AIWaysion and USDOT SMART Team Honored with Inaugural Safe Systems Champion Award
AIWaysion, as part of the USDOT SMART Team, was honored with the inaugural Safe Systems Champion Award at the 2025 Washington Traffic Safety Summit in Spokane, Washington. Led by the Yakama Nation DNR Engineering Program in partnership with AIWaysion, the University of Washington STAR Lab, and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), the team became the first-ever recipient of the award recognizing outstanding commitment to transportation safety through the Safe System Approach.
Introduced by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission and WSDOT, the Safe Systems Champion Award recognizes innovative solutions, measurable safety impact, and strong community engagement. The USDOT SMART Team was recognized for its collaborative work advancing roadway safety, including a rural and tribal road safety initiative along US 97 in the Yakama Nation.
Funded through the U.S. Department of Transportation SMART Grants Program, the project deploys AIWaysion’s Mobile Unit for Sensing Traffic (MUST) along a 16-mile corridor of US 97 in Yakima County. AIWaysion’s AI-powered roadside sensing and alerting technology supports real-time transportation monitoring and safety analysis, while UW STAR Lab is developing an AI-powered virtual traffic management center incorporating digital twin and large language model technologies.
The project brings together emerging transportation technologies with community-driven safety planning to address the unique challenges facing rural and tribal roads. Insights from the deployment and historical safety data are being used in collaboration with the Yakama Nation to support updates to its safety management plan and advance proactive approaches to roadway safety.
This recognition highlights how partnerships between tribal communities, transportation agencies, researchers, and transportation technology companies can help advance the Safe System Approach. AIWaysion is proud to contribute its Edge AI and intelligent transportation technology to the USDOT SMART Team and its work toward safer, more data-driven transportation systems.
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