What would it take to prove that driverless vehicles are at least 20 per cent safer than those with a human at the wheels? A study involving 1,000 cars moving continuously for 50 years and covering millions of miles, according to experts. This may not happen in real life, but could be possible in the virtual world underpinned by digitalisation, they say.

Simulation is the only option, said William Vavrik, VP and Principal Engineer, Applied Research Associates Inc, at a panel discussion on ‘Autonomous vehicles: impact on design, construction and operations’, organised at the Bentley Year in Infrastructure 2017 conference.

While California and countries such as Sweden are working on an enabling environment for driverless vehicles, it is critical that as more get into the act this technology will deliver huge benefits, he said.

Peter Duncan, Chairman, Australia Road Research Board, pointed out that driverless vehicles could have a significant presence on the roads over the next 10-20 years. But technology can simply take off after a tipping point beating estimates. Policymakers must gear up for the change as technology evolves rapidly.

The United States’ federal highway administration is studying sensors that are suitable for extreme weather conditions. But in the two years that it will take them to finish the assessment, the sensors would be obsolete.

Regulations should be on performance criteria rather than prescriptive on technology, he said.

Jason Hallet, VP, Global Product Development, Topcon Positioning Group, said driverless technology will lead to improvements in road design, lanes will be narrower and there will be better use of road space and dedicated cargo lanes for the automated movement of freight.

The impact of digitalisation of infrastructure spanning building and facilities, road and rail, utilities and government and the power sector is the central theme of the international conference organised by Bentley Systems, in alliance with its partners, Bureau Veritas, Siemens and Topcon.

Earlier, kicking off the three-day event, Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems, said Asia-Pacific has emerged as the central point of infrastructure digitalisation. Singapore is a leader in using technology to enable multilayered development. In the ‘2017 Be Inspired Awards’, to be given away at the the conference, more than half of the projects among the 50 finalists are from Asia. Over 500 projects were considered globally, he said.

Among the finalists is India’s JICA Assisted Ganga Action Plan – II (Varanasi) for cleaning up the polluted river.

(This correspondent is in Singapore at the invitation of Bentley Systems)

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