Wednesday, March 30, 2016 // The Statement
4B

Far away from the hills and hot weather 

of Silicon Valley, where Google has made 
headlines with their driverless car testing, the 
University of Michigan is helping bring the 
national spotlight on the national race to build 
driverless cars to the state.

On the University’s North Campus there’s 

a 32-acre urban environment with freeways, 
dirt roads, road signs and highway tunnels — 
known as “Mcity.” The field grabbed national 
and international attention when it opened 
in July 2015, becoming the world’s first site 
designed for the purpose of testing driverless 
cars.

But why here?
The University did not build Mcity alone. 

Mcity was designed and developed by the 
University’s Mobility Transformation Center, 
a research partnership between industry and 
government to improve transportation safety 
and sustainability. The Michigan Department 
of Transportation partnered with MTC 
to create and help fund Mcity, and the site 
is currently led by corporate partners like 
Ford, Toyota, State Farm Mutual Automobile 
Insurance and General Motors.

In 
partnership 
with 
prominent 
auto 

industries in Southeast Michigan and the 
city, state and federal governments, Mcity 

represents the ways local leaders are working 
to usher in a new era of transportation in the 
same area that Henry Ford redefined mobility 
over a century ago.

How the University leads driverless car 

development

Alongside 
Mcity’s 
various 
highways, 

intersections and dirt roads sit graffiti covered 
road signs, steep hills and building facades 
that can be brought just inches away from 
the road — all details meant to create life-like 
scenarios to challenge autonomous vehicles.

Ford became the first motor company to test 

an autonomous vehicle in Mcity in November 
2015, and they used the site again to challenge 
their technology in snowy conditions in 
January 2016.

Jim McBride, Ford technical leader for 

autonomous vehicles, said Mcity was an ideal 
site because of its simulated imperfection, 
creating odd scenarios driverless cars might 
experience in the real world.

“Mcity allows us the ability to create that 

situation and find a safe environment and test 
it repeatedly,” McBride said.

Creating all kinds of life-like challenges 

for driverless cars is exactly what Mcity was 

designed for, according to Huei Peng, director 
of MTC.

MTC and Mcity were created in an effort 

to expand development of automation and 
connected vehicles both at the University 
and in the state. Gradual steps in advancing 
non-driver controlled technology, as well as 
in connecting cars to each other and their 
environment like an Internet, are ways in 
which engineers are moving toward fully 
autonomous vehicles.

“Mcity is a test track designed to have 

future connected automated vehicle concepts 
in mind,” Peng said. 

Cars on the market today already have 

partially driverless vehicle features. Cruise 
control, automatic braking and assisted 
parking systems are features in a vehicle that 
occur without direct driver input, referred to 
as “automated.”

SAE International — originally founded 

as the Society of Automotive Engineers — 
characterizes the degree of automation in 
on-road vehicles in six levels, zero being 
completely driver-controlled and five being 
completely system-controlled. A driverless 
car is a vehicle with a system that controls all 
dynamic driving tasks under all roadway and 
environmental conditions.

Many cars on the road are at a level one 

standard for automation, and include features 
such as cruise control and automated braking. 
In the next few years, however, Peng said 
there will be an emergence of level two and 
level three features — like highway cruise, 
traffic jam assist and automated valet parking 
— in production vehicles.

Engineers of driverless cars are also 

developing wireless connection channels, 
called dedicated short-range communications, 
to allow cars to communicate with each other 
on the road. Peng explained that when personal 
computers are connected to each other, every 
PC becomes more useful; similarly, cars can 
reduce risk and improve efficiency if they 
connect to other vehicles.

“If we continue to broadcast the vehicle’s 

motion to other cars, it will make traffic safer, 
potentially more efficient, and (lead to) less 
energy consumption,” Peng said.

Even before Mcity garnered international 

attention, the University had been a pioneer in 
mobility transformation research.

Noting research on tire dynamics, engines 

and vehicle safety developed at the University, 
Peng 
said 
vehicle 
design 
and 
vehicle 

manufacturing have been pillars of strength 
at the College of Engineering for years.

“We have been the top, if not one of the top, 

automotive engineering research education 
providers among other universities in the 
world,” he said. “We will continue to do that; 
there is no reason we give up that tradition of 
strength.”

Michigan as a hotbed for mobility 

transformation

Since 
being 
elected 
to 
Congress 
in 

2014, Sen. Gary Peters (D–Michigan) has 
joined the Senate Commerce, Science and 
Transportation Committee and has actively 
promoted legislation to allow for more funding 
to implement for vehicle-to-infrastructure 
technology. According to Peters, these efforts 
are to ensure the state of Michigan’s influence 
in the future of mobility.

“This technology is incredibly important 

for our safety and it represents the future of 
the auto industry,” Peters said. “We have to 
make every effort to make sure it continues to 
be centered in Michigan.”

Alongside Peters’ efforts at the federal 

level, MDOT and state legislature have been 
proactive in allowing for driverless car testing 
on the roads. In December 2013, Gov. Rick 
Snyder (R) signed into law a bill approving 
the testing of driverless cars on Michigan 
roads, joining only a handful of other states in 
approving such legislation.

Matt Smith, program manager at MDOT, 

said because of the auto industry’s location 
within the state, the Michigan state legislature 
has allowed for automated vehicle research on 
state roads long before driverless cars existed.

“The state of Michigan has allowed 

experimental technology on roadways for 
many, many years,” Smith said.

Even within Ann Arbor, local government 

has 
pushed 
for 
testing 
experimental 

automated technology. In 2013, Ann Arbor 
City Council approved a $622,884 federal 
grant to install telecommunications fiber, 
sensors and electronic equipment in public 
intersections to allow for vehicle-to-vehicle 
and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication 
in driverless cars.

