Dr. Ken Laberteaux (Toyota Research Institute of North America)

Join NCTSPM for the third event of the Transportation Speaker Series on March 5, 2015. Dr. Ken Laberteaux, Senior Principal Scientist in the Future Mobility Research Department of the Toyota Research Institute of North Ameria, will be speaking. 

“TRACKING TRANSPORTATION TRENDS: GEN Y, SUBURBS, AND AUTOMATED DRIVING”
ABSTRACT: Historically the US has been an automobile-driven, suburbanizing nation. According to four national surveys (taken in 1990, 1995, 2001, and 2009), private vehicles accounted for 88-91% of the person miles and 83-89% of the person trips (per person) (Santos 2011). In 2001, 93% of all US households owned at least one vehicle (National Research Council 2009). The 2010 Census indicates US suburban residents now outnumber their city neighbors roughly 2:1. Yet, many predict a very different future, considering new preferences of Gen Y, new transportation options (e.g. car/ride sharing), and new technologies (e.g. automated driving). This talk attempts to make some sense of all of these trends, with several data visualizations of the past, and a few predictions thrown in for fun.

Dr. Laberteaux received his Master's and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, focusing on adaptive control for communications. In his 19 years in the automotive and telecommunication industries, he has written 25 scholarly publications and has produced eight patents and fourteen invention disclosures. His research currently focuses on sustainable mobility systems, such as grid-vehicle interactions, vehicle electrification feasibility, security and privacy issues of smart grid, battery lifetime modeling, and U.S. urbanization and transportation patterns.