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eTrans Systems to Show Off Its Latest Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Tech at Auto Shows This Month

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FAIRFAX, Va. — eTrans Systems announced today that it will be demonstrating its latest technology at both the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (January 5-8) and during the AutoMobili-D exhibit at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit (January 8-12).  eTrans specializes in autonomous and connected vehicle solutions.

The technologies eTrans will be displaying include:

FLOS – Fleet Operating System (FLOS) is eTrans Systems’ solution for autonomous vehicle fleet management.  The FLOS app allows customers to request a ride, monitor the progress of their trip and control what is happening in the vehicle.  The FLOS Central Controller provides real-time fleetetrans-flos monitoring functions, robust fleet maintenance capabilities, analytics and optimization.  The Central Controller provides interfaces to external systems and to the FLOS user app and FLOS Vehicle components.  The FLOS Vehicle component provides the interface to the autonomous vehicle engine to enable it to send commands and receive status information.  Additionally, the V2x Sensor functionality allows the vehicle to interact with DSRC-enabled vehicles and infrastructure to increase safety and mobility.

 

etrans-pnp-rsuPnP RSU - eTrans’ Plug-n-Play (PnP) Roadside Unit (RSU) has the ability to transmit DSRC messages controlled from the cloud.  These messages can be dynamically formed and new messages deployed without the installation of new software.  In addition, the PnP RSU has the ability to receive and analyze incoming messages from vehicles that pass by.  The eTrans PnP RSU supports all the latest 2016 IEEE and SAE standards.  The messages it supports include BSM, SPaT, MAP and TIM.  Additional message types can easily be added.

 

eTrans DSRC Parking Solution provides parking availability information using dedicated etrans-dsrc-parking-solutionsshort-range communications (DSRC) to help enable both autonomous and driven vehicles to easily find open parking spots.  In cities throughout the world, parking is a major issue.  It has been estimated that upwards of 30 percent of urban drivers are at any one time looking for parking.  This is a tremendous waste of both time and energy.  The eTrans DSRC Parking Solution can help to eliminate this waste.  Sensors in the parking lot detect the availability of spaces.  When spots are available the sensors notify the DSRC Road Side Unit (RSU), which in turn broadcasts that availability.  On-Board Units (OBUs) in the car receive the messages and then notify either the driver or the vehicle’s autonomous driving system.

 

Connected Vehicle Autonomous Sensor Solution

etrans-connected-vehicle-autonomous-sensor-solutionThe eTrans Connected Vehicle Autonomous Sensor Solution allows autonomous driving systems to use V2x connected vehicle data as another sensor to optimize the driving of the vehicle. A Connected Vehicle V2x sensor complements the other autonomous sensors such as cameras and Lidar by providing functionality, such as:

  • Non-line of site vehicle and pedestrian detection
  • Info on braking vehicles before they can be seen
  • Infrastructure data such as the time remaining until a traffic light will change

The connected vehicle data is transmitted to an On-Board Unit (OBU) in the vehicle using the Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) protocol.  Upon receipt, the eTrans solution then processes the data and publishes it through the Polysync middleware platform like any other sensor.  This interface is designed such that the protocol can be used with a variety of autonomous vehicle systems and middleware solutions.  The technology is built using Google’s Protobuf which is a language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data.

 

Connected Vehicle Applications and Platform

The eTrans Connected Vehicle Platform provides for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) safety and mobility applications.

These applications include:etrans-connected-vehicle-apps-and-platforms

  • Forward Collision Warning
  • Emergency Electronic Brake Lights
  • Red Light Violation Warnings
  • Over Speed Warnings
  • Curve Speed Warnings
  • Camera-Based Pedestrian Warnings
  • Construction Zone Warnings
  • Emergency Communications

These applications have been developed using the eTrans V2x Software Development Platform (VSDP) which provides a framework for the rapid development of Connected Vehicle applications and has been tested using eTrans’ V2x Comprehensive Analysis Platform (VCAP).

