The US Department of Transportation (DoT) has launched a $15m initiative to help small businesses use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve transportation.

The Complete Streets AI initiative is being offered through the department’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme. It is a multi-phase effort to develop decision-support tools for state, local and tribal transportation agencies that assist in the siting, design and deployment of Complete Streets, which are streets and networks that prioritise safety, comfort and connectivity to destinations for all people who use them.

The programme supports the US government’s commitment to safe, trustworthy and responsible deployment of AI technologies, as outlined in the Executive Order on Safe, Secure & Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence.

“Innovation in the AI and transportation sector is happening at unprecedented speed and has the potential to address some of our most pressing transportation challenges,” said US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg. “This funding supports our country’s small businesses and start-ups to harness cutting-edge technologies, deploy them in local communities and make our streets safer.”

Initially, up to ten phase-one contracts will be awarded to small businesses to develop data and analytics capabilities that drive insights for agencies developing complete streets.

“Complete streets are easier to plan with more complete data,” said principal deputy assistant secretary for research and technology and chief science officer Robert Hampshire. “This is a bold effort to build out those data along with the technology platforms that make them easy to use.”

To review the pre-solicitation, send technical questions, find instructions on find a team and more, visit its.dot.gov/CSAI.