Three States Receive Gov. Funding for AVs

Sept. 13, 2019—Virginia, Michigan and Ohio will receive funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation for self-driving research.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding a $7.5 million grant to the City of Detroit, the State of Michigan, the University of Michigan and the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti, per Transport Topics. The funding, granted to a collective of the organizations known as the Michigan Mobility Collaborative, comes from the Transportation Department’s Automated Driving System Demonstration Grants program. It is part of $60 million being doled out for autonomous-car testing by the Trump administration.

The U.S. DOT has awarded an Ohio-based team of industry, academic and community partners a $7.5 million grant to develop autonomous cars, per another report by Transport Topics. The grant will be used to develop and deploy automated transportation systems on the state's rural roads and highways. 

DriveOhio and the Transportation Research Center (TRC) will lead a team of partners, including Ohio State University, Ohio University and the University of Cincinnati.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) in Blacksburg, Va., will receive $15 million in federal funding. The funding is comprised of two $7.5 million grants that will support two VTTI projects, according to NBC 29 News.

One project will seek to define, develop, and demonstrate key dynamic scenarios and their potential solutions for safe interaction of vehicles equipped with automated driving systems. The other will seek to develop and demonstrate a Fleet Concept of Operations to provide the trucking industry with clear guidelines on how to safely implement, and benefit from trucks equipped with automated driving systems.