 

At CES, eTrans will be in the Renesas tent in the Gold Parking Lot.  At AutoMobilli-D - eTrans will be in booth 32.

About eTrans Systems:  eTrans Systems specializes in the development and deployment of autonomous and connected vehicle systems.  eTrans’ solutions include safety applications, mobility applications and vehicle management applications. eTrans clients include automobile OEMs, tier-1 auto suppliers and state and local governments.

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Army to Test DSRC on Michigan’s I-69 in June

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Burney Simpson

Michigan’s I-69 soon will become the first public highway to host a US Army test of the functionality of Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) with connected vehicles.

The late June demonstration of four line-haul trailers on Interstate 69 will be conducted by the US Army’s Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) and the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).

“The radio testing is a necessary step before any future testing of driver-optional features on the vehicle can be conducted,” according to an Army spokesperson.

Reports earlier this year said the vehicles would be outfitted with LiDAR, radar, sensors, and other driverless equipment. A test will be conducted of Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) and Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communications (See “Video-Army to Invade Michigan with Connected Trucks”).

DSRC is a medium- to short-range wireless communications capability that permits high-data transmission of communications-based safety information.

The Army and TARDEC have researched a variety of autonomous vehicle and robotic equipment applications (see “Army Robotics, Unmanned Tech on the March”). One recent concept is a ‘robotics vanguard’ that could be the first line of soldiers during an offensive maneuver.

In January, TARDEC demonstrated its Autonomous Mobility Appliqué System in Texas. The AMAS uses a programmable robotics kit, instead of a soldier, to drive a vehicle.

Michigan is in the midst of an aggressive push into autonomous vehicle research and development.

It is developing a 330-acre site that will be dedicated primarily to autonomous vehicle research and testing. The site is on the Willow Run ground where nearly 9,000 bombers were built during World War II, and near the 32-acre Mcity test bed that opened last year.

And Michigan state legislators are currently considering a series of bills that open up the state’s roads to driverless vehicles. One would allow cars to travel Michigan without a human driver in the vehicle, matching a law just enacted in Florida.

In May, Google announced it would open a driverless car development center in Novi, expanding its work into the Upper Midwest’s four-season climate.

“We’re the center of mobility and we’re not going to take that for granted,” MDOT Director Kirk Steudle told The Detroit News. “We’re going to continue to push that the way mobility gets framed in the future gets developed in Michigan.”

Steudle and TARDEC Director Dr. Paul Rogers are scheduled to speak at the June demonstration.

I-69 runs from Port Huron west to the state capitol of Lansing and south to Indiana.

Nissan, Savari Conduct Live V2X Test in Sunnyvale

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Burney Simpson

Nissan North America and Savari have joined to operate a 4.6 square mile, real-world Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications testbed with three intersections in Sunnyvale, Calif.

The testbed is using the Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) 5.8 GHz band for transmitting data between moving vehicles and fixed wireless infrastructure. The Federal Communications Commission set aside 75 MHz of the band for intelligent transportation systems.

Savari’s StreetWave road-side-units are deployed on Sunnyvale traffic poles and other infrastructure, while its MobiWave line of on-board-units are installed in vehicles.

The V2X technology is integrated with traffic controllers, allowing for communication between traffic signals and moving vehicles. The messaging is designed to tell drivers about upcoming congestion, traffic conditions, weather-related issues, and other roadway events.

The test began last August and is ongoing.

Savari and Nissan, which operates its Silicon Valley Research Center in Sunnyvale, are working on the project with the city and the University of California Berkeley Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH).

PATH deployed the StreetWave technology and coordinated the project with Sunnyvale and Nissan.

Nissan Research Director Dr. Maarten Sierhuis said the auto OEM is studying “how V2X technology can be used as additional sensor data by the autonomous system.”

Nissan is also reviewing how a “connected infrastructure and (artificial intelligence) can be used to optimize both route planning for an autonomous vehicle and traffic flow along the way,” Sierhuis said in a release.

