A Home Run for Self-Driving Vehicle Education in D.C.
By Brittany Pauley, Washington, D.C. Market Manager, Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC
In cities across America, access to transportation is important for people to move freely. Washington, D.C. is no different. Many residents across the District’s eight wards rely on public transportation to go to work, school, get food and more. Working closely with the city, Ford is focused on building a self-driving vehicle service that has the potential to improve people’s lives by providing additional access to a reliable, safe and convenient mobility service.
Outside of developing the technology, it is crucial we immerse ourselves in the communities where we will operate — not only to educate, but also to listen. Partners for Automated Vehicle Education found that 60 percent of Americans would trust automated vehicles more if they understood how the technology worked. People need to trust and find value in self-driving vehicles, and it’s up to us to educate them.
So we teamed up with the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy, which is part of the nonprofit philanthropy arm of the Washington Nationals. The Youth Baseball Academy hosts a six-week summer program that focuses on baseball and healthy living, with an emphasis on STEM education. The goal is to give scholar athletes in the local community the opportunity to continue to learn, develop critical thinking skills and explore careers in STEM, so we were happy to team up.
While we had a live, immersive day planned for the scholar athletes at the Ford autonomous vehicle terminal in Ward 5, we needed to shift our plans due to COVID-19. Instead of an in-person event, we hosted a group of 50 students from fourth through eighth grade via a webcast to discuss how self-driving vehicles operate and opportunities they might take advantage of now to pursue a career in the self-driving vehicle space.
From our self-driving system provider Argo AI, these scholar athletes learned how the technology must mimic the most miraculous, complex creation of all time — the human body. A self-driving vehicle is designed to sense, think and move like the human body, with the structure and connectivity provided by its “skeletal nervous system” to make it all work. Most importantly, the group learned engineers have to teach the self-driving car to think and behave like a human driver, which is why our cars are on the streets of D.C. testing every day.
We also discussed opportunities students can take advantage of now to start developing skills for a career, including joining a robotics team, taking additional math classes or an online coding class, or even taking an art or design class, since building out the interior of vehicles is important to the customer experience.
The bright minds of a future generation of engineers, mathematicians, designers and scientists were eager and excited to share their thoughts about self-driving vehicles with the Ford and Argo AI team — and we came prepared to listen. Some students went to their drawing boards to design and engineer what they would like to see in a self-driving vehicle. Must-have features included a phone charger and holder, a screen to watch TV and/or YouTube, as well as a map, a microwave and snack compartment.
The scholar athletes hit it out of the park with a clear vision for how they see self-driving vehicles impacting their own community, providing additional access to mobility to go to the doctor, restaurants or the movies, as well as getting groceries:
“When they come out in the future, they will have a huge impact on the way we live. The cars will be quick, safe and helpful. It will make our lives much easier. In my community, there is not a lot around except for houses, the metro and a park. Self-driving cars can be especially helpful for people in my neighborhood who do not have cars. Since a lot of things are far away, we can take a self-driving car. The self-driving cars can take us places like grocery stores, restaurants and entertainment spots like the movies.” — Nala M., fifth-grader.
“Self-driving cars can be safer by having less car accidents. They can help the community by delivering groceries, dropping off people at the hospital or doctor’s appointment, taking goodies to the homeless and providing a reliable service to the elderly.” — Rashaad M., fourth-grader
The group also saw the potential for a self-driving vehicle to impact their lives personally and how they and their families move around the city, including going to school:
“If I had a self-driving car, I would use it to go to different places that are not in my neighborhood. I would also use it for when my mom takes me to school. We could take the self-driving car instead of having to wait for the next train or bus. This is how and why self-driving cars will give a huge impact to us in the future and in my community once they are fully developed and released.” — Nala M., fifth-grader
The impact of COVID-19 was top of mind for these scholar athletes. They asked a lot of smart questions to see how our testing had been impacted and how we are keeping people safe. Others explained how a service like this would be helpful in a pandemic:
“You could deliver food to help people who cannot go outside due to this pandemic. For example, order various carryouts from restaurants where you put the food in the car and when it arrives, the customer can come and get it. You can also go to grocery stores.” — Caden C., sixth-grader
Some business development-minded students in the group were eager to give us tips and leave us with words of encouragement:
“This invention is great. I believe the level of technique and technology you put in the car pays off. I also think you should take into consideration expanding… to pair up with bigger companies. When your business expands, (which I know it will), you should make different model cars…Much success to the next year and many more” — Kennedy C., eighth-grader
We were so impressed with the level of knowledge, engagement and feedback provided and can’t wait to see where these students go next. One of the program’s leads, Pete Harbolick, emphasized how the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy is important because it gives these scholar athletes a place they can go with all the resources to excel in school, to gain baseball and softball skills and knowledge, and to try new things that may pique their interests. “Hearing them ask when the next academy event is or say they’re sad it’s the weekend because they won’t see us for a few days really makes me feel the impact we’re having on them and in the community,” said Harbolick.
Educating and collaborating with the communities we operate in will continue to be a focus for us. With many schools moving to a virtual format this year, we encourage organizations and teachers to reach out to us and see how we could host a virtual field trip to the Ford autonomous vehicle terminal to show them more about our self-driving vehicles and service.
You can reach out to me at bpauley3@ford.com for additional information around Ford’s self-driving vehicle operations in Washington, D.C., and setting up a virtual field trip. For more information about our operations in Miami, reach out to Alex Buznego at AVMiami@ford.com and for operations in Austin, Texas, reach out to Kathleen Baireuther at AVATX@ford.com.
