The big advantage of C-V2X is that it can provide virtually instantaneous direct communications in safety-critical conditions and take advantage of mobile communications infrastructure for less urgent communications, such as route planning.”
-Sean Slyman, Navistar
18 percent improvement or reduction in fuel usage and added safety benefits. “One of the things that came back from the drivers is
that whenever they stop at a traffic signal, the children jump up and that’s when a lot of the injuries happen. The [fewer] number of stops that you’re going to make, the less risk you have,” Ashley said. “If the school bus doesn’t have to stop and wait for the children to sit down … there’s a lot of time savings from all of that as well.” Ashley said maintenance and operating costs would
likely decline. “If you’re stopping less, you’re using your brakes less and reducing idling time. Routes are more easily scheduled. It’s safer, faster, more efficient, cheaper and has a smaller carbon footprint,” he said. Navistar’s Slyman pointed out that if a crash occurs
on a C-V2X-equipped bus’ usual route, information can be automatically transmitted to that bus to re-route it to another street to keep it on schedule. He agreed the sky is the limit for C-V2X technology possibilities, but it’s also important to exercise caution about how much information is shared and to whom. “For the safety of children, we don’t want to share full route information with the world, for instance. You don’t want anybody saying, ‘I know this bus is going to be at this particular stop at 11:33 a.m.’ So, you do have to be careful because in addition to leaps in technology there also have to be leaps in security. We’re working on this parallel aspect, and we see this continuing to grow and even tying it into infrastructure,” he said.
38 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2022
Moore noted that Blue Bird continues to “lead in its core
areas of expertise” but the company is often on the look- out for emerging technology being developed by small firms and “we do support them and help them grow.” “At the end of the day, we build school buses. That’s
our core competency and core objective so our partner- ships are critical to what we do, especially in this kind of technology advancement,” Moore added. How electric buses with vehicle-to-grid, V2G, factor in is their capacity as “energy assets,” Moore added. Earli- er this year, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the V2X Memorandum of Understanding to promote collaboration between science, utilities, manufacturers and governments to evaluate the technical and econom- ic feasibility of integrating bi-directional charging into energy infrastructure. The MOU identifies cybersecurity as a core component of V2X charging infrastructure. Blue Bird electric school buses come with V2G tech-
nologies as standard. The company has deployed EV buses to California for a project to study interconnec- tions with the power grid. He touted their numerous vehicle-to-grid attributes, including the ability to store electricity purchased during low-demand, low-cost hours that districts can draw upon later in the day, tap it during a natural disaster or even sell it back to the grid during peak-demand, high-value hours. While telematics is nothing new to school buses, V2G
electric buses can provide valuable real-time data beyond the traditional location updates. “A fleet owner can keep
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