Peters said the reason legislators are 

interested in pursuing autonomous technology 
in the state is to keep jobs related to the auto 
industry within Michigan.

Kevin Kerrigan, senior vice president 

of the Michigan Economic Development 
Corporation, noted that the automotive 
industry continues to be the largest industry 
in Michigan, attracting many businesses 
and growing local jobs. Currently, one out of 
every 24 jobs in the state comes from the auto 
industry, according to the Mackinac Center for 
Public Policy. Jobs within the auto industry 
increased by 67 percent after the recession 
ended, compared to 10.6 percent gain in all 
jobs.

“A big percentage of jobs in Michigan 

are directly related to the auto industry,” 
Peters said. “If we were to lose some of 
the technological advantage of advanced 
computer systems related to cars, I would be 
concerned we would start losing automotive 
jobs to a different region of the country.”

McBride said Ford’s interest in pursuing 

driverless car development was in part to 
ensure the company stays relevant when the 

technology advances. Kodak and Nokia, he 
said, are examples of companies that could not 
adapt to the changes in the telecommunication 
and digital world, which led to their 
breakdowns.

“It’s very relevant right now that we 

maintain ownership of the software and 
ownership of the technology if we want to 
be viable in the future of transportation 
industry,” McBride said. “Every company 
wants to be relevant in the long term, and 
that’s not different for Ford.”

Michigan has recently taken a step 

further in leading the charge for automated 
and connected vehicles by announcing the 
American Center for Mobility in January 
— a joint partnership between government, 
business and University leaders to help build 
another driverless car testing site — this time, 
at 335 acres. The new site will be placed in 
Willow Run, where B-24 bombers were made 
for troops in a Henry Ford factory during 
World War II.

John Maddox, assistant director of MTC 

and recently named president and CEO of 
ACM, said the new testing site was designed 
due to the success and demand of Mcity. While 
Mcity is primarily designed to test early stage 
research, once vehicles “graduate” from the 
smaller testing site, they can use the larger 
testing site for product development.

Maddox said Michigan’s location as the 

birthplace and home to the auto industry is 
one of a kind in the world, and puts the state in 
the center of driverless car development.

“There is a significant concentration of 

expertise and activity happening in Southeast 
Michigan,” Maddox said. “In fact, I would 
say it’s unique in the world, not just in the 
United States, for having such a concentration 
in a local area of so many companies and 
individuals and universities working on this 
automotive technology.”

The future of autonomous vehicles and 

robotics

When asked whether the emergence of 

connected, autonomous vehicles will lead to 
a transportation revolution similar to when 
Henry Ford helped bring cars to the mass 
market in 1908, Maddox said no — it would be 
bigger.

He equated the growth of connected, 

driverless cars to how the Internet helped 
connect people in new ways, and brought 
about new job opportunities. In the same 
way, he said, autonomous vehicles have the 
potential to transform mobility to allow for a 
whole new economic sector.

“We will see an Internet for transportation 

and an Internet for cars,” he said. “Just like the 
Internet brought tremendous new business 
opportunities, new business models, the 
same thing will happen with the Internet for 
transportation.

With driverless cars, mobility will also 

come to groups unable to drive vehicles like 
the elderly and disabled, Smith said.

“We do believe that automated vehicle 

technology is certainly going make the roads 
a lot safer,” he said. “It’s going to increase 
mobility, allow more traffic flow and probably 
allow mobility access to people who can’t 
drive.”

Peng also highlighted the safety benefits 

of driverless car technology, noting how 
right now motor vehicles currently kill about 
33,000 people in the United States and 1.2 
million people in the world per year. He said by 
connecting cars together and allowing them to 
“speak” to each other and to the infrastructure 
around them, we can dramatically reduce 
risky behavior like emergency braking, illegal 
turns, wrong way driving and running red 
lights can be dramatically reduced.

“All those behaviors, in theory, if we 

continue to broadcast the vehicle’s motion 
to other cars, it will make traffic safer, 
potentially more efficient, and (lead to) less 
energy consumption,” Peng said.

However, machine autonomy does not have 

to stop at vehicles.

Aerospace Engineering prof. Ella Atkins, 

who chairs the graduate program for Robotics 
at the University, said students have a lot 
of interest and excitement for autonomous 
machines. 
particularly 
in 
autonomous 

machines.

Atkins said even aside from high-profile 

autonomous technology like driverless cars, 
small, low-powered sensors and computers 
will allow for a flurry of autonomous 
technology.

“There are a lot of opportunities for robots 

that never get tired, and are very patient with 
people not only in driving their cars for them, 
but also in helping them with everyday tasks,” 
Atkins said.

Peng, too, noted the way autonomous 

technology beyond self-driving has the 
potential to reduce ever-increasing human 
errors like drunk driving and texting on the 
road. Though he cautioned driverless cars are 
still far from the mass market, the technology 
is advancing rapidly and exponentially.

“We humans are distracted more and more 

every day,” Peng said. “Robots are improving 
every day. Guess who will win the race?”

Check out additional multimedia content at
MichiganDaily.com/section/statement

5B

Mcity and the future of autonomous vehicles

How the ‘U’ has worked with a private sector to develop driverless cars

By Allana Akhtar, 
Daily News Editor

ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily

The backside of blown-up photos (as seen on cover) of businesses on Liberty Street in Ann Arbor, which are used as backdrops in Mcity to resemble typical city streets that cars might drive through. The backdrops are 
installed with real glass and brick and closely resemble those used in a movie set.

ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily

Mcity features a freeway section with an on and off ramp. The cars cannot go typical speeds, but get practice 
entering and exiting.

ZOE Y HOLMSTROM/Daily

MDOT provides road signs with graffiti to test cars’ ability to read abnormal road signs that they may 
encounter in daily driving situations. 

