A living laboratory for connected cars

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — At this high-tech proving ground, the roads are packed, and there's no tall fence to keep everything hidden from view.

The vehicles being tested look no different than what you find anywhere in the country on a typical day. Here, researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute are studying how those vehicles can communicate with the world around them — technology they say is closer to widespread deployment than autonomous vehicles are.

To demonstrate the potential of connected vehicles, more than just a few loops of empty pavement are needed. So all 27 square miles of Ann Arbor, Mich., will become an inconspicuous, real-world test bed.

Outside the research institute's office, technicians working under a large tentlike structure move in perfect rhythm to install short-range communication devices on vehicles that belong to people who live or work in the city. The vehicles get a small box in their trunk or cargo area, one on or near the rear window and another on the trunk lid or vehicle roof.

Eventually, the institute aims to have more than 3,000 vehicles equipped with the devices. That number updates constantly, but as of press time, there were 450 such vehicles deployed.

About half of the devices in use merely transmit messages to researchers about an event the vehicle experienced. The other devices collect data while also providing visual and audible alerts to the driver, such as when a pedestrian is detected or a red-light violation occurs. The devices communicate with one another and with connected infrastructure throughout the city, allowing researchers to collect speed and positioning data to learn about participants' driving patterns and how their vehicles interact with traffic and their environment.

The $15 million project stems from a three-year study that the research institute and U.S. Department of Transportation started in 2012 to assess the effectiveness of connected-vehicle safety technology, using nearly 3,000 vehicles and 73 lane-miles of roads. The institute then expanded its existing infrastructure in 2015 to create the Ann Arbor Connected Vehicle Test Environment.

"It has taken this long for us working with the industry to get all of the specifications released and suppliers up to snuff to be deployment-ready," said Debby Bezzina, senior program manager. "It has been no easy task."

To the more than 40,000 students crisscrossing the University of Michigan's campus, the test environment they're a part of is invisible. There's no outward indication of the communication devices built into traffic signals and streetlights nor that any of the vehicles they often mindlessly cross in front of are interacting with such a network.

The roadside equipment devices are a part of a fiber network created for the 2012 pilot study. The network is continually being expanded. At press time, there was one roadside equipment device installed in one infrastructure location around the city; the goal is to get to 70 locations: three curve-speed warning sites, four crosswalks, eight freeway sites, one roundabout, five staging or testing sites and 49 intersections. These devices come from Lear Corp. and Savari, a Silicon Valley company that makes sensor hardware and software.

"We are proponents of connected-vehicle technology," said Bezzina, who also is managing director of the Transportation Department's Center for Connected and Automated Transportation. "We think that it is ready for deployment. We are proving it out here. This isn't a pilot in any way, shape or form. This is a production environment."

Bezzina said she sees her work on connected vehicles as complementary to the research that many automakers, including General Motors and Toyota, have been doing on autonomous technology. Those companies, as well as new competitors such as Uber and Waymo, are racing toward commercial deployment of self-driving vehicles in the coming years.

Reducing deaths is one motivation. According to NHTSA, U.S. traffic deaths jumped 5.6 percent in 2016 to a decade-high of 37,461. But self-driving vehicles are not without safety concerns.

Incidents such as a March pedestrian fatality involving an autonomous Volvo that Uber was testing in Arizona have weighed on public perception, but Bezzina says connected-vehicle technology can help solve some of the trickiest real-world scenarios for computer algorithms to handle on their own.

"I don't think that you can have an autonomous vehicle that will work to design intent," said Bezzina, who previously worked for GM, Ford Motor Co. and Visteon. "I think that they need to be connected and automated rather than autonomous."

The Ann Arbor Connected Vehicle Test Environment aims to be the largest operational deployment of connected vehicles and infrastructure — one that's financially sustainable without having to rely on federal funding. It currently is funded with federal and state money as well as contributions from the university and other program partners.

It's located in an area that is rapidly becoming a hotbed for autonomous testing. GM and Waymo are using southeast Michigan to test the self-driving vehicles they're developing, in part because they can learn how the technology works in cold and snow.

The American Center for Mobility, a 500-acre autonomous testing facility on the site of a former GM plant — and before that, a World War II bomber plant — opened last year.

Not all of the institute's testing can occur on public streets. For work that requires a controlled environment and some margin for error, there's Mcity, a faux town built just outside its office on the north side of Ann Arbor.

Parts of Mcity resemble the real Ann Arbor, including streets labeled "State" and "Liberty," two primary thoroughfares that intersect in the heart of the university campus. Deliberately positioned stoplights, fabricated parking lanes, intentionally placed curbs and arbitrary signs for Interstate 75 ensure a variety of test scenarios for vehicles to experience.

Mcity's traffic controls look simultaneously in and out of place. The freeway sign and blinking lights are comparable to the signs and conditions a driver experiences on the road. However, this environment doesn't exhibit all of the center of town's characteristics.

The streetscape is actually just a large, movable facade with photos of restaurants and shops. The I-75 "ramp" doesn't take drivers north to Flint, Mich., as the overhead sign indicates; they'll eventually circle back to the center of the test facility.

The $6.5 million test track was designed, developed and funded by the university's Mobility Transformation Center — now simply called Mcity — and the Michigan Department of Transportation. It was constructed in 2015 on property previously occupied by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

Mcity is used not only by the research institute, but by automakers, suppliers and other industry partners seeking advancements in autonomous and connected technology.

After riding an autonomous Navya shuttle to Mcity, Bezzina gets behind the wheel of a connected Ford E-series van to demonstrate how the devices work. Dillon Funkhouser, senior research engineer, drives a Honda Accord, and the two demonstrate situations for which the connected-vehicle devices give an alert.

At one point, Funkhouser stops at a red light while Bezzina, trailing behind, starts to speed up. Just as Bezzina approaches the rear of Funkhouser's vehicle, the device in her cabin begins beeping loudly to warn of an impending crash. She veers her vehicle safely away.

"A lot of this is preparing for what this [technology] is really going to drive in five years, 10 years," Funkhouser said.

Though many newer vehicles already can provide forward-crash warnings, they don't offer other alerts given by the institute's devices.

Engineers tell participating drivers to continue heeding any messages from their vehicle, such as blind-spot and lane-departure alerts, in addition to any warnings from the devices installed for the study.

In another demonstration, Bezzina speeds through a red light. The device gives her a spoken admonishment: "Red light."

Bezzina then approaches an intersection while Funkhouser approaches from the right. Before they crash, the device warns, "Caution: Side threat right."

"The more people who deploy it, the larger benefit to society, and when we start talking about something real that can save so many lives per year, for me, it outweighs any benefit of some new technology coming along that may be slightly better, but that I have to wait between five and 10 years," Bezzina said. "We're talking about 35,000 people that die every year."