Most experts have assumed the larger rollout of autonomous vehicles would need to be accompanied by an ambitious plan for safe testing, and now it seems that mechanism has arrived in the form of an autonomous-only lane running between Ann Arbor and Detroit, MI. Announced earlier this year, this 40-mile project is a public-private endeavor between the state and Cavnue, a technology company saying they “…combine technology and road infrastructure to unlock the full potential of connected and autonomous vehicles”. Already Ford, General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Waymo, BMW, Argo AI, and more have signaled support and will work with Cavanue to create standards for fair use by all companies. On a larger scale, this project has the potential to exponentially accelerate the production of autonomous vehicles by creating a safe testing model: autonomous-only lanes.
While the most likely effect of this project is increased testing which would eventually lead to fully-autonomous vehicles safe for general traffic, it may spark a different effect, at least in the short term. With the ability to roll out driverless vehicles sooner, and the pandemic only increasing the demand for robotic solutions, it could lay the groundwork for how mostly-autonomous vehicles can be put in motion- now. Some argue carpool lanes and more should be dedicated to AI vehicles while others assert no partially autonomous vehicle should be accepted on roadways.
We think the impact will be the general acceleration of autonomous technology, either way. With a model for testing, more states may replicate the corridor, and whether these roadways are used for testing partially autonomous vehicles or not the outcome is the same: partially autonomous vehicles are going from point A to point B. Only time will tell just what the full impact is, but the underlying momentum towards the self-driving entertainment capsule that is the future car is building.
What do you think? Will this testing corridor change everything? Will partially autonomous vehicles just get their own lane? Leave a comment below!