SPECIAL NOTICE
A -- Surface Transportation System Automation
- Notice Date
- 3/11/2013
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, 55 Broadway, Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142-1093
- ZIP Code
- 02142-1093
- Solicitation Number
- DTRT57-13-S-PNOTC
- Archive Date
- 4/17/2013
- Point of Contact
- Michael P. Rigby, Phone: 6174943122, Dirck Storms, Phone: 6174942601
- E-Mail Address
-
michael.rigby@dot.gov, dirck.storms@dot.gov
(michael.rigby@dot.gov, dirck.storms@dot.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Request for Information (RFI) The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT)/Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA)/Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) seeks to obtain informed views of the opportunities and challenges to the development, deployment, operation and use of increased automation of the surface transportation system. The surface transportation system, for the purpose of this RFI, includes vehicles, drivers, users, road-based infrastructure, information systems and applications. The Volpe Center seeks this information for the purpose of developing a U.S. DOT multimodal research plan for automation. To that end, the Volpe Center is soliciting informed views on the issues, challenges, and opportunities affecting the research, development, testing, regulation, and potential deployment of automated vehicles and infrastructure operations with respect to all surface transportation modes, conditions, and driving environments. This is an area of great interest to the public, which may have significant impacts on many societal issues such as, driving safety, personal mobility, energy consumption, operating efficiency, environmental impact, and land use. The focus for this RFI is to learn the views of government, industry, academia, and the American public with regard to: • Roles of local, state, and federal governments in policy formation • Technical challenges • Human factors issues • Institutional issues • Legal issues associated with increased automation The Volpe Center is broadly interested in information that will help the U.S. DOT to structure its multimodal research plan for automation. More specific, but not exclusive, interests are identified in the subsequent subsections. Input to this RFI will assist the U.S. DOT to: • Identify, categorize, and prioritize key research challenges • Identify and begin quantifying anticipated societal costs and benefits • Learn about current and planned research activities among private and public research groups • Gain insight into commercial trends and market developments • Understand opportunities that may be created for public-private partnerships and financing • Organize the U.S. DOT research plan temporally, according to near-, mid-, and long-term priorities that reflect the time-sensitive aspects of evolving automation capabilities and market demands • Identify appropriate areas for policy formation that can help to accelerate beneficial developments, reduce or eliminate public exposure to risk, and reduce the development and operation costs associated with automation This RFI is issued solely for informational and planning purposes. It does not constitute a solicitation (Request for Proposal or Request for Quotations) or a promise to issue a solicitation in the future. As stipulated in FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not considered offers, shall not be used as a proposal, and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for any service whatsoever. The government is not seeking proposals at this time. Responders are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party's expense. Questions For each set of questions that follow, the Volpe Center is interested in responses that address a range of operating environments, such as dense urban settings, suburban arterial roads, rural roads, dedicated lanes or facilities, highways, passenger and freight terminals such as ports and parking lots, maintenance facilities, and military bases. The Volpe Center is interested in responses that address a range of vehicle platforms, such as passenger cars, medium/heavy trucks, military vehicles, buses, personal rapid transit, and other types of transit road vehicles. The Volpe Center is interested in responses for a range of vehicle and infrastructure automation levels, cooperative systems, and automated vehicle applications. Potential future driving and vehicle operation scenarios and applications include but are not limited to closer vehicle-following, precision docking, and platooning for the full range of travelers and road users who may be affected by increased vehicle automation, including those with limited mobility or disabilities, vehicle operators, passengers, motorcycles, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Interested parties should state their purpose in developing or endorsing increased automation capabilities of vehicles and road infrastructure that largely comprise the U.S. surface transportation system. Interested parties to any of the questions within this RFI should identify the nature of their work or their interest in automation of the surface transportation system. If affiliated with a research group, please identify the focus and nature of your current research program. In all instances, citation of sources and references will be appreciated. Three categories of questions follow; General, Technical, and Human Factors. In all categories, the Volpe Center is interested in interested parties' view of the appropriate role for government and, equally, those areas where government should not be involved. There are deliberate overlaps and redundancies among the three sets of questions as the responses may be different within the different contexts. General This category requests general, cross-cutting, non-technical input, and informed opinions related to governance, policy formation, research and the current state of the industry. 1. What should be the role of federal, state, or local government regarding automated vehicles and corresponding infrastructure? (For example: research, guidance, regulation, oversight) 2. How do you see the different paces of development of automation in vehicles relative to infrastructure being resolved to effect the smooth assimilation of automation into an integrated transportation system? 3. What are the issues and challenges of concern regarding automation in the following areas? Are some issues of greater concern than others? Please be specific and cite sources to support assertions where possible. