EVENTS A National Autonomous Pod Sharing Service. The Countdown Begins!
Venue: Ground Floor Auditorium, AIT Engineering Block, AIT, Athlone ( https://goo.gl/maps/
Date & Time: 11am – 3:45pm, Friday 6th of September, 2019
Workshop Purpose
“On its current pathway, transport will not contribute to meeting (emission) targets…
Changing to a transition pathway will require fundamental and significant policy change.”
– Prof. John Fitzgerald, Climate Change Advisory Council, Annual Review 2019, p78
● Our ‘Autonomous Car Challenge Team’ (comprising AIT, ITSligo and a Societal Impact Champion) is
preparing a proposal to address Science Foundation Ireland’s latest ‘Zero-Emission Challenge’.
● Challenge is to prototype and test an electric ‘Autonomous Pod Sharing Service’ for short duration
trips that support public transport – while reducing private ‘non-commuting’ car ownership.
● ‘Service’ components include: lightweight 3-wheel electric ‘pod’; autonomous hardware &
software for short distance non-occupant ‘roving’; and a combined fleet booking / rebalancing
platform.
● The purpose of the workshop is to invite the wider Irish ‘smart transportation’ community to
Athlone, for participation in a facilitated round table discussion and networking event to help the
team validate the proposed solution in addressing the Zero-Emission Challenge.
● Output of this workshop will assist in the preparation of the final application.
Workshop Agenda
Introduction –
11:00 Timeline, Prototyping & Deployment of an Autonomous Pod Sharing Service – A presentation
Michael Newham (Founder; GoCar CarSharing, Cloughjordan Ecovillage) and Dr. Yuansong Qiao (Senior
Research Fellow; AIT) present a timeline for the prototyping and limited deployment of an APS Service
having the capacity to reduce transport related emissions by 2Mt Co2 Equiv. by 2030. In so doing, 600K
‘non-commuting’ vehicles can be removed from our roads, along with many other tangible benefits.
Current State of the Art –
11:30 Autonomous Pods – The components of a ‘pod’ – base vehicle, hardware & software
Dr. David Mulligan outlines ITSligo’s work on ‘Connected and Autonomous Vehicles’ He then moves on
to introduce rising stars in the world of small electric vehicles and autonomous driving.
11:35 Christoffer Sveder – Head of Marketing @ CleanMotion (Zbee Manufacturer).
An outline of this innovative ‘European Type Approved’ electric three wheeler.
11:55 Fionán O’Sullivan – Self Driving Car Engineer @ StreetDrone
Description of the StreetDrone ‘Platform’; it’s ‘drive-by-wire’ system and ‘AutoWare’ overview.
12:15 Questions – Pertinent questions on content delivered are invited from the floor
Focused Group Discussion No. 1 –
12:25 Technical Workshop Sprint – An outline of each ‘technical’ topic
12:35 Pre-Lunch ‘Technical’ Sprint – Audience to select from at least three of the following topics >
Topic 1 – Base Vehicle Considerations Topic 2 – Fleet Rebalancing Topic 3 – Autonomous Roving
Topic 4 – Base & Road Infrastructure Topic 5 – Hardware Stack Topic 6 – Software Stack
13:30 Audience Feedback – Roundup of issues / concerns from the top three chosen topics.
13:45 Lunch Break & Networking
Focused Group Discussion No. 2 –
14:30 Regulatory Workshop Sprint – An outline of each ‘regulatory’ topic
14:40 Post-Lunch ‘Regulatory’ Sprint – Audience to select from at least three of the following topics >
Topic 1 – Insurance Topic 2 – Business Model Topic 3 – State Tax / Revenue
Topic 4 – Safety Considerations Topic 5 – Licencing Topic 6 – Marketing & Uptake
15:25 Audience Feedback – Roundup of issues / concerns from the top three chosen topics.
Wrap-Up –
15:40 Workshop Closure – Anthony Cunningham (BDM of COMAND Gateway, AIT) outlines the
‘Challenge Teams’ next steps; requests approval for the sharing of contact details amongst attendees
Enquiries can be directed to Michael Newham @ mail2mick@gmail.com or 087 – 668 7010
