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IMAPnet Enabling L5 Autonomous
Driving on Interstate Highways
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IMAPnet
stands for Interstate Monitoring And Positioning network, which consists of
series of towers with radars or lidars, transmitting instant traffic data,
geographic coordinates, road conditions, and server side travel instructions
to vehicles that equipped with the specific receivers within the tower’s
range. Those towers are interlinked, also linked with the servers. For
security reasons, it is not a part of the current internet. The
technology for such a network is there, almost mature, can be completely
built in 2 years. But it has to be a government action, because the
government owns the interstate highways. This network can make L5 autonomous
driving becomes a reality instantly. L5 autonomous driving means level five,
the highest level, 100 percent fully autonomous. Autonomous driving has been
the dream and major research invest for so many institutions and for-profit
companies since 2000. Yet, after more than 20 years, we are at most at L3. It
is like fusion energy, after almost 100 years of discovery of fusion energy,
not a single commercial fusion kilowatt hour is available yet, so close yet
so far. We urge the US government to take
the leadership and initiative to establish this IMAPnet. The picture of just L5 autonomous
driving on interstates alone is so seducing. Imagine: --This
network will contribute to at least $1 trillion GDP growth per year. Economic
growth in the U.S. is largely depending on technology innovations, less
depending on political policies. Look at the U.S. economy of the recent 40
years, from 1980 to 1995, the major contributor of the net economic growth is
the invention of personal computers, from 1995 to 2005, it was internet and
ecommerce, from 2005 to 2020, it was smart phone (think of it, Apple, a
single company has above 2 trillion dollar market value in a 20 trillion dollar
economy). Autonomous driving is the next big thing. --The interstate will be safer. Machines will not fatigue
drive, will not be sleepy, will not DUI. --Increase American people’s mobility and productivity. With
L5 autonomous driving, now traveling on the interstate, you can work, you can
sleep, you can entertain, eat, talk, drink, … --Solve the truck driver shortage problem, also reduce the
shipping cost and increase the shipping speed (a machine can run 24 hours a
day without rest). Now truck drivers only need to drive local. --Enable the government to provide better service at a lower
cost for the interstate. For an example, when it identifies a pot hole, DOT
can fix it at its infancy for a very low cost, instead of current practice:
waiting for it to become a landmine to fix it. The size of highway trooper
can probably be cut into half.
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