PAVEcast: A conversation about autonomous vehicles

One of the most common questions we hear about autonomous vehicles is “when will AVs be here?” … and the honest answer is: “well, it depends on where ‘here’ is!” In this conversation, we will discuss why a better question may be “Where will AVs be?” In this PAVEcast episode, we’ll explore the concept of the operating domain. We’ll talk about what makes some domains particularly suitable for AVs, w...

Arlington RAPID , one of the first programs in the United States to integrate on-demand, autonomous vehicles (AVs) into an existing public transportation service, has provided more than 28,000 trips in its first year to residents, university students, and visitors around Downtown Arlington and The University of Texas at Arlington campus. Since March 2021, the city has operated Arlington RAPID (Rid...

Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science focused on enabling robots and computers to perform tasks usually done by humans. This is a complicated concept, but it is critical to understanding how an autonomous system in a vehicle can work. This discussion will look at the relationship between AI and AVs. We will demystify some of the key concepts of AI, we’ll discuss the role it plays...

Throughout history, humans have seen new technologies through the lens of what came before – such as when the first cars were called “horseless carriages.”  As the technology advances, of course, these terms seem absurd in hindsight.  Autonomous vehicles face this challenge today, as many of the most common misperceptions of this technology, and its possible futures, trace back to thinking of them...

One of the most pressing highway safety issues we face today is helping drivers to understand the difference between autonomous driving – where the car is in control – and driver assistance features, which require an attentive driver behind the wheel.  Every car for sale today requires an attentive driver. There are many ways to think and talk about the distinction between autonomy and driver assi...

New technologies – from ride hailing to micromobility to sidewalk robots – could increase flexibility and convenience for city residents, but they can also create challenges with clutter, safety, logistics, and congestion. In this PAVEcast episode, we look at the lessons that the AV sector can learn from some of these product rollouts, how to improve communication and build informed consent with l...

Many people think of AVs as mid-century futurist visions of self-driving cars, but some of the most interesting work in the driving automation space is happening in public transit. Communities worldwide are piloting AV technology — from Bus Rapid Transit to microtransit — to learn how to integrate these new technologies into existing public transit systems. In this PAVEcast episode, we examine why...

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 mobili...

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, auto...

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 li...

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...

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 fac...

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...

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 e...

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....

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 Hal...