Applications of Wireless Communications to Cooperative ITS in the California PATH Program

California PATH Program has been conducting research on the most advanced ITS concepts for the past twenty years. Throughout this time, PATH researchers have been developing opportunities for ITS to enable the transportation infrastructure, vehicles and the people and goods traveling in the vehicles to be connected to each other as an integrated system. Wireless communications provide the needed connections, so that the coordinated system can be designed with an optimal allocation of intelligence and responsibilities among its elements and can thus be made more efficient. PATH's research work has therefore emphasized cooperative ITS systems connected through telecommunications, rather than independent autonomous vehicle systems