CEO Hugh Martin Leads ITS America’s Digital Infrastructure Working Group
The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) is a powerful voice in the conversation on how to modernize our transportation ecosystem, working to define—through consensus building across the public, private, and research and academic institutions—what’s possible for tomorrow’s transportation, and how we get there:
Leading-edge technology
Steadfast neutrality to bridge private and public interests
Target outcomes with measurable results
This common ethos is the foundation for the alliance ITS America and Lacuna have formed over the past year, culminating most recently in the appointment of our CEO, Hugh Martin, to chairman of ITS America’s Digital Infrastructure Working Group.
The Working Group kicked off earlier this week with nearly 50 cross-sector members participating in a lively discussion about: our collective goals for Digital Infrastructure (DI); how we got here, with a recap of past activity and events; and DI’s current working definition, stakeholders, strategy, and perhaps most tangibly, a malleable draft of a reference architecture. With a handful of members volunteering to meet as a subcommittee to focus on firming up that reference architecture, the collective feeling state is one of urgent momentum, to loosely quote the Working Group’s Executive State Sponsor and Iowa DOT Director, Scott Marler.
Leading-edge technology and how that equates to Digital Infrastructure
When we think about DI, what we’re referencing is the technological foundation upon which all future solutions can be built, a bit like an “internet” for transportation. DI that powers the transportation of the future is interoperable; in other words, all vehicles and systems can, in one way or another, talk to each other and harness artificial intelligence to coordinate optimal ways to share the public right-of-way.
Steadfast neutrality and how critical it is to building cross-sector consensus
DI is also future-proof: flexible enough to evolve alongside and support varying technologies at scale. As a longtime Silicon Valley engineer, Hugh has consistently demonstrated his technical expertise, drafting a reference architecture to help the transportation community visualize what we mean by DI, while also maintaining an open and neutral posture towards what the final architecture will ultimately be. This is not about being right; this is about putting work out into the world to help the collective decide—together—the best way to achieve a safer, greener, and smarter transportation future for all.
In the near term, storytelling—to the right people, at the right time, in the right environment—and meeting them where they are is how we move DI forward. ITS America deeply understands this, bringing vital experience across the political spectrum to create meaningful progress in the modernization of transportation. Facilitation between growth-driven private innovators, resident-focused public regulators, and data-minded researchers to create a DI that meets the needs of all parties is their bread and butter. Neutrality—not leaning too far towards the interests of any one sector, technology, or vendor—is the key to successful adoption by both governments and enterprises.
Target outcomes with measurable results
The end game: to make life better for future generations of humans. Transportation holds tremendous duality for both opportunity and harm, and the work of both ITS America and Lacuna is to drive us toward opportunity:
Environmental sustainability
Equity in safety, access, efficiency, and well-being
Economic vitality
We believe DI represents the technological underpinnings that will holistically modernize our transportation landscape. To that end, Hugh’s chairmanship of the ITS America’s Digital Infrastructure Working Group is a critical step forward to building the awareness and education required to form consensus, which ultimately drives behavioral and systemic change. The result is a better quality of life for us all, brought to you by a better transportation ecosystem.
