The talk about disruptive technologies and autonomous vehicles taking over the streets is continually in the news, but more immediate is the technology being utilized to supplement our industry’s service. When meeting with Emmett Heath, Community Transit CEO and board member of the Washington State Insurance Pool, he talked about a demonstration project in the state that was doing just that.
While he doesn’t see autonomous technology affecting Community Transit too much directly in the near-future, he does see the technology improving the safety of transit buses today.
WSTIP helped fund a pilot project with eight transit agencies across the state to test and analyze a collision avoidance system to help bus drivers reduce the number and severity of collisions with pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.
The driver assistance technology Mobileye Shied+ by Rosco Vision Systems alerts drivers when obstacles are in close proximity to the bus. It was deployed on 38 buses statewide about three years ago. The passive system would give an alert, but not take control of the vehicle and as a result of the project, Heath said they got a lot of good data collection.
As a result of the project, Pierce Transit in Tacoma, Washington, is in the process of outfitting its entire fleet, with some support from WSTIP, an active collision avoidance technology. All of the members agreed to using some of the joint revenue to finance the fleet-wide product to gain from their experience.
When the initial pilot took place, Heath said they all knew it was a test of a technology that was not-yet production ready, to learn about transitioning a technology that was just coming of age in private automobiles and had to be adapted to an urban transit bus. As the technology wasn’t production ready, when the pilot project was over, Heath said they decommissioned it, however, it will be a technology they continue to watch carefully.
