FCA has invested more than US$30m in a new part of Chelsea Proving Grounds in southeast Michigan to test AV and ADAS technology. The new facility, which includes a dedicated autonomous highway-speed track, a 140,000m² safety-feature evaluation area and a 600m² command center, will start operations later this month.
In addition to the dedicated tracks, the facility has V2I communication, facility control and monitoring, and test vehicle support. In addition to AV and ADAS technology, it will be used to test advanced safety technology and to assess how vehicles will perform in third-party safety ratings such as the IIHS, US NCAP and Euro NCAP.
“The all-new facility at Chelsea Proving Grounds will help support and enable the successful roll-out of the company’s five-year plan laid out earlier this year,” said Mike Manley, CEO of FCA and COO for the NAFTA region.
“Our ability to test for autonomous and advanced safety technologies enables FCA to offer our customers the features they want across our brand portfolio.”
The autonomous highway-speed track offers the capability to develop AV systems under a wide range of challenging environments, including obstacles, tunnels, varying road lighting conditions, and interstate-style exit and entrance ramps.
The ADAS facility accommodates testing of advanced iterations of automatic emergency braking and automated parking technologies on a new 35-acre paved test facility.
By Illya Verpraet
