Mcity is a 32-acre (13 ha) mock city and proving ground built for the testing of driver-less cars located on the University of Michigan North Campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The project, which officially opened on July 20, 2015, is built on land purchased by the university from a former Pfizer facility. It cost US$10 million and will be collaboratively managed by the Mobility Transformation Center (MTC). In November 2015, Ford Motor Company announced that it is the first car company to use the new facility.
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Mcity is the world's first controlled environment specifically designed to test the potential of connected and automated vehicle technologies that are expected to lead the way to mass-market driver-less cars. Students and faculty in the University of Michigan College of Engineering will utilize Mcity to work on projects and to collaborate with automakers and suppliers who will test vehicle technology at the course.
The site has several familiar features of urban driving, including intersections, a railroad crossing, two roundabouts, brick and gravel roads, and parking spaces. Building facades can be moved and fake pedestrians can be altered for different kinds of tests. There is a simulated highway entrance ramp. Two features - a metal bridge and a tunnel - will be a special challenge for wireless signals and radar sensors to get through.
Aims
The research aims to test and improve autonomous cars and decrease the chance of collisions in real life. In addition to evaluating fully automated or driver-less cars, the researchers also hope to test out so-called connected vehicles within Mcity's limits. Connected cars can either communicate with one another (vehicle-to-vehicle control, or V2V) or with pieces of equipment, such as traffic lights, that are located near roadways (vehicle-to-infrastructure control, or V2I). These communications could one day predict accidents and stop cars before a mishap.