DUBLIN, Ohio -- The state is investing $15 million in a 35-mile stretch of road outside of Columbus that will act as a testing ground for autonomous and connected vehicles.
Dubbed the Smart Mobility Corridor, the stretch of road on U.S. 33 between Dublin and East Liberty will be outfitted with high-capacity fiber optic cable that will provide data on self-driving vehicle operations.
"We have to always think about how we can move our state stronger and farther into the 21st century," Gov. John Kasich said during a press event to announce the investment.
Sensors along the road will send data to researchers at the Transportation Research Center at East Liberty and The Ohio State University's Center for Automotive Research.
"More and more, in the future it's not going to be about more pavement; it's going to be about more technology," Ohio Department of Transportation Director Jerry Wray said.
Kasich said he wants to see investments like this one propel the state forward in autonomous vehicle research and help redefine Ohio, which he said too often is referred to as the "Rust Belt."
As part of the press event, self-driving truck vehicle company Otto took a truck on U.S. 33 from Dublin to East Liberty. The truck on Thursday also will travel on part of the Ohio Turnpike, which already is equipped with a fiber network along its entire 241-mile stretch.
The installation of fiber along U.S. 33 will begin in May and is expected to last through the summer.
The turnpike also will become a testing ground for self-driving vehicles.
"People shouldn't notice," said Turnpike Director Randy Cole, who already has been in the cab of the self-driving truck while it traveled down the turnpike in self-driving mode.
Whenever a self-driving truck is operating on the turnpike, there will be a safety engineer and a driver in the cab of the vehicle as a precaution, Cole said.
Ultimately though, officials expect self-driving vehicles to improve safety on Ohio's roads.
"You think about the number of lives that are going to be saved when we get fully autonomous," Kasich said. "The issue of drunk driving won't exist anymore. The issue of drugged driving won't exist anymore."
Kasich acknowledged that investments in technology like autonomous vehicles are "disruptive" and could upset some people, but are necessary to improve the state's competitiveness.
"You can't take your foot off the gas," he said.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
I read a comment awhile back I didn't understand. Somebody said trucks would never be able to navigate through mountain areas.
We got a man on the moon, a robot to mars, and a man to the deepest part of the entire world, but people think we can't develop a machine that can drive through West Virginia?
I've made comments about self driving trucks through the mountains. I don't recall saying it will never be possible. I'm sure it can be done, I believe that it is still a long way off. It's one thing for a self driving truck to navigate a relatively straight and well marked road on a sunny day. It's an entirely different thing to navigate mountain passes in the rocky mountains in a blizzard.
I only bring it up because people act like in the next 5 years everything is going to be self driving. IMO, it's still a long way off before we see a majority of vehicles being self driving.
It's supposed to be hard! If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great!
I read a comment awhile back I didn't understand. Somebody said trucks would never be able to navigate through mountain areas.
We got a man on the moon, a robot to mars, and a man to the deepest part of the entire world, but people think we can't develop a machine that can drive through West Virginia?
Depends on where in W. Vir. (or possibly any mountainous state) Driving on the highways, probably not a problem. Heaven forbid you're in the mountains though. GPS comes and goes. (just my experience)
Cell service, too. For the people that live there, they get reception. (let me clarify: The people I know). I, with verizon, once we get past a certain mountain, I'm out.
I'm sure we will, but mountain driving will take a hell of a lot more time to pull off. Unless there's like an option to manually pilot the truck like they do drones.
But I'm sure in the next few decades when this becomes common, the regulations will be more likely to make it a requirement that a professional truck driver must be inside the cab at all times.
Until they perfect it enough that none is required.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
I should add this: Daughter wanted to drive to Findlay for a soccer game a few months ago. I wasn't in favor of it simply because she is too young to know the "layout" of the roads, if you will. She's never driven there.
I was over ruled since "she has gps, we have the address, she'll be fine."
Sure enough, I got a phone message from Sooga saying "dad, call me." I was working, so when I got done, I called her back.
Turns out the exit she was supposed to get off at was closed for construction, so she just kept going to the next exit, where the gps told her to exit, and re-enter northbound. Took her to the n.b. exit, which was closed as well. So, she continued north to the next exit. She circled a few times.
She made it - but just guess what might have happened had she been in a self driving car that wasn't aware the exit was closed.
Now, imagine a semi, 80,000 lbs.
Little things like that ........... no problem, there's a driver in the self driving car/truck that can over ride the "self driving" part, right?
So, if we need a human behind the wheel for situations like that, why not just have the human do the driving in the first place?
They have a lot of navigation apps with real time updates.
That problem you're stating could actually create jobs as now there's more demand to keep such apps and services updated as much as possible.
But at the end of the day, to answer your question, it's because you have to pay a human to drive.
Self Driving cars don't get tired. Maximum effiency.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
However, it's like I said. We can operate a robot on another planet, but we can't fix the issues you talked about?
I'm sure it's possible. I was just pointing out one minuscule example of what all is required before self driving vehicles become even close to safe.
Then there's the hacking thing. I want to say it was jeep but I'm not sure anyomre....car driving down the freeway, and a hacker takes control. Turns the radio station, cranks the volume up, turns on the wipers, etc.
And to Swish's comment......nope, self driving vehicles don't get tired. Correct. They can get hacked though. And without a person in the driver's seat, what happens if that 80,000 truck gets hacked?
