ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Toyota Motor Corp. and a clutch of other
companies are backing a $10 million testing ground at the
University of Michigan for self-driving vehicles, an investment
that could boost Detroit's ability to compete in the auto
industry's emerging tech war.
The 32-acre facility, dubbed Mcity and opening Monday, will give
the auto industry a hub that can be used by anyone researching
autonomous vehicles.
In addition to being one of the few open-source test centers of
its kind anywhere, it is also one of the few situated in a cold
climate that could present challenges to self-driving cars.
"There is nothing else like it in the world," said Peter
Sweatman, director of the university's Mobility Transformation
Center, a public-private research institute that includes the
testing area.
The race to provide vehicles with more autonomous features or
the capability to operate without driver intervention is one of the
auto industry's primary pursuits, requiring billions of dollars in
capital and a shift in how products are developed. The trend has
attracted new players to the industry, including Google Inc., while
boosting the fortunes of companies, such as Israeli
components-supplier Mobileye NV, that formerly filled niches.
The clout of Detroit auto makers has faded in recent decades,
but Southeast Michigan and the state's biggest university house
some of the industry's leading researchers, many corporate
technical centers and a network of test facilities. Google's
autonomous-vehicle testing activities in California and Texas have
attracted a lot of publicity, but much of the development of these
vehicles is being done in the Rust Belt by international auto
companies with big operations near Detroit.
Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan is located, is
already the testing site for 3,000 vehicles that have been
outfitted with transmitters capable of vehicle-to-vehicle and
vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, a technology that will hit
roads within a year or so on General Motors Co.'s Cadillac models.
That test, which began in 2012, is the basis for a Transportation
Department effort to push for wide deployment of the technology to
reduce traffic and improve safety.
Much of the world's driverless-car research, which is done in
facilities in Japan, Sweden, China and other nations, occurs in
proprietary environments closed to outsiders. The University of
Michigan's effort, which includes about four miles of roadways, is
designed to simulate real-world situations as a variety of parties
experiment with ideas.
Toyota has a simulated urban environment in Japan, but it isn't
open to other companies or researchers. In the U.S., Toyota has
been joined by GM, Honda Motor Co., Delphi Automotive PLC and other
auto companies in backing the venture. State Farm Automobile
Insurance Co. is also behind the center, an indication that
insurers are eager to understand liability issues related to
autonomous vehicles.
Toyota, which employs more than 1,500 people at an engineering
center near Ann Arbor, sees the facility as a legitimate
alternative to testing on public roads.
"We have been using high-speed tracks for a lot of safety
testing, but now our focus as an industry is how to cope with
traffic accidents at intersections," Hideki Hada, a Toyota manager
based in Michigan, said. "We cannot test prototypes on public roads
for a variety of reasons."
The companies that have tested driverless cars on public streets
have the advantage of gathering real-world data and interacting
with other vehicles in a way that's not possible in a closed-course
setting. Google has gathered mountains of data by testing
autonomous Lexus RX350s on the streets of Palo Alto, but that
testing comes with a risk of accidents and damage to costly
prototypes.
The Mcity's four miles of roadways include highway on-and-off
ramps, roundabouts, railway crossings, underpasses, dirt roads and
cobblestones to challenge the vehicles' computer brains. "The
philosophy is that you can go very quickly from a downtown block to
the freeway," Mr. Sweatman said.
In addition, the track should give researchers a place to test
autonomous vehicles in rain or snow without endangering other
drivers. Some of the prototypes' components—including Lidar sensors
that use lasers to create a rich, localized map essential for
steering the vehicle—don't currently function as well in inclement
weather.
"To me, the special cases—bad lighting conditions, road
conditions, bad weather conditions—are the things we really need to
work on," said Raj Rajkumar, a Carnegie Mellon University professor
and a developer of software for autonomous vehicles. "Testing at a
course like this is how we make these things more reliable."
Write to Michael Ramsey at michael.ramsey@wsj.com
Access Investor Kit for Toyota Motor Corp.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=JP3633400001
Access Investor Kit for Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=JP3854600008
Access Investor Kit for General Motors Co.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US37045V1008
Access Investor Kit for Google, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US38259P5089
Access Investor Kit for Google, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US38259P7069
Access Investor Kit for Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US4381283088
Access Investor Kit for Toyota Motor Corp.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US8923313071
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires