The Arrival of Autonomous Vehicles and How Cities Prepare

The State of Michigan and the auto industry are committed to being global leaders in the development of autonomous vehicles. What does this mean for Michigan’s cities? At Wednesday afternoon’s General Session, experts from General Motors and the National League of Cities shared their insights.

Lightsey-Harry-150x200Harry Lightsey, Executive Director, Federal Affairs-Cyber/Connected Cars, General Motors

General Motors is convinced that the next 25 years in the auto industry will look like the last 25 years in telecommunications – very rapid advances.GM is making all the investments it needs to lead this period of transformational change.

GM is particularly focused on trends in these four areas:

  • Connectivity – This refers to having cars connected to the Internet, i.e. Onstar. GM anticipates having 12 million connected vehicles by the end of 2017.
  • Electrification – GM sees electric cars as the path of the future. Their autonomous vehicles are build on the Chevy Bolt platform, an all electric care with a 238-mile range.
  • Autonomous vehicles – GM acquired Cruise Automation to help deliver greater convenience, lower cost, and improve safety for customers
  • Ride sharing – Today, 15 million people use ride sharing services, and by 2020 it will be more than 50 million. People don’t want to deal with the hassle of car ownership. Autonomous vehicles will be part of that trend. GM has the Maven car-sharing brand, and last year invested in Lyft. They’re using that to learn a lot about the trend and how GM can be a player.

GM is determined to be a leader in all of these trends. None of us know all the answers yet as to what all these changes mean. We’re convinced that self-driving vehicles are going to change the world, we just don’t know how yet. We want to work with communities on how these vehicles can help them. It’s a learning path for all of us.

DuPuis-Nicole-250x250Nicole DuPuis, Principal Associate, Urban Innovation, National League of Cities

The National League of Cities is frequently asked by members what autonomous vehicles mean for cities and how can they prepare. With all these new technologies, we can only anticipate how these new influences will look. But NLC has been digging deeper into the implications with City of the Future, their multi-year research initiative. They’ve learned that only 6 percent of city plans consider the potential effects of driverless technology, and only 3 percent take into account transportation network companies such as Uber.

Cities need to think about:

  • Developing unified AV policy that considers existing laws and stakeholders
  • Public acceptance – DuPuis recently rode in an AV and noticed frightened looks from people in other vehicles. Not everyone is on board with this technology; cities need ongoing communication/education with residents
  • Continue to stay informed of state and federal developments
  • Actively participate in infrastructure investment discussions
  • Take advantage of new infrastructure investments
  • Broadband needs

Recommendations from NLC report:

  • AV’s are on the roads today, so start planning now
  • Start considering policy development with the right people at the table.
  • Track and monitor federal and state developments and make your voices heard
  • Begin planning infrastructure needs and building data and computing capacity to position your city to take advantage of an automated mobility future

The NLC report will be released in April 2017.