What To Know About Michigan's Autonomous Road Of The Future Project

A connected and autonomous vehicle motorway is being planned in Michigan to connect downtown Detroit and Ann Arbor alongside existing roads such as I-94. 

Cavnue was selected to lead the project in partnership with the state of Michigan.

What Happened: The project, announced Thursday, is being done in partnership with the University of Michigan along with Ford Motor Company F, General Motors Company GM, Argo AI, BMW, Honda Motor Co Ltd HMC, Toyota Motor Corp TM, Waymo and others. 

A main focus of the project is to design the corridor to fill in missing pieces of the current transportation infrastructure with the use of self-driving vehicles.

“This connected and automated vehicle corridor will be so much more than a road. It will serve as a pathway to sustainability, to safer mobility, and to prosperity for underserved populations and for the state of Michigan as a whole," Alec Gallimore, the Vlasic dean of engineering at the University of Michigan, said in a statement. 

The project is set to begin with a feasibility assessment. 

Why It's Important: Once construction and testing are underway, part of the plan is to work to fix and rebuild Michigan's crumbling roads.

While doing so, the project plans to upgrade the infrastructure to prove that the concept of smart driverless and human operated cars will be able to make travel safer, faster and more efficient. 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at Thursday's announcement. Photo courtesy of the Michigan Economic Development Corp.