Arizona will launch a test facility for autonomous driving technology

Terry Tang, Associated Press

updated

6:35 pm PDT, Thursday, October 11, 2018

PHOENIX (AP) – Arizona will be home to a sprawling new facility solely dedicated to finding autonomous vehicles, thus indicating that the state is fully embracing the growing technology.

Governor Doug Ducey signed an executive order Thursday creating the newly created Institute for Automated Mobility. The proposed hub will focus on technology and its integration into the real world, he said in a statement.

Several state agencies, Arizona's top three public universities and technology giant Intel have joined the project. The installation will include a simulation laboratory to test various road scenarios. University academics will need to study and publish findings on security issues. Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan, Ducey's Senior Advisor for Science and Technology, described the hub as a "concierge-type service" for research and development projects.

"It really takes a village approach and all disciplines have to come together," Panchanathan said.

Arizona is not the first state to have an epicenter dedicated to autonomous cars. In April, Michigan opened a non-profit center to research 500-acre (202-hectare) self-driving vehicles with Microsoft as a partner. The US Mobility Center, located outside Ypsilanti, has been designated by the US Department of Transportation as one of the 10 "test sites" for a pilot program of automated vehicles. It includes a test track for autonomous cars.

The University of Michigan also has its own "Mcity" of 32 acres (13 hectares) in Ann Arbor for experiments on driverless cars.

The Arizona site has not been revealed, but the Phoenix Metropolitan Area continues to be a frequent testing ground for driverless vehicles. However, the region was also the scene of the first death involving an autonomous vehicle.

In March, an autonomous SUV struck and killed a pedestrian in the suburb of Phoenix, Tempe. The authorities determined that the emergency human driver was watching a program on her mobile phone and looked down just before the accident. The incident would not have occurred if the driver had not been distracted, according to the police report. Uber later stopped testing cars in Arizona, but has since relaunched his efforts elsewhere.

The Arizona Commerce Authority will oversee the institute. President Sandra Watson said that no amount of money from state taxes is funding the project. So far, the state has invested $ 1.5 million, from old loans to small businesses that have been repaid. Intel invests an undisclosed amount.

The institute hopes to be able to take the place of the driver in the development of legislation, Watson said.

"All the work done through the institute will inform future state policies of Arizona," she said.

The hub's configuration will also include a "Traffic Incident Management Center" managed by the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Law enforcement and first responders will be able to work with the technology.

Waymo is another Arizona-based company with similar technology. Google's subsidiary has tried robotic cars to help commuters stop on the Phoenix transit system. The company is also conducting a pilot program with Walmart buyers taking vehicles to take their orders online. The Kroger Co. supermarket chain recently teamed up with Nuro, a Silicon Valley start-up founded by former Google engineers, to test delivery of grocery-free cars in the suburbs of Scottsdale.

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Associated Press associate editor Tom Krisher has contributed to this story since Detroit.