Skip to main content

Texas alliance designated as US DOT automated vehicle proving ground

The Texas Automated Vehicle (AV) Proving Ground is one of ten sites designated as an automated vehicle proving ground. Formed by an alliance that includes the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), other members are the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Transportation Research (CTR), and 32 municipal and regional partners. The Texas group plans to offer a full and varied range of testing environments, from
January 25, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
The Texas Automated Vehicle (AV) Proving Ground is one of ten sites designated as an automated vehicle proving ground. Formed by an alliance that includes the 5690 Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), the 375 Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and 8520 Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), other members are the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Transportation Research (CTR), and 32 municipal and regional partners.

The Texas group plans to offer a full and varied range of testing environments, from high-speed barrier-separated managed lanes to low-speed urban environments such as university campuses, medical districts and transit bus corridors. Both closed-course facilities and real-world urban and freight test sites will be used in evaluating emerging transportation technologies.

The US Department of Transport has designated ten proving ground pilot sites to encourage testing and information sharing around automated vehicle technologies, with the aim of fostering innovations that can safely transform personal and commercial mobility, expand capacity, and open new doors to disadvantaged people and communities.  

The proving grounds will also provide critical insights into optimal big data usage through automated vehicle testing and will serve as a foundation for building a community of practice around automated vehicle research.

Other proving grounds are in Pennsylvania, California, Iowa, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina and at the US Army Aberdeen Test Center and the American Center for Mobility (ACM).

Related Content

  • US ushers in reforms with new transportation bill
    November 9, 2012
    On behalf of ITS America, Paul Feenstra maps out implications and opportunities for the ITS industry. A critical milestone was reached last month when the US Congress passed, and President Obama signed, legislation reauthorising the nation’s surface transportation programmes, breaking a nearly three-year log-jam which had stymied critical transportation reforms and delayed much-needed infrastructure projects. The law, numbered P.L. 112-141 but known as MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century),
  • Developing integrated transport networks
    September 20, 2012
    A major initiative in managing numerous transport networks as a single system has moved into a significant phase with design of sophisticated new ITS systems. Jon Masters reports. Detailed design work is under way on two pilot projects pursuing a common principle – that transportation can be made more efficient or effective if the various networks and modes of travel are managed as a whole system. This is the central tenet of the US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Integrated Corridor Management (ICM)
  • SwRI launches ActiveVision to help automate traffic monitoring
    June 18, 2019
    Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has released ActiveVision, a machine vision tool that transportation agencies can use to autonomously detect and report changes in traffic conditions. Dan Rossiter, SwRI research analyst, says: "The goal is to help transportation officials enhance their ITS capabilities with advanced algorithms that autonomously scan vast amounts of visual data, extracting and reporting actionable data." SwRI says the tool’s algorithms process camera data to provide real-time informatio
  • Report highlights community impact of new mobility options
    March 29, 2018
    Local authorities and communities must understand the impacts of the new mobility options and regulate to get the transport systems they want, according to a new report. Colin Sowman takes a look. Outside of the big cities plagued with congestion, the existing transportation system(s) often cope adequately, and the ongoing workload (maintenance, safety…) is more than enough to keep local transport authorities busy. Is it, therefore, a good use of public service employees’ time to keep abreast of the raft