The Ohio cities of Dublin and Marysville and Union County have received a $6 million grant from the U.S. Transportation Department to help fund the development of a smart mobility corridor designed to facilitate testing work on autonomous and connected vehicles.
The cities said Monday the DOT grant will be used to field short-range wireless communications platforms along the Northwest U.S. 33 Smart Mobility Corridor to support research and evaluation of autonomous vehicles.
Doug McCollough, chief information officer of Dublin city in Ohio, said the grant would help expand the region’s “Smart City†development efforts.
Funds for the Dedicated Short Range Communications project will support the deployment of smart mobility platforms and fiber-optics systems along the corridor.
The NW US 33 Smart Mobility Corridor houses more than 50 automotive sector companies, such as Honda of America Manufacturing, and also includes a 7.5-mile-long automotive testing track of the Ohio State University’s transportation research center.
The grant comes four months after the city of Columbus, Ohio, won $40 million in federal funds for its “Smart Columbus” autonomous vehicle testing project as part of DOT’s Smart City Challenge.
