Transportation and communications networks are really one and the same. Instead of transporting invisible bits like telecom, mobility networks have to carry bottoms and boxes. Another parallel between these two types of networks is the need for orchestration to manage the different types of traffic and, potentially, different service providers.1
In the above interview, Bern Grush, Executive Director of the Urban Robotics Foundation, points to the LVCC Loop as an example of how orchestration will be critical to prevent congestion and facilitate the movement of people. and, potentially, goods. He also poses the hypothetical scenario of the opening of the LVCC Loop to vehicles other than Tesla.
This scenario of managing a common infrastructure to support multiple private providers, each with its own unique robotic vehicle, is exactly the challenge that Grush and his team are tackling at the URF. The URF is leading standardization efforts to give municipalities the tools needed to manage the roads, paths, and sidewalks of the automated future.2
Notes
1Most last-mile broadband networks are the equivalent of privately-owned, government-franchised roads. Unlike roads, there are often parallel last-mile networks from multiple providers to the home or business. A better analogy between telecom and transportation paths is the open-access network, which is typically associated with municipal or non-profit-owned entities.
In these networks, a common fiber network accommodates multiple Internet Service Providers, allowing customers to choose the ISP that connects them to the outside Internet. Meanwhile, the local network is owned and managed by the common entity. Idaho Falls Fiber, owned and operated by Idaho Falls Power, is a U.S.-based example of such an open-access network.
2 From the URF website, “URF is the drafter of the ISO 4448 series for ground-based automated mobility. This standard sets up the parameters and procedures for loading and unloading of passengers and goods with automated motor vehicles at the curbside, and the movement of robotic service vehicles within pedestrian spaces (sidewalks, crosswalks, bikeways, etc.) within cities, towns, and suburbs.”
What the URF is doing is providing the tools for local policymakers to begin to address the various challenges from the automation of mobility, as outlined in this 2014 Viodi View article.
