Notice2025-15605
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology; Request for Information-Research Ideas To Support Nationwide Automated Vehicle (AV) Deployment
Primary source
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Published
August 18, 2025
Issuing agencies
Transportation Department
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Transportation's (U.S. DOT) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R) is seeking information from the public, industry, infrastructure owner/operators, and other stakeholders to inform coordinated national research supporting Automated Driving Systems (ADS) transportation technology deployment and realizing safe efficient operations on our Nation's roadways. ADS-equipped vehicles have significant potential to transform safety and mobility but in order for national deployment to scale effectively, research questions relating to the challenges and opportunities of ADS, including understanding disengagements, identifying factors that contribute or detract from reliable and consistent operations and interactions, and facilitating interoperable data standardization and real-time analytics, among others, are important to investigate further to support deployment and broad public acceptance.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 157 (Monday, August 18, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 157 (Monday, August 18, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40141-40143]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-15605]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
[Docket No. DOT-OST-2025-1029]
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology;
Request for Information--Research Ideas To Support Nationwide Automated
Vehicle (AV) Deployment
AGENCY: Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Request for information (RFI).
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Transportation's (U.S. DOT) Office of
the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R) is seeking
information from the public, industry, infrastructure owner/operators,
and other stakeholders to inform coordinated national research
supporting Automated Driving Systems (ADS) transportation technology
deployment and realizing safe efficient operations on our Nation's
roadways. ADS-equipped vehicles have significant potential to transform
safety and mobility but in order for national deployment to scale
effectively, research questions relating to the challenges and
opportunities of ADS, including understanding disengagements,
identifying factors that contribute or detract from reliable and
consistent operations and interactions, and facilitating interoperable
data standardization and real-time analytics, among others, are
important to investigate further to support deployment and broad public
acceptance.
DATES: Written submissions must be received by October 17, 2025.
Submission Instructions: Responses should be submitted
electronically as a Microsoft Word document, preferably not to exceed
15 single-sided pages in length, and no greater than 15 MB in file
size. Recommended format for responses includes Times New Roman 12-
point font and 1 inch page margins. Responses should be emailed to
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#450413172036202437262d17030c05212a316b222a33"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="521304003721373320313a00141b12363d267c353d24">[email protected]</span></a> (with the Subject Line of ``AV Research RFI
Response <Institution Name>''. No Confidential Business Information or
Sensitive Security Information should be submitted in response to this
RFI.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions about this RFI, please
email <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1d5c4b4f786e787c6f7e754f5b545d797269337a726b"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="abeafdf9ced8cecad9c8c3f9ede2ebcfc4df85ccc4dd">[email protected]</span></a>. You may also contact Shaz Umer, Director
of Strategic Initiatives, Office of the Assistant Secretary for
Research and Technology (202-738-7964) or by email at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#611209001b4f140c041321050e154f060e17"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="ff8c979e85d18a929a8dbf9b908bd1989089">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This RFI seeks information that will assist
OST-
[[Page 40142]]
R in carrying out its transportation research and development
responsibilities under 49 U.S.C. Chapter 65, ``Research Planning''.
This RFI is neither a request for proposals nor a notice of funding
opportunity.
Respondents are requested to supply the following information at a
minimum in their written responses:
A. Name of the responding entity (``respondent'').
B. Respondent's Contact information, including that individual's
title, name, address, telephone number and email address.
C. The respondent's input to U.S. DOT AV research planning needs
relating to any or all of the questions below.
Specific Information Required
This RFI seeks feedback from industry, technology developers,
operators of ADS vehicle fleets, State/local transportation agencies,
researchers, and other stakeholders to inform United States Department
of Transportation (U.S. DOT) on AV research activities necessary to
support nationwide Automated Vehicle (AV) deployment. This RFI centers
on the intersection of advanced software, real-time data analytics, and
the complex management of roadway operational domains--emphasizing the
role transportation system data plays in supporting AV operations at
scale. OST-R intends to enhance the current understanding of the
technical, data, and resource needs to improve the ability of software-
driven AV systems to operate and interact with other road users and
infrastructure safely and efficiently at scale on roadways across
varied U.S. geographies and operational design domains (ODD). This
understanding will help OST-R develop a research agenda to facilitate
nationwide AV deployment. This RFI does not cover vehicle safety topics
already included within existing vehicle safety regulatory
responsibilities under the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) including its recently released AV Framework,
and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
1. Data Standards and Integration: What comprehensive data
frameworks could be studied, piloted/demonstrated or otherwise tested
that could inform standardization of data on AV interactions and
impacts on transportation system operations (e.g., obstructions to
traffic, behaviors that are not expected of human-driven vehicles,
etc.) and how it is categorized, reported to agencies and the public,
and validated for normal and anomalous events based on the factors
below?
(a) What new or enhanced statistical methodologies, including but
not limited to metrics, confidence intervals, significance thresholds,
and negative control events, can be applied to create benchmarks for AV
impacts on transportation system performance, and considerations
relating to appropriate human driver baseline(s)?
(b) What specific data, and methods to publish that data via open-
data portals or protocols (dynamic/real-time and non-real-time),
designed to meet the needs of operations, maintenance, research,
policy, and the general public across all operating scenarios and
environments and interactions with other road users, is needed?
(c) What additional research is needed to improve understanding of
operational needs related to automated fleet operations (including both
commercial motor vehicles and non-CMV fleets such as ride hailing),
e.g. transcontinental automated truck trips, including fueling,
inspection, emergency maintenance and other services. What
interoperable digital data would be valuable in supporting these
services for automated fleets?
(d) What are the near-term infrastructure-related data needs for
deployment of AVs, including roadway operations, maintenance, and
planning? Which data needs require standardized information exchange,
and how should this occur?
2. Edge Case Characteristics Identification:
(a) What research is needed to understand the data capture and
support for longitudinal tracking of AV impacts on transportation
system operations across varied roadway environments (including
potential longitudinal data for a specific street/road segment vs.
segments with similar characteristics)?
3. Supervision Dynamics and Human Interaction:
(a) What research is required to establish standardized processes
and supporting data with appropriate sampling strategies (e.g., across
urban, suburban, and rural ODD) to support long-term transportation
planning? What methods can incentivize AV operator transparency while
protecting proprietary information?
(b) What research is needed to leverage the Evidence Act's
requirements for data integrity, chain of custody, and long-term
preservation that may be applicable to datasets that combine AV
interactions with transportation system data, to ensure that such data
remains reliable, legally admissible, and useful for safety evaluations
and policy development? Are existing data-management architectures and
technical safeguards sufficient (across in-vehicle systems, edge
servers, and central repositories) to guarantee cryptographic
integrity, tamper-proof evidence, and write-once/read-many storage
techniques, or is additional research necessary?
(c) What research is needed to optimize human-machine interfaces
for diverse user groups, including emergency responders, pedestrians,
cyclists, other human drivers and passengers, to enhance safety,
accessibility, and trust in mixed traffic environments?
4. Evidence Based Evaluation:
(a) What research is needed to support safe, transparent, and
equitable nationwide evidence-based evaluation of AV operational
impacts on the transportation system?
5. Transparency and Building Public Understanding of Variations in
AV Impacts on the Transportation System:
(a) What data standards, formats, and APIs, need to be researched
to integrate needed supporting information on AV impacts on the
transportation system (e.g., raw AV operational and post-disengagement
data), including temporary road conditions (construction, detours,
etc.), into publicly accessible research hubs (including supporting
enhancements to DOT-supported hubs such as the ITS Datahub) and to
ensure consistent edge-case mapping nationwide?
(b) What statistical methods are suitable to adequately capture
emerging anomalous behavior or rare-event factors associated with AV
impacts or interactions on the transportation system?
(c) What areas and resolution of nationwide mapping is required or
would be used for roadways, intersections, bridges, tunnels,
interchanges, right of ways, and/or parking areas, be they public,
private, paved, unpaved or otherwise? What data standards, formats and
APIs are required for the nationwide mapping? If the road surface is
mapped in 3 dimensions, what are the height resolution requirements
above a surface reference datum or similar base point? What datum
reference would be required? Would your company use the map data if it
was at no cost? If there was a charge for the map data, what is the
reasonable estimated charge for the map data, and would your company be
willing to pay this reasonable estimated charge? How would you propose
downloading and subsequently
[[Page 40143]]
updating the map data in company servers or in road vehicles?
6. Evaluation of Consistent and Robust Vehicle Behavior
Interactions with Other Road Users and the Transportation System:
(a) What research is needed to develop new or improved standardized
methods to evaluate vehicle behavior consistency (e.g., car following,
lane changing, pedestrian/cyclist detection) across diverse
environments (e.g., rain, fog, snow, work zones, potholes),
interactions (e.g., unpredictable human drivers, emergency vehicles),
and situations (e.g., sensor failure, loss of cellular network,
mechanical failures) when ADS-equipped vehicles are involved?
Confidential Business Information
Do not submit information disclosure of which is restricted by
statute, such as trade secrets and commercial or financial information
(hereinafter referred to as Confidential Business Information ``CBI'')
in response to this RFI. Responses submitted to OST-R cannot be claimed
as CBI. Responses received by OST-R will waive any CBI claims for the
information submitted.
(Authority: 49 U.S.C. 102(e)(1).)
Issued in Washington, DC, on August 13, 2025.
Michael A. Halem,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology.
[FR Doc. 2025-15605 Filed 8-15-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-9X-P
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