Part of the Northern Virginia Connected Vehicle Test Bed, on of the most congested corridors in the U.S. Photo: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
by AUVSI News
This week, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced the Virginia Automated Corridors, a new initiative for researching, developing and testing automated vehicles in the Commonwealth.
“The next generation of vehicle technology—from connected to automated vehicles—holds great potential to enhance the transportation system,” says Tom Dingus, director of Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. “With support from Virginia and in coordination with partners who are pioneers in their respective areas, we will work with the automated vehicle industry to ensure that the deployment of such systems is beneficial to all users.”
The Virginia Automated Corridors is a joint effort between the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor Vehicles in partnership with Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, Transurban and HERE—Nokia’s maping business.
The program will streamline the use of Virginia roads and test facilities for automated vehicle testing, certification and migration towards deployment, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
“Automated vehicles are the future, and our Commonwealth’s long history in military and private automated and unmanned systems has posed Virginia to lead the way,” says Gov. McAuliffe. “As we work to build a new Virginia economy, we have a tremendous opportunity to provide car companies and suppliers of automated vehicles the ideal, real-world environments they need to test complex scenarios prior to putting their vehicles on more roadways.”
The Virginia Automated Corridors will include high-occupancy highways and toll lanes in Northern Virginia on Interstates 66, 495 and 95 and state routes 29 and 50. The corridors will also include two test tracks—the Virginia Smart Road at the transportation institute and the Virginia International Raceway—for higher speed testing with complex curves. In total, about 70 miles of the busiest roadways in the country will be used in this valuable testing opportunity.
“The Virginia Automated Corridors partnership demonstrates Virginia’s strong commitment to innovate technologies and our desire to collaborate with developers and suppliers as they create, test and deploy new systems that will ease congestion and create jobs,” says Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth, Karen Jackson.
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