ASU’s Center for Teaching Old Models New Tricks, or TOMNET, is a Tier 1 University Transportation Center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation to explore public outlook on the evolving transportation landscape. The center is led by sustainability scientists Ram Pendyala, Deborah Salon and Sara Khoeini.
Designs, concepts and prototypes for technologies to make transportation more efficient and economical are under development in many research labs and automotive industry facilities. But innovations that improve performance and broaden options for transport are not enough to ensure progress in those efforts will fulfill their potential.
The success of technologically advanced means of automated movement of people, products and services depends just as much or more on public attitudes, values, perceptions and willingness to embrace new and different things.
Autonomous vehicles offer a particular case in point, explored in this ASU Now article.