Federal officials are looking to catalyze the nation's transportation innovation efforts via the formation of a new advisory committee, and they're relying on Pittsburgh's prowess in this sector to help provide insights into a lot of this work.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) launched the 27-member Transforming Transportation Advisory Committee (TTAC) with experts from academia, labor, industry and think tanks, among others. These members, to serve on two-year, unpaid appointments, will work together to inform DOT and other stakeholders about how to best address transit innovations relating to topics like accessibility, automation, cybersecurity and safety.
Of these 27 members, three are based in Pittsburgh. They include Nat Beuse, chief safety officer at Strip District-based autonomous vehicle developer Aurora Innovation Inc.; Kim Lucas, director of the City of Pittsburgh's Department of Mobility and Infrastructure; and Raj Rajkumar, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
Except for Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh outperforms the other cities featured when it comes to where these experts are located, which also includes ITS America President and CEO Laura Chace, Waymo Co-Chief Executive Officer Tekedra Mawakana and EV Noire Co-founder & Managing Partner Shelley Francis. Pittsburgh, home to several AV firms like Aurora, has also benefitted from graduates of CMU's robotics and computer science programs over the past two decades, many of whom have gone on to launch transportation-related firms of their own or serve as engineers at existing ones.
“We are living in a time filled with unprecedented opportunity and unprecedented challenges in transportation," DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a prepared statement. “The deep expertise and diverse perspectives of this impressive group will provide advice to ensure the future of transportation is safe, efficient, sustainable, equitable, and transformative.”
The committee is expected to first convene for a meeting on Jan. 18. Equitpile and safe deployments of emerging transportation technologies, policies that support workforce growth and outlining frameworks for secure cybersecurity solutions and privacy protections in transportation systems are some of the topics that will be discussed.
