Advancing Connected Safety Through Collaboration and Real‑World Validation

Momentum is building within COVESA’s Connected Safety Group, and recent achievements underscore how open collaboration can translate into real-world progress on roadway safety. The Connected Safety Group is led by chairs Lawrence Williams of LIDAR Saving Lives and Tim VanGoethem of ESS. Together, they guide a cross‑sector community of experts from public safety, automotive, commercial transportation, and government, helping align industry and public partners around shared goals and turning collaborative ideas into practical solutions that improve roadway safety for everyone.

At the COVESA Networking Reception & Demonstration Showcase at CES 2026, we celebrated the award to Texas A&M University’s Center for Applied Communications and Networks (CACN) for a $1.8M U.S. DOT FY25 Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant, with COVESA and members of the Connected Safety Group serving as collaborative partners.

The grant supports accelerated real-world validation of a drone‑as‑first‑responder model designed to provide rapid, eyes-on-scene visibility following a crash. This approach enables Real‑Time Intelligence Centers (RTICs) to assess incidents and deploy appropriate emergency personnel and resources.

The Connected Safety Group played a central role in shaping this effort. Since its inception, the group has leveraged Journey Maps to define comprehensive, stakeholder-driven safety scenarios and value propositions. Through this collaborative framework, the drone‑as‑first‑responder concept emerged as a candidate for real-world prototyping. Recognizing that validation would require significant resources, the group’s leadership team, supported by COVESA, pursued external funding to move the concept forward.

Looking Ahead: Standards and New Safety Scenarios

Building on these successes, the Connected Safety Group is continuing its work to support connected safety use cases through the development of common approaches and scenario exploration. 

The group is actively collaborating with the COVESA Data Expert Group to enhance Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) by adding signals needed to support drone‑as‑first‑responder use cases and real-time emergency response based on vehicle data.

In parallel, the group has resumed its monthly workshops to identify and prioritize additional safety scenarios that may be prototyped and potentially standardized.

Current areas of focus include:

• Vehicle submersion detection
• EV fire incidents, which require different response protocols than internal combustion vehicles
• Pedestrian and cyclist strikes detected via forward-facing cameras

Through continued engagement with municipalities, government agencies, academic institutions, public safety organizations, and transportation industry partners, the COVESA Connected Safety Group remains focused on meaningful innovations that can help save lives.

Join the Connected Safety Group

COVESA welcomes contributions of ideas and expertise from both members and non-members. The group meets on the second Thursday of each month at 11:00 AM ET. Meeting details are available on the COVESA Community Calendar, with additional resources on the Connected Safety Group wiki.  Join the mailing list.