Congratulations to Program Director Sisinnio Concas, Ph.D. and his team as they move into Phase 4 of their research with the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority.
To date, the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA), in collaboration with the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), has piloted Connected Vehicle (CV) technology in Tampa, Florida. Three phases of the Pilot have been performed.
Phase 1 largely focused on concept development, system requirements and initial deployment planning. In phase 2, detailed design was performed, and the initial system was implemented and tested. Phase 3 is ongoing and involves operation, maintenance and reporting on data-driven performance impacts of the deployment. Phase 4 will extend the Pilot to create a CV Real-World Test Site, hereafter referred to as the “THEA CVRTS”.
The approach to the THEA CVRTS will build on the Pilot’s existing deployment of Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), but by deploying additional Roadside Units (RSUs) with both DSRC and Cellular Vehicle to Everything (C-V2X) capabilities, the site will have the capability to measure the impacts of a joint technology environment that is anticipated with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCCs) proposed changes to the spectrum allocation. The THEA CVRTS effort recognizes that the next USDOT Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office (JPO) research area will involve spectrum interference testing and thus is uniquely positioned to perform interference and channel capacity testing involving DSRC, C-V2X, and Wi-Fi.
Another important approach element involves direct participation of automobile Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). The THEA CVRTS will collaborate with three automobile OEMs (Hyundai, Honda and Toyota) to deploy their respective OEM CV Onboard Units (OBUs) in their customer’s privately-owned vehicles.
CUTR’s Autonomous and Connected Mobility Evaluation Group (ACME) will continue leading the Performance Measurement and Evaluation of the Pilot, establishing new performance measures, and assisting THEA and USDOT in the spectrum interference testing.
Photograph provided by: https://theacvpilot.com/media-resources/photos/
To learn more about the project, please visit: https://theacvpilot.com/what-were-doing/
