DUBLIN – A 35-mile stretch of U.S. Route 33 northwest of Columbus has begun its transformation into a corridor that will provide a real-life testing ground for cutting-edge transportation technology.
Governor John Kasich announced Wednesday that the state will invest $15 million to support research in self-driving highway technology along a four-lane section of roadway which will become a corridor where technologies can be safely tested in real-life traffic, aided by a fiber-optic cable network and sensor systems slated for installation next year.
“You want to test when it rains, you want to test when it snows, you want to test when it’s slippery. You have all the ideal conditions,” he told reporters before the maiden voyage of a self-driving truck, which traveled the route known as the U.S. Route 33 Smart Mobility Corridor (see map below).
A driver was going along as backup.
The truck was developed by Otto, a leading developer of self-driving vehicle technology which plans for its truck to drive on the Ohio Turnpike later this week.
Leading automotive research centers and local governments in the region are also involved.
Kasich says the high-tech research corridor will help Ohio shed its image as a low-tech manufacturing state.
“You can look forward over the next two years to there being a lot of exciting developments with artificial intelligence, drone technology, the use of sensors, the use of fiber,” he said.
“And they say we’re in the Rust Belt? No, they’re following us. We’re now in the lead,” he added.
The Ohio Department of Transportation will fit out the corridor with high-capacity fiber optic cable to instantaneously link researchers and traffic monitors with data from embedded and wireless sensors along the roadway. The links will allow automotive testing, research and manufacturing facilities to test smart transportation technologies.
Honda R&D Americas, the Transportation Research Center at East Liberty and The Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research are taking part in the project, along with the cities of Dublin and Marysville and Union County.
The Smart Mobility Corridor will align with work to develop Columbus as a hub for intelligent transportation, spurred by a $40 million “Smart City” grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation and more than $90 million committed to date by private-sector partners.
Work to install sensors and a fiber optic network along the corridor is schedule to begin in May 2017 and last throughout the summer.