Driverless cars could have their own lanes
Michigan hopes to become the first state to see autonomous cars traveling in designated lanes down interstate highways.
The state of Michigan and some private partners are taking steps toward building or assigning dedicated lanes for automated vehicles on a 40-mile stretch of highway between Detroit and Ann Arbor.
Organizers say the project would begin with a two-year study to figure out whether existing lanes or shoulders could be used or new lanes need to be built, and it would be the first of its kind in the U.S.
Eventually, autonomous buses and shuttles would run along the Interstate 94 corridor, linking the University of Michigan to Detroit Metropolitan Airport and the city’s downtown.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state officials announced the project Thursday at a former railroad station being renovated by Ford to house its autonomous vehicle operations in downtown Detroit. Ford is among nine autonomous vehicle and auto companies on an advisory board for the project.
Much of the project would be bankrolled by companies funded by Google parent Alphabet Inc., which hopes to make money by duplicating the technology for other large metro areas.
The project is being led by a company called Cavnue, which will start the study by running autonomous vehicles with human backup drivers along I-94 and U.S. 12 to collect data.
Jonathan Winer, co-CEO of an Alphabet-funded company called Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, which owns Cavnue, said at first self-driving buses would use the lanes. They would be similar to dedicated rapid transit lanes in other cities. Eventually, smaller shuttles would be added, as well as autonomous freight trucks and even personal vehicles that have enough automation to qualify.
The vehicles would all be linked to a central computer system and would share data from sensors along the roadway and from other vehicles, coordinating their speeds and allowing them to travel faster than regular traffic, Winer said.
The project could start off running buses in regular traffic, but eventually they’ll be on lanes separated from human-driven vehicles by a barrier, Winer said.
“For the full-scale implementation, which is enhanced public transit and greater speed, we’ll need the barrier,” Winer said in an interview.
Chinese media have reported on a similar project on a new freeway in China, and others have proposed similar ventures in the U.S., but Winer said the Michigan project would be a first.
The lanes would be helpful for the current state of autonomous vehicles, which still cannot operate safely with human-driven vehicles under all traffic and weather conditions, analysts say.