Safety standards in advanced cargo management

I consider the interaction of pedestrians and cargo at major commerce centers under the pursuit of automated cargo management. By Automated Cargo Management I include both pedestrians and material loading and unloading by automated processes. In this scenario, all traffic with microprocessor based automation techniques, regardless of the level of human supervision, all occupy high efficiency traffic lanes. High Efficiency Lanes may be occupied by Street Bots, Bus Rapid Transit, Personal Autos with Automated assist. Let these vehicles be called High Efficiency Vehicles (HEV).

The first consideration is pedestrian detection and interaction. We might recommend that automated pedestrian detection and interaction be required for the HEVs (Rapid But Transit, Street Bots), and stationary Automated Loaders. Vehicles using efficiency enhanced lanes would under go driving tests to evaluate their pedestrian management systems by insurance risk management companies. The anticipated cost of one unit of vision system should approach $100 to $200, adding as much as $500 cost to the typical high efficiency vehicle. Other ultra lightwieght personal vehicls that utse high efficiency lanes could apply very low cost visual signaling to the HEVs to simplify identification.

The second consideration in safety is a defined set of intersection signals, lane markings, curbing standards, lowering cross bars, audio cues and the rest needed for pedestrians with and without cargo to cooperate at loading pints with high efficiency vehicles (HEV). The HEV designs will have automated detection for these signals, including the voice based cab hailing. Government, Private partnerships could set these standards over time.

The third is HEV to HEV interaction, signaling between HEV units about intent. These may include both electronic and visual signaling. Visual signaling, based on current auto standards, would be coherent with current pedestrian expectations.

The safety standards are relatively low cost yet greatly reduce the risk of system shutdown due to pedestrian accidents. By aligning the safety standards with High Efficiency lane usage, then we gain economies of scale and predictability for the development of safety systems. Safety systems are lightweight and have very low infrastructure costs. And finally, safety standards give reassurance and risk assessement to government traffic bureaucracies, investors, and voters.