Autonomous vehicle test track gets partner

Sprint joins city to help with research of self-driving autos.

Peachtree Corners will be partnering with wireless company Sprint on its new autonomous vehicle test track, the city announced Tuesday.

The $2 million track that runs along Technology Parkway has been in the works for months, but the new Sprint partnership will add a 5G network, allowing companies that use the facility to test products that can con- nect and communicate with multiple devices at once.

The partnership will also produce a laboratory, the Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners, intended to allow companies and startups to conduct research and tests on self-driving autos.

A Sprint representative would not disclose the value of its investment in the proj- ect.

The partnership was first announced last week by Sprint at the Consumer Electronics Show, a major tech- nology expo held annually in Las Vegas.

In April, the city announced plans for its self-driving vehicle test track. The city described a potential autonomous shut- tle operating on the 1.4-mile track, which will run along- side traffic on Technology Parkway. Once complete, the track will be available to participating companies for testing autonomous vehicles, including those capa- ble of communicating with drones and other electronic devices.

The project is centered around Technology Park Atlanta, which launched in the 1980s with initial tenants including General Electric and Scientific Atlanta. The test track project is partially intended to reinvigorate the technology park with new tenants working on stateof-the-art technology, said Mayor Mike Mason.

“When we became a city in 2012, we didn’t inherit a technology hot spot, we inherited an out-of-date office park,” Mason said.

Prototype Prime, a startup incubator already housed at Technology Park Atlanta is a new tenant at the park. The incubator has already received interest from com- panies across the country and is actively recruiting, said Betsy Plattenberg, Prototype Prime’s director of intelligent mobility.

The project is set to break ground in February, City Manager Brian Johnson said. Construction is expected to last four months.

Much of the necessary infrastructure already exists but must undergo processes, including having barriers installed to ensure the autonomous vehicles stay separated from traf- fic on the main road, John- son said.

CONTRIBUTED The Peachtree Corners-Sprint partnership also will produce a laboratory — the Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners — intended to allow companies and startups to conduct research and tests on self-driving autos.