Sunnyvale seeks to find if V2X communications can reduce congestion, cut fuel use, and improve safety. Its transportation department is using data from the test to prepare its traffic light intersections for fully autonomous vehicles.

Savari’s V2X deployments cover more than 130 public square miles of roadways, and its on-board-units have traveled nearly 1.5 million miles.

Nissan’s Silicon Valley Research Center focuses on vehicle intelligence technologies in autonomous and connected cars.

Each V2I Site Could Cost $51,650

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Burney Simpson

The cost to deploy a single Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) roadside site could average over $50,000 but the costs for installing a national network of sites remains unclear, according to a General Accountability Office (GAO) report.

In addition, the development of a national V2I and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) infrastructure faces a number of challenges, topped by the need for greater data communication capabilities to handle the system’s Wi-Fi needs.

The GAO released last month “Intelligent Transportation Systems: Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Technologies Expected to Offer Benefits but Deployment Challenges Exist.” (Visit here for a summary).

The average cost of a single V2I site could reach $51,650 which would cover planning, equipment, installation, connectivity, and signal upgrades, the GAO determined. That would not include routine maintenance, staff training, equipment replacement, and security costs. A device might need to be replaced every five to 10 years.

The largest cost by far would be for backhaul, which covers the establishing of communication connectivity between the roadside unit and back offices or traffic management centers, along with fiber optic cables, sensors and relays. The GAO broke down the average costs as:

Planning & design:  $6,650

Equipment:               $7,450

Installation:               $3,550

Backhaul:                  $30,800

Signal upgrades:       $3,200

The single site cost can’t be extrapolated to a local, state, or national cost because “current cost data for V2I technology are limited due to the small number of test deployments thus far,” the GAO reports.

For instance. test bed deployments have varied in size, and different applications – a busy four-way intersection vs. a single-lane curve speed warning – may require different equipment.

One of the goals of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s just begun Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment Project is to determine cost estimates for 56 V2I applications in three locations — New York City, Tampa, and Wyoming.

The payoffs on this investment could be huge. Since 2011, Japan has installed

about 55,000 pieces of V2I equipment on local roads, and 1,600 pieces on expressways, the GAO reported. Japan claims it has cut accident rates and reduced congestion which brought lower greenhouse gas emissions.

In the U.S., an installed V2I and V2V system could prevent 59 percent of single-vehicle crashes and 29 percent of multi-vehicle crashes, which engender costs of more than $200 billion annually, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

DSRC CHALLENGE

The biggest challenge facing the rollout of V2I and V2V technology is the capability of the radiofrequency spectrum that is now devoted to transportation safety communications, according to a survey of the 21 subject matter experts that contributed to the GAO study.

In brief, the 5.9 Gigahertz (GHz) band was set aside for Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) systems, a wireless technology that allows vehicles and infrastructure to communicate over a range of about 1,000 feet, the GAO reports.

A V2V-equipped vehicle can use DSRC to share data about 10 times per-second on its speed, position, heading, acceleration, size, and braking with surrounding vehicles and road infrastructure.

The DOT has insisted the 5.9 band remain exclusive for V2I, V2V and other traffic-oriented communications. (For its part, Japan tested its 700 MHz band for sharing capability and decided to keep it devoted to V2I and V2V communications.)

However, growing demand for spectrum for Wi-Fi from consumers, businesses, and state and local governments has spurred the Federal Communications Commission to investigate whether it’s feasible to share the 5.9 band. The FCC oversees spectrum use by nonfederal users.

The GAO found that there are two important non-government efforts looking into technology that would allow for sharing of the 5.9 band:

  • Toyota, Denso, Qualcomm division CSR Technologies and other firms have been working since 2013 with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) DSRC Tiger Team;
  • Cisco Systems, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, and the Association of Global Automakers are in the midst of testing “listen, detect, and avoid” protocol. In May, these three, along with GM and Toyota, met with the FCC and predicted that feasibility testing of the technology could be completed by the end of 2015.

GM has publicly committed that its 2017 Model Year Cadillac CTS vehicles will have DSRC technology. That would translate into DSRC-capable vehicles for sale to the public as soon as the third quarter of 2016.

