Critical audience for us representing a lot of researchers and thinking that goes into laying the foundation for a lot of advanced technologies. Attend tend to be a wonky or crowd, a lot of people who understand what we are saying and hearing from them helps inform what we are doing great we support this panel today and appreciate everyone and in the Human Trafficking panel earlier today. Human trafficking is a critical issue we all need to take action on now. Well will be talking about the secretarys top priority which will be fostering innovation. While ensuring the publics legitimate concerns over safety and security on the forefront. And the Deputy Assistant secretary for transportation policy. Ive been working on these for three years. At,ything we are looking and very excited about this conversation braden to my left is james owens. I will be in the innovation space its very active space. Ensureole is doing these are in our airspace and to ensure we keep that is innovative as possible. I am Deputy Assistant secretary for research and technology. The 1. 1ole i oversee billion worth of research and the different modes plus the 75 million in the University Transportation center. I also look at technologies such as gps and case satellites get knocked out and spectrum and connected vehicles and Automated Vehicles. We are all going to give you brief presentations to show your foundational background, everything thats going on in terms of policy initiatives, regulatory initiatives, laying the foundation for conversations and we will ask those questions and you should see a number of policy staff around the room with notecards. You will see these notecards. That will allow us to take questions from the audience can you can some questions at any time and bring them up to us. Is we do this because this partly being aired live on cspan so we need to take questions, not take statements. We are looking forward to this conversation. To start with how weve been handling these new and emerging technologies, you probably are aware the secretary announced the nontraditional and emerging Transportation Technology council in march of last year. We have been hard at work bringing in a lot of Research Initiatives we have underway but also looking at how do we address new types of technologies we have missed i was to handle. We did start focusing on the types of petitions we been receiving, but also making sure we are incorporating our Automated Vehicle work in that. Outreach initiatives and regulatory initiatives and the Research Initiatives making sure we use this to inform the other types of work we are doing and needless to say our friends at the faa are bringing a lot of Lessons Learned and were trying to figure out how to better use the modes to inform the work they are doing braden this a lot all of theforth, assets looking at these technologies. This is not supposed to be an exhaustive list. We may include a scooter working group. New things that may challenge some of the authorities we have, we have authorities the touch other agencies, this is a single point of contact for anything that has so they dont get answers from different ones. This is a good place for everyone to go. We just put out a request for comment and just closed on friday, we got 1300 views of that and 26 official responses from commenters challenging us in certain ways. Reading those, taking them in and understanding them and we will take the next steps from there. One of the things, a message you got from ces is the secretary attended so she could announce Automated Vehicles 4. 0, ensuring american vehicles and automation safety. The this is is it builds on approach for safety. We started with a cornerstone of safety which was automated driving systems 2. 0. This highlighted safety features important for automated developers. Making sure the public knows how they are creating these technologies. This solidify the cornerstone of safety. Year in 2018 at the end of 2018 we premiered Automated Vehicles 3. 0. This Lady Foundation for the entire department of transportation so we have one approach for how we engage these technologies. It further clarified some safety focuses. The federal, state role and where do we belong, where does the federal role of research as we work with these new technologies. One of the bits of feedback is well its what we expected. It should have been. Took put on a number of request for comment. They engage Transportation Community shouldve seen whats coming. Its been fantastic and we are putting this for Public Comment as well because we are better off hearing from everybody helping us tie it together. As we been engaging with our partners, we didnt really have a perfect idea of how money agencies were involved. My best guess is something around 15. If you dont know all 38 agencies involved, please go to but thinkingn. Of, through how can we better tie together all these pieces as we look for the future we want, we have billions of dollars being spent on these technologies. Tohave dozens of initiatives make sure we act early accurately understand whats expected of each Automated Vehicle manufacture. When it starts thinking through an systemwide effects. There are different initiatives underway that even i wasnt aware of. So we will put this for Public Comment. And should serve as a map for you all to look at the assets in place right now for you to look as an american innovator of the thes in place and utilize resources in place to lead. 36 states plus the district of columbia are already actively engaged in the testing of these technologies. Congress has weighed in on the types of initiatives they would like to see. The department has been heavily engaged. A massive amount of work roleway, this outlines the of federal activities but theres so much work to be done. It