Opened in 2015, Mcity consists of a controlled environment of various driving situations, including a bridge deck, overpass, guardrails, barriers, crash attenuators, ramps, roundabouts, traffic circles and urban streets. It is connected with fiber, ethernet and 5G for data collection.
The track is open to the public and used by companies such as Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Denso Corp. The NSF grant calls for the track to be reserved for the agency 48 days per year, Liu said.
“This investment will increase access to the state-of-the-art test facility, providing more equity to researchers across the country who are on the forefront of this societal shift, navigating the transition to a new world of safer, greener, more equitable and accessible mobility for all,” Alec Gallimore, UM’s dean of engineering, said in a news release.
The federal funding follows a $1.5 million upgrade earlier this year of a building that will be used to monitor testing.
The university was also awarded a federal grant last month for researching ceramic batteries. The research will be done in concert with the state-funded $130 million electric vehicle training center at UM, which was unveiled in July, but the funding is separate.
