The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) is seeking informed views of the opportunities and challenges to the development deployment operation and use of increased automation of the surface transportation system including vehicles drivers users road-based infrastructure information systems and applications for the purpose of developing a U.S. DOT multimodal research plan for automation. 

This is an area of great interest to the public which may have significant impacts on many societal issues such as driving safety personal mobility energy consumption operating efficiency environmental impact and land use. The focus for this RFI is to learn the views of government industry academia and the American public with regard to:

•         Roles of local state and federal governments in policy formation

•         Technical challenges

•         Human factors issues

•         Institutional issues

•         Legal issues associated with increased automation 

Input to this RFI will assist the U.S. DOT to:

•         Identify categorize and prioritize key research challenges

•         Identify and begin quantifying anticipated societal costs and benefits

•         Learn about current and planned research activities among private and public research groups

•         Gain insight into commercial trends and market developments

•         Understand opportunities that may be created for public-private partnerships and financing

•         Organize the U.S. DOT research plan temporally according to near- mid- and long-term priorities that reflect the me-sensitive aspects of evolving automation capabilities and market demands

•         Identify appropriate areas for policy formation that can help to accelerate beneficial developments reduce or eliminate public exposure to risk and reduce the development and operation costs associated with automation

The RFI can be found on FedBizOps and  here

Responses are due by 12:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time Tuesday 2 April 2013 and shall be sent electronically to the Contracting Specialist Michael Rigby

 

 

Link to original Article

http://www.ertico.com/u-s-dot-publishes-request-for-information-on-multimodal-transportation-automation/

Original Publication Date: Thu 14 Mar 2013