A total of $20 million in federal grant funding is headed to Carnegie Mellon University for the development of a new research center that will study the safe and equitable deployment of autonomous transit technologies in the coming decade.
The grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation will be awarded over the span of the next five years for the creation of Safety21, a consortium led by CMU that consists of research partners from Morgan State University, The Ohio State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
This consortium will be tasked with ensuring that the coming "autonomous, networked, shared, and integrated transportation technologies and systems" from an array of different companies and organizations are built and produced with safety, equity and sustainability efforts being top of mind. The consortium will also look to aid the U.S. in keeping its "competitive edge" in the production of these technologies and that workers will receive the necessary training to prepare them for the eventual deployment of these transit offerings.
Pittsburgh-area U.S. Congresswoman Summer Lee announced the funding award following a tour of CMU's various transportation research projects at the Mill 19 facility in Hazelwood Green on Tuesday, which hosts the Pittsburgh offices of Boston-based autonomous vehicle (AV) developer Motional Inc. and it neighbors the AV test track grounds of Aurora Innovation Inc., a Strip District-based developer of autonomous tech for trucks and passenger vehicles.
"I am working tirelessly to deliver funding for Pittsburgh's innovation, bring research dollars back home to western [Pennsylvania's] institutions, and create new jobs at home that we make sure to keep here at home. I am also committed to breaking down barriers that hinder the representation of Black, Brown, working-class, and marginalized folks in STEM fields," Lee said in a prepared statement. "This Safety21 grant will position western [Pennsylvania] to lead the country in transportation innovation and make meaningful progress towards closing the representation gap and making quality STEM education, training, and jobs accessible for all."
Raj Rajkumar, the George Westinghouse professor of electrical and computer engineering at CMU, will lead Safety21, which becomes the fourth transportation-related research center on CMU's Oakland campus and the third nationally-designated one that CMU has been awarded since 2012. Rajkumar is the current director of Mobility21, one of the three national University Transportation Centers (UTC) that CMU operates.
"Safety21’s project portfolio will enhance transportation safety through research, development and deployment of breakthrough technologies and policy innovations," Rajkumar said in a prepared statement. "Additionally, we seek to broaden our impact by ensuring communities have equal access to safety technologies; evaluating energy use and emissions; and supporting domestic commercialization, entrepreneurship, and public policy to rally economic strength and global competitiveness."
The goal ultimately for Rajkumar and his fellow researchers will be to bring automotive fatalities, estimated to have surpassed 42,000 in the U.S. during 2022 alone per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, down to zero.
By working with the AV developers and their workers as well as with the communities that these technologies are to be deployed, Safety21 also will look to ensure these future transportation offerings have an intentional focus on equity, inclusion and sustainability metrics to serve as inputs for the build-out of these products.
"This award from the U.S. Department of Transportation affirms Carnegie Mellon’s long-established leadership in developing technology and informing policy to improve our nation’s transportation network," Farnam Jahanian said in a prepared statement. "The impact of Safety21’s research will be expanded by the Center’s intentional focus on equal access to safe and sustainable transportation for all communities."
The $20 million in federal funding awarded to CMU for this effort mirrors one it received three weeks prior when the U.S. National Science Foundation and other federal agencies awarded CMU a $20 million commitment to launch one of seven new National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes across the country.
