The Minnesota Governor’s Advisory Council on Connected and Automated Vehicles or CAVs released a 20-page annual report on April 5 updating the state’s readiness for CAV technology and highlighting its major CAV efforts in 2020.

[Above image from the Minnesota DOT.]

The Minnesota Department of Transportation, which co-chairs that council, noted in a statement that while public-facing and in-person CAV events were put on hold in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the council continued coordinating emerging technologies statewide and serve as a “one-stop shop” for CAV information for Minnesota.

The report noted that CAV activities conducted by the council in 2020 include:

• Testing new cellular vehicle communications technologies that connect snowplows and prevent red light running to help avoid collisions.
• Completing a 10-year investment plan for fiber optic cable that supports CAVs and broadband.
• Conducting one of the largest CAV surveys in the nation to understand state resident attitudes towards that technology; part of efforts to complete the Minnesota Strategic CAV Messaging and Engagement Plan sometime in 2021.
• Kicking off the state’s first CAV corridor planning effort with communities along Highway 52 from Rochester to St. Paul.
• Integrating CAV technology into snowplows to alert drivers when they come upon a plow to help drivers avoid crashes and “see” in snowy conditions.