Your role during the stakeholder process is to represent the company’s team that is designing features which will enable a self-driving bus to communicate with other vehicles (vehicle-to-vehicle, or V2V, communication) and the world around it (vehicle-to-infrastructure, or V2I, communication). Two prominent justifications for a self-driving bus fleet is that V2V and V2I communication will (1) increase roadway efficiency by finding ideal routes and getting passengers from point A to point B faster, and (2) reduce the number of traffic accidents. Regarding the latter, misunderstandings and driver errors are the main cause of freeway traffic accidents, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.¹ In 2018, traffic accidents were the leading cause of death in the US among children and young adults aged 5-29.²
As a representative of the company and an expert in networked technology, you must describe the potential of V2V and V2I communication systems to improve roadway efficiency and, more importantly, traffic safety. You are confident that the company’s self-driving bus fleet will save both time and lives. In order to realize the time-saving and life-saving potential of self-driving transportation, the reliability of communication between the buses themselves, other vehicles, networked infrastructure, and other networked technologies must be demonstrated. Thus, you must inform the stakeholder process by providing information about the current state of V2V and V2I communication and ensuring the committee of the benefits that will incur with the adoption of your company’s self-driving bus fleet.
As the company’s networked technologies representative, your main points of prioritization include:
- Emphasizing the time-saving and life-saving potential of self-driving technology
- Communicating up-to-date information to the other stakeholders on the reliability of V2V/V2I communication and the interoperability of current networking technology
- Addressing the concern about whether signals from different devices might interfere with each other
- Addressing data privacy, data security, and other related concerns about networked technologies
References
- Traffic Safety Facts 2014. (2014). US Department of Transportation. Retrieved from https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/812261
- Road Traffic Injuries. (2018, December 7). World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/road-traffic-injuries
Supplemental Readings
- Casner, S. (2017, November 21). The Six Main Causes of Car Crashes-and How to Avoid Them This Thanksgiving. Retrieved from https://slate.com/technology/2017/11/the-six-main-causes-of-car-crashes.html.
- Forrest, C. (2019, January 16). The X-factor in our driverless future: V2V and V2I. Retrieved from https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-x-factor-in-our-driverless-future-v2v-and-v2i/.
- Khizran, S., & Parentela, E. M. (n.d.). A Case Study on Potential Benefits of V2V Communication Technology on Freeway Safety. (https://www.westernite.org/annualmeetings/15_Las_Vegas/Papers/7C-Shah.pdf