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to the following: a. Consumer acceptance b. Data use and ownership c. Equity d. Functional needs of all travelers e. Governance f. Interoperability with existing and future systems g. Liability and risk h. Market and industry i. Operator certification j. Physical and cyber security k. Privacy l. Public-private partnerships and financing m. Operations and management of infrastructure n. Universal design and inclusive transportation o. Standards and harmonization p. Vehicle and equipment certification q. Others not listed above 4. If you were to prioritize research issues, sorting them into near-term (1-3 years), mid-term (3-5 years), and long-term (6 years and beyond), which issues need to be researched first, and why and which issues can be addressed later, and why? If you represent a research facility with current vehicle automation interests, what types of research are you planning to conduct, and when? If you represent a road operator, have you or are you considering allowing vehicle automation on any of your facilities? 5. What are your expectations about the future commercial availability of automated vehicles? Of corresponding infrastructure systems? 6. What would you predict to be consumers' level of trust and acceptance of the technical performance and safety of increasingly automated vehicles? How would different levels of automation or autonomous function affect consumers' level of acceptance? How would segregated lanes or other types or levels of infrastructure affect consumer acceptance? What acceptance issues are unique to professional drivers of commercial heavy trucks and intercity buses? 7. With regard to the challenge of quantifying anticipated future benefits and risks, what existing literature, models, simulations, or field trials exist that provide information on the impact of increasing vehicle automation in the following areas? Please be specific and provide citations wherever possible: a. Safety b. Economic competitiveness c. Environmental sustainability d. Livable communities e. State of good repair f. Energy g. Mobility, including throughput and speed, operations, and additional transport options for older drivers, persons with physical or cognitive impairments, and non- drivers. h. Capital or start-up costs i. System operating costs j. Vehicle operating costs k. Others not listed above Technical This category requests input to technical issues and technically-focused input related to the vehicle, the infrastructure, and network performance 1. What forms of network performance and traveler or driver behavior data are needed to improve the models or simulations currently used to predict and measure the impact of increased automation of vehicles and infrastructure? 2. What type of vehicle and infrastructure automation systems, products, features, functions, etc. do you expect to be deployed in the near-term (1 - 5 years), mid-term (6 - 10 years), long-term (11 years and beyond)? 3. What kind of technical challenges, impacts, and risks of partial or full automation do you foresee in the short-, mid-, and long-term time frames in the following areas: a. Integrated System/vehicle safe operation and reliability b. Electronic/software component safe operation and reliability c. Cyber security vulnerabilities d. Diagnostic, prognostic, and vehicle health management e. Failure modes at the vehicle, infrastructure and overall system level f. False/nuisance alarms, missed alarms g. Mixed-traffic interaction h. Privacy assurance i. System operation in case of failure j. Others not listed above 4. What do you see as the role of connectivity and communications among vehicles, travelers, their portable devices, and infrastructure in automation? 5. What is the technical maturity level of the following components / subsystems / disciplines in achieving partial or full vehicle automation? a. Actuators b. Assistive technology c. Computing hardware and software architecture d. Component, sub-system, and system simulation e. Cyber secure systems f. Fail-safe, fault tolerant, reconfigurable, available, and safe-reliable systems g. Hardware-, software-in-the-loop testing h. Object sensing and sensor fusion i. Positioning, localization, and digital maps j. Quantitative techniques for testing, verification, and validation k. Smart algorithms (artificial intelligence, knowledge based, fuzzy logic, neural networks, etc.) l. Wireless and on-vehicle wired communications; Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), Vehicle- to-infrastructure (V2I), Infrastructure-to-vehicle(I2V), Infrastructure-to- infrastructure (I2I) m. Others not listed above 6. What do you expect to be the technical evolution, roadmap, and real-world deployment from today's vehicles and infrastructure to a partially or fully automated transportation system? 7. What are the current and applicable technical standards and what are the needs for new ones? What needs to be standardized? What should not be standardized? 8. How do you think the technical testing, verification, validation, and certification should be performed, and what facilities and capabilities are needed? 9. What type of facilities and capabilities do you expect to be needed for testing? Do these facilities and capabilities currently exist? 10. What do you think are the minimum levels of reliability recommended for achieving increased levels of vehicle automation? Is the level of reliability necessary for full automation attainable in an automotive environment? Are there examples of complex automotive systems achieving this level of reliability? Human Factors The ultimate goal of the human factors considerations will be to ensure traffic safety by avoidance or mitigation of any unintended consequences introduced by automation into the surface transportation system. Note that in such a system, the human element is not restricted to the driver, but also includes anything or anybody that could affect-or be affected by-the human-vehicle system's trajectory. For this purpose, the Volpe Center seeks information from manufacturers, industry, user groups, and academia identifying and discussing the main issues emerging when considering multiple types of operators, operations, environments including infrastructure and automation philosophies; and on any other topic relevant from a human factors point of view. Whenever possible, interested parties should provide the underlying reasoning for their answers. Interested parties are encouraged to reference the literature or subject matter experts. The human factors aspects of the research plan to be developed by the U.S. DOT will examine the human-vehicle-environment/infrastructure system from the point of view of the driver and the pedestrian. Where the respondent is currently working on automation, please identify whether the focus is on development of fully autonomous driving by the automated systems (i.e. the driver relinquishes control of the vehicle to the automation) or rather, on keeping drivers in control while augmenting their perception, cognition, and performance via automated systems. Reasons for choosing either focus are also of interest. 