As the UK tries to figure out a way for driverless cars to legally and safely take to public roads, the University of Michigan has set come up with a handy, if costly, alternative. Instead of letting the cars loose on real roads, they’re building a replica city as a testing facility.
The “city” is currently being constructed at the engineering department’s Mobility Transformation Facility, and will cover 32 acres. (That’s around 0.05 square miles, so it’s not exactly New New York). According to the project’s website, it’ll include merge lanes, traffic lights, roundabouts, a railroad crossing, and “eventually even a mechanical pedestrian”. Here’s a diagram: