Institute for Transportation

About the research

Connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technology is progressing rapidly. Numerous research and deployment initiatives are underway as the transportation industry continues to examine how roadway assets such as traffic control signs, markings, signals, guardrail, computing systems, communications infrastructure and systems, and other permanent and temporary ancillary devices can be designed or enhanced to facilitate CAV operations. Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) are relied on across the US to help predict and manage the impacts of weather on transportation safety and mobility. RWIS data are used heavily by road authorities as well as across the public and private spectrum of weather service providers. The integration of mobile observational data from connected vehicle (CV) and probe-based data are providing agencies with new options for vehicle centric operational and weather-related data. In some situations, CAVs may benefit from direct data exchanges with the RWIS, thus creating a huge potential for road weather information and other operations functions to be complemented by field devices, which can be collected from the communications of passing CAVs.