Minnesota, USA intelligent vehicle initiative

In November, 1999, the United States Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) awarded a major Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI) grant to the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). Minnesota's project was a three-year Generation '0' Specialty Vehicle Field Operational Test of technology providing lateral guidance and collision avoidance warnings to drivers in low visibility conditions. In addition to MnDOT and FHWA, there were a variety of other public and private partners participating in the project. Active operational testing was conducted over the winter of 2001-2002. The intent of the project was to identify the safety and operational impacts of the technology, to guide future decisions regarding installation on specialized vehicles, and to encourage the development and appropriate deployment of such systems on all vehicle platforms. The technologies were tested in four snowplows, a State Patrol squad car, and an ambulance on a fifty-mile rural highway. A key aspect of the project was optimization of driver interfaces from a human factors perspective. This paper provides an overview of the project including technologies and evaluation approach.