ATSSA Signal Jan/Feb 2019

American Traffic Safety Services Association 24 Member Company & Agency News Highway automation is not years away, or even days away. It’s here now, causing a number of state transporta- tion agencies to react with initiatives related to preparing and supporting Connected Automated Vehicles (CAVs) on U.S. roadways. At the forefront of issuing federal guide- lines for highway automation is the United States Department of Transpor- tation (U.S. DOT), which recently made a request for public commentary on the future of U.S. road surface trans- portation systems. U.S. DOT issued a second document, “Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0 (AV 3.0),” related to advance- ments in U.S. transportation, based on input from several stakeholders. The document focuses on three areas; ad- vancing multimodal safety, defining a process to work with the U.S. DOT, and mitigating policy uncertainty. “The department is committed to engag- ing stakeholders to identify and solve policy issues. Since the publication of ‘Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety,’ the department has sought input on automation issues from stake- holders and the general public through a wide range of forums including formal requests,” U.S. DOT Secretary Elaine Chao said. “The goal of the department is to keep pace with these rapidly evolv- ing technologies so America remains a global leader in safe automation tech- nology. AV 3.0 is the beginning of a na- tional discussion about the future of our surface transportation system.” While the U.S. DOT has emerged as one of the leaders in the policymaking and national conversation related to reach- ing full highway automation, state de- partments of transportation (DOTs) have V2X: How DOTs are connecting the dots on U.S. roadways ATSSA explores initiatives supporting communication between CAVs, roadway devices, and infrastructure State DOTs are leading the way in implementing V2X technology to make roadways safer across the country. Photo courtesy of HERE Technologies.