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The 2026 Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) Policy Summit, held recently in Washington, DC, marked a pivotal moment for the future of mobility in the United States. As the industry prepares for the next surface transportation reauthorisation, leaders from the US Department of Transportation (USDOT), Congress and the private sector came together to outline a roadmap for a safer, more connected and technologically advanced transport ecosystem.
The central message of the summit was unmistakable: the era of ‘flashy pilots’ is over. Attention has shifted towards the scalable, practical deployment of digital infrastructure to save lives and broaden economic opportunity.
One of the most anticipated sessions, Connectivity & Vehicle Technologies: Navigating an Evolving Landscape, examined the current state of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications. Panellists, including experts from the ITS America V2X Committee, stressed that progress towards a fully interoperable ecosystem depends on strong public-private coordination and flexible, performance-based policy frameworks.
Interoperability: Creating a connected environment in which vehicles from different manufacturers can communicate seamlessly with infrastructure and vulnerable road users.
Infrastructure investment: The importance of states and cities embedding technology more holistically within physical infrastructure projects, rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Trust and safety: A recurring theme was that connectivity is about more than data. It is about trust and ensuring systems are reliable enough for everyday use.
The summit also explored the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in modernising transport systems. Industry leaders observed that for AI to scale effectively, agencies must move beyond experimentation towards deployment at the edge.
Governance and privacy: Establishing strong safeguards to protect data while enabling real-time traffic management.
Procurement reform: Updating federal and state funding mechanisms so agencies can acquire and deploy rapidly evolving AI tools without being constrained by traditional multi-year procurement cycles.
Operational integration: Shifting AI from isolated traffic management centres into integrated, automated systems capable of managing entire corridors.
Automated vehicles (AVs) remained a central focus of the policy debate. Senior figures, including FHWA Administrator Sean McMaster and NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison, took part in fireside discussions on the federal approach to vehicle automation.
Morrison reaffirmed NHTSA’s commitment to supporting AV innovation while maintaining rigorous safety standards to preserve public confidence. From a commercial perspective, Gerardo Interiano of Aurora noted that automated freight solutions are well positioned to ease capacity pressures within the trucking workforce while delivering significant improvements in highway safety. Across the panels, there was broad agreement that standards and operational integration are the final barriers to moving from limited pilots to national deployment.
As transport systems become increasingly dependent on semiconductors and software, the resilience of the digital supply chain was another key topic. Discussions centred on striking the right balance between regulation and access to critical automotive technologies, with a strong emphasis on supporting domestic manufacturing to ensure the ‘brains’ of future transport systems are secure and readily available.
As the summit drew to a close, attention turned to the ITS America Conference & Expo 2026, taking place in Detroit this June. Under the theme Empowering Innovation, the industry will continue to advance the priorities set out in Washington: AI, automated vehicles, digital infrastructure and multimodal mobility.
The 2026 Policy Summit has laid the groundwork for a transformative year ahead. By layering digital intelligence onto physical roads, the United States is not simply modernising its transport networks, but building a safer, more human-centred future.