Caltrans creates Data & AI office, pilots generative AI and robotic inspection uses

Caltrans has established a Data and Artificial Intelligence Office and is running multiple pilots applying generative AI and robotics to transportation planning, traffic insights and infrastructure inspection, agency officials told the California Transportation Commission in Merced.

Dara Wheeler, acting chief data and AI officer at Caltrans, told commissioners the office was created following Governor Newsom's Executive Order N-12-23 on generative AI. Wheeler said Caltrans received awards for two statewide GenAI proof-of-concept projects and has partnered with Microsoft, Accenture, Deloitte and Google on pilots intended to speed data analysis and identify safety countermeasures.

Wheeler described the two flagship projects: a Traffic Mobility Insights project intended to compress hours of manual analysis into minutes by ingesting large traffic datasets (she said the pilot had already ingested multiple terabytes and tens of billions of records), and a Vulnerable Road User Safety pilot that seeks to identify locations where safety countermeasures could prevent collisions.

Wheeler also described a Microsoft Copilot internal pilot involving 168 users that logged more than 17,000 interactions and an estimated 1,300 staff hours saved; she said a broader Copilot rollout to the department is planned in coming months. She emphasized that Caltrans is developing policy and data governance to accompany AI adoption and is consulting labor unions and the workforce on training and classification questions.

The department demonstrated a robotic inspection platform, Spot (a four-legged robot from Boston Dynamics), which Caltrans piloted for culvert and bridge inspections and, in one deployment, to deter copper-wire theft at a maintenance yard. Wheeler said the robot assisted in keeping workers out of potentially dangerous environments and that a security pilot resulted in an apprehension during after-hours operations.

Wheeler said Caltrans will prioritize use cases by expected return on investment and safety benefit and that governance, cybersecurity reviews and staged pilots will guide deployments to protect data and workforce interests. Commissioners and staff welcomed the work and raised questions about workforce impacts, cybersecurity and coordination with regional and local partners.

The presentation was informational; no Commission action was required.