Highway Administration to Explore How AI and Blockchain Can Transform Transportation

The Federal Highway Administration launched an Exploratory Advanced Research Program this week to usher in "transformational changes and truly revolutionary advances" in highway engineering and intermodal transportation on roads across the United States. According to a new broad agency announcement, the administration is accepting research effort proposals--with the deliberate intent of awarding either contracts or cooperative agreements--that address three trendy topics in emerging tech: blockchain for highway transportation, artificial intelligence for highway transportation, and incorporating trashed plastic into asphalt cement to reduce waste. "This program supports scientific investigations and studies that advance the current knowledge and state-of-the-art in the sciences and technologies employed in the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance and management of the nation's highways," officials wrote in the announcement. "Strategically, this research will enable and expedite the development of revolutionary approaches, methodologies, and breakthroughs required to drive innovation and greatly improve the efficiency of highway transportation." The agency's EAR programs aim to produce strong public-private partnerships that catalyze solutions through "longer-term, higher risk" research.