Ford First to Test Autonomous Cars at MCity

Ford has announced that it is the first automaker to test its autonomous cars at the new University of Michigan test facility called MCity. The test facility is a simulated city environment spanning 32 acres. The test location has fake city streets, traffic signals, curb cuts, bike lanes, hydrants, sidewalks, signs, construction zones, and traffic control devices.

All of this is designed to test the Autonomous Fusion is a real-world city environment. MCity also has different types of roads for testing including dirt, concrete, asphalt, and simulated brick.

The only thing that seems to be missing in MCity are people and traffic – which will certainly add to the complexity if and when those are added. The goal for the facility is to improve autonomous sensor systems to allow future self-driving cars to drive safely in a dense city environment