The PAVE Essay Contest and Scholarship Program encourages high school students to imagine a world with autonomous vehicles and write about what this new technology would mean for their communities. Contest winners earn scholarship funds for college, and an award ceremony gives them an opportunity to experience an autonomous vehicle firsthand.
The 2025-2026 essay contest accepts entries from high school juniors and seniors in the state of Michigan. The program’s geographic eligibility changes every year.
When the contest is open, applicants can submit their essays via online form. If you are unable to access the form, send us an email and we’ll send you a pdf copy of the submission form.
A selection committee made up of AV industry experts will score the essays using this scoring rubric.
Scholarship funding of up to $2,000 will be awarded to the top three essays.
Essays must be written in response to one of three available prompts and should be 1,000 words or fewer. Submissions must be received between December 10, 2025, and February 28, 2026. Read all of the rules and guidelines for the contest here.
Note that all essays will be run through an AI detector, and any found to have been AI-generated will be disqualified.
