What Will Transportation Look Like in the 21st Century?

Moving goods and services around the world poses significant environmental, economic and social challenges. We will work to help solve those challenges.

By David Amoriell, chief operating officer, Government and Transportation Sector, Xerox

After more than a dozen years of a new century, we’re still asking: “How do we advance U.S. transportation into the 21^st century?”

I’m talking about setting a foundation of a commercially viable system of connected and automated vehicles—vehicles that communicate wirelessly with one another and with infrastructure around them. These types of advancements warn of potential hazards and allow more automation of a vehicle’s functions.

That’s what the University of Michigan’s Mobility Transformation Center is doing right now with industry partners that include Xerox, Ford, General Motors, Bosch, Econolite and others. We will work with federal, state, and local government representatives, and our goal is nothing less than a revolution in how people and goods move worldwide.

30 Acres of Simulated City

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) will develop a 30-acre simulated city called the Mobility Transformation Center. It will be the largest on-road vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure test environment in the world.

Xerox will support U-M’s Mobility Transformation Center (MTC) through its research projects, proprietary transportation offerings and data analytic capabilities.

The ultimate goal is to demonstrate how emerging automotive information-based systems and communications capabilities enable improved transaction-based business processes. Xerox’s expected areas of focus will include:

• The integration of mobile device and automotive information-based systems for transaction management solutions such as tolling and smart parking. The ultimate goal is to eliminate the need for cash payments, and simplify transaction collection processes.
• Integrate smart parking applications into automotive information-based systems. We will build on the Xerox Merge^® platform and  improve the dynamic pricing algorithms that allow us to reduce congestion and overall vehicle emissions  through effective parking demand management policies.
• Analyze and integrate data from theUSDOT’s Safety Pilot Model Deployment program. We will identify new potential opportunities in areas such as fleet performance monitoring, driver behavior, road infrastructure quality and vehicle health and diagnostics
• UMTRI will independently test and assess how various transportation offerings perform, including our Vehicle Passenger Detection System, a HOV/HOT lane compliance test system that uses video analytics to identify the number of occupants in a vehicle.

This combination of automotive-based systems, wireless devices, and infrastructure solutions will enable drivers and passengers to experience trips that are safer, more efficient, and seamlessly integrated with the rest of their lives.

The Urgency of Progress

With the growing trend of urbanization, the transportation systems that move people, goods and services around the world pose significant environmental, economic and social challenges. The data from the research will be critical to reduce vehicle collisions, energy consumption and carbon emissions, while improving overall urban mobility and quality of life worldwide.

Construction of the Mobility Transformation Center is slated for completion by September 2014. UMTRI plans to establish a network of more than 20,000 connected and automated vehicles on the streets of Southeastern Michigan by 2021.

We plan to extend our partnership with UMTRI so that we can study how the government, automotive manufacturers and society can work together under a universal structure. We will learn how to streamline all components of multi-modal, urban mobility – from parking and tolling to public transit and fleet management – into a single, fully accessible operating system.

That’s a transformation that makes a difference to people, the environment and the economy.