Human Factors and Safety Challenges in Transitioning to an Automated Electric Transportation System

The transportation system of the United States has had significant impacts on the nation’s development, both geographically and economically. Yet inefficiencies and inherent dangers of that system cost billions and perhaps trillions of dollars every year, as well as thousands of lost lives. Automated Electric Transportation (AET) is a solution which addresses and has the potential to resolve many of those issues, particularly in relation to human factors in driving, for future transportation. However, in developing this new transportation system, new challenges arise that must be addressed. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the concept of AET and emphasize its potential impacts on transportation safety and mobility. It also addresses specific challenges that this new transportation system will face as it moves through its development. The discussion of these challenges, including deployment/transition strategy, environmental hurdles, incident response, and future expansion provides a springboard for further research and development in Automated Electric Transportation .