Mark R. Rosekind has taken the helm of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) at a critical juncture for the federal agency. Not only did he fill the role of NHTSA Administrator in the midst of the massive GM ignition-switch and Takata airbag recalls, but also at a time when technology is quickly transforming automotive.
The car industry is facing enormous changes due to innovations ranging from autonomous driving to vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and these will also have a profound influence on NHTSA’s main priority of ensuring vehicles are safe and reducing traffic deaths. As a former NASA scientist and member of the National Transportation Safety Board, Rosekind is well versed in the effects technology will have in reshaping passenger vehicles in the years ahead and how to prepare NHTSA to deal with the disruptions that are just down the road.
Rosekind gave a glimpse of how NHTSA will handle this rapid pace of change and how technology can help the agency fulfill its focus on saving lives while delivering the keynote address at the second-annual Connected Car Pavilion produced by the C3 Group in Austin, Texas during SXSW last week. “We’re here in Austin today to discuss how technology possesses a huge potential in offsetting the human behaviors that are responsible for a vast majority of the deaths happening on our highways,” Rosekind said. “Anyone at NHTSA can tell you by heart that 32,719 people lost their lives on U.S. roadways in 2013, each one of which was preventable.The safety technology and innovation here at the Connected Car Pavilion can help us address that grim statistic.”
NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind (center) checks out Delphi’s autonomous driving demo at the C3 Connected Car Pavilion in Austin, Texas during SXSW. Photo by Chris Barker.
Rosekind pointed out that safety technologies have already helped to reduce the tragic result of car collisions over the past 50 years. “We have estimated that 613,501 lives have been saved since 1960 through dedicated safety technologies, from seat belts to collision warning to automated braking systems,” he said. “We have also recently determined through our research that in 94 percent of cases, the critical element in the chain of events before a crash is the human driver. Technology offers a huge potential in mitigating this statistic.”
Autonomous driving – and the path towards self driving cars through advanced driver assist systems such as forward-collision prevention and lane-keeping assist that are already on the market– arguably has the largest potential to prevent auto accidents and fatalities. Telsa co-founder and CEO Elon Musk even went as far this week to suggest that “in the distant future,people may outlaw [human] driven cars because it’s too dangerous” once machines show that they are better at preventing roadway accidents.
While optimistic about the safety benefits of autonomous technology, Rosekind pointed out that more research is required to map out the regulatory as well as liability issues necessary to reach a fully self-driving future. “Further down the road, we look forward to the potential of fully-automated, self-driving vehicles,” he said. “This will require a very rigorous and careful approach to ensure safety.
“ Before offering fully autonomous vehicles for sale to the general public, we have to realize that these vehicles don’t eliminate the potential for error; they shift the error from the driver to the vehicle,” Rosekind added. “This is why we are engaged in research on how to best ensure the quality and operation of the electronic components that control safety critical functions and keep these functions secure.”
A technology that could more immediately help save lives and has been a priority for NHTSA is vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. “What makes V2V and its counterpart V2I such an advancement over current crash avoidance systems is the exchange of speed and position information between vehicles, even if a vehicle’s radar, cameras or other sensors cannot detect a threat,” Rosekind remarked. “In common crash situations, left turn assist and intersection movement assist enabled through V2V and V2I can prevent up to 592,000 collisions and save more than 1,000 lives every year. And that’s just the beginning of what these technologies can do.”
But Rosekind acknowledged that while “the potential of V2V technology is thrilling, to realize that potential there are challenges that we need to overcome. One of the first concerns we hear is that of data privacy and security,” he added. “We are confident there are solutions to these problems, but from a technical and legal standpoint they’re tricky.”
Another hurdle NHTSA faces in implementing V2V technology is securing the frequency spectrum originally set aside for the technology, but is now being threatened by efforts to open up these airwaves for unlicensed Wi-Fi use. “For V2V to work correctly, messages between vehicles need to be free from interference,” Rosekind said. “Wise policymakers have reserved part of the communication spectrum specifically for V2V. Over a decade of public investment and industry work has gone into designing and testing systems that rely on the integrity of the spectrum.
“Even as we are poised to deliver the safety benefits of this innovation, some have suggested that unlicensed users should have unfettered access to the dedicated V2V spectrum,” Rosekind added. “This can lead to interference of the communication between vehicles and could prevent a driver from receiving a critical message that would help avoid a deadly crash. We believe the technology can save lives, but we need a clear signal. We need those in the automotive tech industry to speak up on the subject.”
Rosekind noted that technology can also help NHTSA deal with the current unprecedented number of vehicle recalls, and satisfy demands from some elected officials that the agency take a more aggressive approach in how recalls are handled. “We are committed to making changes to find defects sooner and address them more effectively through the use of technology,” he said.
Rosekind is also prepared to guide the agency through the technological transformation coming to cars and realizes that radical changes for the auto industry and auto safety are just down the road. “This is a revolutionary moment in automotive history,” he concluded, “and we at NHTSA are revolutionaries.”
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