Digital Testing Ground Set to Speed up Rollout of Self-Driving Vehicles

One of America’s foremost facilities for assessing and validating self-driving transport is now offering “remote” testing.

Mcity, a 32-acre site at the University of Michigan, is a purpose-built proving ground for testing the performance and safety of connected and automated vehicles.

While the physical site is well established, Mcity is branching out with digital tech that affords the opportunity to do validation work elsewhere.

And to kick off the remote program, it has announced a deal with MITRE — a United States government-sponsored non-profit research organization – to develop a virtual and physical AV validation platform for industry deployment. 

The collaboration was revealed at the Nvidia AI Summit in Washington DC, the first of three events presented by the tech giant focusing on AI developments that will be held across the globe over the next month. Two more are set to follow in India and Japan.

The partnership will see MITRE use Mcity’s simulation tools and a digital twin of the real-world test environment in its Digital Proving Ground (DPG). The joint platform will deliver physically based sensor simulation enabled by Nvidia’s Omniverse Cloud Sensor tech.

The opportunity to combine these simulation capabilities within the DPG reporting framework will allow developers to safely perform exhaustive testing in a simulated, digital world for validation of AVs before real-world deployment.

Sensor simulation essentially models the physics and behavior of cameras, lidars, radars and ultrasonic sensors on an actual vehicle, as well as how these sensors interact with their surroundings. This enables developers to prepare for potentially dangerous scenarios – such as extreme weather or unpredictable driver behavior – in a virtual setting.

The benefits of conducting this kind of assessment are extensive. Importantly, testing is easily repeatable, allowing progress to be tracked. It can then be replicated on the physical Mcity proving ground to create a comprehensive feedback loop. And the net effect is that it allows the validation of AVs to be accelerated.

While the MITRE arrangement will benefit industry, Mcity’s new remote functionality will also be used by academia.

Henry Liu, University of Michigan professor of civil and environmental engineering, and director of Mcity, said: “This is particularly valuable for academic institutions, including many that serve minority students, that do not have the resources of large, public institutions like U-M. 

“We believe Mcity 2.0’s capabilities will expand the volume and increase the speed of AV research that will be conducted and published. This could help put more refined, safer AVs on our roads sooner.”

Institutions across the U.S. are being invited to submit proposals to Mcity on how they might use the new functionality.