Princeton University & FMERA Introduce:
The New Jersey Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research and Development
@ Fort Monmouth
Background: Why We’re Here
Dear Members of the New Jersey Motor Trucking Association: With advances in technology, the world of mobility is changing rapidly, and we are presented with a tremendous opportunity to save lives, reduce operating costs, and significantly increase workplace quality for our nation’s truckers and bus operators.
With more than 30,000 roadway-related fatalities each year in the US and more than 1.2 million annual road-related fatalities world-wide, vehicle collision-caused injuries and deaths have reached epidemic proportions. Billions of dollars are lost in crashes and even more in lost productivity due to traffic incidents and congestion. Studies show that most collisions are caused by driver error.
New technologies being developed in leading research universities like Princeton offer the near-term potential to eliminate virtually all vehicular collisions. We invite the New Jersey Motor Trucking Association to take a leadership role in launching a Center for the rapid development and deployment of such technologies into the commercial fleet industry.
About the Center: Collision Avoidance for Fleet Operators
Under the auspices of its School of Engineering and Applied Science, Princeton University and the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) plan to create the Northeast’s premier center for research, development, testing, and commercialization of autonomous technology for collision avoidance and automated driving for trucks, buses and autos. The effort has attracted support from a wide range of stakeholders, among them world renowned researchers, technology suppliers, insurance companies, fleet owners, state regulators, vehicle manufacturers, and mobile communications providers.
On January 27, 2015 a Summit Meeting was held at the Fort, where Dr. Alain Kornhauser, the project’s primary sponsor and Faculty Chair of Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (PAVE), announced that the Center would focus primarily on the special needs of motor carriers, transit buses and commercial fleet operators. “In the bus transit industry public records show reported accident liabilities amount to over $8,000/bus/year. In the trucking industry, surveys indicate insurance costs are about 3.5% of operating expenses, about $7,000/truck/year. Anecdotal evidence of under reporting and self-insurance suggests that these values may be as little as half of what is actually expended by these fleet operators. The goal of the Center’s activities are to accelerate the development of automated collision avoidance systems that avoid 50% of the crashes and save these operators a minimum of $5,000/year per bus or truck” states Prof. Kornhauser.
About the Facility: Fort Monmouth
A 1,127 acre (456 ha) former US Army base, Fort Monmouth has been identified as the ideal site to host the center for autonomous vehicles. With access to the vast East Coast markets, served by a statewide transit system and the major truck traffic corridor created by the Port of Newark and Elizabeth and the New Jersey Turnpike, the Center will serve as a showcase for new automated fleet vehicle technology in the largest market area in North America.
The Center will occupy a 25 acre parcel containing over 100,000 sq. ft. of class A office space as well as two major garage facilities that can support transit bus and class 8 truck activities, and an 80 acre parcel
containing a network of streets and buildings that can be configuredfor closed-course testing of urban and suburban driving situations.
This initiative offers the unique synergy of an extraordinary facility, Fort Monmouth, in combination with Princeton University, an internationally recognized center of academic excellence, located at the center of major US and international markets.
About Professor Alain Kornhauser
Alain L. Kornhauser is Professor of Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University where he has taught and conducted research since 1972. He serves as Director of the Princeton Transportation Program and Faculty Chair of Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (PAVE). Dr. Kornhauser is internationally known for his pioneering research in autonomous transit systems and large-scale transportation network analysis.
In 1979 Dr. Kornhauser founded ALK Technologies, which grew into a multi-national firm known for its award-winning ALK CoPilot system for turn-by-turn navigation. ALK’s PCMILER routing, mileage and mapping solutions are well known in the trucking industry. He sold ALK to Trimble Navigation in December 2012.
Dr. Kornhauser was the Faculty Leader of Princeton’s entries in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and 2007 Urban Challenge races for autonomous vehicles. He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Penn State University where he was awarded the ASME Melville medal, and a PhD in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University.