In a wide ranging speech to the World Congress opening ceremony, US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx (pictured) acknowledged the potential gains ITS can provide, praised the work already done and challenged the industry to work with
He said the industry was at the dawn of a new era where the intersection of technology and transportation will lead to wholesale change: “What’s exciting about this era is that the technology will help us almost eliminate accidents by avoiding 70 – 80% of crashes involving unimpaired drivers…,” he told the audience, adding: “This is big time stuff.”
In addition to the V2V guidelines already being put in place, Foxx said: “Let me be clear to you that the USDOT plans to run as fast as you do. Bring us your innovations and we will do our level best to help those innovations reach the market, consistent with our mission to keep the American public
and the car as safe as possible. We need you to keep pushing the envelope on innovation and you need us to help stress test your ideas against our knowledge of safety.”
In acknowledging the challenges ahead around cyber security and the regulatory framework, he urged all companies involved in the ITS field to lobby Congress to pass a long-term transportation bill to secure funding for transportation including smart transportation infrastructure.
In concluding he called on the ITS Industry to work with USDOT to stage a transportation and technology summit: “By coming together we can… find better ways to accelerate the deployment of technology that can save lives.”
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