Toyota is Building its Own Self-Driving Test Facility

The Toyota Research Institute (TRI) has announced a closed-course test facility in Michigan.

The new site is being built to develop automated vehicle technology, as the Japanese automaker continues to invest in self-driving cars. The approximately 60-acre site will be at Michigan Technical Resource Park (MITRP) in Ottawa Lake. Toyota is aiming to have it operational this October and it will be used exclusively by TRI to safely replicate demanding “edge case” driving scenarios that Toyota says are too dangerous to perform on public roads.

TRI’s facility will be constructed inside MITRP’s 1.75-mile oval test track and it will include congested urban environments, slick surfaces, and a four-lane divided highway with high-speed entrance and exit ramps. Toyota will also have access to the oval track and other onsite facilities and services.

The new site expands the company’s closed-course testing capabilities, adding to existing partnerships with GoMentum Station in California, and Mcity and the American Center for Mobility in Michigan.

“By constructing a course for ourselves, we can design it around our unique testing needs and rapidly advance capabilities, especially with Toyota Guardian automated vehicle mode,” said Ryan Eustice, TRI senior vice president of automated driving. “This new site will give us the flexibility to customize driving scenarios that will push the limits of our technology and move us closer to conceiving a human-driven vehicle that is incapable of causing a crash.”

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