by Ben Miller, Government Technology & Future Structure [1/14/2016]
Sacramento, CA –
Working with a private company, the Colorado Department of Transportation’s RoadX program will test out a pilot project that will deliver early alerts to drivers on Interstate 70.
As the federal government pushes toward a future where all new vehicles talk not only to each other but also to infrastructure, Colorado has decided to get a head start on finding out what that reality would look like using existing technology.
The Colorado Department of Transportation, working through its tech-focused RoadX program, intends to start piloting a program next year with the private company HERE to test connected vehicle concepts along one of its most challenging traffic corridors: Interstate 70. As Colorado’s only state-spanning east-west highway, I-70 serves as the main route for people heading from Denver to the ski resorts of Vail and Aspen. It hooks through snowy mountain passes where drivers get in hundreds of accidents each year.
The pilot project will involve HERE setting up a smart phone application that will push out information to drivers about imminent hazards and road alerts — bad weather and accidents, for instance. The information will come over the existing LTE network, so it won’t require any sort of additional infrastructure investment on the part of the state.