Cover Story


Consulting in Richmond, calls Virginia “one of the best-kept secrets” in the autonomous vehicle industry, noting that companies and universities are testing this technology on public roads and pri- vate courses around the commonwealth virtually every day. She credits this


Michael Fleming is the CEO and co-founder of Torc Robotics, which outfi tted a Lexus RX hybrid to drive autonomously from Virginia to Seattle and back.


myself regarding what was possible for a blind person,” Riccobono says. “It opens up opportunities that have not been available for blind people because we haven’t been part of the driving class.” The momentum toward self-driving


cars “has been steps of the imagination going back to the 1950s,” says Brad Stertz, director of government affairs for Audi of America. “It’s been a part of the popular imagination as to what’s possible for decades now, and now we’re at the point of turning it out to market.” That momentum, however, may be


affected by regulators’ reaction to the first fatality of a pedestrian involving a self-driving car. Uber Technologies tem- porarily suspended tests of self-driving vehicles in March after one struck and killed a woman walking with a bicycle at night outside of a crosswalk in Arizona. The incident was still under investigation as this issue went to press. Proponents of self-driving cars


believe they will have the potential to reduce accidents and fatalities sig- nificantly because they eliminate human error. These vehicles also are expected to reduce traffic congestion such as the snarls and backups that perennially


28 APRIL 2018


plague Interstate 95 and the Beltway cor- ridor in Northern Virginia. But self-driving vehicles also could


bring a host of less obvious but equally revolutionary changes to our daily lives. For example, researchers at Virginia


Tech and elsewhere are studying the con- cept of “platooning,” essentially creating train-like convoys of automated tractor- trailer trucks. The trucks would reap major fuel-efficiency savings by traveling closely together (like “drafting” with race cars) and would be able to operate virtu- ally around the clock without stopping. (The trucks could have a “safety driver” on board, ready to take over as needed, or the vehicles might be controlled and monitored remotely.) There also will be entirely new


customers for self-driving vehicles — for example, the blind, disabled and elderly. “There is a huge market for this for people who aren’t terribly well served with the transportation and mobility options they have now,” says Stertz.


Virginia now a player A lobbyist for the Unmanned Sys-


tems Association of Virginia, Michele Satterlund with McGuireWoods


involvement in part to a welcoming attitude by state government officials and legislators. They generally have let the mar- ketplace evolve but passed a couple of laws to help pave the way for self-driving cars. One recently passed law would allow self- driving vehicles to play videos on a car’s built-in instrument panel when the car is in a fully autonomous mode. This would permit a driver to watch a movie but still be engaged with the car’s instrument panel in case a warning or notification flashes up on the screen. “Virginia has purposefully — and


Satterlund


rightfully so — fostered ongoing and steady dialogue with innovators to help define the path to the future, when today’s research and development phase can eventually become the social benefits envisioned to improve safety and mobil- ity,” Satterlund says. While some other states have passed laws requiring special license plates or insurance policies for autonomous vehicles, she says, “We don’t have anything prohibiting unmanned systems [and] ground vehicles in Vir- ginia. We welcome everyone — come in and test!” Last year the McAuliffe administra-


tion founded the Autonomous Systems Center of Excellence to help promote an entrepreneurial culture for autonomous vehicles, including aerial drones, while raising Virginia’s profile in related industries. And the Commonwealth Transportation Board has moved to allow testing of autonomous cars and trucks on express lanes on Interstates 95 and 495 in Northern Virginia. In addition to Torc Robotics,


another Virginia company working on autonomous vehicles is Crozet- based Perrone Robotics, started in 2003 by CEO Paul Perrone, who earned his graduate degree in com- puter engineering from the University


Photo courtesy Torc


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