The GAO wrote its report at the request of Rep. Larry Bucshon, an Indiana Republican, Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Virginia Republican, and Rep. Daniel Lipinski, an Illinois Democrat. Bucshon is on the House Energy & Commerce Committee; Comstock and Lipinski are on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.

Installing a V2I and V2V infrastructure will be a huge task. A number of DOT pilots now in the works won’t be done until 2020, and the agency estimates that even by 2025 only 20 percent of intersections will be V2I capable. For now, the goal is to have 80 percent of intersections V2I capable by 2040.

Fund Hi-Tech Auto Research: ITS America

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Burney Simpson

Transportation industry advocate ITS America called on Congress for greater funding of “research and deployment” of next generation transportation technologies as Capitol Hill came closer to passing a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill.

The trade group supports funding of more than $100 million for intelligent transportation systems research and $75 million for the Advanced Transportation & Congestion Management Technology Deployment grant program, according to a letter from ITS America President and CEO Regina Hopper to the leaders of the US Senate and House committees directly involved with transportation funding.

Hopper also asked for funding for the installation of Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication equipment for US Department of Transportation programs addressing safety, congestion and emissions.

The US House passed a six-year $325 billion proposal, while a Senate version has funding for only three years. That means a conference committee must forge a compromise bill that could pass both chambers, according to The Washington Post. Neither proposal would raise the federal gas tax, last increased over 20 years ago.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican, told the Post he would like a compromise ready by Nov. 30 so it could be voted on before a December 5 deadline. The Thanksgiving Holiday could impact this goal. Capitol Hill has already blown through a number of deadlines and extensions set for approving the legislation.

North Dakota Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer said it was a “major accomplishment” that the House and Senate have come this close to passing a bill.

Speaking at an ITS America sponsored lunch, Cramer said he would like a long-term funding source for the federal system so the transportation industry could get on with its business. He noted that North Dakota has “a lot more roads than people” and that “we transport more from us than to us.”

Cramer is a member of the House Commerce Committee Subcommitee on Communications and Technology that is involved with proposals looking at DSRC communications and the 5.9 GHz spectrum that is now devoted to transportation safety. Some claim the technology is available to allow sharing of portions of the spectrum for consumer Wi-Fi use.

Cramer suggested it’s too early to take that step. “Let’s do the research. If we have good data, then maybe we have X amount available,” he said.

Autonomous Tech Scales Capitol Hill

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Burney Simpson

The autonomous transportation industry brought its game to Capitol Hill this week, holding a nearly all-day event that featured speeches from a U.S. Senator, four Congressmen, and a number of driverless leaders, all over the course of a luncheon, a seminar, and a showcase event/cocktail party with several dozen of the top firms in the business.

Not bad for a day’s work.

Trade group ITS America put on ‘The Future of Mobility: Rethinking Transportation for the Next 30 Years’ and garnered the participation of Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, and Representatives Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican, and Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon.

While much of the conversation was positive and friendly, a few of the seminar panelists took the opportunity to raise issues that Congress may have to address someday.

  • Data Privacy and Security — Daniel Morgan, chief data officer with the US Department of Transportation, noted that the security and privacy of citizen travel data was essential but that the information could be beneficial for metropolitan planners. Morgan floated the idea that a third party firm be responsible for collecting and storing the data if people objected to the federal government holding it.
  • Reserving DSRC wavelength for V2V and V2I — Alan Korn, an executive with heavy-truck parts supplier Meritor WABCO, said the Dedicated Short-Range Communications 5.9 GHz spectrum must be reserved for Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communications to ensure autonomous driving safety. Later, Sen. Peters said that new technology may allow for the sharing of the 5.9 spectrum with other Wi-Fi users.
  • Driverless Timeline — Supplying a welcome dose of reality was Tom Dingus, director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). Dingus said developing a truly autonomous system would be considerably more difficult and probably take longer than some recent studies and press reports suggest. Driverless vehicles will have to be safer than the much-maligned human driver but consider that the average human has one rear-end crash every 25 years, and makes 3 million braking decision in that time, said Dingus. “It is very difficult to build a system that is that robust,” said Dingus.

