A new collection of transportation agencies and universities is taking one small step toward transforming the Rust Belt into a place associated with the future instead of the past. Eleven agencies and institutions located in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have formed the Smart Belt Coalition, which will spur joint efforts on the testing and deployment of autonomous and connected cars.
The collaboration comes on the heels of a legislative overhaul of Michigan regulations last month, which have been relaxed to spur the testing of self-driving technology on the state?s public roads. Ohio and Pennsylvania do not have laws on the books governing autonomous vehicles, but in their absence, both states have encouraged such tests.
All three states have attracted their share of autonomous testing on their own, in some cases competing with one another for projects. Together, the efforts of the three states may serve as a regional counterweight to the autonomous testing that has proliferated in California, Arizona, and Nevada. ?While there?s competition in all these things, in the aggregate there?s a lot of benefit to cooperating, too,? said Jeff Cranson, the Michigan Department of Transportation?s director of communications.
The Michigan DOT is a member of the coalition, as is the American Center for Mobility, a proving ground for autonomous and connected cars on which construction crews broke ground late last year. Few places better symbolize the hopes these states hold in usin...