The US Department of Transportation has selected 10 sites across the country that will be used to test autonomous driving vehicles, including a handful of places in the Midwest.
Those Midwest sites include the American Center for Mobility at Willow Run in Michigan, the Iowa City Area Development Group in Iowa City, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The sites will "encourage testing and information sharing around automated vehicle technologies" and are a "logical next step in the Department’s effort to advance the safe deployment of automated technology," the US DOT said in a statement.
Here are the sites where the US will test driverless cars:
- City of Pittsburgh and the Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute
- Texas AV Proving Grounds Partnership
- U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center
- American Center for Mobility (ACM) at Willow Run
- Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) & GoMentum Station
- San Diego Association of Governments
- Iowa City Area Development Group
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Central Florida Automated Vehicle Partners
- North Carolina Turnpike Authority
“The designated proving grounds will collectively form a Community of Practice around safe testing and deployment,” US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. “This group will openly share best practices for the safe conduct of testing and operations as they are developed, enabling the participants and the general public to learn at a faster rate and accelerating the pace of safe deployment.”
Missing from the list is a site in Chicago, which has at times both encouraged and discouraged the testing of autonomous vehicles in the city. City officials told Chicago Inno in 2015 that Chicago was in the process of identifying "innovation zones" within the city that could pilot autonomous vehicle projects. Chicago also has the second most self-driving car jobs in the US, only behind the Bay Area, thanks in large part to HERE, a mapping technology company with a large presence in Chicago.
But last year two Chicago aldermen introduced an ordinance that aimed to be a "pre-emptive strike” against driverless car companies that would ban the technology in Chicago.
With major companies from Google to Ford to Uber investing in autonomous vehicle technology, there's no doubt that driverless cars are coming. Will Chicago open its arms to driverless cars? It's yet to be seen.
Image via Uber