The exhibition hall featured 22 organizations involved with autonomous transportation development, including Eberle Design, Econolite, GM, Iteris, the University of Michigan Mobility Transformation Center, NXP Semiconductors, Southwest Research Institute, and Uber.

VTTI was there too taking a bit of a victory lap after its successful demo this week on a nearby highway of its driverless Cadillac SRX. The ride along featured Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and generated extensive media coverage (See “Virginia Seeks Autonomous Research Lead,” October 20, 2015).

The showcase garnered a little more exposure for the technology with another half-dozen members of Congress visiting the exhibit hall to check out the firms on display, according to an ITS spokesperson.

The day also offered an exhibit of a DeLorean car from an old movie that predicted people would fly on skateboardy-type things. This fascinated a number of Gen-Yers and Millennials who took selfies.

Photo: United States Capitol, 2015, Matt C.

Silicon Valley ITS Event Preps Bay Area for Connected Vehicle Pilots

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This Thursday, Silicon Valley will have an opportunity to learn from local transportation leaders about upcoming connected-vehicle pilot programs in the Bay area and the use of dedicated short range communications (DSRC).

The Intelligent Transportation Society of California (ITS-CA) is holding on September 3 for its Northern California chapter a luncheon called Start-Up V2X at the Prospect Silicon Valley Technology Demonstration Center in San Jose. Four influential executives from Bay area transportation agencies will speak, including:

Angus Davol of San Francisco International Airport;

Greg Larson of the California Department of Transportation;

Gary Miskell of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority;

Ananth Prasad of Santa Clara County.

“As a part of the ITS Northern California events committee and co-moderator, I am pleased to have an experienced group of transit professionals speak at this event,” said Vinay Thadani, vice president, Arada Systems.

Following the luncheon, ProspectSV will hold a workshop designed for municipalities in the area to better understand and prepare for connected vehicles. The workshop will also feature technical experts explaining how they are rolling out connected vehicle roadside units in the Bay area. Email Pamela.Crouch@prospectsv.org to register.

The Start-Up V2X event can help ITS-CA members and local officials get up to speed as the U.S. Department of Transportation plans to announce in the fourth quarter the winners of its $100 million Connected Vehicle Pilot program.

The luncheon runs from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and the workshop runs from 1:30 to 3:00. Visit here to learn more and register for the luncheon.

The 23,000-square-foot ProspectSV building on Las Plumas Avenue includes advanced transportation lab facilities such as ITS Lab, a life-scale testbed for connected vehicle technology.

 

GM to Congress: We’ll Test Wi-Fi in DSRC Spectrum

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Burney Simpson

The role of Congress keeps growing in the battle among driverless transportation proponents over Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology.

Last week, a U.S. House committee heard testimony from power houses in the industry regarding the possible expansion of Wi-Fi communications into the DSRC 5.9 GHz range.

General Motors and Cisco Systems plan to test the use of Wi-Fi in the spectrum. GM wants to speed the research as it prepares to launch a Cadillac CTS in the 2017 model year with V2V technology.

On the other side are researchers like the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and safety regulators National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). They want to keep that DSRC spectrum devoted to vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) communication.

The researchers believe that allowing Wi-Fi within the DSRC 5.9 GHz range will impact the technology, while GM says that the use of Wi-Fi for V2V should at least be tested.

Both sides agree that DSRC is a technology with proven reliability and the capacity to support a variety of communication speeds in good and bad weather, while also handling message authentication and data privacy demands.

Both sides also agree that implementing V2V communications could greatly reduce traffic accidents. The Department of Transportation estimates the technology could prevent about 81 percent of all vehicle crashes involving non-impaired, i.e. sober, drivers.

