FMCSA's Advanced System Testing utilizing Data Acquisition System Highway (FAST DASH) Program
Does your company have a promising commercial vehicle safety technology that could be independently evaluated by VTTI?
The safety objective of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is to save lives and reduce injuries by preventing and minimizing the severity of truck and bus crashes (FMCSA, 2010). According to the FMCSA, the development, evaluation, and deployment of advanced safety technology will be a key to realizing this objective.
Currently, there are numerous safety systems in development that have the potential to significantly reduce crashes on our nation's roadways. For a variety of reasons, however, including lack of supporting tests and evaluations, the potential benefits that these systems may provide in reducing crashes may never be realized. The FMCSA envisions, through cooperation with the commercial vehicle (CV) industry, an influx of CV safety technologies that support the expanding role of the CV industry to safely, securely, and efficiently transport the nation's goods, products, and people. Information from motor carriers and other organizations about the effectiveness of these systems in improving safety will be valuable in advancing their further use in the CV industry.
The objective of the FMCSA's Advanced System Testing utilizing Data Acquisition System Highway (FAST DASH) program is to perform quick turn-around independent evaluations of promising safety technologies aimed at commercial vehicle operations (CVO). The goal of the FAST DASH program is to determine the efficacy of the safety system using the following high–level metrics:
- Crash reduction effectiveness (i.e., safety improvements)
- Unintended consequences (i.e., safety disbenefits)
- User (e.g., driver, safety manager) acceptance (i.e., subjective opinions)
The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) has been contracted to conduct the independent evaluations and the focus is to evaluate market-ready safety systems. At this time, VTTI is accepting applications from those interested in having their promising CV safety technology independently evaluated.
All interested applicants should read the research project outline in the Statement of Work (SOW). A copy of the SOW can be downloaded below. Interested technology vendors should submit a brief, three-page proposal on how they will address the tasks outlined in the SOW to Darrell Bowman (Program Lead) at dbowman@vtti.vt.edu by 5:00 PM on August 1, 2012. Please note the selected technology vendor will be responsible for providing, free of charge, as many safety systems needed to conduct the evaluation. Vendors are encouraged to submit proposals on an ongoing basis and they will be placed in a pipeline of promising projects under continuous consideration but only those that are submitted by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on August 1, 2012 will be considered for the upcoming 2012-2013 technology evaluation selection.