FTA Publishes Automated Transit Bus RFI

Today, DOT’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published a request for information (RFI) in the Federal Register (87 FR 33574-33576) for “Transit Bus Automation Research and Demonstrations”. The RFI is in support of the FTA’s formulation of their second five-year Strategic Transit Automation Research Plan (STAR Plan 2.0). The first STAR Plan can be found here.

The FTA's transit bus automation research plan has been organized around four complementary work areas:

• Enabling research,

• Integrated demonstrations,

• Strategic partnerships, and

• Stakeholder engagement, knowledge transfer, and technical assistance.

While none of those work areas specifically targets cybersecurity issues, the RFI does include cybersecurity related topics. They include:

Reassessing the priorities and areas of activity for the next five years, including cybersecurity,

Possible FTA-supported foundational research within the next five years, including cybersecurity, and

What types of new skills, training, and resources may be required?

FTA is soliciting public input on these topics. Comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket # FTA-2022-0012). Comments need to be submitted by August 1^st, 2022.