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21st Century Operations Using 21st Century Technologies

Federal Highway Administration National Dialogue on Highway Automation: June 26-27, 2018 Policy and Planning Workshop Summary

Breakout Session III: Action Planning Discussion

This section summarizes feedback from stakeholders who participated in the final breakout session focused on developing an action plan for FHWA. Key suggestions from this discussion included:

  • Develop a roadmap outlining clear goals and objectives for each stage of AV adoption. This could set a clear national direction around which stakeholders could coordinate.
  • Define areas of responsibility for each of its modal administrations as they relate to AVs.
  • Focus on infrastructure improvements that need to occur independently of AV deployment and that will have ancillary benefits for AVs.
  • Develop scenario planning guidance for AVs. This guidance could address both urban and rural communities and account for public adoption occurring over phases.
  • Establish an interdisciplinary advisory group on AVs. This group could represent a task force with all 50 States, private sector, and industry to create recommendations, share information, and support infrastructure needs.
  • Encourage national and uniform implementation of AVs, particularly with regard to technology, funding, data, definitions (common language), policy, regulations, and standards.
  • Fund, develop, and maintain in real time a public repository of lessons learned, data (raw and applied), metrics, research results, and case studies.
  • Enable promulgation of traffic laws by States in a machine-readable format. Participants seemed to agree on the need to gain consensus around a data standard for sharing traffic laws to enable seamless AV operations.
  • Publish more visible, agreed-upon principles for moving forward, especially as they relate to safety, mobility, environmental sustainability, and equity.
  • Help State and local agencies fund automated vehicle pilots and their full scale developments.
  • Develop best practices, education, and guidance, and provide information for State and local agencies because there are different levels of awareness across localities, elected officials, and the public.
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