The University
of Michigan Transportation Research
Institute has been awarded a $14.9 million contract from the U.S. Department of
Transportation to conduct a safety pilot model deployment of a vehicle
communications system used to improve the safety and efficiency of the nation’s
roadways.
The 30-month program will establish a real-world, mult-imodal
test site in Ann Arbor
for enabling wireless communications among vehicles and roadside equipment for
use in generating data to enable safety applications. Passenger cars,
commercial trucks, and transit buses will be included that are equipped with a
mix of integrated, retrofit, and after-market vehicle-to-vehicle and
vehicle-to-infrastructure safety systems, a technology that could prevent
thousands of crashes.
“This is a tremendous opportunity, and we are very
excited to be able to support the USDOT’s demonstration of cutting-edge
transportation technologies in our community,” says program manager Jim
Sayer, an associate research scientist at the U-M Transportation Research
Institute (UMTRI).
The data generated and archived as part of the model
deployment will be used for estimating safety benefits in support of future
policy decisions by the USDOT, as well as for use by the broader transportation
industry in developing additional safety, mobility and environmental
applications utilizing wireless technologies. The testing phase will last 12
months and include about 2,850 vehicles.
“We feel honored to host the national test environment
for vehicles that don’t crash,” says UMTRI director Peter Sweatman.
“We look forward to helping many private and public sector organizations
advance connected vehicle technologies, which save lives and promote efficient
movement of cars, trucks and transit buses.”
