Just as California inches its way toward a formal ban on driverless commercial trucks, eight states’ departments of transportation are joining together to develop an online community where public and private sector autonomous vehicle (AV) stakeholders can share information, align needs and collaborate on activities.

AccelerateAV.org, which launched June 15, is free and open forum to all AV ecosystem stakeholders and was initiated by the AV Pooled Fund, which is made up of DOTs from Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. The states joined forces in 2020 to try to align the needs of the AV industry with the abilities of state DOTs to assist with those needs.

“Autonomous trucks – and freight/logistics –are very much part of the conversation for the site,” said Tara Andringa, executive director of 501(c)(3) nonprofit Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE).