What makes a roadway the smartest in the world? The Tennessee Department of Transportation + a team of Vanderbilt engineerswill soon find out.

The groups have partnered with architecture and engineering firm Gresham Smith for I-24 Motion — a 6-mile stretch of I-24 being coined “the smartest roadway in the world.” The project will study how driver-assist vehicles impact traffic flow when mixed in with real-world driving conditions.

How it works

The project area is divided into 2 sections: I-24 from Bell Rd. to Old Hickory Blvd. + I-24 from Old Hickory Blvd. to Waldron Rd., which transportation officials say is long enough to provide 5 minutes or more of visibility per vehicle.

This stretch of I-24 will be equipped with 300 ultra-high definition cameras that will anonymously capture the behavior of all vehicles. The artificial intelligence technology developed by Vanderbilt identifies the position and type of vehicle but contains no personal information, according to TDOT.

Why it’s happening now

I-24 Motion’s overall goal is to create an environment outside of labs and closed-course settings to studyhow drivers and automated vehicles interact on the road.

The project also hopes to advance congestion management — an effort already underway along this same section of interstate as part of TDOT’s I-24 SMART Corridor project.

The timeline

Crews began installing cameras this summer + the project is on track to be operational by summer 2022.

Once the project is up and running, researchers backed by the US Department of Energy and National Science Foundation will study the possibility of smoothing traffic by introducing vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assist systems.