Setting out the ITS stall at Pittsburgh plenary

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.
June 2, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Google’s Chris Urmson

Yesterday’s Opening Plenary saw 1691 Google’s Chris Urmson (pictured) give the keynote address and ITS America announcing the winners of its 2015 Best of ITS Awards. Urmson told the packed auditorium that Americans collectively waste the equivalent of 162 lifetimes every day while stuck in traffic, creating a need for Google’s self-driving car.

He also said that test drivers were told that the prototype vehicle they were in could fail at any point yet started to trust the tech after just 15 minutes. Soon they were relaxed enough to enjoy the opportunity to do other things while traveling.

He also told of the difficulties in developing reliable systems to detect the world around them, including cyclists’ hand signals and knowing the difference between the flashing lights on a police car and those on a school bus. However, he said there remains the need to recognise anomalous situations that might arise – including a duck running around the road pursued by a lady in a mobility scooter.

Afterwards, The Best of ITS Awards presentation recognised projects that demonstrate specific and measurable outcomes and exemplified innovation by establishing a ‘new dimension of performance.

Oregon DOT won the Best New Innovative Products, Services or Applications award for its ‘OR 217 Active Traffic Management’ for implementing ITS including as queue warning, variable advisory speed signs and grip sensors to counter some 200 accidents per year.

The Sustainability and Transportation award honoured Utah DOT’s ‘Winter Road Weather Index’ project while 378 Cubic Transportation Systems and the Chicago Transit Authority took the Partnership Deployment award for its ‘Chicago Transit Authority Ventura Update: Open and Loving It’ project. 213 Qualcomm Technologies and 5400 Honda R&D Americas won the Research, Design and Innovation award for their ‘DSRC-based-Vehicleto- Pedestrian and Other Vulnerable Road User Safety Project.’

ITS America’s President and CEO, Regina Hopper said: “These companies are moving the industry forward and proving that they will improve our quality of life.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Regulating rural road use
    June 20, 2016
    David Crawford looks at problems facing indigenous communities and those unfamiliar with driving in rural areas. While it is well known that the fatality rate for road crashes in rural areas is higher than in towns and cities, some groups suffer far more than others. For instance, the rates of death and serious injury from vehicle accidents is much higher for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI and AN) populations living in rural tribal lands than for any of the country’s other ethnic populations. Crashes
    Read More
  • ‘Free’ power for signs, shelters and so much more
    March 17, 2016
    David Crawford looks at the sunny side of the street. Solar power has been relatively slow in entering the transport sector, but a current blossoming of activity bodes well for the large-scale harnessing of an alternative energy that is zero-emission at source and, in practical terms, infinitely renewable. Traffic management and traveller information systems, and actual vehicles, are all emerging as areas for deployment. Meanwhile roads themselves are being viewed as new-style, fossil fuel-free ‘power stati
    Read More
  • Autonomous vehicles, the pros and cons
    November 21, 2013
    Driver interface and human factors could provide the biggest obstacles to autonomous vehicles as Jon Masters discovers.
    Read More
  • ITS Australia Awards 2023: winners shine in 'period of great resurgence'
    February 23, 2023
    Awards reflect the 'outstanding productivity, innovation, and creativity' of ITS sector
    Read More

Highlighted Content