Driverless vehicles are part of the plan for the downtown area of Chattanooga as the “smart city” continues to expand its infrastructure over the next two years.
The city has been experimenting with a 1.2 mile stretch outfitted with cameras, LiDAR, radar and audio devices to test new technology in the interest of reaching zero traffic fatalities once deployed throughout downtown.
This kind of technology has yet to be used widely in the U.S. and Chattanooga aims to now expand the project to include all 100 proposed smart intersections with hopes that autonomous electric vehicles can be introduced. The data and lessons learned from such a large deployment of connected infrastructure may be useful to other cities with similar goals.
The 1.2 mile “living testbed” that researchers have managed over the last few years relies on Chattanooga’s gigabit-speed fiber broadband network built by EPB, the publicly owned electric power distribution and telecommunications company that serves approximately 180 thousand homes and businesses within a 600-square mile in the greater Chattanooga area and Hamilton County.
