Approximately 300 members of various Pennsylvania departments participated this week in the state’s first Automated Vehicle Summit, which was hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and by Pennsylvania Intelligent Transportation Society.
Participating departments included the Departments of Transportation (PennDOT), the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the State Police, Labor & Industry, and Community and Economic Development.
The aim of the summit was to discuss how automated vehicles are changing travel and how to implement the technology. Safety was addressed as well as increasing public awareness.
PennDOT Secretary Leslie S. Richards appeared as a featured speaker.
“Automated vehicle technologies will bring significant safety and economic advances, and we need to remain at the forefront of developing them safely,” Richards said. “This summit is a chance for our partners to understand the changes and opportunities that are coming to Pennsylvania, and how they can best leverage them.”
Other featured speakers included Ken Leonard, director of the U.S. Department of Transportation Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, and Raj Rajkumar, director of the National USDOT University Transportation Center for Safety.
The state’s Autonomous Vehicle Policy Task Force finalized its autonomous vehicle testing policy in December. The task force is a collaboration of government and private-industry officials.