Ford’s Fusion hybrid automated research vehicle soon could be roaming Michigan roads.
Michigan will soon join three other states and the District of Columbia in allowing autonomous test cars on public roads. All but one House member joined both chambers in the state legislature to approve the bill, introduced in February by Senator Michael Kowall (R), and Governor Rick Snyder—who has called for Michigan to “be a leader in all of this”—is expected to sign it.
Per the bill’s provisions, a driver has to be sitting behind the wheel at all times, and according to The Detroit News, the cars must be tagged with “M”-for-”Manufacturer” license plates.
Ford should especially be pleased, as it recently announced a partnership with the University of Michigan to test an autonomous Fusion hybrid. The University and the federal government are also running a trial of nearly 3000 networked cars in Ann Arbor, while another group wants to create a test facility for these cars at an old GM engine plant in Ypsilanti Township.
Nevada was the first state to allow autonomous vehicles in February 2012, followed by Florida in July, California in September, and Washington, D.C., in April of this year. The rules vary slightly. Nevada, for example, restricts autonomous driving to highways and pre-approved areas for each car. The D.C. Council requires autonomous cars to run on alternative fuels and pay a mileage tax. According to Stanford Law School, at least eight other states have drafted similar bills, including New York and Massachusetts, and six more have voted them out.
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Automakers including Audi, BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes-Benz, as well as suppliers like Continental and Google have been introducing driverless test cars for the past few years, but very few have publicized the results of their trials on real roads. Given Cadillac wants to take its semi-autonomous Super Cruise feature to production as early as 2015, we’ll probably share our local roads with these four-wheeled robots very soon.
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