DOT FHA - Cooperative Driving Automation (CDA) Prototype - MRAS

The Department of Transportation (DOT), in collaboration with the General Services Administration (GSA), is conducting market research to explore capabilities related to Cooperative Driving Automation (CDA) technologies. This initiative aligns with the DOT's vision of enhancing transportation systems by integrating advanced automation technologies that work in concert with both human-driven and fully automated vehicles, as well as road infrastructure. The primary goal is to improve safety, efficiency, and throughput on national roadways through interoperable communication between vehicles and infrastructure.

The project seeks to develop, integrate, test, and evaluate CDA prototype technologies at Technology Readiness Levels 6-7. These prototypes will focus on ensuring functional safety and data integrity during interactions between infrastructure owners/operators and automated vehicle developers. Emphasis will be placed on testing the reliability of external data impacting vehicle-level safety functions using Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication. By leveraging industry-led prototypes in controlled and real-world scenarios, this effort aims to validate cooperative trust among various stakeholders and assess how communication-enhanced automation can outperform standalone systems in terms of safety and mobility.

Contractors participating in this project are expected to identify high-priority use cases that address existing technical barriers while demonstrating clear paths to commercial viability. The selected applications should enhance situational awareness for standalone automation systems by utilizing shared data for improved safety performance in complex situations such as occlusion or merging scenarios. A multidisciplinary team led by an OEM or ADS developer is envisioned to execute these use cases through public road testing, thereby establishing interoperability requirements crucial for widespread deployment.

This endeavor is part of a broader USDOT initiative supported by the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) research program aimed at advancing CDA technology from research into practical application. By focusing on real-world demonstrations that highlight quantifiable improvements in crash avoidance and traffic management, this project intends to catalyze further investment from both public and private sectors while paving the way for national adoption of CDA solutions across diverse roadway environments.