What We Offer
HASS COE serves as a central place within the USDOT for expertise in automation and ensuring the safety of highly automated systems. We work to bring all relevant parts of the USDOT—in appropriate partnership with other government, academic, and industry partners—together to carry out the research necessary to achieve a vision of transportation automation that improves the lives of all Americans.
A Highly Automated Transportation System (HATS) is one that makes use of automation to achieve its goals—safety, efficiency, speed, or other benefits—in ways that are beyond the understanding, predictability, or possibly even intervention of highly trained operators.
HASS COE focuses on automation systems through a systems-of-systems lens. By investigating and advising on HATS and their intermodal and multimodal implications, we can augment each USDOT Operating Administration’s own expertise and success in assessing, predicting, and verifying the safety of relevant emerging technology.
Expertise
Our team brings together research and implementation specialists from government, academia, and industry versed in the many, diverse aspects of HATS:
- Validation, testing, and safety assurance
- Autonomy stack design and integration
- Communications and interoperability
- State and local deployment
- Sensor performance
- Simulation and virtual testing
- Computer science
- Cybersecurity
- Data
- Artificial intelligence
- Machine learning
Products and Services
We provide support and partnership to USDOT Operating Administrations in reviewing, assessing, and validating the safety of highly automated systems by leveraging our knowledge and relationships in:
Convening and Engaging
- Bring together subject experts across stakeholder teams to answer big questions
- Use industry knowledge to inform federal efforts
- Serve as liaisons within USDOT and to Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies planners
- Consult on organizing agency work for innovation
- Serve on internal working groups and external committees and subcommittees
Curating Knowledge and Content
- Develop maturity assessments, market scans, technology trend analyses, automation tech briefs, and TED-style talks to inform and engage teams
- Build a “go-to” resource library containing presentations, webinars, podcasts, articles, fact sheets, blogs, interviews, and more
- Serve on panels and deliver presentations at industry events and USDOT-sponsored workshops and sessions
Testing and Evaluating
- Develop HASS validation tools
- Apply DOT validation tools, such as those developed by the Federal Aviation Administration regarding Advanced Air Mobility
- Advance industry validation tools, particularly Virtual Open Innovation Collaborative Environment for Safety (VOICES) for surface transportation
Contact Us
Denise Bakar
Communications Manager
denise.bakar@dot.gov
General Inquiries
hass-coe@dot.gov
