California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

This project was created in order to continue progress toward a future in which vehicle automation technologies are able to improve transportation operations.  In the wake of the termination of the National Automated Highway Systems Consortium (NAHSC) program in 1998, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) created The Phoenix Project to bring together the organizations that remained interested in this future vision.  The discussions within The Phoenix Project focused on the opportunities that could be gained from earlier deployment of automation technologies on transit buses and heavy trucks, as compared to passenger cars.  PATH was already doing intensive research and testing on automation of one heavy truck, which provided a starting point for further work.