The city of Dearborn in Michigan is rolling out V2X services from HAAS Alert to improve safety and response times for its emergency and utility vehicles. The announcement is part of a wider move at Michigan state level to adopt V2X to improve road safety for state employees and road users.

Both the State of Michigan and the city of Dearborn are adopting the HAAS Safety Cloud. This provides real-time alerts to drivers of upcoming roadway hazards like responding emergency vehicles and work zones. It also powers digital alerting features in vehicles from Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, RAM, Chrysler, and Volkswagen, and on navigation applications such as Waze.

The city of Dearborn is activating Safety Cloud on 300 city vehicles and assets including fire trucks, police vehicles, ambulances, and public works vehicles. The move forms part of a broader set of smart city initiatives the city has adopted. The Dearborn Safety Cloud digital alerting adoption has the aims enhancing safety for city workers and residents, and enable data-driven improvements in city fleet operations and road design over time.

At the state level, the Michigan Department of Transportation is activating Safety Cloud on a mixture of public safety and roadway maintenance vehicles including State Patrol vehicles, snow ploughs, work zone assets, and public transit buses.

The state is also developing workforce training resources on the installation and operation of digital alerting technology to pave the way for streamlining and standardising future deployments.

“We’re pleased to adopt this connected safety service across the state of Michigan,” said State Transportation Director, Bradley Wieferich. “The services provided by Safety Cloud can support our efforts to continue iterating on ways to better protect all Michigan road users, including our work force.”

“As Michigan continues to develop and implement leading mobility solutions, traveller and pedestrian safety will always be our first priority,” said Justine Johnson, Michigan’s Chief Mobility Officer with the MEDC. “The Office of Future Mobility and Electrification (OFME) shares this priority with MDOT, which makes partnerships like HAAS Alert so beneficial, as they’re using advanced V2X technology to improve the safety of our roadways today.”

“Digital alerting is a breakthrough solution in connected vehicles specifically because of the local and state leaders that have embraced it as a critical investment in safety,” said Cory Hohs, Founder and CEO of HAAS Alert. “By equipping fleets and equipment across the state with Safety Cloud, Michigan is providing automakers with the ideal ecosystem for designing and launching lifesaving connected vehicle solutions at scale.”