This article was first published in the January 2016 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Driverless cars are prowling the streets of Mcity -- an ultra-realistic test site in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "A complex urban environment is always the most challenging for automated vehicles," says Peter Sweatman, director of the University of Michigan's Mobility Transformation Center, which led Mcity's development. "We wanted to create the ultimate testing environment for that situation."
Since Mcity opened in July, six of the centre's 15 partners -- a list that includes global car manufacturers such as Ford, Nissan, Honda and Toyota -- have tested at the facility.
The 13-hectare fake town simulates the road features you'd expect to find both in a city centre and further out into the countryside -- from roundabouts and pedestrian crossings to intersections and a stretch of motorway. And it's fitted with a network of sensors, so every car -- and robot pedestrian -- can be monitored at all times.
"On one of our suburban residential-style streets, we have a simulated tree canopy," says Sweatman, explaining that the moisture content of trees can block GPS signals. "We've created a netting structure where we can produce a variable moisture content through a system of capillaries. That's a completely unique test." Other challenges include a signal-blocking tunnel, a railway crossing and a metal bridge constructed in such a way that it interferes with radar systems' capabilities in identifying it as a horizontal surface.
The mission of the centre is not only about improving the technology that goes inside the cars. "We hope that the scenarios we create in Mcity will form the basis for the regulatory standards that are going to apply to driverless vehicles," says Sweatman. Once these standards are set, and the self-driving technology is perfected, Mcity-tested cars will hit streets in the real world. "Our ultimate goal is to set up a service with a couple of thousand vehicles for people in Ann Arbor to use as a new kind of on-demand mobility service," he says. Watch out, Uber.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
