University of Wisconsin-Madison
IN-27: Innovation D

The development of self-driving cars and other vehicles is reshaping not only the auto industry, but mobility worldwide. Automated Vehicles (AVs) have significant potential to improve safety and quality of life. More specifically, AV shared mobility can provide ladders of opportunity to all, including previously under-served communities. AVs can contribute to community sustainability by improving equitable access to transportation, reducing vehicle emissions through efficient vehicle usage, and improved public space planning through decreased need for transportation infrastructure.

The mission of the Wisconsin AV Proving Grounds is to furnish a path to public road evaluation of AVs by contributing to the safe and rapid advancement of AV development and deployment, while providing a full suite of test environments coupled with research, open data, and stakeholder communication. As a U.S. Department of Transportation designated AV proving ground, Wisconsin is at the forefront of these transformative technologies, and the research the proving ground does contributes to revolutionizing how the world uses transportation. This research will directly advance our knowledge on the impact of this technology on community sustainability.

Researchers with the UW-Madison College of Engineering assess the benefits, technical aspects, and risks of AVs, as well as collaborate on policy issues with government agencies. The Wisconsin AV Proving Grounds is also a collaboration between private enterprises, UW-Madison, and the City of Madison. These entities are working together to test AVs on closed tracks, limited-use facilities, and finally on public roads. Throughout this process the team will focus on safety and the best practice tenets of security and open data. This collaboration will advance research

The proving grounds have eight major initiatives:
- Basemapping
- Commercial Trucking
- Data Security
- Certification (for bring AVs to the public roads)
- Retrofitting (for older vehicles)
- Human Factors (the interaction of AVs and humans)
- User Acceptance (and public perception of AVs)
- Shared Mobility (and accessibility)

By implementing these initiatives and collaborating with private and public partners in the state, the Wisconsin AV Proving Grounds support social and economic sustainability while fulfilling the mission of the Wisconsin Idea—that “education should influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of the classroom."