The CAR Lab

The Connected and Autonomous Research Laboratory (CAR Lab) at the University of Delaware was founded in 2017 by Professor Weisong Shi, an IEEE Fellow. The CAR Lab has become a world-renowned laboratory in the field of connected and autonomous driving, producing a series of software and hardware artifacts, including HydraOne, OpenVDAP, ICAT, BlueICE, VPI, VOCAR, SafePilot, and DAVOS, among others. The lab maintains close ties with colleagues in academia and industry. Our research has been funded by internationally renowned companies such as arm, Autoware Foundation, GM, Meta, Tier-IV, Toyota, West Digital, etc. The CAR Lab is a premium member of the Autoware Foundation.

In partnership with our industry collaborators and community leaders, the CAR lab has developed the D-STAR (Delaware Smart Transportation And Research) testbed on the STAR campus of UD. The CAR lab aims to design and implement enabling technologies, including real-time operating systems, edge computing, C-V2X, data analytics, and applications, as well as a secure, trusted execution environment, privacy-preserving models and tools, to realize the vision of connected and autonomous systems.

In parallel to research, the CAR lab is committed to education and workforce development for connected and autonomous driving. In the Summer of 2025, in partnership with UD professionals and continuing studies, the CAR lab launched the inaugural Autonomous Driving Academy (ADA) pre-college summer program, attracting 14 students from eight states in the US.