Michigan builds the country’s first smart highway

A five-kilometer section of Interstate 94 in Michigan is being converted into America’s first Smart Highway.

Axios reports that Alphabet-backed startup Cavnue has begun construction on the Smart Highway, part of a new pilot project that could spur more construction projects across the country. According to Cavnue’s website, two more highways are in the pipeline in Austin, Texas, and elsewhere in the Southwest.

The new Smart Road is a large, long vehicle tracking system for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and drivers on the highway. The Smart Highway is designed to send data such as traffic reports, weather conditions, driving conditions and broken-down vehicles to relieve traffic congestion, prevent accidents and enable efficient response to emergencies on the road.

The highway’s pilot program is between Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan. There are plans to extend the Smart Highway to 40 miles in six additional phases that would connect both cities after the pilot program is completed.

The smart highway works with a series of masts placed every 200 meters (about 655 feet) along the road that carry sensor pods, computer pods and communications equipment. There are also cameras along the highway that monitor each stretch of road and capture images that are analyzed by AI and machine learning algorithms to identify dangerous driving conditions. Alerts are sent to MDOT and to drivers connected to the road.

So far, the system can only communicate with autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, but Cavnue expects that by 2030, half of all cars will have some degree of autonomy.

America still has some catching up to do when it comes to building and implementing smart highways. Britain, for example, began building its first internet-enabled road in 2014.