Talking Vehicle Pilot Program Begins in 3 States

Commercial vehicles and private cars will soon be communicating with each other in New York, Florida and Wyoming as part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Connected Vehicle Pilot Program.

According to the DOT, the program will serve as a mechanism to expedite the implementation of connected vehicle technology. A statement provided by the agency last year, indicated that “the pilots will be initial deployments of connected vehicle technology in real-world settings with the aim of delivering near-term safety, mobility, and environmental benefits to the public.”

In September 2016, the DOT awarded three cooperative agreements collectively worth more than $45 million to initiate the design/build/test phase of the program. The agency stated the 20 month pilot phase will consist of deployment of integrated wireless in-vehicle, mobile device and roadside technologies.

The intent of the program, according to the transportation agency, is to “encourage stakeholder partnerships between transit agencies, states, private firms and freight shippers to deploy applications using datacaptured from multiple sources (e.g., vehicles, mobile devices, and infrastructure) across all elements of the surface transportation system (i.e., transit, freeway, arterial, parking facilities, and tollways) to support improved system performance and enhanced performance-based management.”

The cities and state participating in the pilot program are New York, Tampa and Wyoming:

• New York City Department of Transportation: This pilot will install V2V technology in up to 8,000 city-owned vehicles, including cars, buses and limousines, that frequently travel in Midtown Manhattan, as well as vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology throughout Midtown. The pilot will include upgrading traffic signals with V2I technology along avenues between 14th Street and 67th Street in Manhattan and throughout Brooklyn. Additionally, roadside units will be equipped with connected vehicle technology along the FDR Drive between 50th Street and90th Street.

• Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority: This pilot will focus on solving peak rush-hour congestion in downtown Tampa and protecting the city’s pedestrians by equipping their smartphones with the same connected technology being put into the vehicles. Tampa will also measure the environmental benefits of using this technology.

• Wyoming Department of Transportation: This pilot will focus on the efficient and safe movement of freight through the I-80 east-west corridor, which is critical to commercial heavy-duty vehicles moving across the northern portion of our country. Approximately 11,000 to 16,000 vehicles travel this corridor every day, and by using V2V and V2I, the Wyoming Department of Transportation will both collect and disseminate information to vehicles not equipped with the new technologies.