out of the picture
Recent headlines in the US paint a grim picture of the development of self-driving cars. The California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked General Motors’ (GM’s) operating license following a furore over an incident in which a woman was dragged 20ft by an AV after it had first come to a stop. Following the ban, GM recalled all its 950 Cruise AVs, not only from pilots in California, but across the USA.
More recently a mob attacked a Waymo self-driving vehicle in San Francisco, smashing its window before setting it on fire by putting fireworks inside it. Where does this backlash leave AV development in the USA?
For transportation consultant Scott Belcher, former president and CEO of ITS America, it highlights an important point – that not all AVs are created equal. While ‘robotaxis’ of the type that Cruise is attempting to perfect must deal with a huge variety of complex challenges, particularly in urban environments, passenger shuttles operate a low speeds and on fixed routes, thereby vastly increasing their safety.
However, the law in the US does not significantly differentiate between different types of AVs and deployment of the less safe, go-anywhere, high-speed AVs is being disproportionately prioritized due to high levels of private investment, which is why Belcher decided to take action.
No longer a gamble
The new initiative that Belcher has helped to begin will look to address a number of related problems, including the differentiation of AV regulation for different types of vehicle. The initiative is known as the ACES (Automated Connected Electric Shared) Mobility Coalition. The founding members are 10 public and one private stakeholder, with membership expected to grow in the coming months.
“To [regulators] it doesn’t matter whether it’s robotaxis, commercial vehicles or autonomous shuttles. That doesn’t make sense. They have different use cases, different safety profiles”
“What we’re talking about is first- and last-mile, low-speed shuttles and other shared-use autonomous mobility,” says Belcher. “It’s not robotaxis or commercial vehicles.”
Belcher argues regulators are looking at AV deployment with a narrow and exclusionary view. “To them it doesn’t matter whether it’s robotaxis, commercial vehicles or autonomous shuttles,” he says. “That doesn’t make sense. They have different use cases, different safety profiles. The loudest private sector voices in the room have dominated the discussion, leaving the public sector with no common voice.”
Belcher believes this pervasive attitude has been a barrier to progress for shared-use autonomous travel, one of ACES’ three key focus points. Its other primary goals are inclusivity and job creation, and safe, incremental innovation.
That last tenet is especially pertinent to the ongoing AV situation in California, as Cruise has been accused of being too brazen in its deployments, perhaps emboldened by a relative lack of checks and balances applied to private sector operators. Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) permitted the development and deployment of autonomous vehicles without human controls, following a successful lobbying campaign by GM and Cruise.
“It comes down to money,” says Belcher, “Private sector can deploy right away, they still must jump through hoops and meet safety requirements, but where you see long-term, scaled deployments, they’re all private sector.”
Belcher also points to the fact that privately funded deployments are not constrained by the Buy America policy, which requires product developers receiving federal funding ensure at least 70% of their product is manufactured in the US.
Regulator certainty
Far from a bleak future of public sector stagnation and private sector controversy however, Belcher is confident great strides can be made in delineating and progressing the AV industry. “One shuttle deployment in Lake Nona, Florida, has already been operating for three years,” he says. “They serve everything from hospitals to mansions, moving people across a nine-mile stretch, in autonomous mode 94% of the time, which is pretty remarkable.”
Though in its infancy, ACES has already held several successful hearings with US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “We had 25 meetings up on The Hill, and most importantly, we were able to have a member of Congress in on discussions about Buy America. Because it’s public sector agencies driving this process, their interests will always be safety, equity, and creating newer and higher paying jobs. We must make sure we’ve got a workforce development program where people are enabled to operate and maintain these vehicles. Frankly right now, that doesn’t exist.”
Belcher says positive change has already been affected in the form of two separate joint ventures: Benteler’s new Holon brand, which will manufacture automotive grade federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) compliant shuttles in the US, with partner Mobileye supplying the autonomous vehicle stacks. And a separate initiative spearheaded by ZF, a Tier 1 drivetrain supplier, which has partnered with autonomous stack provider Moxa, to launch US-manufactured shuttles which debuted at CES in Vegas in January 2023.
Efforts like these provide inroads for co-operation, but more importantly for the development of a business model which promotes regulator certainty and regional workforce development.
ACES’ efforts in educating communities and labor forces, advocating in conjunction with the USDOT, and collaborating industry-wide, have already seen progress. It will take much more of the same over the coming years to build a solid foundation for the development of a safe, equitable, and sustainable AV industry, but it with ACES in place it feels like a landscape is set for a safer AV future.
ACES Mobility Coalition founding members
City of Altamonte Springs, Florida; Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA); Houston Metro; Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA); Lynx; Metra; MetroLINK; Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA); The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTCNV); Beep Inc.
This article was first published in the December 2023 edition of TTi magazine
