Skip to main content

US to field trial connected vehicle technology

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced that the University of Michigan will conduct a road safety field trial in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which will include the installation of wireless devices in up to 3,000 vehicles in one location, to evaluate the effectiveness of connected vehicle technology to prevent crashes.
April 17, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSThe 324 US Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced that the University of Michigan will conduct a road safety field trial in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which will include the installation of wireless devices in up to 3,000 vehicles in one location, to evaluate the effectiveness of connected vehicle technology to prevent crashes.

During the pilot, to be carried out on the streets and highways of Ann Arbor from August, 2012 to August, 2013, drivers will be alerted to impending dangers in real-time so they can take action to avoid crashes. Data will be collected from the vehicles in order to understand how different types of motorists respond to safety messages in the real world.

"This test will be an important step towards the US Department of Transportation's top priority – a safer transportation system," said Peter Appel, administrator of the 321 Research and Innovative Technology Administration. "Technology is an investment in the future and this pilot deployment of vehicles that 'see' and 'talk' with one another with the help of wireless communication will allow us to learn how drivers use electronic alerts to avoid crashes in a real-world environment."

The safety pilot is the second part of a two-part connected vehicle research initiative. The first part is the Safety Pilot Driver Acceptance Clinics, which began on this month. The driver clinics are the first step in identifying how motorists respond to innovative wireless devices for safety. Participants in the six driver acceptance clinics will test cars equipped with connected vehicle devices in a controlled environment where researchers can observe the drivers' responses to the technology.

To continue the data collection under real-world conditions, the Ann Arbor safety pilot will allow drivers using cars, trucks, and transit vehicles fitted with wireless devices to carry out their normal routines while their vehicles sense the presence of other equipped vehicles nearby.

Related Content

  • First product to undergo Technology Partnerships
    June 25, 2012
    A Technology Partnerships study has been announced to evaluate the safety benefits of a solar-powered traffic signage system designed to minimise crashes on horizontal curves in the US. Part of the US FHWA Highways for Life initiative, evaluations will test the effectiveness of innovative road infrastructure safety technologies that are fully developed and market ready, but have had little use on US roads. Although horizontal curves make up a small percentage of total road miles, they account for 25 per cen
  • US DOT issues federal guidance for improving motor vehicle cyber security
    October 25, 2016
    The US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is taking a proactive safety approach to protect vehicles from malicious cyber-attacks and unauthorised access by releasing proposed guidance for improving motor vehicle cyber security. The proposed cyber security guidance focuses on layered solutions to ensure vehicle systems are designed to take appropriate and safe actions, even when an attack is successful. The guidance recommends risk-based prioritised ident
  • Networked cars ‘make traffic safer and more efficient’
    June 21, 2013
    One of the largest field tests ever conducted on Car-to-X communication has shown that information exchange between vehicles and infrastructure make traffic safer and more efficient. simTD (Safe Intelligent Mobility – Test Field Germany), a joint project by leading German automotive manufacturers, component suppliers, telecommunication companies, research institutions and public authorities recently carried out tests on the simTD technology using 500 test drivers in moving traffic. Scientists at the Technis
  • Social media a one-stop shop for travel information
    January 20, 2012
    Exponentially widening mobile phone ownership is opening up the field to new ways of obtaining and disseminating better travel information from and to public transport users, via for example social media and tracking riders' phones. Over 50 US transit agencies, including major actors such as TriMet, in the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon, Dallas Area Rapid Transit in Texas, and San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), as well as smaller operators, now have Facebook and/or Twitter accoun