The Tennessee Department of Transportation held an industry forum on July 15 for stakeholders from the public, private, and higher education community to discuss the I-24 MOTION testbed. TDOT was joined by representatives from Vanderbilt University, Gresham Smith, and Toyota. Each presented its roles and objectives for the I-24 MOTION project. I-24 MOTION will be a unique testing environment for transportation technologies across multiple industry sectors, due to its sensing and data producing capabilities.

“This groundbreaking understanding of traffic is more important than ever due to the increasing automation capability of individual vehicles, which are beginning to influence traffic flow through their interactions with conventional vehicles,” said Brad Freeze, director of TDOT’s traffic operations division. “By unlocking a new understanding of how these vehicles influence traffic, vehicle, and infrastructure design can be optimized to reduce traffic concerns in the future to improve safety, air quality, and fuel efficiency.”

TDOT envisions additional opportunities to pursue mutually beneficial uses of the testbed with industries such as those outlined below.

• Automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers and Suppliers
• Researchers
• Traffic Simulation Software Developers
• Freight and Logistics Operators
• Infrastructure Owners
• Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Product Manufacturers
• Enterprise Networking and Data Solution Providers