From the Editors At CAVCOE

On 18 March, an Uber test vehicle in autonomous mode hit and killed Elaine Herzberg in Tempe AZ while she was pushing her bicycle across the road. This is clearly a tragedy and our condolences, thoughts and prayers go to her family.

In the days following, more details have emerged regarding the cash:
- Uber voluntarily suspended all of their AV testing on public roads;
- Uber was officially suspended by Arizona from AV testing;
- Velodyne the makers of the LiDAR, stated that their technology would have been perfectly capable of seeing the pedestrian;
- Waymo categorically stated that their self-driving car would have avoided the pedestrian, and
- Uber has reached a legal settlement with some, but not all of Elaine Herzberg’s family.

At CAVCOE we continue to remain concerned that approx. 1.25 million people are killed on the world’s roads every year, and nearly 2,000 every year in Canada. We firmly believe that AVs have the potential to significantly reduce this ongoing global tragedy, but we also know that the path to realizing the deployment of AVs that are acceptably safe will not be an easy one. We therefore hope that the discussion and regulation development around AVs at this time will continue to move forward in a positive way, balancing the immediate needs for public safety, with the ongoing need to address the unacceptably high societal cost of human-driven road crashes.
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AV Demonstrations
We are seeing increasing levels of interest in demonstrations and pilots of AVs. They are clearly the best way to show and experience the reality of this new mobility solution. Because it is so new to the market, organizing such a demonstration is not an easy task. There are many inter-related issues and stakeholders that have to be considered.

Decision makers in both government and the private sector have many questions about AVs. Many people want a better high-level understanding of how it works and the impact it will have on traditional mobility solutions and other business models.

Working with someone who has experience on deployment is key to the process of such a demonstration. An evaluation is made for every pilot; every one of them need to be analyzed and evaluated. There is no such a thing as a "standard process", although the various demonstration have some similar elements. Past experience in organizing AV demonstrations provides a solid understanding of the lessons learned and best practices. This provides the key knowledge required to develop a plan that addresses the various challenges associated with organizing demonstrations.

Identifying all the different stakeholders and their priorities is an important piece of the process. New mobility solutions are of great interest to many people and groups, transit authorities, corporations and government agencies who want to be involved in these type of projects in order to better understand the technology and vehicles. Knowing who to talk to and the chain of communication is a constant challenge. Political implication, social acceptance and industry stakeholders are just some of the people who need to be involve in the project. The stakeholders will understand and be reassured when they learn about past experiences, best practices, and the various steps of the process to make the pilot very successful.

Demonstrations and pilots are a major element in the development of AV technology Success at this stage will improve the outcome in commercial deployment. We recommend working with a team of experts that will be able to guide the process and coordinate all key stakeholders.

Marie-France Laurin, Senior Associate, CAVCOE, organized five Canadian AV demonstrations in 2017.