Washington: Researchers in the United States have built a USD 10 million 'fake' city, which spans 32 acres and features dummy shops and restaurants, to test driverless cars of the future.
The University of Michigan has opened Mcity, the world's first controlled environment specifically designed to test the potential of connected and automated vehicle technologies that will lead the way to mass-market driverless cars.
Mcity covers 32 acres and contains all the trappings of a real suburb or small city. There is an entire network of roads lined with sidewalks, streetlights, stop signs and traffic signals.
There's also a "downtown" area complete with fake building facades and outdoor dining areas, 'Live Science' reported.
"Mcity is a safe, controlled, and realistic environment where we are going to figure out how the incredible potential of connected and automated vehicles can be realised quickly, efficiently and safely," said Peter Sweatman, director of the Mobility Transformation Center (MTC) at U-M.
In addition to evaluating fully automated, or driverless, 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).
Mcity was designed and developed by U-M's interdisciplinary MTC, in partnership with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).
Mcity construction began last year and about USD 10 million has been invested in the test facility.
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