does we highlighted what our principles are the line with our authorities. You should see some of the same principles. The different tie authorities we dont ourselves have. You see things like privacy come back. Things around systemwide impacts coming in effect. The cybersecurity partnerships we have. And on the dod side all the work they are doing. Types of works they are doing. Or what happens when you make a vehicle a connected vehicle. One of the activities weve been using to inform ourselves and im talking about policies underway. Well have some of the partners talking but regulatory activities they have underway. Diana will be talking about research. I will focus on the policy activities. The first is with the 60 Million Congress provides to inform and engage the public on Automated Vehicle demonstration, we have put out grants that focus on safety, secondly on generating the type of data we need for the safe integration of technology and third, working with our state and local partners on the types of operations, bringing them in. That are working to explore what this can do and how to bring it into the system safely. Thats the criteria with which we judge these grants and weve got great results. Urban applications, tying together different pieces, working with the people. Those have good understanding these initiatives. Andus transit applications Automated Vehicle applications. We have some fantastic work and probably many of you worked on these themselves so thank you for doing a good job. We are very proud of these grants and are in the process of cranking them out. Going to read the activities. You more headlines to come. A lot of things we learn from the very successful president s drone integration highway program. Not only with how he processed it but how we will execute it. Things that are informing these activities. Improvements over time as we learned is an agency in the department. One of my favorite initiatives weve been talking through the secretary did a great job announcing enter focus is started to drive through. Triple the amount of on october 29, not only research and policy driven initiatives but also ringing the assets in the federal government, bringing the tying together these knots and researchers. So that we can use all the excitement. So people with disabilities, to ensure we are bringing the subject matter. That helps use technology for people with accessibility. And back home. On curb to curb and doortodoor. Deploying that in taking those Lessons Learned. With the Inclusive Design challenge. Thats putting out a challenge. Taking his centers that are developed, helping bring in this community of knowledgeable people with the actual engineers and decisionmakers of the innovation community. Together to work on these challenges as we are thinking proactively about the types of challenges people with all sorts whethersibility needs they be cognitive, visual, auditory, mobility challenges. Bringing them in so we can address concerns before because a problem down the road. It will hopefully alleviate a lot of future challenges. We want to take those Lessons Learned. One of the things you highlighted. It is we have to do a better job communicating what Natural Technology is. But its real capabilities are. People that are members of the public. This is understand that a level two vehicle. Once whats a Driver Assistance vehicle. Supposed to bet hands on the wheel but paying attention. There is not a truly selfdriving vehicle on the road today. Nothing available for sale today. We have lower levels of automation. We cannot let anything happening with those he conflated with actual selfdriving technology because not only does it ruin safety today and give people unrealistic expectations, but it takes away the public trust Agreement Technology the future. Sos important we simplify everyone understands what we mean and they are talking to the s. Gineers versus policy wonk we need to be able to reach the general public to so they know what the differences between Driver Assist and automated driving of functions driving functions. We have to make sure everyone understands so we cannot lose the public trust. This is something youve seen us work on. We work with some of our partners like Consumer Reports and aaa on their documents, we are very happy they talk to us beforehand and we had a lot of discussions with them so we are serves as and that starting point for more conversations and more work we need to be doing to produce these things for public consumption and reform ourselves and our partners in congress. We are all in this together. Working on her Automated Vehicle workforce. As we think proactively about the impact of these technologies, we need to make sure we are engaging in bringing in the community of people feel like they will be impacted. One of the main outreach initiatives weve been doing is Automated Vehicle workforce report and looking at the impacts of the trucking community. There is they are some of the ones who are likely bringing these technologies first. Wonderful engagement with partners you may not normally working with but weve been working with teamsters and uaw, bringing them in and having workshops with them first hand so we can understand their needs to make sure we are proactively thinking and addressing these thing. We brought in four agencies. Bartman of labor, health and Human Services and commerce. It in particular the impact will be. Lastly the Automated Vehicles comprehensive s the most we have to bricked the future and what our regulations will be. We have to predict what research we need to do and tile these together. Thats why its critical to put out av 4. 