Session Moderators

Moderator(s): 
Allanté Whitmore, Director of Autonomous Vehicle Initiative, SAFE (The Big Picture) 

Baruch Feigenbaum, Senior Managing Director of Transportation Policy, Reason Foundation (Freight Impact)

Mansoureh Jeihani, Professor, Morgan State University (Passenger Impact)

Marc Scribner, Senior Transportation Policy Analyst, Reason Foundation (Policy Implications)

Session Organizers

Organizers:
• Richard Mudge, Compass Transportation and Technology
• Baruch Feigenbaum, Reason Foundation
• John Niles, Global Telematics
• Marc Scribner, Reason Foundation

TRB Sponsoring Committees and Partners

Session Description and Agenda

Description

To date AV deployments have been small in scale—an automated shuttle on a college campus; automated vehicles in parts of an urban area; trucks tested with safety drivers; and specialized applications such as construction trucks.

In contrast China has begun to deploy a national $1.5 trillion AV deployment that will be larger than China’s investment in high-speed rail. This involves a partnership with private firms (vehicles and telecommunication) and with local and regional public entities.

Can AV deployment provide the U.S. and other countries with the economic growth needed to compete with other countries?

Automated vehicles offer the potential to be deployed on a large scale, covering regions (say the Southwest as Waymo and most automated trucks pursue today) or the nation-as-a-whole. When this happens, non-linear changes occur. The result may be new benefits, larger-scale factories and markets, and even new industries. This also has an impact on international economic competition—for example, the Interstate Highway System accounted for one half of total productivity growth in the significant economic boost after World War II. Negative impacts are likely as well.

Agenda

There will be four panels, each guided by a moderator. These comments will cover possible environmental and land use implications of AV deployment. There will be ample time for comments and questions from the audience.

1:30 PM The Big Picture
• Richard Mudge, President, Compass Transportation and Technology
• Bin Ran, Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• William (Billy) Riggs, Professor, University of San Francisco
• Ruth Whittaker, Director of Civic Innovation Policy, Chamber of Progress
• Moderator: Allanté V. Whitmore, Director of the Autonomous Vehicle Initiative, SAFE

2:30 PM Freight Impact
• Richard Bishop, Principal, Bishop Consulting
• Melissa Wade, Senior Director of Government Relations, Aurora Innovation
• Moderator: Baruch Feigenbaum, Senior Managing Director of Transportation Policy, Reason Foundation

3:15 PM Passenger Impact
• Matthew Daus, Partner, Windels Marx
• Richard Willder, Global Head of Regulatory and Autonomous Policy, Uber
• Moderator: Mansoureh Jeihani, Professor, Morgan State University

4:00 PM Policy Implications
• Finch Fulton, Government Affairs Advisor, K&L Gates
• Renée Gibson, Director of Government Affairs, Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA)
• Tony Hui, Director of Project Development, Environmental Lead, Cavnue
• Cynthia Jones, Senior Program Officer, Transportation Research Board
• Moderator: Marc Scribner, Senior Transportation Policy Analyst, Reason Foundation

Session Objectives

This session will focus on the potential economic benefits of automated vehicles once they reach full deployment. We begin with a review of the economic impact of past networks-scale transportation and telecommunication investments. A series of panels will discuss relevant aspects of this topic:

• Are automated vehicles likely to have similar impacts? Or has today’s world changed?
• Is this true for intercity freight, urban freight, robotaxis?
• Will AVs be transformational (as with the Interstates, internet and wireless) or are we in a new world? What are the implications for growth in economic productivity?
• Will disbenefits also grow? Might these offset the economic benefits?
• What policy option should we consider to take advantage of these potential economic benefits (and minimize disbenefits)?
• Open discussion. Do we agree on anything? What types of research are logical next steps?

The workshop organizers will summarize comments from the audience and reach out to audience members and speakers after the workshop for additional comments and research suggestions.