Transcript 0:00 It starts with education and it ends with technology. That's where it all comes together, but we have to wanna do something. 0:09 We're all focusing on COVID, we're focusing on a lot of other things, but now it's time to put all that great information that we have, and we need to focus on making our roads safer for all of us. 0:23 And there's that idea that you want to have no more deaths on the road. 0:29 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, your voice for our connected world, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:47 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. As many of you know, this month is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. 0:57 It's one of my big passions to make sure we are safer on the roads, and technology certainly comes into play. So think about it. 1:06 Last week I spoke with Mark Chung at the National Safety Council about the importance of safer people, safer roads, and safer vehicles, and safer speeds. 1:16 The number of crashes as a result of driver distraction, human error, or whatever label you wanna put at it, is increasing, and I raised the point that we have to think differently about human error, and that all of us have a responsibility on the road and to educate the next generation. 1:37 Today I want to narrow in on two of those o- other of, I should say, four tenants that we're talking about, safer vehicles and safer roads. 1:46 On the first segment of the show, I'll be taking kind of a closer look at autonomous vehicles and I will give an update on where we are today, and I will give kind of my thoughts on what needs to be done if we want to reach zero roadway deaths in the future, and I'm talking about zero roadway deaths. 2:08 But later on in the show I'll be interviewing some guests, a- as always. 2:11 I will be talking to Nate Hartman of the Doupt Family Professor of Advanced Manufacturing and head of the Computer Graphics Technology Department at Purdue University. That's kind of a mouthful, right? 2:24 And then I'll [laughs] wrap up the show with Jack Carroll, professor of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University. 2:33 So I hope you'll stick around, 'cause we're gonna have some great discussions today. So let's get started. 2:38 Research and markets forecast the autonomous vehicle market will grow rapidly throughout the remainder of the de- of this decade. 2:46 In particular, it suggests 5G-related software expenditures in support of autonomous vehicle solutions will reach somewhere about 13.2 billion in 2027, and we'll also see the rise of dedicated infrastructure for autonomous vehicles alongside new smart city growth and innovation. 3:10 Artificial intelligence, 5G, and the Internet of Things will be at the center of this movement, as well as edge computing. 3:19 In fact, the research firms suggest edge computing infrastructure and services in support of autonomous vehicles will reach somewhere about 42.8 billion by 2027. 3:33 So the latest news coming from the technology companies support all of this as well. So kinda let's look at one specific example that I have for you today. 3:42 At the end of March, Cisco and Verizon announced a partnership on a proof of concept that re-architects autonomous driving by virtualizing costly roadside infrastructure. 3:56 Now, here's the challenge, and I have been talking about this on the show for years now, so I wanna explain this. 4:03 If we want to have connected vehicles on our roadways, then we must also build up the surrounding connected infrastructure. Now, this all makes sense if you think about it. 4:14 This could take decades if we want to make that infrastructure work, so edge computing just might help accelerate all of this. 4:23 The combination of mobile edge compute and Verizon's LTE connectivity with Cisco's industrial IoT networking technology can support the low latency requirements for autonomous applications. 4:38 The big takeaway here is cellular and mobile edge compute technology can enable autonomous driving solutions without the use of costly physical roadside units to extend radio signals. 4:52 Now, the two companies demonstrated this in Las Vegas. Now, here's what's interesting. 4:57 Connected and autonomous vehicle applications can be deployed using LTE networks, mobile edge compute, and in-vehicle interfa- interfaces deployed by OEMs. Now, the result would be safer, less congested roads. 5:15 So I found this really interesting, but here's what I want you to consider. Connected vehicle applications could benefit many industries overall. 5:25 Think something like, let's say, last mile delivery, bots, bot taxis, uh, and any off-ramp safety, and I'm sure there's many more, but those are what come to mind. 5:38 Leveraging cellular vehicle to everything communication can also help with traffic signals, and this is what I like about that, because that's where a lot of the accidents occur, you know, people stopping, starting, those kind of things. 5:51 Cities and roadway operators can create safer roads with kind of that C to V-2X applications. 5:59 So this can include pedestrian protection, emergency and transit vehicles, preem- kinda that preemption on and off-ramp protection.As I always like to say, the opportunities, if we really look at this, are truly endless, and this is what I want you to think about because we are only limited by our imagination how we can protect ourselves on the roadways, and the technology is advancing to make some of these applications a reality right now. 6:30 They can happen today, and this is what we have to think about. Now, I do think we need to be really careful here, and this is what's really important when we talk about it this right now. 6:41 Edge computing is absolutely going to be transformative for autonomous vehicles, and I think we need to recognize this. For autonomous vehicles, edge computing is really gonna do some amazing things. 6:54 But we still need to consider what needs to be done to rebuild our infrastructure at the same time. Let's not forget that. Let's not lose what needs to be done. 7:06 I like what was included in the US Department of Transportation's Automated Vehicles Comprehensive Plan, 'cause this is important, which was announced just over a year ago, because this really tells us a lot of things. 