Tennessee DOT Chief Says Driverless Technology Poses Challenges for Road Planners

Daimler

Self-driving vehicles present the biggest challenge for road planners since horse and buggies gave way to automobiles in the early 20th Century, Tennessee's transportation chief says.

"We have $2.9 billion in projects under construction today. My responsibility to you and all the taxpayers of the State of Tennessee is that those investments are not obsolete in five years," Department of Transportation Commissioner John Schroer said at a Memphis freight conference Dec. 2.

"It can happen today. The technology is there today," Schroer said of autonomous vehicles and truck and car platooning, in which multiple vehicles have one active driver. "We're just not ready to have it happen."

Fresh from attending a national conference on autonomous vehicles, Schroer told the Memphis audience that universal adoption of driverless vehicles technology could mean changes like intersections without traffic signals, narrower lanes on roads and higher speed limits.

"What impact does that have on a transportation department? Well, it's pretty interesting. When we become fully autonomous in this country and in this world, which we will, no question about it, what I see is the transition period [will be] a difficult time for us," Schroer said.

"People before me didn't have to worry about that. [His predecessors said,] 'The roads are the roads. We're always going to need them.' That's not the case anymore."

Schroer was a speaker for the 10th annual freight conference organized by the University of Memphis Intermodal Freight Transportation Institute.

Former U of M freight expert Dan Pallme, TDOT's assistant chief of environment and planning and freight and logistics director, said Schroer has committed to considering how technological advances will impact the state's investments. "He has the vision of trying for Tennessee to get on the bandwagon and be a leader on this," Pallme said.

Schroer noted the human toll of vehicle accidents in the United States, 35,000 fatalities a year, and the fact that 90% of accidents involve human error. With use of technology, "We have the opportunity to save those lives," he said.

Automation will make trucking fleets more fuel efficient and help lower insurance premiums by reducing a $230 billion a year price tag of accident-related injuries, Pallme said.

Pallme offered food for thought for some of the younger audience members. "We have a lot of young students here. In five years when you have children, they will never drive."