The Toyota Research Institute (TRI) has announced plans to construct a closed-course test facility, at an existing private proving ground in Michigan, to develop automated vehicle technology. When it becomes operational in October 2018, the 60-acre site at Michigan Technical Resource Park (MITRP) in Ottawa Lake will include congested urban environments, slick surfaces and a four-lane divided highway with high-speed entrance and exit ramps, and will allow engineers to safely replicate demanding driving scenarios that are too dangerous to perform on public roads.

 
The ultimate goal of the facility, says Ryan Eustice, TRI senior vice president of automated driving, is “to customize driving scenarios that will push the limits of our technology and move us closer to conceiving a human-driven vehicle that is incapable of causing a crash.”