'Smart Car' Technology May Get Test Drive On Stretch Of Jane Addams Tollway

 (CBS) – Interstate 90 in the northwest suburbs soon may become a test bed for smart-car technology that will allow new cars and trucks to communicate with each other.

The pilot project will still make use of sensors in the pavement.  But Illinois Toll Highway Authority Executive Director Kristi LaFleur said so-called "connected vehicles" will be able to tell each other, as well as traffic services, what is causing slowdowns and blockages and when conditions are hazardous.

"If there is an incident ahead, it would automatically get an indication from the infrastructure itself that there's a car or truck that's stopped suddenly ahead, or crashed into something or some other vehicle," she said.

The Toll Authority board voted Thursday to seek a U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT) contract for the test. DOT is awarding contracts ranging from $2 million to $20 million to test the new technology, which is already being installed along a 16-mile "smart corridor" on the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway between the Kennedy tolls and Barrington Road.

During the test phase, LaFleur said she expected that only specially equipped Toll Authority vehicles, buses and certain private fleet vehicles would participate in the trial. But she said she's confident major automakers will adopt the system, and that within 15 years such systems will become common.

LaFleur said the Toll Authority and contractor CDM Smith Federal expect to submit their final proposal to DOT mid-March, with testing to begin in 2017.