IEEE and the American Center for Mobility (ACM) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to help accelerate development and deployment of technical standards for connected and automated vehicles and adjacent technologies and infrastructure.
Through the MoU, ACM and the IEEE Transportation Electrification Community will identify needs for standards, validation and conformance testing and promote their importance. IEEE and ACM jointly will undertake a range of crucially needed interrelated activities:
• Identifying technical areas that require standards acceleration for development and deployment.
• Identifying methods, processes, organizations and business practices that will accelerate the development and deployment of voluntary technical standards.
• Promoting testing as a key element of standards development.
• Engaging in joint promotion of accelerated standards development with government agencies and key automotive-industry stakeholders.
• Identifying future technical standards requiring validation and conformance testing.
• Exchanging information to provide a mechanism for identification of future testing requirements.
Voluntary technical standards and real-life testing are urgently and critically needed for the advancement of automated vehicle technology and related infrastructure and their safe integration into the world’s transportation systems. Globally accepted technical standards in this space would help boost consumer confidence in automated vehicles, facilitate cost-effective innovation of emerging technologies for industry and provide a trustworthy resource that government regulatory agencies can leverage for scientific basis of their decision-making.
IEEE in November 2017 arranged a visit to ACM’s uniquely purpose-built facility focused on testing, verification and self-certification of connected and automated vehicles and other mobility technologies at the 500-acre historic Willow Run site in Ypsilanti Township in Southeast Michigan. As a result of the meeting, the organizations felt strongly an MoU would benefit both of their constituencies, as well as the general public. IEEE and ACM then identified strategic areas that match both sides’ expertise and interest.
The MoU formally links ACM with a global leader in standards development and expertise for connected and autonomous vehicles and related technologies and infrastructure across wireless, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, 5G, and a host of other areas. IEEE standards are proven for fueling technological innovation, interoperability and growth of global markets. They expand consumer choice, provide a low-cost foundation on which technology development is based, and help enable more complex solutions to be developed at a better cost structure. And they contribute to the health and safety of workers and the general public worldwide.
The IEEE Transportation Electrification Community coordinates activities across IEEE in the growing electrification revolution across transportation domains, including advances in electric and hybrid cars, more-electric ships and aircraft, rail systems, personal transport and the motive, storage, power grid, electronic intelligence and control technologies that make them possible. IEEE membership is broad and global across all of the technology areas enveloped in connected and autonomous vehicle innovation.
This agreement formally connects the IEEE Transportation Community with a world-class testing and validation environment. ACM is a global center for testing and validation, product development, education and standards work for connected and autonomous vehicles and other technologies, through which technologies and systems can be continually improved. ACM is one of 10 U.S. Department of Transportation-designated Automated Vehicle Proving Grounds in the United States.