DOT Announces $50M Self-Driving Car City Initiative
This week, the Department of Transportation announced its Smart City Challenge, which will provide up to $50 million for a mid-sized city that wishes to serve as a model for how future transportation will function. The initiative will include self-driving cars, connected vehicles, smart sensors and intelligent infrastructure.
The DOT is partnering with Seattle-based Vulcan Inc., which is supplying $10 million of the total, with the rest coming directly from the government agency.
A smart city will also support the DOT’s Beyond Traffic 2045 framework, which seeks to assuage gridlock as the U.S. population simultaneously grows by a projected 70 million people.
The department’s website says the ideal city will view connected and self-driving cars as the next logical step in transportation infrastructure. “But, all told, the ground rules for this competition are simpler than you might think,” it states. “We know a one-size-fits-all prescription doesn't offer the flexibility our transportation challenges require. Instead, we want cities to come up with the solutions that best fit their own needs.”