LEGISLATIVE CONFLICT

The legislative conflict began about a year ago when Sens. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, and Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, introduced the Wi-Fi Innovation Act that would open parts of the 5.9 spectrum to Wi-Fi use. A companion bill was introduced in the House.

Now, Rep. Dan Lipinski has introduced the Future Transportation Research and Innovation for Prosperity (TRIP) Act (HR 2886), a bill that takes a big-picture view of the development of transportation infrastructure, including driverless technologies, freight shipment and research. Lipinski’s bill is on the side of the DSRC purists.

That view was expressed in testimony to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade last week by Peter Sweatman, director of UMTRI. The research group reviewed DSRC use in V2V communications in a two-year test with 47 companies deploying 2843 vehicles that collected 115 billion messages from 35 million miles of driving.

“Our entire ecosystem of companies (are) committed to (V2V) using 5.9 GHz DSRC,” said Sweatman. “Spectrum must be protected for (V2V) safety performance (which) depends on the absolute reliability of messages, as well as certainty in spectrum availability, in the mode that has been fully tested.”

In comparison, Wi-Fi spectrum sharing was only a theoretical possibility, he said.

Nathaniel Beuse, a NHTSA safety administrator, agreed. He cited a research report finding that “unless … (Wi-Fi) and other unlicensed and licensed technologies are determined not to interfere with DSRC, the potential benefits of the program will be severely compromised.” 

MINOR BOMB

But the GM and Cisco Systems executives set off a minor bomb during their testimony when they revealed that GM will move forward on plans to test V2V communications with technology from Cisco that makes room for Wi-Fi communications in the 5.9 GHz band.

“(GM) is focused upon implementing V2V technology (and) … We are very optimistic about a sharing proposal from Cisco that would operate on a “listen, detect and vacate” basis. We have engaged with Cisco and plan to begin testing their technology as soon as possible,” said the GM exec.

The Cisco exec said it planned to “use a combination of DSRC and wired technologies,” to deliver a “highly secure, mobile, and high availability solution.” 

The sleepy summer in Washington D.C. may have just woken up.

 

Photo 2015 Protesting by Stephen Melkisethian.

Qualcomm and Honda, Oregon, Utah DOTs Honored for Best of 2015 ITS Projects

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Burney Simpson

Qualcomm and Honda, along with the Oregon and Utah departments of transportation, were named recipients of the Best of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Awards, ITS America announced this week at its 25th Annual Meeting & Exposition in Pittsburgh.

Qualcomm and Honda teamed to develop, test and successfully demonstrate dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) technology that allowed vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) communication. The smartphone app determines whether a pedestrian is in danger of being hit by the vehicle, and sends warnings to both the driver and the pedestrian.

The awards honor organizations in the high-tech transportation industry for projects that demonstrated “specific and measurable outcomes and exemplified innovation by establishing a “new dimension” of performance,” according to ITS America.

The Oregon Department of Transportation’s “OR 217 Active Traffic Management,” project was honored for Best New Innovative Products, Services, or Applications. This pdf describes the OR 217 ATM.

ITS also presents awards in four categories under the Best New Innovative Practices banner — sustainability in transportation; partnership deployment (business-to-business, government-to-government, or public/private); research, design and innovation; and rural ITS.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Honda R&D Americas, Inc. won the Research, Design and Innovation award for “Honda and Qualcomm DSRC-based-Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) and Other Vulnerable Road User Safety Project.”

The Sustainability and Transportation award honored the Utah Department of Transportation’s “Winter Road Weather Index” project. See pdf of UDOT 2014 Annual Efficiencies Report for WRWI.

Cubic Transportation Systems and the Chicago Transit Authority took the Partnership Deployment award for its “Chicago Transit Authority Ventra Update: Open and Loving It” bankcard payment system.

The Rural ITS Project award will be presented at the National Rural ITS (NRITS) Conference in Snowbird, Utah, August 9-12.

“These awards recognize the leading transportation innovators who’ve effectively demonstrated a dedication to advancing ITS through innovative projects,” Regina Hopper, president and CEO of ITS America, said in a press release.