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    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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    <language>en-us</language>
    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
    <image>
      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
      <url>https://rip.trb.org/Images/PageHeader-wTitle-RIP.jpg</url>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
    </image>
    <item>
      <title>Evaluation of Safety Perspectives, Approaches, and Needs for Testing, Deploying, and Operating Vehicles Equipped with Driving Automation Systems (Automated Vehicles) on Public Roadways</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2655699</link>
      <description><![CDATA[States and cities across the country would benefit from enhanced technical resources that evaluate different safety perspectives, approaches, and needs in the United States and around the world for testing, deploying, and operating vehicles equipped with driving automation systems (automated vehicles) on public roadways and to assist them in addressing issues in driver licensure, liability and traffic laws under their regulatory jurisdiction. These resources would help inform updates to jurisdiction-specific or agency-specific needs and approaches to automated vehicle safety in the United States. These resources could also help inform the development of a more coordinated multi-jurisdictional, multi-state, or national scale approach for testing, deploying, and operating automated vehicles more safely on public roadways in the United States. 
Below are questions that will be explored as part of this research project. (1) What does safety mean? (2) How does safety get measured? (3) How are safety hazards analyzed and risks assessed and mitigated? (4) What constitutes a positive safety culture for an organization? (5) How does safety get communicated to others? (6) What are effective ways for building public trust? (7) What roles do and should different stakeholders play to ensure acceptable safety? (8) How safe is safe enough for determining when, where, and how to conduct public road testing and/or deployments with or without a safety driver? (9)  Who takes responsibility for ensuring acceptable safety during public road testing and/or deployments? (10) How does liability (including tort and product liability) get addressed in public road testing, deployments and operations of automated vehicles?

The goals of this project are to: (1) Create a clear understanding of different safety perspectives, approaches, and needs for testing, deploying, and operating automated vehicles on public roadways from numerous examples in the United States and around the world. (2) Recognize best practices for the roadway automation industry and state and local transportation agencies in the United States to consider as a basis for a future government-industry coordinated multi-jurisdictional or national framework for safe testing, deployments, and operations of automated vehicles on public roadways.
               ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2026 08:03:54 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2655699</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Piloting the remote-controlled operation of automated driving shuttles</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2505998</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has been actively exploring the potential of Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) to make roadways safer, produce economic and social benefits, and improve efficiency, convenience, and mobility. One initiative was the research project titled "Developing and Operationalizing a Testbed of Connected Self-driving Shuttles to Test and Develop CAV Applications in North Carolina" (NCDOT RP 2022-16). This project successfully developed a fleet of automated shuttles and deployed them on a closed track at NCA&T Gateway Research Park. A follow-up project, RP 2023-35, led to the pilot deployment of NCA&T’s automated shuttles in downtown Greensboro, offering valuable insights into the real-world operation of these vehicles. However, for enhancing and verifying higher levels of driving automation, a critical step remains: removing the need for in-vehicle safety drivers through remote monitoring, assistance, and driving.

Building upon the success of NCDOT RP 2022-16 and RP 2023-35, this research proposal seeks to leverage the existing testbed infrastructure through a Technology Transfer Program project by demonstrating the driverless operation of automated shuttles through the development and implementation of a remote monitoring, assistance, and driving platform. By developing the necessary control, communication, and computational tools, NCA&T will equip the Aggie Auto Shuttles with Remote-Controlled Operation (RCO) capabilities. This will be achieved through: (1) developing a remote emergency stop process to ensure the safety of the vehicles, incorporating the concept of minimal risk condition; (2) developing the hardware and software support for the remote monitoring and operation of automated shuttles; (3) demonstrating the deployment of automated shuttles with no onboard safety driver at NCA&T’s test track; and (4) analyzing and reporting the collected data and the deployment process.

