Metro Atlanta’s cars one day will ‘talk’ with each other, probably plot our ultimate downfall

As Friday morning traffic chugged along just down the block, guests gathered in the lobby of Georgia Tech’s Research Institute around coffee and light breakfast. They then filed into an auditorium to learn about the future of transportation.
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? On this November morning, the future was not about innovative transit or bike lanes. The crowd had gathered to hear about the evolution of something used by millions of metro Atlantans every day: a car that can do everything from warning a motorist about upcoming fender benders to picking the driver up on request, and even taking the wheel and driving itself.
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? That’s the view of Margo Oge, former Director of the EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, and author of “Driving the Future: Combating Climate Change with Cleaner, Smarter Cars.” She told the crowd at the Technology Association of Georgia gathering that a huge revolution in the technology of automobiles is coming and will lead to cars becoming “smart, clean, and connected.”
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? ??? By “clean,” Oge pointed to proposed federal regulations aimed at drastically improving fuel efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases, which divides emission standards into light trucks and cars. The standards also give a rather conservative estimate for EV presence in the market — only 1-3 percent of total market share.
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? Oge related the present challenge of GHG emissions and air pollution as an analog for the past: When the Clean Air Act passed into law in 1973, she said, “it was as if the sky was falling.” American automakers decried the regulations with claims that it would hamper business and hurt the economy; instead, Oge said, the US gross domestic product grew 133 percent between 1980 and 2012 while airborne pollutants from cars dropped nearly 70 percent.
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? Oge also noted the impact that improving emissions and fuel economy would have not just on congestion in cities and productivity in the workforce (less time spent in traffic is more time to work!), but also on public health: Currently, approximately seven million people die every year from air pollution alone. Oge argued that cities can lead the way in curbing emissions with regulations simply due to their population densities.
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? The kind of innovation in the private sector that led to those enormous changes is a result of U.S. regulation. “The catalytic converter,” she said, “is a result of that regulation that has had repercussions across the globe.” According to Oge, these proposed regulations are the most efficient way to achieve those reductions in pollution while simultaneously strengthening the economy, both in the States and abroad.
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? As for “smart,” Oge meant in the same way that phones have transformed from little more than walkie talkies into pocket supercomputers. Cars are already headed in that direction, as many modern cars already contain GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, touchscreens, cameras, and more. How much smarter can they get?
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? That’s where the “connected” part of her vision comes in. Connected cars have the capability to communicate with one another as well as external sources on the internet for roadway and traffic information, and are to a degree autonomous from a driver. It’s a kind of catch-all phrase for many types of technology in many types of vehicles.
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? Imagine driving down the highway in your car, but riding rather than driving; the car does all of the work, from changing lanes to maintaining the right speed, to keeping an eye out for other cars.  
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? That connectedness will open up opportunities to increase car- and ride-sharing services, a process Oge noted has already begun with services like Uber, Lyft, and Zipcar, among others. She added that regulations need to be in place to support the continued growth of the transportation service industry.
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? Google has been testing self-driving cars with those capabilities for a while now. Volvo just showed off a prototype of a front seat experience for future models that automatically moves the steering wheel and driver’s seat when in autopilot to give the driver the comfort of a passenger. Tesla Motors is already showcasing connected tech too, with a recent software update for the company’s Model S enabling an early auto-pilot feature. But currently there is no regulation in place to protect the public.
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? Combining that connectivity, clean tech, and “smart”-ness in cars of the future will theoretically make traffic flow faster and increase throughput, while dramatically decreasing emissions.
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? But there’s a missing piece, Oge claimed — and one that certainly applies to Atlanta: All this whiz-bang tech depends on urban design that supports more connected transportation with more connected communities.
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? Making this technology ubiquitous requires a paradigm shift. Regulators and consumers have to stop viewing transportation as a product and start thinking of it as a service. Instead of purchasing a car, you purchase trips —  like millions of people already do with transit. Making that happen will only be feasible with denser urban environments: Without that market density and updated urban infrastructure, the dream of the connected car is just that, a dream.
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? So, what does that mean for Atlanta? The market here is primed for a revolution in transportation. A recent survey by the Atlanta Regional Commission and Kennesaw State University’s A.L. Burruss Institute of Public Service and Research says transportation is the number one issue for most Atlantans, young or old. The Atlanta BeltLine is helping spark denser development in some intown communities — a price point still out of reach of many Atlantans — as well as a surge in the number of Atlantans for whom cycling is a viable means of transportation. Meanwhile, I-285 tops the charts for the deadliest roadway in the U.S.
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? But in the same ARC study, 44 percent of respondents said public transit was the best long-term solution to easing congestion. (Thirty-one percent favored improving roads.) Housing affordability and personal mobility are two factors that make Atlanta one of the most socioeconomically unequal cities in America. With metro Atlanta projected to grow by 2 million more people in the next 25 years, the severity of those problems will only increase unless serious infrastructure improvements are made and comprehensive regulations introduced.
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? TAG President Tino Mantella concluded the session with a call for metro Atlanta to become “the Silicon Valley of transportation technology.” The transportation industry presence is growing in Atlanta. AT&T has its Drive Studio located in Atlanta and is working with automakers to provide more connected software. Farraday Future, a new startup competitor to Tesla, is reportedly scouting Georgia for a factory location as well.
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? But, Oge says, “we’re still designing roads for cars” — not for the tech that will drive the future.