PennDOT to research self-driving cars in work zones

The long-standing expectation has been that the development of self-driving vehicles would substantially improve safety because they would take away accidents caused by human error and distracted driving.

But one driving circumstance that almost all of the companies have avoided so far is driving through work zones. That’s because those areas don’t provide the regular pattern that self-driving vehicles thrive on and have out-of-the-norm items, such as construction barrels and lane markings that aren’t as distinctive as on regular roads.

So the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has stepped forward to tackle that problem. PennDOT on Wednesday received an $8.4 million federal grant that it will use over four years to develop a system to allow self-driving vehicles to navigate safely through work zones.

The grant was the largest of eight awards worth nearly $60 million announced by U.S Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to study various safety factors for self-driving vehicles.

PennDOT Secretary Leslie Richards said in a statement Wednesday she was “thrilled” that the agency received national recognition for its proposal to deal with a serious problem.

“Crashes in highway work zones have killed at least 4,700 Americans — more than two a day — and injured 200,000 in the last five years alone,” she said. “If we can improve how [autonomous vehicles] interact with work zones, there will be significant safety benefits for the traveling public.”

PennDOT submitted a 25page application for the grant, which will be used to develop detailed mapping systems, communications systems between work-zone equipment and self-driving vehicles, and coatings for barrels and road surfaces to help self-driving vehicles recognize conditions.

In its application, PennDOT said it plans to work with a team of consultants to develop computer simulations of self-driving vehicles moving through construction zones, followed by controlled tests at a test track at Penn State University in State College and live tests at active construction sites.

PennDOT has assembled a nine-member team for the project, including Carnegie Mellon University and PPG Paints.

“Through the department’s oversight [of testing for self-driving vehicles], it has become clear that AVs do not perform well in the work zones and routinely require human intervention,” Ms. Richards said in a letter accompanying the application.

“In many cases, testers try to avoid work zones altogether. Unlike other AV challenges, such as variable weather conditions, work zones offer a unique opportunity for industry and the public sector to collaborate to resolve this issue and safely advance [automated driving systems] technology.”

Ms. Richards said it is important that officials “develop a consistent approach” for moving self-driving vehicles through work zones.

“Knowing that there is unlikely [a] single solution, the PennDOT proposal focuses on a combination of connectivity, machine visioning, and high definition mapping,” she wrote. “To demonstrate the viability of the solution, the project will perform the demonstrations in a variety of work zones configuration with varying scale, complexity, and duration.”

Carnegie Mellon officials couldn’t be reached for comment.

Other federal grants will study self-driving vehicles on rural roads with limited road markings; development of self-driving truck fleets; and the use of shared, on-demand self-driving vehicles for people who use wheelchairs.

“The department is awarding $60 million in grant funding to test the safe integration of automated vehicles into America’s transportation system while ensuring that legitimate concerns about safety, security, and privacy are addressed,” Ms. Chao said.