This project therefore demonstrates a proof of concept whereby the research team will develop and test a system that enables the reliable and safe teleoperation of the Aggie Auto Shuttles. This approach will maintain the safety and reliability of the shuttles while removing the physical presence of an in-vehicle safety driver. Having remote access to monitor and control the vehicles will provide a safety fallback option to remotely control the vehicles if needed. This project exemplifies the collaborative efforts required to push the boundaries of innovation in transportation and paves the way for broader adoption of autonomous vehicle technologies.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:03:11 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2505998</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Transforming Transportation Policy and Planning for Safety
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2440008</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Transportation policy studies and improved planning are essential for furthering goals of the University Transportation Centers and the US Department of Transportation.  This project is intended to build upon long-standing and successful activities in these areas.  Three tasks are envisioned.  

First, the research team will produce a policy brief on safety and ownership characteristics of battery electric vehicles (BEV).  The safety concerns will build upon the previous year’s research on BEV safety with respect to fires, vehicle weight and stopping distance. The ownership characteristics, focusing on equity issues, will come from the National Household Transportation Survey (NHTS, 2023).  The latest NHTS is for 2022 (released in 2023) so is recent enough to have a sample of BEV and includes extensive demographic data such as household income, numbers of vehicles and race.    PennDOT and Duquesne Light Company are heavily involved with charger implementations and will serve as deployment partners.

Second, the team will initiate analysis of fatality risks for vulnerable road users using the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS 2023).  Data is released annually with considerable detail on crash characteristics and environment.  As an example of risks, a disproportionate number of pedestrian fatalities occur at night and this is a national issue, as recently described in a NY Times article, Why Are So Many American Pedestrians Dying at Night?  These risks will then be compared with automated and connected vehicle capabilities to identify potential risk reductions from these new technologies.  A recent CMU policy brief produced in part by the project team summarizes these capabilities (Martelero 2022).  This task is focused upon developing a professional paper that could form the basis of a policy brief.

Third, project participants will continue to work with Regional Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC) in the planning for Pennsylvania Safety Transportation and Research Track (PennSTART), a safety, training and research facility for autonomous vehicle testing and emergency responders.  The results of both tasks 1 and 2 can help inform appropriate test scenarios for Penn Start.



