Toyota is taking a big step forward in its efforts to accelerate vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure technology. In partnership with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, Toyota will deploy 5,000 connected cars to the streets of Ann Arbor, Mich.
A number of Toyota employees and their families have agreed to participate in the program, which involves driving their normal everyday route in specially equipped vehicles. These vehicles will be installed with a small box that communicates speed and position data to other connected cars as well as road infrastructure. Research equipment has been placed along roadsides and at intersections to analyze information provided by the vehicles.
Although the experiment doesn’t involve driverless cars, connected vehicle technology will help pave the way for autonomous driving. The results of the connected car study will provide key information for developing future communication-based driver assistance technologies.
Ann Arbor is already a major hub for connected vehicles. The University of Michigan is home to a 32-acre test site for autonomous and connected cars. Auto manufacturers come to the site to test future vehicle technologies on a variety of road surfaces in an environment that simulates an actual city.
Toyota says the new experiment will result in the “world’s largest operational, real-world deployment of connected vehicles and infrastructure.” Meanwhile, plenty of work has already been done to ensure a future for connected cars. In 2012, UMTRI and the U.S. Department of Transportation launched a $30 million research project which involved nearly 3,000 connected vehicles in a designated research area in northeast Ann Arbor.
Mere days ago, Toyota announced it would partner with Microsoft to accelerate research on connected cars. The move will help the automaker consolidate its efforts in data management and data analytics.
Source: Toyota
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