0 so we outline what the goals are, what we are doing. You have the regulatory agenda out in public and you have all of these polity policy initiatives. How do we tie them together . How do we get from where we are today where we have a number of Research Initiatives and polity policy initiatives, how do we get from where we are too full and safe integration of Automated Vehicles into our system. Thats what this is. When we ask for comments on av 4. 0 we are starting to think about how we tie these together so we have comprehensive plans and its not to be right but we will try to get it as not wrong as possible. We cant predict the future but we will try. It is going to be fantastically interesting in my colleagues on , this is going to be something we will be working on of. E next number i am a was available to you, please feel free to reach out to me in the policy shop, we are at your service. We will be working together on this and we will be calling on you to make Public Comment on this document here. Nothing we do is not done without taking Public Comment and making sure we are looking around every corner at what the effects may be. So with that, i will turn it over to you, james. James its a pleasure to be here this afternoon. Being here. You all its an opportunity for us to talk to you and share whats going on in our agency. We believe very much in reaching out to the public and getting feedback. Ideally we can make the best decision possible or lease the decision in the light with the information. Is first and foremost a tsa is the first and foremost a safety agency. Everything is focused on perfecting our people on our roads. Inr it be the vehicles, bikes, on foot or other transportation. We are witnessing a revolution in technology that promises to make our cars safer than they have ever been. First lets start with the facts. Point 4 e saw a two decline in fatalities on our nations roadways, the second Consecutive Year of declines. Early incidents were 2019 suggest this trend is continuing. That is very good news. However, that is still lives onng to 36,560 our nations roads in 2019. Every fatalities a tragedy. Everyone means a family has lost their loved ones, friends and colleagues have lost a partner and we all lost the amazing potential that every life promises. Lose unacceptable that we so many lives on our nations road. We are focused on doing what we can do to save lives and bring those numbers down. Simply put, fatal crashes have two basic roots. Behavior and technology. We know most serious crashes are caused by human error and far too many lives are lost because of drug or alcohol impairment, driving without seatbelts, speeding, and driving while distracted. , Technology Hand has made new vehicles safer than before. Newer vehicles are safer vehicles. That thees indicate proportion of occupants who are seriously injured increases with a vehicles age. The newer the vehicle you are in, the safer you are in a crash. Newer vehicles are safer than before but we believe new technologies can and will make them even safer in the future. Not only do these technologies make them more crash worthy, you are more likely to survive when a crash does occur, but they are helping us avoid or mitigate crashes in the first place. Know, developers are investing billions of dollars in advanced technologies that are helping drivers avoid crashes or reduce the severity of crashes that do occur. Innovation is leading to growing levels of automation that can address some of the unsafe driving behaviors that cause most serious crashes. World inates leads the advanced vehicle technologies because innovators are able to develop safety enhancing technology here at home. Under the leadership of scheck is retary chao, ntsa including automated driving systems. Exercises careful oversight by closely communicating with developers, conducting research into emerging technologies and human factors. Investigating incidents and complaints and when necessary and appropriate, exercising out broad enforcement authority. , when theime is right technology is proven, our history shows we will adopt performance based standards. Many manufacturers are developing and rolling out new advanced Driver Assistance systems. Such as automatic emergency braking and lane keeping assist which can help drivers avoid crashing or reduce severity of crashes. We expect these and other developing technologies will help reduce fatalities on our roads, including vestry ends and other users. The early data on the efficacy of these technologies is quite promising. That thetical however public understands a vital fact about current technologies. All vehicles sold in america require a driver to be fully attentive and cognitively engaged in the driving task at all times. This is true even if the vehicle is equipped with any of the technologies that are currently on the market. While these technologies are improving and enhancing safety, they are not selfdriving. Misusing Driver Assistance systems by failing to maintain control of the vehicle at all times can result in serious and deadly crashes. Consumer education is an important tool for enhancing ensuring that these technologies are used in a way that enhances safety. In addition to Driver Assistance technologies, we are seeing significant investment in more advanced automated driving systems that might one day allow ,ehicles to drive themselves and thereby have the potential to greatly reduce the number of fatal crashes involving human error or poor choices. Technologies may enhance mobility for underserved communities and reduce congestion on our crowded highways. These are being developed today by many different innovators and ntsa is maintaining a close dialogue with developers to ensure our safety concerns, including concerns about cybersecurity, as well as the efficacy of these systems, are incorporated into the product process. Policy andas regulations will require updating. Currently, we ar