Great Lakes Wire

Michigan is looking to construct a connected and autonomous vehicle corridor in the Southeast corner of the state, Collin Castle, head of Intelligent Transportation Systems for the Michigan Department of Transportation, said on the "The Frank Beckmann Show" in August.

"This would go from Ann Arbor to Detroit and would be basically a roadway for autonomous vehicles, and they would travel down this lane of road," guest host Chris Renwick said on the show. "And it would shuttle people back between Ann Arbor and Detroit, with several stops along the way."

The plans have just been released for the project by the Ford Motor Company, which has partnered with Cavnue, a company founded by Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, to develop the project. The roadway will include stops in Ypsilanti at the American Center for Mobility, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and will go down I-94 to Metro as well, Renwick said.

"And so, what this is really trying to say, well, if we have innovative vehicle technologies like AVs and CAVs out on our roadways, why are we not innovating on our infrastructure to support those technologies?" Castle told Renwick.

The project will take place over the next 24 months and is a huge step forward for the autonomous world. Castle said the project is aiming to reach a fully driverless mode. 

"It's already a safe technology, but to make it even safer and operate more efficiently," Castle said on the show. "So what I'm saying here is I think that if you simplify the driving experience for some of these technologies, we can fully realize the benefits."

Castle told Renwick that the contract is in place for the project with plans already released. The project will begin development in the near future.