Scott Moura, the Clare and Hsieh Wen Shen Endowed Distinguished Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley, and his team at UC Berkeley’s California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH) have received $10 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Rural Autonomous Vehicle Program.
Moura will lead Autonomous Cargo Carriers for Enhanced Logistics in Rural and Tribal Areas (ACCEL-RT), a six-year grant focused on creating sustainable and scalable autonomous vehicle (AV) solutions to improve freight systems and promote workforce development in underserved communities. The project will concentrate on the I-40 corridor running through Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
“Our current transportation infrastructure does not adequately serve rural and Tribal communities. Challenges range from overwhelming truck congestion to medical supply and equipment accessibility,” said Moura. “ACCEL-RT will apply the toolbox of automation technologies to resolve these challenges through a technology development pipeline that pushes R&D to deployment within the communities.”
Read more from the UC Berkeley Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.