1. What is your purpose for developing automated vehicles or corresponding infrastructure systems? What benefit and challenges do you expect from vehicles with different levels of automated systems operating autonomously, i.e., without driver intervention, or vehicles with different levels of automation supporting or augmenting drivers' perception, cognition, and performance? 2. What type of drivers, vehicle operations, pedestrians, driving environments (or scenarios), and infrastructure types are you designing for? Do your designs anticipate and provide for vehicle operators with special needs? 3. What do you think is the best way of deploying different types of automated vehicles to different types of drivers and travelers in different types of environments without jeopardizing safety? 4. What training and certification, if any, do you think drivers and travelers will need in order to operate/ride vehicles at any level of augmentation or autonomy safely in any type of environment/infrastructure? Will riders of such vehicles need training and/or certification to take over in case of failures? Will pedestrians operating in such systems need any special instructions? 5. How should drivers' and riders' trust in the automated systems be managed so that they will be able to benefit from them without over-reliance? How will pedestrians' trust in such systems be managed? 6. What is the appropriate level of transparency of the automated systems to the drivers so they can safely use the systems? How do you achieve this appropriate level of understanding of the underlying functions, limitations, and contingencies of the automated systems by drivers? 7. What type of system design, training, and/or standardization among vehicles will enable drivers to successfully switch between different levels and types of automation within and between vehicles, environments, and infrastructure? 8. Are there any efforts to standardize the automated systems' human-machine interface across manufacturers? Please provide details. 9. What are the human-factors lessons from other industries, transportation or otherwise, that are applicable to vehicle automation in surface transportation systems? 10. Do you know of any working groups, nationally and internationally, that are addressing these questions? Please provide details. 11. Any other human factors considerations not addressed above? Submitting Responses This RFI has been assigned a solicitation number for administrative and reference purposes only. This RFI is not a solicitation. Interested parties may submit or identify comments, ideas, answers, or issues that address all or any of the topics and questions above. Interested parties should provide a clear statement of how each part of their submission addresses a specific topic or question in sufficient detail to allow the Government to evaluate the relevance of the information submitted. Interested parties should also identify themselves, the nature of their work, their interest in vehicle automation, and their areas of expertise, to help reviewers better understand the perspective and experience that informs their submission. If affiliated with a research group, please identify the focus of your current research program. To be considered, interested parties shall make submissions in electronic format to the contract specialist, Mr. Michael Rigby at michael.rigby@dot.gov; this includes any questions related to this RFI. Electronic attachments to the e-mail shall be submitted in Microsoft Office 2003 (or later) productivity application formats, or any format that can be imported by Microsoft Office. Responses shall be prepared on standard 8.5 x 11-inch pages. Text font shall be no smaller than 12 point; however, chart text, figures, and/or matrices may be reduced to 8 point for the purposes of display and formatting. There is no page limit to responses. Pages shall be numbered, with headers and/or footers that identify each page as part of the whole document. Submissions are subject to public disclosure (See 49 CFR 7.17). The information is provided for discussion purposes and any potential strategy for this acquisition may change prior to any solicitation release. THE GOVERNMENT REQUESTS THAT NON-PROPRIETARY INFORMATION BE SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS RFI. Should proprietary information be submitted, it should be marked "PROPRIETARY," and will be handled accordingly. The Government will not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations. Proprietary information or trade secrets should be clearly identified. Information contained within this notice is based on current available information. This information is subject to change and is not binding to the Government. Updated information may be provided in future announcements, if applicable and posted electronically on the Federal Business Opportunities website at www.fbo.gov. Responses to this Sources Sought may or may not be returned. Lack of response to this RFI shall not preclude participation in any future solicitations, if issued. Information submitted in response to this request will be made available to U.S. DOT personnel with an official interest in its subject (and involved contractor personnel under non-disclosure arrangements). Information submitted without a claim of confidentiality and summary sheets will be made available to the public upon request. Responses must be received no later than the time specified in this announcement. Include in your response name, address, telephone number, and, if applicable, small business status. Due Date for Responses Capability package responses are due not later than 12:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, Tuesday 2 April 2013, and shall (again) be sent electronically to the Contracting Specialist, Michael Rigby, michael.rigby@dot.gov; late responses may not be reviewed. Responses to this RFI will not be returned. When responding to this RFI, populate subject line with: DTRT57-13-S-PNOTC. Again, THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. REQUESTS FOR A SOLICITATION WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE. It is intended for market research and for informational purposes only and is NOT to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for the information submitted in responses. Respondents will not be notified of the results. It is the responsibility of interested parties to monitor https://www.fbo.gov for any further information or releases (if any). All questions and/or suggestions will be considered in any potential requirement.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOT/RITA/VNTSC/DTRT57-13-S-PNOTC/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: The Office of Acquisitions, U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), Tel. No. (781) 494 2601, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142, United States
- Zip Code: 02142
- Zip Code: 02142
- Record
- SN03008317-W 20130313/130311233946-6f5183f951d8cb19930fc049cae8ed3c (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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