Skip to main content

More cooperation, fewer barriers

Increasing cooperation between the public and private sector and a less rigid approach to standards formulation are the keys to transportation’s future, according to Chris Vein, the Deputy White House Chief Technology Officer.
May 21, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Increasing cooperation between the public and private sector and a less rigid approach to standards formulation are the keys to transportation’s future, according to Chris Vein, the Deputy White House Chief Technology Officer.

Vein was speaking yesterday during a roundtable panel on innovation and transportation which also included ITS America’s President and CEO Scott Belcher, 1984 Verizon’s Vice President – Telematics Martin T. Thall and Robert Brown, Vice President Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering with 278 Ford Motor Company.

Expanding on the theme of Open Innovation, Vein talked about efforts to make data held by federal government more readily available to entrepreneurs in order to facilitate the solving of the issues which currently bedevil our transportation networks. He also touched on the concept of consensus standards definition as a faster means of development than the more traditional, bureaucratic, government-led processes. However, he warned, any such efforts have to be done with intelligence “so that we don’t have too many people doing too many things”.

Government has to recognise that the private sector often knows best what the solutions to a problem may be, he continued, adding that public-private cooperation offers increased opportunities to solve issues such as distracted driving and improve safety.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Foundation funds research for informed campaigning
    April 29, 2015
    ITS International talks to Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the transport research and lobbying organisation, the RAC Foundation. It is through the eyes of an economist that Professor Stephen Glaister, emeritus professor of transport and infrastructure at Imperial College London and director of the RAC Foundation, views current and future transport problems. Having spent 30 years at the London School of Economics and another 10 at Imperial, the move to the RAC Foundation was a radical departure from
  • The benefit of Lidar: touch, don’t look
    September 28, 2020
    The benefits of Lidar as a safety device for automobiles rather than as an enabler for AVs are easy to overlook – but Dr Jun Pei of Cepton Technologies tells Adam Hill why that would be a big mistake
  • Destiny Thomas on transit's racist legacy
    September 25, 2020
    The killing of George Floyd by US police sparked international protests and put Black Lives Matter into the spotlight. Dr Destiny Thomas, founder and CEO of Thrivance Group, talks to Adam Hill about the legacy of racism in transit, Covid-19, slow streets – and what comes next
  • Setting out the ITS stall at Pittsburgh plenary
    June 2, 2015
    Yesterday’s Opening Plenary saw Google’s Chris Urmson give the keynote address and ITS America announcing the winners of its 2015 Best of ITS Awards.