Autonomous Technology

Pittsburgh’s Shared + Autonomous Mobility Principles

Autonomous technologies have the potential to assist the City is achieving these principles. However, these technologies are still in the development, testing, and piloting phases. While there are many potential benefits of autonomous technologies, including improved safety and accessibility, there are also potential consequences, including sprawl and congestion. Pittsburgh is working to shape the development of autonomous technology and policy to achieve our mobility goals and avoid unintended consequences. In order to do this, we are allowing certain entities to test autonomous technologies on our streets and sidewalks.

From 2018 to 2023 the City of Pittsburgh participated in an initiative sponsored by the Knight Foundation to support autonomous mobility pilot projects, with the intended goal of engaging local residents around new mobility technologies to ensure that they reflect community input and meet local needs. In both engaging with the public in Pittsburgh and sharing findings with other cohort cities like Detroit, San Jose, and Miami, DOMI was able to develop a more robust and comprehensive understanding of what makes projects work (or not work), the effects of various policies, and how to develop relationships with the public and industry when dealing with autonomous technologies. The City of Pittsburgh contributed its findings to CityFi and UrbanismNext for development of its AV Guidebook.

Autonomous Vehicles

An autonomous vehicle is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and moving safely with little or no human input. In Pittsburgh, all AV Testers are testing Level 4 autonomous driving systems as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), which means that the vehicle is capable of performing all driving functions under certain conditions. While early applications mostly focused on the development of a robo taxi service model, there has been a noticeable growth in interest in autonomous trucking, with Pittsburgh’s own Aurora making a pivot to develop in this space.

In recent years, many testers have moved to use their own private test courses for the bulk of their testing. In 2022, House Bill 2398 setup Pennsylvania’s regulatory framework around autonomous vehicles and moved authority over autonomous technologies to the state level, with PennDOT now the authority managing issues related to autonomous vehicles in Pennsylvania.

This move coincided with PennDOT’s development of the Pennsylvania Safety Transportation and Research Track (PennSTART) with the goal of providing a best-in-class facility in Southwestern Pennsylvania focused on modernizing and enhancing the training for first responders while also having a space for developers and manufacturers of autonomous technologies to test and refine their products.

Adjacent to RIDC Westmoreland’s site in Mount Pleasant, the state-of-the-art training and testing facility will focus on the transportation safety, research and operational needs of the region by focusing on six key areas:

  • Traffic Incident Management
  • Connected and Autonomous Vehicles
  • Tolling, ITS and Traffic Signals
  • Work Zones
  • Commercial Vehicles
  • Transit Vehicles
  • Autonomous Technologies

Current Autonomous Vehicle Testers in the Pittsburgh Region

Personal Delivery Devices (PDDs)

Under state law, a personal delivery device means a ground delivery device that is manufactured for transporting cargo or goods; is operated by a driving system that allows remote or autonomous operation, or both; and weighs less than 550 pounds without cargo. These devices may operate on sidewalks, shoulders, and bicycle lanes. State law gives PennDOT the authority to authorize a personal delivery device provider to operate in the state. In order to operate a personal delivery device in the City of Pittsburgh, a company must submit an application to PennDOT and receive authorization.

Current Personal Delivery Device Operators

Thanks to the support of the Knight Foundation, DOMI held a pilot program with PDD operator Kiwibot in Bloomfield. The pilot was intended to provide city staff and residents experience with personal delivery devices (PDDs) in order to create informed local policies before the widespread deployment of PDDs. As a part of this work, extensive knowledge sharing and communication with other cohort cities took place. Urbanism Next published a report on the findings across cities, and a more localized report on Pittsburgh’s experience can be found at engage.pittsburghpa.gov/pdd-pilot.

Future Partners

The City is interested in exploring partnerships and shared research agendas in the following areas:

  1. Vehicle Technology focused on Pittsburgh’s unique environment
  2. Experimentation with connected transportation infrastructure
  3. Research and Engagement with the public on autonomous mobility and workforce implications
  4. Research and experimentation with how autonomous technologies could fill Pittsburgh’s transportation gaps or supplement our existing transportation network

Relevant Documents

last updated: 04/04/2025

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