The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) announced at the TRB annual meeting the 15 winners of the U.S. DOT Intersection Safety Challenge Stage 1A.
The challenge’s goal is to incentivizing new and emerging technologies that identify and address unsafe conditions involving vehicles, and vulnerable road users at intersections.
For Stage 1A, participants submitted design concepts for their proposed intersection safety systems. The agency received 120 innovative concept papers. The winners each receive $100,000 and an invitation, subject to eligibility status, to participate in Stage 1B: System Assessment and Virtual Testing.
“As (U.S. Transportation) Secretary (Pete) Buttigieg says, the number of fatalities occurring on our roadways is unacceptable,” Dr. Robert C. Hampshire, deputy assistant secretary for research and chief scientist, said. “We need to act swiftly on several fronts, and the U.S. DOT Intersection Safety Challenge represents one concrete step forward towards achieving our goal of Vision Zero. Congratulations to the Stage 1A winners today, and we look forward to the further development, validation, and testing of their intersection safety system concepts in the near future.”
During Stage 1B, teams will develop, train, and improve algorithms for the detection, localization, and classification of vulnerable road users and vehicles using U.S. DOT-supplied sensor data.