Dr. Abhijit Sarkar is a research associate at the Division of Freight, Transit, and Heavy Vehicle Safety, at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. His current research mainly focuses on driver behavior modeling in partial automated vehicle, role of artificial intelligence in development and deployment of AV and ADAS, Evaluation and benchmarking of AV systems, and study of driver psychophysical condition.
PAVE: How does your work align with the PAVE mission of educating the public on AV technology and its promise?
My work at VTTI is in the intersection of artificial intelligence, transportation safety, and human factors. I work with researches and practitioners from industry, government, and academia to study new technologies and their impact on roadway safety and operation. I believe collaboration with PAVE will facilitate in educating the public about the promises and limitations of AI based technologies, how AV can impacts safety, role of human in the new system.
PAVE: What are current barriers you see in public education and/or acceptance of automated vehicles?
As the AI and AV industry are changing rapidly, it is challenging to continuously educate and update public on the promises and limitations of the technologies. In order to systematically perform that industry, academia and government should come together frequently to share key insights and knowledge. Another major challenge is to effectively communicate with every level of society across different age, experience, and industry.
