Unlocking Federal Funding for Smart Infrastructure: Ouster BlueCity with Rev8 Achieves BABA Compliance

For state and local transportation agencies, the race to modernize roadways with intelligent transportation systems (ITS) can often hit a financial roadblock when procurement compliance does not align with technology needs. For Ouster ITS customers, a critical path forward has been officially cleared with the announcement of system-level Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act compliance for Ouster BlueCity—our complete lidar traffic management solution. When deploying Ouster BlueCity, traffic engineers gain peace of mind and accelerated timelines in their journey to transform mobility and safety across U.S. intersections, corridors, and highways.

What are BABA Act requirements?

The Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act, enacted as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (aka Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, establishes strict domestic procurement preferences for all federally funded infrastructure projects in the United States. More specifically, the Act requires all iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials used in federally funded infrastructure projects to be produced in the U.S.To meet these stringent compliance standards, all iron and steel manufacturing processes must occur domestically, and construction materials must be entirely produced in the U.S.

BABA compliance for manufactured products, including those used in projects overseen by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), requires final manufacturing (assembly) to occur in the U.S., a rule that took effect on October 1, 2025, to replace prior general waivers. Moving forward, as of October 1, 2026, the domestic content requirements take full effect, requiring at least 55% of the total cost of all components to be mined, produced, or manufactured domestically. This regulatory framework is designed to bolster domestic supply chains, stimulate U.S. manufacturing, and ensure that federal tax dollars directly support local industries and workers across transit, highway, water, and broadband infrastructure deployments.

Why is Ouster BlueCity with Rev8 the new standard in roadway advanced multimodal detection?

With the integration of Rev8 sensors, Ouster BlueCity introduced the world’s first native color lidar detection system, simultaneously capturing both color and 3D depth information without the need for complex calibration. This breakthrough capability provides unmatched situational awareness, including precise, high-fidelity digital traffic twins, simplified zone set-up, and more intuitive event analysis through improved color visualization. Importantly, the solution is designed for system-level privacy features at the edge while retaining the rich benefits of color data.

Delivering up to double the range and resolution of the previous generation, Ouster BlueCity with Rev8 also enables the advanced, long-range detection required for comprehensive, corridor-level traffic management. These added capabilities allow transportation departments to confidently reduce their sensor footprint and overall costs, while benefiting from advanced detection, tracking and classification, and more rugged and reliable hardware. With a planned 10-year production life for Rev8, Ouster BlueCity offers long-term program stability for public infrastructure projects.

Ouster BlueCity Rev8 Solution Highlights

• Advance multimodal detection: Sets a new benchmark by delivering continuous, 360° detection of road users up to 500ft /150m across lighting extremes and severe weather conditions. Building on the previous generation's 99% stop-bar detection accuracy, the system optimizes signal timing based on real-time movements of vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, and trams to improve traffic flow and reduce delays through Transit Signal Priority (TSP), critical dilemma zone monitoring, and adaptive pedestrian walk-time extensions. An open API architecture ensures seamless integration with leading ATMS platforms for rapid, scalable data sharing.

• Complete system for actuation, alerts, and analytics: Consolidates hardware and software into a single system that can replace multiple cameras, radars, and inductive loops with just one or two lidar sensors per intersection or highway approach. The system integrates with existing traffic controllers for real-time signal actuation, alerts, and V2X safety messages. Powered by NVIDIA edge computing, automated traffic and safety analytics are delivered up to 20 times faster at a fraction of the cost. Versatile deployment models offer long-term flexibility with perpetual or scalable SaaS licensing for edge and cloud analytics.

• Trusted, low-maintenance reliability: Lidar hardware built for public infrastructure with a planned 10-year production life and extreme temperature (-40°C to +85°C) and environmental resilience (IP68/69K). The system mounts to existing traffic infrastructure in as little as 3 hours, eliminating the need for expensive mast arms, street trenching, lane closures, or complex field calibrations, reducing maintenance and costs. Ouster BlueCity with Rev8 is BABA compliant. The system also complies with NEMA TS2 and relevant cybersecurity requirements and is designed for system-level privacy features at the edge.

The next generation of ITS shouldn't be held back by procurement friction. With system-level BABA compliance and industry leading lidar sensors and AI software wrapped into a single solution, Ouster BlueCity is ready to help ITS customers build safer, smarter, and more resilient corridors today.

To learn more about how Ouster BlueCity can fit into your next federally funded intersection or highways project, visit ouster.com/bluecity.