FiberLight assigns $20m for Texan autonomous highway project

FiberLight, a fibre infrastructure provider, has announced it is investing $20m for a 100-mile fibre optic infrastructure project along State Highway (SH) 130, near Austin, Texas.

The investment, which occurs in collaboration with the Autonomy Institute, will create the region’s first “intelligent infrastructure economic zone”.

Fully autonomous corridor

According to FiberLight, delivering “much-needed” bandwidth to the fast-growing areas adjacent to SH 130 will transform it into a fully autonomous corridor.

As part of the project, FiberLight is providing high-speed 10- and 100GB connectivity to the Public Infrastructure Network Nodes (Pinns) across approximately 92 miles of SH 130 to support the development, installation, and software needed to manage autonomous systems.

As a 501c3 nonprofit organisation, the Autonomy Institute comprises a public-private partnership with members including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NVIDIA, Supermicro, Raytheon, Cisco, Terrascale, Syndeo Cities, Arnouse Digital Devices, Compass Datacenters, Ericsson, Resilient, Truweather Solutions, and Above Robotics.

“To realise the goal for safe and reliable use of automated vehicles, fibre optic placement – delivered by Pinns – is critical”

This collective expertise in software, hardware, and advanced systems and infrastructure contributes to a shared mission to accelerate a “path to commerce and productivity” for intelligent and autonomous systems.

“SH130 is the modern-day equivalent of Route 66, supporting dozens of communities, and enabling 21st-century solutions,” said Jeffrey DeCoux, chairman and autonomy fellow at the Autonomy Institute.

“Intelligent infrastructure touches the day-to-day life of each of our citizens and is crucial to competitiveness and prosperity. FiberLight has helped deploy critical digital infrastructure statewide, and [its] expertise will build a stronger and more connected Texas.”