Greater Cincinnati Advanced Transportation Collaborative

How Could Driverless Vehicles Affect Ohioans’ Daily Lives?

gcatc1234 — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 11:57:21 +0000

In January, Governor John Kasich signed an executive order establishing DriveOhio as a one-stop shop for researchers, developers and manufacturers to collaborate on autonomous and connected vehicle initiatives in Ohio. This May, Gov. Kasich signed an executive order to authorize autonomous vehicle testing in the state.

Ohio already has six designated “smart” projects aimed at testing real-world autonomous and connected technologies, and is home to the Transportation Research Center, North America’s largest independent vehicle proving grounds.

As research and testing of autonomous vehicles and smart mobility programs in the state ramp up, we could see driverless vehicles on the streets of Cincinnati, in coordination with the ongoing Smart Cincy initiative.

Joining “Cincinnati Edition” to discuss why Ohio could be a leader in autonomous vehicle technology and how advances in smart mobility could affect our daily lives are University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science Assistant Professor Dr. Jiaqi Ma; Chief Executive Officer of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI), Mark Policinski; DriveOhio Executive Director Jim Barna; and Venture Smarter President and Director of the Regional Smart Cities Initiative, Zack Huhn.

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Gov. John Kasich Orders all Ohio Roads Open to Smart Vehicle Testing

gcatc1234 — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 11:52:03 +0000

Kasich signed an executive order Wednesday authorizing autonomous vehicle research to take place across the state. The order also lays out safety parameters for such projects and creates a voluntary pilot program linking local governments to participating companies.

The order extends Kasich’s efforts to make Ohio a hub of smart vehicle research and development. It urges participating projects to sign up with DriveOhio. That’s a new state office he created in January to coordinate several state offices through a “one-stop shop” for autonomous or connected vehicle developers.

The order requires participating vehicles to meet certain safety requirements and to be capable to comply with all Ohio traffic laws. It reserves Kasich’s right to suspend non-compliant projects.

Locally, the University of Cincinnati hired professor Jiaqi Ma to build a testing lab that will include an autonomous driving simulator.

Eventually, the lab will have its own car.

“The student can develop algorithms and put them on the vehicle and test them on some test track,” he said.

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The Computer Commuter

gcatc1234 — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 11:48:21 +0000

When is a car not a car? When it’s a network.

That’s how the University of Cincinnati’s Jiaqi Ma describes the coming driverless revolution.

Driverless cars will be self-sufficient enough to respond independently to changing traffic conditions or obstacles. But Ma also sees them as part of a bigger network, connected both to other nearby vehicles and the intersections of roads around them.

Ma, an assistant professor of civil engineering, is studying driverless technology at UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. The goal is to get an autonomous car’s sensors and artificial intelligence to exceed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s current driving safety standards in every way, he said.

“That’s a requirement. If a human driver can do it, we should be able to do it with a driverless car,” he said. “We’re far less tolerant of errors in autonomous systems. So we want to reach the level where human beings can trust the system and reach people’s expectations.”

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UC Researchers Enhance Training for Snow and Ice Drivers

gcatc1234 — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 11:35:07 +0000

Each year the Ohio Department of Transportation hires about 350 drivers to plow, salt and maintain roads for the winter season. Some of these drivers are experienced vets, but many of them come with little or no experience driving large snowplows.

Maintaining safe roadways in these icy and snowy months is crucial for minimizing car accidents and fatalities. But this job is dangerous, and only so many drivers return each season. Each year, right around when Old Man Winter rears his ugly head, Ohio is left with a very small number of seasoned full-time drivers to plow highways and roads. Finding ways to effectively train new drivers for the winter months is becoming increasingly difficult.

Two professors at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Engineering and Applied Science are using technology and innovation to solve this icy problem. Jiaqi Ma, Ph.D., and Julian Wang, Ph.D., recently received a grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation. Associate Professor Ming Tang, from UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), is also co-principal investigator on the grant. The central aim for all three is to enhance training for new drivers using driving simulators…

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