Road and Automotive
Accelerating technological advancements.
MITRE Drive Lab
DRIVE Lab can simulate, analyze, and explore how transportation systems like cars, micromobility, and public transit work together.
It’s a dynamic time for automotive transportation. Soon we’ll be living in a world where our vehicles connect to one another and to the infrastructure around them.
At MITRE, we’re working to maximize the benefits these technological advances can bring—from enhancing safety to increasing transportation accessibility for underserved populations.
As automated driver assistance systems (ADAS) proliferate, we’re partnering with government and the automotive industry to study how they perform in the real world. We’re sharing our findings to inform both automotive design and U.S. Department of Transportation efforts to advance traffic safety.
We’re also researching how data analytics can help reduce traffic accidents and fatalities and how the telemetry data that recent-model automobiles are producing can be leveraged to create safer vehicles in the future.
As automated vehicles rapidly move through commercial research and development processes, our researchers are working to realize the promise of these automated driving systems while mitigating their risks.
We’re operating virtual testing platforms to support the cross-stakeholder solutions that can improve digital infrastructure interoperability, enhance AV safety assurance, improve public trust, and accelerate delivery of the full benefits of these advanced technologies.
Our DRIVE Lab, capable of simulating any vehicle or environment, is illuminating the road ahead for diverse and increasingly automated vehicles. Our researchers’ findings will inform decision makers about the policies and standards necessary to integrate these vehicles safely into the existing transportation system.
As new vehicle technology and automation introduce novel cybersecurity risks, we’re identifying effective ways to anticipate and thwart cyberattacks that could give bad actors control of a vehicle, or even fleets.
We’re working hand in hand with government and industry to fulfill the promise of these revolutionary changes—quickly, safely, securely, and equitably.
Self-driving cars and autonomous aircraft aren't futuristic.
They share our roadways and our airspace today.
Autonomous technology in our everyday
lives make skies safer, protects our warfighters,
and performs tasks that would put human lives at risk.
In MITRE's autonomous systems experimentation laboratory,
we're studying how these systems interoperate
and communicate, and what the future could hold.
We're using what we
discover to unlock its vast potential in defense,
security, transportation, and more.
The lab centerpiece—a Jeep Grand Cherokee capable of autonomous operation
serves as a moving testbed for emerging hardware and algorithms.
We recommend the
most promising technology to our sponsors and identify solutions for the
challenges we discover.
This infrared thermal imaging camera uses heat
signatures to sense the presence of living things—
like a person, a pet, or a person walking a pet.
A light detection and ranging scanner collects 600,000
data points per second—building 3D images of the world around it.
Autonomous systems need input from these and other sources to recognize vehicles, people, or
bicycles and to distinguish one from the others.
They can detect which objects are
moving and which are still—and where they are in relation to the vehicle.
The MASE also provides a safe, controlled environment and the computing power to
run algorithms from our own researchers and visiting sponsors and research partners.
As autonomous capabilities evolve across
multiple domains, researchers are encountering common challenges.
MITRE's objectivity and systems thinking enable our experts to experiment with new
approaches to tough problems and accelerate adoption of autonomous technology.
RELATED NEWS & INSIGHTS
Publication
A Study on Real-world Effectiveness of Model Year 2015–2023 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems
Publication
Strengthening America's Transportation Resilience: Innovating to Enhance Unified Response and Recovery
Publication
Safety II White Paper: Assessing Resilience and Human Variability Within Aviation Safety
Impact Story
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems: A Look at Their Rapid Rise in the U.S. Passenger Vehicle Market
Publication
Autonomous Systems and Counter-Autonomy: Positioning the U.S. for Economic and Security Advantage
Employee Voice
Marco Quezada: Thriving on Challenge
Fact Sheet
Collaborate for Automated Vehicle Safety
Publication
Nationally Scaling Transportation Advancements
Our Capabilities in Transportation
We provide essential engineering, research, and analysis to support our transportation sponsors in the performance of their missions through a system approach that addresses all dimensions required to effect change. We offer a range of expertise and specialized facilities that can be applied to pioneer integrated solutions that improve the safety, efficiency, and resiliency of the global transportation system.