Carnegie Mellon University to lead transportation consortium

Carnegie Mellon University will lead a national consortium that will establish Safety21, a new University Transportation Center.

The U.S. Department of Transportation will provide the consortium with $20 million over the next five years.

“This award from the U.S. Department of Transportation affirms Carnegie Mellon’s long-established leadership in developing technology and informing policy to improve our nation’s transportation network,” Farnam Jahanian, Carnegie Mellon president, said. “The impact of Safety21’s research will be expanded by the center’s intentional focus on equal access to safe and sustainable transportation for all communities.”

The consortium will include the University of Pennsylvania, Ohio State University, Morgan State University, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and partners nationwide that will collaborate to ensure that autonomous, networked, shared, and integrated transportation technologies and systems are developed and deployed with safety, equity and sustainability.

The Community College of Allegheny County and the Community College of Philadelphia will receive support for innovative work force programs tailored for the existing and emerging transportation work force.

Safety21 will seek input from stakeholders to address challenges such as how highly automated vehicles are not mature enough for widespread deployment, failures in autonomy features raise questions about trust, and connectivity poses threats to privacy and cybersecurity.