James Fu

Project Lead
Autonomous Vehicles
Future Urban Mobility (FM-IRG)
Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART)
Marcelo H. Ang Jr.
David Hsu

Liu Wei
Shen Xiaotong
Scott Pendleton
Chen Min
Hans Andersen
Feng Mengdan
James Fu Guo Ming
Chong Zhuang Jie
Baoxing Qin
Tawit Uthaicharoenpong
Cody Kamin
Weng Zhiyong
Daniel Morton
Diluka Moratuwage
Emilio Frazzoli
Daniela Rus
Sertac Karaman
Autonomous Vehicles Group

Visiting PhD Students
UROP, FYP Students
Interns

CREATE Centre (Singapore)
The future within reach
Credit: Minority Report (2002)
The future within reach
Credit: Minority Report (2002)
Self-driving cars no longer
science fiction...

and one needs not be a $300B giant to make one

The Ultimate Transport System

Source: URA Website
Jurong Lake District
The Ultimate Transport System

Source: URA Website
Jurong Lake District
MRT
Bus Stop
Demand
More Bus Routes!
The Ultimate Transport System

Source: URA Website
Jurong Lake District
MRT
Bus Stop
Demand
Make them walk!
The Ultimate Transport System

Source: URA Website
Jurong Lake District
MRT
Bus Stop
Demand
Dynamic Route
Demand Supply
Predictive
Real-time
Autonomous Vehicles
Why Automated Vehicles?
Safety Accessibility
Productivity
Efficiency Environment
Safety:
Cost of a statistical life: $9.1M
2011 AAA report (2009 data):
The societal cost of traffic accidents is about
$300B/year.
Cost of congestion:
Texas Transportation Institute, 2012: approx.
$100B/year
Health costs of congestion:
Harvard School of Public Health, 2010:
approx. $50B/year
Increased productivity/leisure:
Estimate $1.2T/year
Car sharing:
Assuming a sharing factor of 4, estimate
$1.8T/year of benefits to individuals.
Other studies [Burns et al., 13, Fagnant,
Kockelman 14] suggest higher sharing
factors, up to ~10.
A financial perspective (US Market)
Safety
Congestion
Health
Productivity
Sharing
Reinventing the Automobile
Active Safety
Availability
Accessibility

Native integration
High utilization
Efficient design
Affordability
Autonomy
Car Sharing
Electric Vehicles
Disruptive technology:
Automation can enable new
ways of thinking about
automobiles and
transportation systems in
general. In particular, it can
provide affordable,
convenient, on-demand
mobility.
Does not require infrastructure
Complements and encourages public
transport
Higher throughput
Fewer vehicles
Less congestion
Decreased travel times
Better accessibility
Increased productivity
Increased safety
Lower environmental impact
Reclaim parking and excess roads
Complement mass transit
Higher travel flexibility
Lower cost
...
Our work in
summary
Our work in summary
More videos are available at youtube:
search FMAutonomy channel

If only autonomous vehicles
In 2011, Singapore had:
Total population: 5,184,000
Total vehicles: 956,704

How many autonomous vehicles
for Mobility-on-Demand would
be required?
Approximately 300,000 shared cars
(vs. ~800,000 passenger vehicles) could
satisfy the mobility needs of the entire
population, with waiting times within 15-20
minutes at peak hours.
K. Spieser, K. Treleaven, R. Zhang, E. Frazzoli, D. Morton, and M. Pavone. Toward a systematic approach to the design and
evaluation of automated mobility-on-demand systems: a case study in Singapore. In S. Beiker, editor, Road Vehicle Automation,
Lecture Notes in Mobility. Springer, 2014. To appear.
The Next Step

Sept - Nov 2014
Q&A
james.fu@smart.mit.edu