Cooperative and Automated Transportation (CAT)
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Cooperative and Automated Transportation (CAT)

The transportation landscape is changing, and Texas conitnues to lead the way! The Cooperative and Automated Transportation (CAT) program is TxDOT's initiative to prepare the state's infrastructure for the future of mobility.

CAT focuses on integrating connected vehicle technologies, automated systems, and smart infrastructure into planning, design, operations, and maintenance of roadways. By enabling vehicles, traffic systems, and infrastructure to share real-time information, CAT has the potential to enhance safety, reduce congestion, support freight efficiency, and improve the overall travel experience for the traveling public.

Through strategic planning, pilot projects, and collaboration with public and private partners, the CAT program ensure that TxDOT stays at the forefront of innovation, while keeping people and goods moving safety and efficiently.

CAT Strategic Plan

The CAT Strategic Plan offers an opportunity to articulate the goals of TxDOT’s CAT program and identify strategies in the current landscape that support achievements of those goals. The plan is intended to serve as the foundation for statewide policy and procedural decisions related to CAT. It includes critical steps TxDOT should take to make thoughtful, strategic investments that prepare the emergence of CAT technology, maximize the potential benefits of CAT, and position the agency as a leader in emerging technologies and innovation.

Safety: Support the implementation of CAT technology to improve safety for the traveling public and help achieve TxDOT's Road to Zero goal for zero roadway fatalities by 2050

Mobility: Emphasize CAT technologies that improve mobility and accessibility, allowing TxDOT's transportation system to reach its full potential

Reliability: Harness CAT technology to improve overall system dependability for both people and freight

Agility: Support the ability to proactively and quickly respond to CAT technology

Vitality: CAT technologies offer broad potential benefits to the economy and workforce.

TxDOT initiated the development of the CAT Strategic and CAT Program Plan in May 2019, setting in motion the agency’s CAT Program for coordinating CAT efforts across all TxDOT Divisions and Districts. The CAT Strategic Plan establishes TxDOT’s CAT vision, mission, and goals, and identifies thirty-five strategies, across eight organizational focus areas, aimed to advance those goals.

Vehicles driving on highway in Longview
Program mission

Maximize the safe, reliable, and efficient movement of people, goods, and data within Texas's multimodal transportation network.

Semi truck at port authority
Program vision

Deliver forward-thinking transportation solutions, by implementing emerging technologies, to enhance quality of life for all Texans.

CAT Program Plan

While the CAT Strategic Plan focuses on high-level, forward-looking priorities, the CAT Program Plan provides a work plan with specific operational initiatives recommended to achieve the goals of the CAT program. Together, these plans intend to serve as the foundation for decisions and investments that align with the agency’s mission, vision, and goals for the use of CAT technology.

The purpose of this Program Plan is to:

  • Identify specific initiatives and sequencing recommended to achieve each CAT strategy
  • Guide the evaluation of potential CAT projects
  • Provide performance metrics that may be used to measure progress and growth of TxDOT’s CAT Program

TxDOT will use this Program Plan to pursue the integration of CAT into the agency’s project lifecycle, from planning and design through operations and maintenance, as well as to inform the development of near-term CAT projects.

CAT program briefs and resources

As technology rapidly transforms how vehicles and infrastructure interact, the Cooperative and Automated Transportation (CAT) Program is TxDOT's forward-looking initiative to ensure the state's transportation system is ready for what's next.

CAT Plan Projects and Actions
  • What is CAT infrastructure? .
  • Can TxDOT Keep Up with CAT Data?
  • How can TxDOT Utilize CAT Data?
  • What are the Challenges of CAT Data?
View CAT documents here
CAT Strategic Plan
CAT Strategic Plan
CAT Program Plan
CAT Program Plan

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The Cooperative and Automated Transportation (CAT) program is an initiative established by TxDOT to integrate Connected Vehicles (CV), Autonomous Vehicles (AV) and related emerging transportation technologies into the state’s transportation system. CAT offers numerous potential benefits and improvements for safety and to accommodate rapidly growing transportation demands by using technology to maximize the transportation infrastructure’s performance.

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Innovative corridors

An innovative corridor is a transportation route that aims to enhance the safety, mobility, reliability, and resiliency of road users through the use of emerging technology. The corridor accelerates the adoption of cooperative and automated transportation to support current road users in addition to connected and automated vehicles.

The I-45 Innovative Corridor serves as a platform to demonstrate and evaluate solutions identified in the Cooperative and Automated Transportation (CAT) program. It uses strategic alliance across the multiple TxDOT districts and aims to build upon proven advanced technologies and other innovation initiatives from Texas, other states, and countries around the world.