7:20 This organization's visions for automated driving systems includes promoting collaboration and transparency, modernizing the regulatory environment, and preparing the transportation system. 7:35 Those three things are very important for us to consider, and we can't lose sight of what we have to do here. 7:42 So the organization is partnering to evaluate and I think integrate automated driving systems, all while working to improve the safety, efficiency, and I think accessibility of the transportation system, and that's what we have to think about. 7:59 All these things have to come in tandem and maybe even in concert together. You know, as I started the segment saying, we need safer people, safer roads, safer vehicles, and safer speeds. 8:13 We need the advances in technology for our vehicles and our modern infrastructure. You can't have one without the other, and I think sometimes we want to skip a step and we can't do that. 8:27 We need education for our people, and it's very, very important that we consider this. 8:32 We need all of it to kind of work together, just like I said, in tandem, harmoniously, if we are going to see any progress being made here, and that's really, really important. 8:43 And I, and I'm very concerned that we get so excited that we forget things and we're going to skip steps, and skip steps mean we're going to lose lives. 8:55 We're going to put people in harm's way, and I don't think our enthusiasm should lose sight of what the reality is. So here's my opinion for today. Even with edge computing, I'm still not sure we're moving fast enough. 9:10 We need to move fast enough, but we need to be careful. Mark Chung at the National Safety Council told me it would be decades before we would reach the road to zero deaths. Now, he made that point. 9:24 He was very clear last week. In my opinion, we need to move a little bit faster. It can't be decades. We can't be decades because we're losing too many lives al-already. Even one roadway death is one too many. 9:39 We need to remember that. We can't lose sight of that. We need to make our vehicles and our infrastructure safer for all drivers, for all individuals, for everyone. 9:52 Once we do this, we will have a better chance for reaching that road to zero, and I think we need to think about this. 10:01 I think we're just forgetting the importance of that and why when we say that we're like, "Well, we're not... It's not gonna happen, but we're gonna strive for it." It's bigger than that. So here's my tip. 10:12 We need to combine technology and education to make our roads a little bit safer. Okay, maybe a lot bit safer. As I mentioned on the onset of this show, we need to think differently about human error. 10:27 We need to think differently about distracted driving. We need to take responsibility for our actions, and we need to educate the younger generation about what will happen if we are driving distracted. 10:43 At the same time, the technology community needs to come together to deliver safer vehicles. The construction community and the cities need to deliver safer infrastructure. 10:57 The only way we are going to reach that road to zero is combining all of this. Now, here's an important fact that maybe many of you are forgetting and maybe not. 11:09 In twenty nineteen, one in five people were killed as a result of distracted fiving, of distracted driving. Let me say that again. One in five people were killed as a result of distracted driving. 11:26 That's horrible. We should all be stressing about that, but instead, we're all freaking out about COVID. Why aren't we up in arms that one in five people were killed on our roadways? 11:41 I know that bothers me, and it has been bothering me for years. Now, I recognize I don't drive anymore. I do not drive. I'm a passenger, but I see all the crazy things that people do behind the wheel when they drive. 11:55 One in five people, but if we're not freaking out and saying something about that, I, I don't understand, but we're worried about COVID, but think about the numbers. 12:08 It's forty thousand people.That's a lot of people, and it's happened year after year after year. You shouldn't be screaming when it's too late and you've lost a loved one. We all have an opportunity to do something now. 12:25 We have the technology, we have the infrastructure capabilities, we have the wisdom. We can do something. Let's not wait until we lose a loved one. It starts with education and it ends with technology. 12:39 That's where it all comes together, but we have to wanna do something. We're all focusing on COVID, we're focusing on a lot of other things, but now it's time to put all that great information that we have, 12:53 and we need to focus on making our roads safer for all of us. And there's that idea that you want to have no more deaths on the road. 13:03 If we want those autonomous vehicles, then we can do it, but we really have to think about not waiting till it's too late. What would you add? I'm curious, what do you think we need to do? 13:13 What do we need to do right now today to reach that zero roadway deaths? That's the target. I'm, I w- I'm curious what you think. Do we need to focus on the autonomous vehicles? 13:27 Do we need to focus on less distracted driving? Do we need to focus on the infrastructure? Do we need to focus on the education? What else is missing? What else needs to be done? 13:44 I'm very curious your thoughts. I would love for you to continue this conversation with me as always. 13:51 If you have thoughts on what I've talked about today, please send me a tweet and continue this conversation on social media @ConnectedWorld or on ConstructechMag. I wanna hear your thoughts. 14:04 That's the only way that we can make our roads safer and to get better. All right. That's all the time I have for this segment. 14:12 As always, check out our website at connectedworld.com or our show website at thepeggySmedleyShow.com, and if you haven't been up there, we've launched a new blog to help you live a healthier life, so I hope you'll go up and check our new blog. 14:28 It is for Project Sustainability, so check that blog out. It's a good one. I hope you'll check that one out as well. All right. 14:34 We are going to take a quick commercial break, but as always, go get that quick cup of coffee, but this is The Peggy Smedley Show, your voice for our connected world, and remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. 14:47 We will be right back. [upbeat music]
