Research Archive

The Potential of Automation Research Progress and Insights

Automated vehicles have the potential to bring about transformative safety, mobility, energy, and environmental benefits to our nation’s surface transportation system. These benefits could include crash avoidance, reduced energy consumption and vehicle emissions, reduced travel times, improved travel time reliability and multi-modal connectivity, and improved transportation system efficiency and accessibility, particularly for persons with disabilities and the growing aging population. The pace of research, development, and commercialization of automation technologies has increased rapidly in recent years. While technologies available today require a human driver to monitor the roadway and be prepared to take control, research into the development of fully self-driving vehicles is underway.