Safety to Success

Transportation is universal for all of us to get to and from where we work, live, play, and learn. Recently there has been considerable emphasis on cost or convenience but the industry must not lose sight of key requirements of reliability and safety. With many new technologies and business models entering into the transportation sector, with significant new private-sector funding, there can be an urge to push new solutions without understanding how they could affect the safety of the user and the environment.

Today we are in conversation with Barry Einsig. With over 30 years of industry experience in global technology systems markets and modes of transportation including automotive, roadway, aviation, public transit, maritime, railroads, freight and logistics, and in-vehicle technologies systems Barry explains the importance of placing safety at the forefront.

Safety is an essential aspect of transportation and one that must always keep as the NorthStar. How does the industry ensure safety is a top priority, while also making sure that all stakeholders are engaged and that there is not a negative financial, or operational impact?

“I tend to focus on the needs and concerns of the community and stakeholders, so I always put safety at the forefront. Throughout my experiences advising and deploying systems, I have seen that it is possible to do things safely and reliably. This is essential to build the trust needed for passengers or shippers to utilize the technologies and systems.

“Seven years ago, I supported the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) during testimony regarding the market readiness, and potential rulemaking, for the industry to support the adoption connected vehicle technologies. NHTSA was evaluating if personal light vehicles should be required to be connected, that is to include vehicle-to-vehicle, and vehicles-to-infrastructure communications. Ultimately, rulemaking did not occur. Even though there had been plenty of research to support the use of the technologies that could save thousands of fatal crashes annually. Other countries around the world (from Europe to Asia) continue moving forward with these connected vehicle systems. Only a few models of vehicles were released in the United States with the technology, and some Infrastructure Owner Operators deployed connected vehicle technologies.

“The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has been rotating the potential lifesaving capabilities of these technologies in reports on fatal crashes such as the one in Somerset, Pennsylvania on February 8 2022. The crash occurred do to overspeed for the conditions of a commercial bus that overturned, blocking the roadway, exposing the bottom of the bus that was difficult to see by trucks that then crashed into the overturned vehicle. NITSA maintains that if the vehicles and infrastructure had connected vehicle technologies in place, many or all those lives from the crash could have been saved.

“What I supported NHTSA in testifying, was the viability and market readiness for connected vehicles systems. To me, the crash noted earlier and many similar fatalities are clear-cut example of how technology is essential, and we know how to deliver and deploy it today.

“But, trust and immediate action are required to deliver these safety systems, vehicle manufacturers, their ecosystem of partners, and the public sector must trust that all key stakeholders will implement the necessary technologies in a safe, reliable, secure, scalable and sustainable system of systems in order to save lives and improve efficiencies. The automotive industry and infrastructure owner-operators have both come out in favor of moving forward with these technologies. The time for action is now.

“With a concept like safety, the best place to start is with the consensus that everyone wants to get to their destination seamlessly, efficiently, and safely. Examples of this exist across all modes of transportation. People will not utilize any mode of transportation if they don’t feel safe. With this in mind, safety needs to be central to the design and implementation of the system. This goal, though, must balance with the user’s needs if it is to succeed. For instance, we could make the roadway transportation system safer by requiring technology to limit the vehicle to posted speed limits, but by focusing on the user experience we need to consider how the user can adopt and adapt to the technology for maintaining safe speed limits. In the way the industry and users have integrated and utilized other safety technologies such as backup cameras, automatic braking, lane keeping, and adaptive cruise control systems.

“There is no denying that safety comes with additional costs to manufacture, or deploy, which can be challenging when engaging with such a large group of stakeholders as the traveling public. But it is also important to consider the other side of looking at safety from a cost perspective. The other side begins the conversation regarding liability. It may seem like money is saved when cutting safety costs. But in the end, a larger liability associated with that cost reduction can occur. Whether that’s a legal liability or just a lack of trust by users of the system because they don’t feel safe using it.

“We have no choice but to focus on safety first as we begin to introduce new technologies into the transportation industry. There are tremendous safety, mobility, and efficiency gains for all of society when we deploy them correctly. Welcome all to continue to collaborate to rapidly design, build, operate, and maintain this new set of technology system of systems for a brighter, and safer future for all of us.”

Thank you for sharing, Barry.

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