AASHTO Journal - Report Provides Update on Minnesota’s Readiness for CAVs

The Minnesota Governor’s Advisory Council on Connected and Automated Vehicles or CAVs released a 20-page annual report on April 5 updating the state’s readiness for CAV technology and highlighting its major CAV efforts in 2020.

[Above image from the Minnesota DOT.]

The Minnesota Department of Transportation, which co-chairs that council, noted in a statement that while public-facing and in-person CAV events were put on hold in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the council continued coordinating emerging technologies statewide and serve as a “one-stop shop” for CAV information for Minnesota.

The report noted that CAV activities conducted by the council in 2020 include:

Testing new cellular vehicle communications technologies that connect snowplows and prevent red light running to help avoid collisions.
Completing a 10-year investment plan for fiber optic cable that supports CAVs and broadband.
Conducting one of the largest CAV surveys in the nation to understand state resident attitudes towards that technology; part of efforts to complete the Minnesota Strategic CAV Messaging and Engagement Plan sometime in 2021.
Kicking off the state’s first CAV corridor planning effort with communities along Highway 52 from Rochester to St. Paul.
Integrating CAV technology into snowplows to alert drivers when they come upon a plow to help drivers avoid crashes and “see” in snowy conditions.