What if your car could talk to the road?
Cavnue, a Washington, DC-based subsidiary of Alphabet’s Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, hopes to answer that question with a pilot project it’s now conducting on a three-mile stretch of highway in Michigan.
Cavnue’s leaders see the potential for smart-road infrastructure to deliver safer, more accessible roadways. Tyler Duvall, the company’s co-founder and CEO, likened the advent of such technology to the buildout of the US interstate system in the 20th century.
“We think this digital transformation is as powerful an impact, potentially, as what happened with the interstate system,” he told Tech Brew. “So if we don’t take a more aggressive view as a country [on] supplying these technologies, we’re going to see a very uneven distribution of the benefits of automation in transportation.”
So far, Cavnue has gotten buy-in from state governments in Michigan and Texas. Duvall, who previously worked at the US Department of Transportation, hopes to see government play a more active role in supporting technology that will enable communication between infrastructure and the connected and automated vehicles that have become targets of massive investment by the automotive industry.
In Michigan, Cavnue recently unveiled the initial phase of the I-94 Connected and Automated (CAV) Corridor. The company is billing it as a “first-of-its-kind smart-road deployment.”
In a press release, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said the project would “keep Michigan on the cutting edge of mobility.”
Ultimately, Cavnue’s goal is to extend the project across 39 miles from Ann Arbor to Detroit, connecting two major employment hubs. Destinations along the route include Ford’s Michigan Central tech campus, the University of Michigan, and the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
Cavnue’s system encompasses “advanced digital and physical infrastructure, including sensors, advanced wireless communications, and a full digital twin of the roadway,” according to a press release.
Cavnue installed poles every 200 meters along the three-mile corridor. Sensors on the poles observe what’s happening on the road. The system relays information on traffic factors—like crashes, adverse weather, and congestion—to the Michigan Department of Transportation.
Eventually, the technology will enable notifications to connected vehicles of potential safety hazards ahead, such as debris or stalled vehicles. Giving drivers a heads-up to prepare for tricky traffic conditions can reduce congestion and emissions, according to Cavnue.
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The company isn’t the only proponent of such technology. Suman Sehra, global VP of automotive product and platform portfolio management at Harman International, explained in an email sent by Victoria Wilson of Archetype, why he views vehicle-to-everything, or V2X, technology as “one of the most significant innovations” to help address an increase in traffic fatalities in the US. V2X allows vehicles to communicate with infrastructure.
“The future of automotive safety and efficiency depends on developing robust edge infrastructure and adhering to regulations for deploying 5G in smart cities,” he wrote. “As high-speed, low-latency 5G networks and edge computing become more widespread, vehicles become data-rich hubs. This transformation allows for real-time data processing and decision-making—both crucial for improving driver safety and reducing distractions.”
Cavnue started in 2020, based on what Duvall described as a “pretty basic concept: that roadways are not smart, are not providing information, insights, or actionable opportunities for government to intervene to make them safer, more efficient, or more reliable.”
Now, the company aims to play a supporting role in the auto industry’s transition to automated vehicles, whether those vehicles feature advanced driver-assistance systems or are fully driverless.
“We built the company with this idea to solve some near-term issues and future-proof roadways for this coming wave of smart trucks and smart cars,” Duvall said.
Cavnue also is piloting an “autonomous freight corridor” near Austin to support driverless trucks that are conducting testing on Texas highways.
Duvall noted that Cavnue’s work aligns with the federal government’s recent investments to expand broadband access across the country. At the same time, federal regulators are trying to address the fact that about 40,000 people in the US die in traffic crashes every year.
“You look at the fatality numbers, you look at the congestion levels, you look at the disruptions of poor transportation—it’s a huge drag on the US economy and a huge impact on households,” Duvall said. “We think our platform will help accelerate those [autonomous vehicle] efforts, will help make them safer in the long run, and help them scale faster.”