VTTI's Division of Technology Development and Deployment utilizes its facilities and infrastructure to study important topics and accomplish project objectives in transportation research. The Division has a sustained focus on data collection with the objective of creating advanced systems while still being unobtrusive to participant drivers.
Director Zeb Bowden, who previously served as VTTI's systems architect and lead application developer, believes that VTTI has the ideal platform to address policy and safety implications for transportation of the future.
“We [VTTI] are the ones who need to answer those questions,” Bowden said. “We are still the best in the world in our ability to collect, store, and analyze data.”
With additional financial resources, Bowden believes that his division can continue its groundbreaking research on automated driving systems (ADS) and vehicle electrification. Many logistical questions still require concrete answers: What happens if the vehicles make a mistake? What do we do when there is a crash? Bowden asserts that VTTI needs to “be in a position to help people” in addition to developing these systems.
For Bowden, expanding equality and access to all is the driving force behind his research.
“Everyone has to have access to the infrastructure in order to push to a new age of transportation,” Bowden said. “In both rural and urban underserved communities, there are so many people we can help.”
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