Michigan – Where you come to prove-out new technology!

Dave

Dave McNamara

16th October 2009

As a former product design engineer, I always wanted to “characterize” a new technology and “test drive” the product under real life conditions. Customer satisfaction is a result of a robust design that accounts for the stringent operating conditions of automotive applications – environmental, electromagnetic, power modes, etc. Automotive applications are demanding, a mutual excusive combination of high performance, high reliability, small size and affordability. It takes a significant "market time/experience" to produce a product that meets ALL of these requirements
As well stated in the recent September Paul Hansen report, OEMs, because of the significant cut backs, are relying on suppliers to “do the engineering work”. Ideally, according to Paul Hansen, these suppliers must have local expertise and test resources readily available to their OEM customers. Fortunately, suppliers and OEMS now have local resources for testing of complex active safety and cooperative driving systems.
The various test resources available in Michigan are:Connected Vehicle Proving Center now part of the University Of Michigan Dearborn,Michigan International Speedwayand Michigan Test bed in the Novi area, an extensive area of over 75 highway and arterial center lane-miles of roadway equipped with 52 Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) roadside equipment (RSE) units.
The Michigan Test Bed (MTB) is of special interest! This test bed is available today to automotive suppliers and third party developers of IntelliDriveSM applications. As described by the US Department of Transportation website:“Intellidrive is a suite of technologies and applications that use wireless communications to provide connectivity that can deliver transformational safety, mobility, and environmental improvements in surface transportation. Intellidrive applications provide connectivitywith and among vehicles,between vehicles and the roadway infrastructureand among vehicles, infrastructure, and wireless devices (consumer electronics, such as cell phones and PDAs) that are carried by drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists”
The MTB was recently used to conduct a wide range of proof-of-concept testing, sponsored by the USDOT – V2I applications, such as in-vehicle signage, probe data collection, dynamic navigation, ePayment, and key V2V safety enablers (e.g. heart beat). This test bed has been made available to all developers (automotive, pubic transportation, government agencies, etc.) to provide a robust and secure test environment to conduct their own research and development. More information on how to access the MTB can be obtained through the USDOT website. On this site you can find the documentation associated with scheduling and using the MTB. Also, please contact the author, Dave McNamara, dmcnamara@autotechinsider.com for more information. He is very familiar with the test bed and its capabilities, as the former Applications Project Manager under contract to the USDOT through the Vehicle Information Initiative Consortium (VIIC). Note: VII is now called Intellidrive. The VIIC is the Automotive OEM industry-led consortium. Dave is interested in determining the needs of the automotive community and plans to share my findings, as appropriate, with the USDOT.
The MTB is a great resource since developers can bring their own vehicles with DSRC on-board equipment into the test bed to try with established roadside equipment and network services. Developers are able to subscribe to existing network services to test their systems and/or applications with the infrastructure (RSEs and network services). Dave would like to hear from you as to your plans for testing, when you might test, any needed enhancements and any ideas on how you might use the MTB. Once again, Michigan is the place to come to test and is providing the needed development environment with established infrastructure.
www.autotehinsider.comwww.hansenreport.comwww.cvpc.orgwww.itsmichigan.orgwww.intellidriveusa.org