“We’ve very much realized that, in order to solve these bigger issues, we need partners.” —Ted Klaus, Honda R&D Americas
research at Honda R&D Americas, called it. In the past, Honda wasn’t much for collaborating, preferring to keep strategy and proprietary technology close to the vest to shield intellectual capital from competitors, said Klaus. “Our brand just depended on ourselves. But we’ve very much realized that, in order to solve these bigger issues, we need partners.” The car manufacturer’s goal for the project is threefold: to create technology that makes mobility more enjoyable and freeing; to eliminate conflicts, such as collisions and congestion; and to make the world more carbon sustainable. “All three of these come back down through what we call ‘the pursuit of quality,’ because you can keep making vehicles as smart as you want, but they’re never going to see down the road two miles and through buildings,” said Klaus. He pointed to one tangible example of that: the development of smart vehicles that can communicate with one another, with trucks and buses and with smart intersections to make autonomous driving safer. “So it’s kind of a combination of making the vehicle smart and having it talk to other smart vision systems,” he explained. Another use for the technology involves a highway concept Honda calls “Safe Swarm,” which allows vehicles, in communication with one another, to behave like schools of fish, safely parting for emergency vehicles or, potentially, for public transportation vehicles, which could cut down on commute times for workers living in the suburbs. Safety First
Some participants voiced skepticism about how soon autonomous vehicle technology would be ready for rush hour. Tom Brown, president of Cap & Seal, pointed out the recent fatalities in driverless cars and doubted that current sensor technolo-
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gy would keep people safe with driverless 18-wheelers on the road. “The technology is not even close,” he said. Klaus acknowledged that autonomous driving technology is still in the very early stages. “We are working very hard to go on a step-by-step movement from infancy towards maturity,” he said. “I can say, from Honda’s viewpoint, we’re very bullish about the potential outcomes, but we’re very stoic and rational about the time it will take to get there.” To get there safely, and as quickly as possible, companies have to be willing to collaborate more closely, said Tom Kleino, president of L&L Products, which makes composite devices for OEMs. “It takes everybody being ready with our technology at the same time, which means working closer together rather than in silos, like a lot of the labs are today,” he said. In general, “there are a lot of people covering their work, not showing their work, and we need to be more collaborative.” Uber agrees, said Mark Wood, the ridesharing company’s senior operations and logistics manager. Uber is currently working with Cincinnati Collaborative to create a mobility lab that will share data, conduct studies, engage employers and activate designers to help create a strategic transportation plan for the Cincinnati region. One of the projects, a “curb of the future” study, examines ideal pickup and drop-off spots to ensure they don’t interfere with traffic and public transit. “So, of course, [that means] rideshare but also taxis, personal vehicles, on-street parking, pedestrians, bike-share programs, delivery trucks,” said Wood. “There are any number of people who are trying to use that same curb space, and we want to make it useful all throughout the day.” One of Uber’s goals is to help companies attract and retain talent by making commutes easier. A hundred years ago, Wood said, corporate headquarters were typically located in urban centers. “That’s where jobs existed, so that’s where people lived,” he said. But today, many more people are commuting from suburbs and rural areas,