]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 12 Oct 2024 11:30:45 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2440008</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Vehicle-in-Virtual-Environment (VVE) Method for Developing and Evaluating VRU Safety of Connected and Autonomous Driving</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2292642</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The current approach to connected and autonomous driving function development and evaluation uses model-in-the-loop (MIL) simulation, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation and limited proving ground use, followed by public road deployment of the beta version of software and technology. The rest of the road users are involuntarily forced into taking part in the development and evaluation of these beta level connected and autonomous driving functions. This is an unsafe, costly and inefficient method and has resulted in many problems in the deployment of autonomous vehicles with an associated loss of trust. Motivated by these shortcomings, this project focuses on the Vehicle-in-Virtual-Environment (VVE) method of safe, efficient and low-cost connected and autonomous driving function development, evaluation and demonstration. The VVE method places the vehicle inside a highly realistic virtual environment with realistic virtual sensor feeds while the actual vehicle is physically running inside a large and empty test area. This is as if the vehicle is using a virtual reality headset. It is possible to easily change the virtual development environment and also inject rare and difficult events which can be tested very safely. This is a two-year project and will focus on the use of the VVE method for development and application of Vulnerable Road User (VRU) safety functions.   Pedestrian safety will be treated in the first year of the project and bicyclist safety will be treated in its second year. The research will start by considering the following five pedestrian crash scenario use cases of: Crossing Roadway – Vehicle Not Turning (FARS 750), Walking/Running Along Roadway (FARS 400), Dash / Dart-Out (FARS 740), Crossing Roadway – Vehicle Turning (FARS 790), Crossing Expressway (FARS 910) during year 1 and the five bicyclist crash scenario use cases of: Motorist Overtaking Bicyclist (FARS 230), Bicyclists Failed to Yield – Midblock (FARS 310), Bicyclist Failed to Yield – Sign – Controlled Intersection (FARS 145), Bicyclist Left Turn / Merge (FARS 220), Motorist Left Turn / Merge (FARS 210) in year 2 where FARS is short for NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System.  Vehicle-to-VRU communication-based pedestrian/bicyclist detection which also works for non-line-of-sight cases will be combined with camera and lidar based detection within the VVE method. A data-driven approach will be used to predict the vulnerable road user trajectory which will be compared with the trajectory of the vehicle to predict a future collision possibility. Vehicle trajectory modification to avoid a possible future collision will be developed and evaluated safely using the VVE approach with the vehicle and VRUs at separate locations physically but on a collision risk path in the virtual environment which will enable very realistic evaluation of the designed VRU safety function. Robust and delay tolerant trajectory control will be developed and evaluated using the VVE method also, for executing the calculated collision free modified vehicle trajectory which may involve slowing down, braking or braking and steering. Virtual environments and collision risk scenarios will be developed and evaluated first in MIL and HIL, followed by development and evaluation using the VVE method.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 20 Nov 2023 19:43:10 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2292642</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>CAV Testbed Deployment: Phase 1</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2250684</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The purpose of the study is to enhance safety for all participants on the road by creating an advanced Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) testbed. A CAV testbed serves as a controlled smart environment where various aspects of CAV technology can be thoroughly tested, refined, and validated before deployment on public roads. This advanced testbed aims to contribute to the development, evaluation, and improvement of CAVs' capabilities, ultimately leading to safer interactions between CAVs, traditional vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists. The study aims to identify potential safety hazards, vulnerabilities, and challenges related to CAV technology and develop solutions to mitigate them. To provide a smart campus, the testbed would collect extensive data on vehicle behavior, sensor outputs, and interactions. This data could be used for analysis, benchmarking, and continuous improvement of connected and autonomous environments. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 21 Sep 2023 12:58:52 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2250684</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Autonomous Vehicle Testbed Pilot Design and Evaluation</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2245511</link>
      <description><![CDATA[District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is preparing regulations to establish an Autonomous Vehicle (AV) Testing Program in the District of Columbia that will allow companies to obtain permits to test AVs on DC streets. DDOT needs to be able to know what is happening with these fleets once permitted – to monitor safety and operations for oversight purposes, to inform questions that should be asked before fleets expand or are authorized to begin additional services or fully deploy, and to begin to understand the likely impacts (both risks and opportunities) of AVs on travel and traffic management in the District. To address this need, DDOT is proposing to designate a zone as an "AV Testbed" and install sensors for monitoring as well as conduct community and stakeholder engagement.

This research project is a pilot of a broader testbed. The research project will prove out the feasibility of the monitoring technologies and approaches at 3 locations and develop a deployment plan for the full testbed. It will also start the community engagement process around the notion of an AV testbed to ensure the community is a partner at the table in this effort, informing and participating in the testing and evaluation of AVs. Finally, it will build the data management structure that will enable broader use of this data by DDOT, academics, industry, and other public agencies, as well as enabling public transparency around AV performance.

The project has two primary objectives: (1) Enable independent monitoring of AV test vehicles, watching for: (a) vehicle interactions with other modes and vehicles, (b) curbside interactions for loading/pick up and drop off activities, and (c) ability to handle unusual or unexpected events. (2)  Collect system data to provide baseline system understanding to compare AV operations against and to leverage the technology investments. 

