California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

Vehicle Assist and Automation (VAA) systems enable lane assist, precision docking and longitudinal control of transit vehicles. They offer the opportunities of providing high quality transit service within reduced lane widths. Transit vehicles in North America are mostly manufactured based on individual transit agencies’ customized requirements. The interfaces between VAA components and the mechanical, electrical and electronic systems on the existing transit vehicle, if not defined properly, can be an impediment to large scale deployment of VAA technologies. This report summarizes a research effort in specifying the VAA interface requirements, with a goal to facilitate progress toward the development and deployment of VAA systems on transit vehicles in the U.S., so that transit agencies and their passengers can start to experience the benefits these systems can provide.