Michigan is building a fake city to test automated cars

The University of Michigan will be truly ahead of the pack this fall as it opens up a new automated vehicle test facility on North Campus. Over the course of this summer, construction will be done on the patent-pending Mobility Transformation Facility, where all 32 acres of it will be a simulated city center that has its own four-lane highway to boot. Specially designed to help researchers test out just how automated and networked vehicles will respond to rare but dangerous traffic events and road conditions, this is a crucial step in ensuring that such vehicles will eventually operate safely in real world conditions.