Utah may spend up to $50 million over about five years as part of a new deal with Panasonic to expand the use of roadside sensor technology that will be able to exchange data in real time with compatible vehicles traveling on the state’s roads.
Details of the project are still being worked out. But an initial one-year phase now under contract is expected to cost about $8 million and will involve the company installing roughly 40 roadside sensors and equipping around 30 state-owned vehicles to communicate with them.
Data will flow to a central, cloud-based software platform that will monitor the information and automatically generate alerts that can be shared with vehicles, infrastructure like traffic signals and electronic signs, and state transportation staff.
Utah anticipates future phases could include about 220 sensors and up to 2,000 vehicles. Whether the state proceeds with these additional phases will depend on the project’s performance and funding availability.
