FOOTLOOSE AND…
There have been public hints and tidbits of information floating through the media concerning “driverless cars.” Now, the University of Michigan has taken another key step to advance the concept. The university, in conjunction with the Mobility Transformation Center — a partnership between the school, the State of Michigan and the federal government, plus important technology and automotive-related companies — has built a $10 million testing ground.
The site features a railroad crossing, intersections, roundabouts parking spaces, and brick and gravel roads. It also boasts movable building façades, fake pedestrians and a simulated highway entrance ramp. Other features, including a metal bridge and tunnel, are expected to be a special challenge for wireless signals and radar sensors.
Other nations, like Japan and Sweden, have test sites like the University of Michigan. It is now state of the art. Ryan Eustice, a professor at Michigan, said that every kilometer of testing at the new site is worth hundreds of kilometers of real world driving. “In terms of the weird stuff, we can pack it all in,” he said.
Also, points out Peter Sweatman, the director of the Mobility Transformation Center, the site will feature a lot of snow on the ground in the wintertime to insure cameras and radar used in driverless systems will still work in the snow. There are many interesting questions. What about dirty, mud-covered road signs? How will the driverless vehicle handle them? Let’s just say that a lot more testing is needed before you and I will be cruising down the road in a driverless car.
