The University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute has expanded to include the Mcity public/private partnership and test facility in Ann Arbor.
In an effort to bolster its research on next-generation mobility technologies, UMTRI is bringing together its leadership in transportation safety with its distinct expertise in testing connected and automated vehicle technologies.
“We see this as a multiplier of our impact,” says Henry Liu, the Bruce D. Greenshields Collegiate Professor of Engineering and a professor of civil and environmental engineering. “UMTRI brings top safety researchers and a focus on the human facets, while Mcity provides technology development and a one-of-a-kind test facility.
“Together they’ve shaped Michigan Engineering’s reputation as a leader in mobility work that not only advances the engineering aspects, but goes beyond to examine how they impact peoples’ lives.”
Liu, Mcity’s director since 2022, takes over for James Sayer, UMTRI’s director for the past nine years. Sayer will remain as a research scientist.
The change is a homecoming of sorts for the Mcity Test Facility. UMTRI leaders including Sayer — along with industry and government partners — envisioned, developed, and launched Mcity in 2015 as the world’s first purpose-built test track for connected and automated vehicles.
“What spun out of our efforts to improve roadway safety has come full circle, and at a time when it’s clear that connected and automated vehicle technologies are the essential next frontier in traffic safety,” Sayer says. “More than 40,000 people are still dying on U.S. roads every year.”
The new era begins as UMTRI marks its 60th anniversary and the Mcity Test Facility its 10th.
UMTRI states its record of safety work made it a natural partner for the auto industry and government as attention turned to the potential of connected and automated vehicles. Under UMTRI’s leadership, roughly 2,800 drivers traveled 71 million miles in the world’s first large-scale connected vehicle deployment. Safety Pilot Model Deployment, a $30 million effort launched in 2012 with the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Safety Pilot showed that connected vehicles can reduce unimpaired crashes by 80 percent. The initial project has evolved over the past decade with infrastructure and technology enhancements and now totals more than $82 million.
Today’s Ann Arbor Connected Environment 2.0 and Smart Intersections Project encompass 27 square miles of Ann Arbor, 75 sites, including 69 intersections and relies on cellular-based C-V2X.
UMTRI’s crash analysis research has continued to yield influential findings enabling an improved safety response. Partnering with the Office of Highway Safety Planning and others, including NHTSA, for more than 30 years, UMTRI has maintained high quality access to Michigan crash data statistics.
The Michigan Traffic Crash Facts website is a crash analysis tool that allows users to search traffic crash facts related to a wide-range of data including: age, deer, vehicle/driver, and occupant information.
The institute’s work also includes the benefits of active safety systems such as automatic emergency braking, and it informed General Motors’ decision to make five active safety features standard on most 2023 vehicles. This includes systems that reduce crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists.
Liu believes that bringing UMTRI and Mcity together has the potential to accelerate a tipping point for road safety. While traffic fatalities per 100,000 people are less than half of what they were at their worst in the 1970s — around 13 people vs. 28 — more than 40,000 are still dying on U.S. roads every year.
The USDOT calls it a “crisis” and has established the National Roadway Safety Strategy to address it. The strategy includes automated technologies, and Liu underscores their importance.
“Given all the safety features that have been added to vehicles over the years, it’s my view that the only thing that will significantly reduce the number of roadway fatalities at this point is automation,” Liu says.
And not automation in a vacuum.
“We need to think about how to protect AV occupants. Maybe the passengers shouldn’t be facing forward. Maybe the seatbelts and airbags should be designed differently,” Liu said. “In transportation, you really have to have a systems view, and this new structure will emphasize that.”
For more information on UMTRI, visit umtri.umich.edu/.
