Minnesota Guidestar

Board of Directors Meeting

DRAFT Minutes

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

8:00 am to 11:15 am

Holiday Inn St. Paul East

In Attendance

Brian Scott, SRF Consulting GroupBernie Arseneau, HDR, Inc

Marthand Nookala, HNTB – Co-ChairDaryl Taavola, AECOM

Dave Meslow, 3MRoger Walz, ITS Minnesota

Arlene Kocher, USDOT, FHWAMorrie Luke, ITS Minnesota

Brian Kary, MnDOT/ITSMNJanelle Borgen, WSB & Associates

Max Donath, U of MJames McCarthy, USDOT, FHWA

Jay Hietpas, MnDOTRay Starr, MnDOT, OTST

Rick Krueger, Krueger Consulting LLCGina Baas for Jim Grotehaus, U of M

Dean Deeter, Athey Creek ConsultantsAmr Jabr for Jody Martinson, MnDOT

Absent

John Dillingham, Co-ChairTony Winiecki, Scott County

Matt Langer, DPS/MSPMarc Culver, City of Roseville

Scott Propp, Dentro ConsultingDan Murray, ATRI

Nick Thompson, Met CouncilNick VanGunst, ITS Minnesota

Mike Granger, StreetSmart RentalMukhtar Thakur, MnDOT

Durga Panda, IsoMIQ LLCDan Nelson, ITS Minnesota

Sue Porter, MnDOTTom Sohrweide, Short Elliott Hendrickson

Co-Chair, Marthand Nookala, called the meeting to order. Introductions were made and guests were introduced:

  • Phil Magney, Cami Zimmer and Danny Kim from VSI Labs

Phil Magney from VSI Labs provided a presentation on VSI Labs – The Build Up of Automated Driving.

The presentation can be found at:

The ITSMinnesota Fall Forum was discussed. The attendance was exceptional with excellent representation from around the country. Attendance numbers doubled from the typical Fall Forum. The timing was great for the subject matter.

The Shuttle will be arriving at MnROAD today, then be on its way to 3M. Tours will begin around the first of December. We will be able to work in cold weather conditions and hope to bring the Minnesota Guidestar Board members up to MnROAD for their next meeting. In case of good weather, we will be bringing in a snow-making machine. The Shuttle will then head down to the Superbowl.

After the Superbowl, the intent is to do some type of outreach with the legislature in late February, possibly around the State Capital. We could do some type of a showcase and include other CV/AV in Minnesota. We will need to develop our “ask” which will be in tune to the support of a CV/AV testing environment. We need to give the legislators the bottom line so they can work towards the end result. What is our goal and what gaps are we trying to fill. The hope would be to reach more than the Transportation Committee.

Statewide Jurisdictional AV/CV Committee Update – The group is working on making sure we have the right environment for AV/CV in Minnesota. The state has agreed to move forward with AV/CV. Plans are being made as to what we can do short term and what we can do long term. The group needs to clarify what the testing environment is in Minnesota. DPS needs to be brought into the discussion.

Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) Proposal Update. Minnesota’s 3rd attempt to propose to get some federal dollars was not awarded. We do have some internal funding we can use but the federal dollars would have doubled it. We will be moving ahead with projects.

Cory Johnson said that WSP was under contract to do the ConOps. We should have something to present by January/February 2018. This will set the framework to leverage some partnerships.

VSI is hearing a lot about SPaT from the manufacturers, however it hasn’t come out yet. They are looking forward to seeing more about it.

There is a great need to getmore input from the local agencies. Marthand Nookala will reach out to Ramsey, Hennepin, Washington and Dakota Counties. Dean Deeter will reach out to Ed Bradley from Toyota and other Board members can reach out as the opportunities come up.

Max Donath suggested the Mn Guidestar Board members read an article by Rodney Brooks called “The Big Problem with Self-Driving Cars Is People”. Max will forward the article to Sue so she can send it out to all Board members.

Minnesota Guidestar Outreach Plan

Brian Scott provided an overview of the Minnesota Guidestar Outreach Plan that included: The Purpose of the Plan, the Vision of the Plan, Goals, Objectives and Opportunities for Focused Outreach.

Brian stated that Board members who want to volunteer for Focused Outreach can contact Sue Sheehan.

It was noted that all Board member organizations should use their own twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts to spread the word about CV/AV.

The Outreach Plan can be found on the Mn Guidestar Board of Director’s website at:

The presentation can be found on the Mn Guidestar Board of Director’s website at:

Updates

FHWA

NHTSA is releasing new voluntary guidance on automated driving systems “Automated Driving Systems: A Vision for Safety. Please submit your comments early enough to ensure that Docket Management receives them no later than the 14th of November.

ATCMTD Awards – Federal Highway Administration Awards Nearly $54 Million in Advanced
Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Grants. The awards went to AZ-Loop 101 Mobility Project, CA-Global Opportunities at the Port of Oakland Freight Intelligent Transportation System, FL-Connecting the East Orlando Communities, ID-SMART Arterial Management, MI-Improving Safety and Connectivity in Four Detroit Neighborhoods, OH-Connecting Cleveland Project, SC-Greenville Automated (A-Taxi) Shuttles, TX-The Texas Connected Freight Corridors Project, VA-Truck Reservation System and Automated Work Flow Data Model, and WA-Multimodal Integrated Corridor Mobility for All.

ITS Minnesota

Brian Kary reviewed the ITS Minnesota Fall Forum held on October 17 and 18, 2017. It was a very interesting and well attended Fall Forum. Connected Vehicle 200 Level Course will be held on December 1, 2017 at MnDOT’s Training and Conference Center in Shoreview, MN. This is a brand new training with more details coming soon on the ITS Minnesota website (itsmn.org/events).

Brian stated there will be 2 more board meetings this year. The December 12th meeting will be the strategic planning meeting for ITS Minnesota. An invitationto the meeting will be forwarded to the Minnesota Guidestar Board of Directors via Sue Sheehan.

University of Minnesota

The Civil, Environmental, and GIO-Engineering (CEGE) Department recently hired Michael Levin. CEGE is also working on hiring another transportation faculty member that will bring the group to 4.

Max reported that the HumanFIRST Laboratory has received a 2017 Research Infrastructure Investment Program award. Funds from the award will be used to overhaul components of both driving simulators. Max suggested that one of the Minnesota Guidestar Board meetings could be a tour of the newly overhauled simulators.

Nicole Morris has been named the Director of the HumanFIRST Lab and manages a staff. Also teaching the grad course on human factors.

This coming semester there will be a course on Advanced Control System Design. The course will be taught by Rajesh Rajamani. Raj teaches this course every 2 years.

MnDOT

Cory Johnson mentioned that he is in the process of hiring an Electrical Engineer.

Brian Kary stated they received some TSMO funding that will allow for four full-time operations positions. They will be taking over some responsibilities from DPS.

Meeting Adjourned

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