Boston Mayor Martin J. Walshhas made such future planning a present-day priority.
Boston’s AV program grew out ofGo Boston 2030, a larger transportation strategy conducted from 2015 to 2017.
The bulk of those, Carter notes, were about self-driving cars.
Bostonians' biggest concerns about the driverless future were safety and accessibility.
“Number one, make the streets safer.
Two, make the transportation system more reliable.
And three, provide better transportation access for people.”
Boston’s AV pursuit and planning isnt being done in a vacuum.
Two locally based AV startups,nuTonomyand Optimus Ride, were also part of the conversations.
“Boston is one of the hardest.”
“It makes the technology a real thing for our residents,” Carter explains.
“They can understand what it is, and we can gradually build acceptance.
It also gives the city a learning curve on how our infrastructure is handled by these vehicles.”
AV can provide an opportunity to expand accessibility for them.
They shouldn’t be left out of the technology development process.
Ideally, it should be developed with them in mind first.
Getting their input is crucial to making this work."
In addition, the company picked up random Boston residents through a cooperative arrangement with the ride-service company Lyft.
The break enabled city officials to deal with the public response and possible worries.
“We documented safety strategies, just to ensure that trust between us and the public.
But we were able to do that.”
Such incremental testing is vital, as is prioritizing accessibility early in the development process.
They aid in comfort, door-to-door assistance, baggage and the like."
Snow banks tend to confuse the sensors that AVs rely upon to navigate.
“Autonomous vehicles offer immense promise to help us get closer to these goals.
However, the promise of these vehicles isn’t a given.
They could displace an important workforce and encourage both sprawl and congestion.
Thats why we launched an autonomous vehicle testing program.
Safer Streets:The overwhelming majority of crashes on our streets are resulting from human error.
The promise of autonomous vehicles is to eliminate up to 90 percent of those crashes.
Better Access:Who stands to benefit most from this technology if its applied the right way?
This frees up space for other uses, other travel modes, and creates more predictable travel times.”
