Why we’re building a house inside the Mcity Test Facility

OK, so it’s not a ‘real’ house. It’s a shipping container-turned-single-family home. Or at least it will look like one on the outside when it’s finished. It will even have a garage. The house and garage facades will give the Mcity Test Facility a suburban test area to complement existing urban and highway sections.

The Mcity Test Facility opened in July 2015 as the world’s first proving ground purpose-built for evaluating connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) and technologies. Five years later, we’re still adding to the facility’s capabilities as CAV technologies evolve — rapidly — along with the societal challenges they can help address.

Consider the global coronavirus pandemic. People are staying home more. They’re ordering in groceries and having meals delivered, while shopping online for everything from household goods to cleaning supplies to prescription drugs, clothing and more. Curbside delivery is the new carry out service. Drone drop-offs are coming.

Some of the changes to daily life that have come with COVID-19 likely will remain popular even after the pandemic is past. How will driverless cars of the future navigate to your house safely? And what about those drones?

Our modest home could help find the answer.

Check out construction progress in the photo gallery below.