Academia
Ann Arbor, Michigan
University of Michigan
Michigan owns the proving ground: autonomy claims tested against a repeatable, instrumented city.
2 key findings0 timeline milestones1 sources to follow
Key findings
- 2015
Mcity — the first purpose-built AV proving ground
University of Michigan and industry partners
A closed urban environment with intersections, roundabouts and staged pedestrians for repeatable testing.
Why it matters here · Turned autonomy validation into a reproducible experiment instead of a public-road anecdote.
- 2023
Accelerated evaluation of AV safety
Henry Liu and team
A dense-learning method that concentrates rare safety-critical scenarios, cutting required test mileage by orders of magnitude.
Why it matters here · How AV vendors can substantiate safety claims without driving billions of real miles.
~10³–10⁵× fewer miles needed