August 14, 2024, Press Release from the Ohio Department of Transportation: COLUMBUS, OHIO – In a little under a year, DriveOhio’s Rural Automated Driving Systems (ADS) project collected nearly 60 terabytes of data that will help define future technology needs for automated vehicles in rural environments. While automated driving systems have the potential to dramatically improve roadway safety, data shows that these systems must be refined to maximize that potential in rural areas. Most automated vehicle testing to date has been conducted in urban areas without the hilly and curvy terrain, limited sight distances, and shaded tree canopies typical of a rural environment.  Funded in part by a $7.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, this project accomplished one of the most comprehensive testing efforts yet to be conducted on rural roads in the United States.

Ohio Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted is currently backing an initiative that he says will ultimately help provide rural Ohioans with access to high-speed internet. That initiative is through a recent partnership between Microsoft Corporation and Lima-based Watch Communications. The two companies plan to provide high-speed broadband access to nearly three million people in rural Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana by July 2022. This initiative will impact close to 300,000 Ohioans and a little over 800,000 people in the region. Husted is confident this technology will improve economic and educational opportunities for rural Ohioans and believes that it will be the catalyst for future projects.

Ohio will be put on the fast track to autonomous vehicle testing and development in part to the new facility planned at the Transportation Research Center (TRC) in East Liberty.