Evaluation of Safety Perspectives, Approaches, and Needs for Testing, Deploying, and Operating Vehicles Equipped with Driving Automation Systems (Automated Vehicles) on Public Roadways
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.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $324,517.84
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Contract Numbers:
43585
136131
111455
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Sponsor Organizations:
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
Ohio Department of Transportation
Research Program
1980 West Broad Street
Columbus, OH United States 43223 -
Project Managers:
Lucas, Michelle
- Performing Organizations: Minneapolis, United States
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Principal Investigators:
Avery, Paul
- Start Date: 20260121
- Expected Completion Date: 20270121
- Actual Completion Date: 0
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Autonomous vehicles; Best practices; Liability; Risk assessment; Road tests; Safety analysis; Vehicle tests
- Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01976522
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Ohio Department of Transportation
- Contract Numbers: 43585, 136131, 111455
- Files: RIP, STATEDOT
- Created Date: Jan 16 2026 8:03AM