Critically, the monitoring should be done in a privacy-protecting manner as much as possible. The research team will work to identify solutions that allow us to see the actions of the AVs but not track individuals or retain identifying characteristics. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 15 Sep 2023 09:33:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2245511</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>CTE Transit Vehicle Innovation Deployment Centers Project (formerly NextGen)</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2077917</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project will help facilitate the coordination of three bus testing centers and conduct related new technology bus research.  The project is coordinated with a related effort being conducted by CTE.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 Dec 2022 09:48:23 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2077917</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Low or No (LoNo) Emission Component Assessment Program - The Ohio State University</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2077916</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This statutory program tests, evaluates, and analyzes low or no emission (LoNo) components of LoNo transit buses. The program provides unbiased assessments of low- or no-emission vehicle components, documenting maintainability, reliability, performance, structural integrity, efficiency, and the  noise of the tested components.  It is funded at $1,500,000/yr.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 Dec 2022 09:48:22 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2077916</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Low or No (LoNo) Emission Component Assessment Program - Auburn University</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2077915</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This statutory program tests, evaluates, and analyzes low or no emission (LoNo) components of LoNo transit buses. The program provides unbiased assessments of low- or no-emission vehicle components, documenting maintainability, reliability, performance, structural integrity, efficiency, and the  noise of the tested components.  It is funded at $1,500,000/yr.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 Dec 2022 09:48:22 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2077915</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Administration of Highway and Transportation Agencies. Task 116. Guidance on Roles and Responsibilities in Operation of Automated Vehicles</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1905536</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project will engage with a wide range of public sector, private sector and research entities in order to develop operational definitions to support the testing, deployment, operation and oversight of AV's. These definitions, in the form of use cases, will be used to review the AV roles and responsibilities of public agencies at all levels. These roles and responsibilities will be identified and presented by agency type, operational use case, and existing classifications of vehicle automation level and operational design domain.   The results of the project will be shared at AASHTO Spring and Annual meetings, as well as the TRB Annual Meeting and other agency groupings, in order to publicize the work and discuss next steps.  It is anticipated that a broad, separate outreach effort will be needed for professional educational purposes. The project results will be foundational to needed efforts in infrastructure planning scenarios, and in public outreach and education (as prioritized by the CAV-ELT).]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:00:18 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1905536</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Computer Aided Design for Safe Autonomous Vehicles</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1636492</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project focuses on establishing a systematic set of testing benchmarks to ensure the safety of an autonomous vehicle given its perception, planning and control systems. We will design an autonomous vehicle computer-aided design (CAD) toolchain, which captures formal descriptions of driving scenarios in order to develop a safety case for an autonomous vehicle (AV). Rather than focus on a particular component of the AV, like adaptive cruise control, the toolchain models the end-to-end dynamics of the AV in a formal way suitable for testing and verification.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jul 2019 15:18:37 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1636492</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>F1/10 Autonomous Racing Course and Competition</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1636493</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The course focuses on creating a meaningful and challenging design experience for graduate and senior undergraduate electrical engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, robotics and embedded systems students. The course involves designing, building and testing an autonomous 1/10-scale model F-1 racecar (with 10 times the fun!) using the NVIDIA Jetson platform for real-time perception, control and planning. In addition to providing read-to-use material as a Teaching Kit, the course will introduce an autonomous racing competition in conferences at Embedded Systems Week 2016 and Cyber-Physical Systems Week with challenges testing speed, agility and tracking performance of the on-board vision and control algorithms.  Modern robots tend to operate at slow speeds when in complex environments, limiting their utility in high-tempo applications. In this course, students will be tasked with pushing the boundaries of unmanned vehicle speed, decision control and response to fast changes in the environment. Students will work in teams to develop autonomy software to race a converted 1/10 scale RC car equipped with sensors and embedded processing around a large-scale, “real- world” F-1 course. The project team's goal is to teach embedded GPGPU programming in a fun context of high-speed autonomous racing but with serious constraints of real-time processing, challenging controls and fast robot planning on the NVIDIA Jetson TK1 and TX1 platforms.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jul 2019 14:51:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1636493</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Personal Privacy Jammer Vehicle Modeling and Testing</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1360974</link>
      <description><![CDATA[No summary provided.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 15 Jul 2015 01:01:09 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1360974</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Mechanical and Economic Performance of an Electric Car Utilizing the Zebra Battery Technology in Vermont</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1357588</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Due to its hilly terrain and cold climate, Vermont offers a unique environment for testing the performance of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. In this study, researchers evaluated the performance of a battery electric vehicle. Vermont converted a 2005 Toyota Echo from an internal combustion engine automobile to a battery powered electric vehicle. The researchers examined the overall performance of this vehicle in daily use. In particular, they investigated the influence of air temperature and internal battery temperature on vehicle performance. Additionally, Dr. Varhue considered the economic cost of operating this vehicle. Data was collected over a period of nine months and 260 trips totaling over 5,500 miles traveled. The yearly range of the vehicle in this study was found to be 67 miles, with an estimated energy cost of 7.7 cents per mile.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2015 01:00:45 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1357588</guid>
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