Member Spotlight: Cavnue

Welcome to our Member Spotlight series where we explore the diverse companies developing autonomous vehicles for a safer, more mobile and connected world. We spoke with Cavnue about their mission to develop technically advanced roads for connected and automated vehicles that can help improve driving conditions, provide critical road insights and reduce crashes.

How Is Your Company Advancing Autonomous Vehicles?
Cavnue was founded to bridge the worlds of automotive technology and road infrastructure to realize a safer, more efficient, and more accessible future with connected and automated vehicles. Our core belief is that smart roads can complement and enhance automated driving systems. Digital infrastructure is key to this solution, and Cavnue’s platform observes the road, infers what is happening on the road using advanced algorithms, and advises vehicles on incidents beyond their sensor line of sight.

What's An Example Of A Challenge Your Company Is Trying To Solve For?
For over twenty years, researchers and academics have discussed the potential benefits of connected infrastructure for automated and autonomous vehicles. Yet, government and industry have been at a stalemate: Governments hesitate to spend public money on connected infrastructure for vehicles that aren’t equipped to communicate; meanwhile, automakers are reluctant to increase vehicle costs by equipping them to communicate with connected infrastructure that hasn’t been installed yet. Cavnue breaks this “chicken or the egg?” cycle through its digital infrastructure solutions and by unlocking private capital.

Why Is The Work Of Your Company Important?
The death toll on U.S. roads is a paradox. Traffic deaths have reached their highest levels since 2005, but over that same period, there have been tremendous advancements in vehicle safety technology. Vehicle technology can significantly help to achieve this country’s long-term goal of zero roadway fatalities. So, what stands in the way of saving thousands of additional lives each year with these transformative technologies? Roads. 

As they stand today, our roads are far less advanced than our vehicles. There are familiar challenges that frustrate all road users: potholes, faded or missing lane markings, erratic drivers making illegal maneuvers, and signage that’s missing or obscured. But there’s also a missed opportunity to build better roads that improve driving conditions, provide critical road insights, and reduce crashes.

To accelerate the benefits of automated vehicle technology, Cavnue is undertaking a systems-level approach to building smarter roads. Our infrastructure provides drivers—both automated and human—with predictable driving environments and near real-time information to reduce the risk of collisions. 

What Policy Solutions Are Most Important For Your Company?
America is asking more than ever of its congested and aging transportation system as we also confront historic challenges: the number of traffic deaths are unacceptable, mobility inequities are limiting access to opportunity, and the transportation sector is the #1 contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Physical infrastructure interventions alone—such as constructing new highways or adding more lanes—will not overcome these challenges. 

Likewise, despite meaningful technological advancements, ADAS- and ADS-equipped vehicles face hurdles in their ability to address transportation challenges at scale. As the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has acknowledged, adopting the Safe System Approach is essential to reducing injuries and fatalities. Smart digital infrastructure—including sensing technology, data insights, and infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) communications—has the potential to optimize how our physical infrastructure is used to move people and goods. This will reduce edge cases, efficiently coordinate vehicles, and deliver roadway and traffic insights. 

With a once-in-a-generation investment in American infrastructure underway through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA), we believe that U.S. transportation policymakers must implement a national strategy to modernize and digitize its physical infrastructure to co-evolve with rapidly advancing automated vehicle technologies.

Why Is Your Company A Member Of AVIA?
Cavnue joined AVIA because we share the AV industry’s passion for using technology to improve human outcomes – first and foremost by reducing the crashes that kill over 40,000 Americans every year and severely injure many more. Cavnue’s engagement with AVIA brings a unique, Safe System-driven perspective on how government and industry can work together to improve traffic safety and accelerate the deployment of lifesaving automated vehicle technologies.