Oh - the driver in the driverless truck responds, right? That means you're paying someone to sit in the drivers seat anyway.
They have a lot of navigation apps with real time updates.
Yup. Driving down to TN my mo in law had some app going on her phone. I want to say it was called "ways", or something like that. Anyway, it gave real time updates on accidents, cars pulled to the side of the road, police running radar, etc.
All of that info came from other drivers that had traveled the same road prior to us. It was amazing, when it was right.
The hack thing isn't a good angle when broken down.
It's a concern, but so is hacking in other normal cars.
You don't remember what happened a few months ago? Those JEEPs got hacked. Those aren't self driving cars. They got hacked because of the computers.
and that can happen to any model. The only way to eliminate that threat is to remove the technology in those cars.
The threat isn't big enough to not move forward with self driving cars or trucks.
And the reality is that the threat of a hack is a lot lower than the threat of someone falling sleep behind the wheel.
And one could make the argument that a hack will cost a company less money overall that somebody falling asleep at the wheel.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
The hack thing isn't a good angle when broken down.
It's a concern, but so is hacking in other normal cars.
You don't remember what happened a few months ago? Those JEEPs got hacked. Those aren't self driving cars. They got hacked because of the computers.
That was kind of my point.
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and that can happen to any model. The only way to eliminate that threat is to remove the technology in those cars.
That is kind of my point.
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The threat isn't big enough to not move forward with self driving cars or trucks.
Agreed. But you still need a driver that has total control of the vehicle IF something should happen, don't you think?
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And the reality is that the threat of a hack is a lot lower than the threat of someone falling sleep behind the wheel.
I disagree, imagine that.
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And one could make the argument that a hack will cost a company less money overall that somebody falling asleep at the wheel.
No. An accident is an accident. If you're driving and cause an accident, you get sued for the damages you caused. If a car, or a truck is driverless, and causes an accident, you still get sued for damages.
So your point is that you want to remove technology from vehicles?
We're definitely not in agreement.
As I said in my previous post, until the technology is perfected for self driving cars, more than likely the regulations will require a driver to be behind of the wheel in case of emergency manual operation.
And we definitely disagree on what is worse.
If a truck is hacked, that means someone is controlling it. That doesn't mean that there will be an accident, and that also means that the company can take back control of the truck. There's a reason why computer programmers and such will always be in demand, and self driving cars basically cementes that.
However, if a driver falls asleep at the wheel, than it's pretty much a guaranteed accident. Now you're hoping that he/she doesn't wreck somebody else on top of the damage they are about to do to themselves and the vehicle.
And that chance of a hack is a lot lower than the chance of someone falling sleep at the wheel.
How often does anything get hacked compared to car accidents due to fatigue?
Last edited by Swish; 01/02/1704:43 PM.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Your first statement: No, I didn't say to get rid of technology in cars. You said the only way to eliminate.....etc.
Your last statement:
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How often does anything get hacked compared to car accidents due to fatigue?
Not even a fair question, really.
But, things get hacked all the time. Constantly.
I don't know about driver's falling asleep and causing accidents - percentages and such.
But, your comparison is faulty based simply on this fact: Driverless cars/trucks haven't been around long enough to give ANY statistics.
Once they become prevalent, If they do, then after a couple of years we'll have stats that might mean something, good or bad.
Just imagine if cars are driverless - but they still need a human sitting in the seat "just in case", but heck, a bored teenager sitting at home could take over the car and cause an accident if they wanted to.
It would take the driver to prevent that. So your point about saving money (for truck drivers) is shot - you still need a driver in the vehicle.
And I'm not "arguing with swish", here.
I'm saying this technology is years, even decades away from being feasible in any manner, and even if it becomes feasible, it still takes a driver.
Auto pilot in planes: Still need a pilot in the seat. Auto pilot on boats/yachts/ships - still need someone in control other than a computer.
Let's, just for anyhow, say we get driverless vehicles. And, I don't know, maybe Russia, decides to hack into some of them and cause accidents. Then what?
Again, the threat of a hack isn't enough to stop the movement.
If you was overly concerned with hacking then you wouldn't own a smart phone right now. Or a laptop/computer/tablet.
Just looking straight at the effiency angle, it's why companies will risk the threat of hacks in favor of driverless trucks.
For the third time, I've already mentioned that until the tech is perfected, regulation will require a driver be in the vehicle during operation. We're in agreement on that so I dunno why you keep going that direction.
I also don't know why you decided to add in the "not arguing with swish". We're talking about tech, nothing else.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
These trucks should have a "kill switch" in the event they are hacked. Have it be like a deadmans switch that activates when anything weird happens.
Pretty much.
The reality is that the only major long term consequence is the jobs this will kill off.
But that's technology.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Just saw an interesting story where self-driving car developers are trying to find ways to fix a major problem. Car sickness!
The car is getting sick?
I had a car once that vomited its transmission all over the road.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
Volvo already has some self driving trucks over seas but regualtions do not allow them in the states. The only thing is, these trucks still need operators. Yeah, they can get out on the freeway and put them in self drive mode, but someone still beeds to navigate regular roads, pull into and out of docks, etc,
You may be in the drivers seat but God is holding the map. #GMSTRONG
what's the point of of text message when i can just send a carrier pigeon.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
