DOT Awards Connected Car Pilot Programs

The U.S. Dept. of Transportation awarded a total of $42 million to fund connected vehicle pilot programs for three city and state governments. Awards for additional pilot programs will be announced in coming months.

New York City will receive $20 million to install vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication technologies in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The initiative involves about 10,000 city-owned cars, buses and limousines, as well as upgrading traffic lights with V2I capabilities.

Tampa, Fla., will receive $17 million to develop new ways to reduce downtown traffic congestion and improve pedestrian safety. The latter will include V2V/V2I smartphone applications for pedestrians.

Wyoming will get about $5 million to implement connected technologies to improve traffic flow and safety on the state's busy I-80 commercial truck corridor. As many as 16,000 vehicles travel through Wyoming on the highway per day, according to DOT estimates.

The three new pilot programs are the latest in a series of DOT's nationwide initiative to implement and test the impact of connected technologies. In addition to accelerating usage, DOT aims to identify and address technical and non-technical barriers to widespread implementation.