Introducing the Knight AV Initiative
The world looked different in September 2018 — though that probably goes without saying. When the Knight AV Initiative was first announced, automakers and technology companies were suggesting that fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) could be on the road in commercial service as soon as 2020. Unlike the way cities were blindsided with the arrival of transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft, cities could see AVs coming and they wanted to get out ahead of planning for their arrival.
Automation has the potential to have major impacts on cities, both positive and negative. AVs in particular could increase safety and help reduce congestion and pollution, but they could, due to their costs and their potential impacts on transit, make our existing transportation system even more inequitable than it already is. Though the timeline for mass adoption of AVs is far more uncertain now than it was in 2018, the primary takeaway is the same — cities need to plan for AVs before they arrive to take advantage of the best they have to offer, instead of realizing the worst.
For this reason, the Knight Foundation awarded grant funding to four locales, selected for being on the leading edge of autonomous innovation, to support their efforts in preparing for autonomous vehicles:
- Detroit, home of the U.S. auto industry and nearby Mcity in Ann Arbor, a purpose-built test track for AVs;
- Pittsburgh, home of Carnegie Mellon’s Argo AI Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research, with a growing list of AV testers on its streets;
- San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley, and ground zero for technology companies developing AVs like Waymo, AutoX, and Zoox; and
- Miami-Dade County, a welcome testing ground for AVs given its copious amounts of sunshine and its openness to technology with the Ford City of Tomorrow Challenge.
At the outset of the Knight AV Initiative, all four jurisdictions had AV pilot projects in the works, and the idea was that the Knight funding would support community engagement efforts to inform the development of the pilots. For a host of reasons — not least of which is the ongoing fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic — the original plans have evolved. Some projects have halted, others have been extended, and new ideas have replaced previous ones.
Even with these shifts, the Knight AV Initiative continues to be a dynamic effort that is yielding useful learnings much needed by cities as they confront the realities of new mobility and AVs arriving on their streets. Here are some important takeaways thus far:
- The solution cannot be prescribed without an understanding of the problem — and an AV may not be the solution. Though autonomous technology is advancing, it’s still in the early stages of development and that constrains the number of ways it can be used. For instance, autonomous shuttles travel at low speeds and are still limited to operating in environments that are fairly controlled. If the mobility problem that needs to be solved is connecting residents in one neighborhood to job centers several miles away, an AV shuttle is unlikely to be the right solution, at least for now.
- Recommendation: Cities should focus first and foremost on understanding the mobility challenges communities face, and, in particular, historically marginalized communities, by having broad conversations that are not limited to AVs.
- It’s hard to talk about a technology that is complex and largely exists only in theory. Many people are not only unfamiliar with the multiple layers of technology (e.g, lidar) that are required for an AV to operate, but even with the term AVs since they are more often referred to as “self-driving cars” in popular media. Because of the catch-all phrasing, AVs sound like one monolithic thing, but the reality is much more complex. There are autonomous passenger vehicles, low-speed autonomous shuttles, autonomous trucks, last-mile delivery vehicles, and automated delivery robots. Furthermore, there are important distinctions between the various levels of driving automation, from autonomous options that help you park your car, to vehicles that can drive with no one at the wheel. People need to be able to “touch and feel” the technology to understand how it works.
- Recommendation: Cities should center their AV engagement efforts on empowering their communities with the information needed to develop a broad-based understanding of the technology and potential applications to user needs before they seek input on how AVs might be used to meet community mobility needs.
- With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, autonomous passenger vehicle pilots seem less feasible but autonomous delivery pilots are picking up steam. People are traveling less and ordering more as a result of COVID-19, and those trends will likely continue into 2021. Cities that had planned for passenger vehicle pilots are pivoting to explore the role that autonomous delivery vehicles could play in meeting the increased demand for delivery (and contactless delivery).
- Recommendation: Cities should consider how various types and form factors of AVs may impact their communities, both to proactively shape what technology is authorized to operate on city streets and to ensure that it addresses actual community needs.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. More information about the Knight AV Initiative and specific learnings from the cohort’s projects will be forthcoming. Subscribe to stay tuned!
