Current Activities

SafeTrip-21

SafeTrip-21—Safe and Efficient Travel through Innovation and Partnerships in the 21 st Century—is the initiative’s flagship operational testing and demonstration program, intended to accelerate the development and adoption of near-term capabilities. The first major field operational test under SafeTrip-21 is being conducted in the San Francisco Bay area, focusing on the use of consumer electronic devices to provide safety and mobility services. The USDOT plans to work cooperatively with state and local agencies, academia and the private sector to conduct additional field operational tests and establish permanent test beds to support ongoing testing needs.

SafeTrip-21 Presentation, ITS World Congress, November 2008, by Gary Ritter

Proof of Concept Test

The new research agenda builds upon the extensive body of work already conducted through the VII initiative (now IntelliDrive^SM). This past work culminated in the VII Proof-Of-Concept (POC) test conducted in 2008 outside of Detroit, Michigan. The POC tested the ability of Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) to enable interoperable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) transactions for a suite of safety and mobility applications. Results and documents related to the Proof of Concept Test are available in the library.

Architecture and Standards

The next phase of research will re-define the Intellidrive^SM architecture as an open platform, which will establish a minimum set of standards and requirements to enable nationwide interoperability while also supporting technology evolution over time. The open platform will enable greater flexibility for IntelliDrive^SM deployment and encourage continuing technical innovation. Documents related to the current architecture and standards are available in the library.

Safety Applications

Research into potential safety applications has been conducted in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership (CAMP)—a coalition of light vehicle manufacturers. To date research has focused on intersection collision avoidance capabilities and vehicle-to-vehicle crash avoidance. Information about these research initiatives is available in the library.

Institutional Issues

The program to date has included research on institutional issues, including analysis of potential benefits and costs, privacy issues, liability, and business models. Related documents are available in the library.