Civilians in cities around the country, from Phoenix to Atlanta, can order a driverless car to take them where they need to go. These shared autonomous vehicles increase vehicle utilization time, reduce the number of vehicles needed per person, free up human capital for other tasks, and improve safety. As adoption of these services continues to grow, so does the commercial availability of related advanced driver assistance technologies.
Recognizing this trend, the Department is launching a $30,000,000 Robotic Operation for Autonomous Delivery and Sustainment (ROADS) prize challenge to leverage consumer-proven autonomous vehicle technologies for its fleet of over 150,000 non-tactical vehicles (NTV). The Department fleet currently lacks integrated, modern technologies for dispatch, coordination, and automation, resulting in persistently low vehicle utilization, excess fleet capacity, and unnecessary accident exposure.
The challenge is a partnership between the Defense Innovation Unit and the Army. It comes nearly two decades after DARPA ran its Grand Challenge that helped plant the seeds for the driverless car industry in the U.S.
“We’re looking for consumer-proven technology to help bring the benefits our Department personnel enjoy off-installation, onto the installation,” said David Payne, Acting Autonomous Warfare Portfolio Director at DIU.
The ROADS challenge will identify, develop and scale, via follow-on production, the best of consumer driverless car technology to the Department’s non-tactical vehicle (NTV) fleet in support of on-installation logistics.
The challenge will include an initial demonstration, a longer-term pilot on installation, and increasingly broad roll-out for top performers.
“We want vehicles that let our soldiers operate more safely, more efficiently, and over time, give them more time to focus on core Soldier activities other than driving water and MREs around post. While there is a massive push to employ autonomy for warfighting, familiarization and training starts at home stations. We will start to leverage autonomy to coordinate toilsome tasks while allowing Soldiers to leverage autonomy as an enabler,” said Dr. Alex Miller, Chief Technology Officer to the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army.
Up to $30,000,000 in awards are available for the prize challenge portion of this effort and the government anticipates multiple awards. The company or companies who succeed at proving they can deliver in the installation environment will be eligible for follow-on contracting and purchasing to ensure this capability is available at scale on our installations.
The Challenge will be open through June 8 at 23:59:59 Eastern Time.
See here for full details and application instructions here.