(TMS) — Car-crazy Houston has cars and trucks that can traverse floodwaters, some that can reach NASCAR-level speeds and even in the oil and gas capital of the world others powered by electricity.

Pretty soon, local highways also could be home to cars that can talk to each other and possibly the traffic signal ahead via wireless connections — as researchers, automakers and the government prepare for when cars and trucks can drive themselves.

Researchers, business leaders and elected officials are about to turn Texas into the biggest laboratory for connected cars in the nation, with the likeliest place to spot a self-driving car in Houston along the high occupancy vehicle and toll lanes along some of the region's busiest freeways.

Officials are moving quickly to create a welcoming environment for the vehicles and the scientists and engineers who will fine tune them, though safety standards and even testing methods remain a work in progress.

"We want companies to come to Texas and develop [autonomous and connected vehicle] technologies," said Christopher Poe, assistant director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and head of the agency's connected and automated vehicle program.

The latitude to lead on connected cars also comes with intense motivation to succeed, both to win over skeptics who worry about driverless cars and to buoy the next steps toward seamless use of automated cars.

"These systems have to work," Poe said. "We can't have failures right out of the box."

Safety regulations — and the glacial pace at which governments can adopt safety standards and approve changes to liability laws and even department rules — might be the biggest mountain to climb in Washington.

"There is no established method for determining if these vehicles are safe," said Ginger Goodin, director of the transportation institute's policy research center.

Meanwhile, some think the business-friendly climate already makes a lot of testing possible in Texas, provided companies assume a lot of that risk. Poe said even as researchers and communities are actively collaborating, a firm could simply start testing anywhere provided the vehicle was street legal.

"There will be companies that will come to Texas who we may or may not know about," Poe said.

Road-testing autonomous vehicles

Major automakers, however, told Texas lawmakers they're eager to cooperate, and see clear guidelines of when and where would be best to deploy connected and autonomous vehicles.

"If we're going to move forward with this technology - and we will - it is critical we move forward in the safest manner possible," said Hal Lenox, regional director of government affairs for General Motors' western division. "The best approach is launch a fleet with someone behind the wheel."

In the Houston area, some of the first tests could be along high occupancy vehicle and high occupancy toll lanes where the cars could drive themselves in typical situations and then cede control to a person for stop-and-go traffic, Poe and others said.

To prepare for the cars, the A&M transportation institute and the Texas Department of Transportation earlier this month forged an agreement that allows researchers to test wireless-connected and automated vehicle technologies on state highways. The agreement will pave the way for installing devices on state highway rights of way such as signs readable by automated vehicles and even detectors that can communicate with cars to provide traffic information and even control traffic signals.

The development will take automated cars from closed areas such as the Texas A&M's RELLIS campus west of College Station to the streets of Texas cities.

Before that, however, researchers and local officials in various Texas cities will develop locations where certain driverless vehicle technologies can be tested. In Houston, officials have identified the Texas Medical Center, high occupancy vehicle lanes maintained by Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Port of Houston as potential live testing locations. Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and El Paso also are readying for live testing.

Plans are to test facets of connected cars, such as traffic signals that could relay information and communicate in the Texas Medical Center, or autonomous vehicles that could lug freight from the docks of the Port of Houston to a central sorting operation.

Metro to assess wireless transit

Freight, along with public transit, are two transportation sectors in which businesses and local governments see the most potential for connected and autonomous vehicles. Texas, meanwhile, is ripe with opportunities for both, with increasing demand predicted for both trucks, freight rail and options other than solo driving in the state's largest metro regions.

Local officials, especially Metro transit leaders, are particularly eyeing a western stretch of Westheimer, said Terence Fontaine, the transit agency's executive vice president and chief innovation officer. The 12 miles of road between Loop 610 and Texas 6 — technically part of the state highway system as FM 1093 — is a major thoroughfare and big headache for drivers, with stops and starts because of traffic flow and seemingly ill-timed traffic lights.

Moving buses down the road poses even more challenges for Metro, along what is its busiest bus route and second-largest transit line behind only the Red Line light rail.

Eventually, Fontaine said Metro will study the merits of offering express bus service, preemptive traffic signal timing so buses can avoid frequent stops at red lights and possibly dedicated bus lanes and rapid transit service down Westheimer.

Though years away, Westheimer could be where all the efforts to leverage technology collide, such as with automated buses following a dedicated route where traffic lights respond to approaching vehicles and buses can move more people faster than driving alone.

"We see it as a big opportunity," Fontaine said.

On the freight front, Steve Boyd, co-founder and external affairs director for California-based Peloton Technology, told a Texas House committee last month the company is excited to explore its "platooning" concept in the state.

Peloton allows trucks to pair up, so the lead truck can control braking and acceleration for the other vehicle. The technology allows the freight trucks to travel more closely together, improving aerodynamics and safety for both. An operator stays in the driver's seat of both vehicles at all times.

Boyd encouraged officials to see the potential of innovation to solve lingering problems, such as freight congestion that affects traffic in metro areas — including Houston — and air quality.

"We want to make sure the U.S. maintains leadership," he said of the autonomous and connected vehicle efforts.

Safety, regulatory concerns abound

Reaction, however, to the rise of robotics and computer-controlled vehicles has come with caution from some skeptics, who note safety cannot be compromised and mounds of regulations and laws will need tweaking to determine who's responsible when two autonomous cars have a fender bender.

Going slow, however, doesn't have to mean losing excitement. State Rep. Joe Pickett, chairman of the House Transportation Committee that heard from Boyd and others, urged the transportation industry to keep coming up with ideas and considering Texas to test them.

"I want to get a little ahead of the curve," Pickett said. "I am not afraid of it; I welcome it."

Even with a clear road ahead, it will take years for autonomous vehicles to make their way from fleet, freight and transit uses and become mainstream. Along the way, Poe said people are likely to see subtle changes, such as freshly-painted road stripes and maybe new road signs where testing starts.

"What the industry doesn't know right now is how smart the road needs to be," said Poe of the A&M transportation institute, adding much of that refinement will happen off the street at places such as the RELLIS campus.

He acknowledged not everyone is enamored with new connected-vehicle technologies, and successful tests will be a start of winning them over, or at least calming their fears.

"As with any technology, you will have early adopters who are really excited and others who are not," he said. "That's part of the process. ... It will happen. Our vision is the future is connected automation."

©2017 the Houston Chronicle Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.