Mcity prepares to safely reopen test facility amid COVID-19

During these unprecedented times, the Mcity Test Facility and Office Building are closed.  Mcity staff is working from home, doing all we can to advance Mcity’s mission and prepare for the new safety procedures required to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mcity is well-positioned to make connected and automated vehicle testing safer and more efficient for researchers and industry partners through the use of automation and simulation. Due to technological advances in these areas, and the unique nature of the Mcity Test Facility, we hope to reopen for testing in the next few weeks.

Our advanced test facility capabilities already include software that allows users to control infrastructure remotely, minimizing contact and interaction.  Researchers and industry partners can access the facility and control test facility features, including roadway intersections, a rail crossing and crosswalks, using a point-and-click control from a phone, laptop or vehicle computing platform.  These scriptable controls can also be used together as building blocks to orchestrate large, complex and highly repeatable testing scenarios. 

Additionally, progress on augmented reality has continued, increasing the efficiency of development work through simulation.  Combining the real world with a virtual world allows for a comparison in terms of physics, latency, sensor modeling, and data quality.  This combination accelerates testing, reduces the complexity, and helps ensure test repeatability.  Another added benefit of simulation:  testing virtually adds to the safety of test engineers.