Honda partners with transit authority to test autonomous vehicles

Honda has announced a joint venture with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) to test its driverless Acura RLX sedan at the Concord Naval Weapons Station in California. In conjunction with the City of Concord, Honda will use the newly branded GoMentum Station test-bed site at the CNWS to advance its technologies. Honda also plans to participate in a consortium committed to making Contra Costa County home to a premier testing facility for automated drive technologies. GoMentum Station, a
April 2, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
1683 Honda has announced a joint venture with the 7945 Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) to test its driverless Acura RLX sedan at the Concord Naval Weapons Station in California.

In conjunction with the City of Concord, Honda will use the newly branded GoMentum Station test-bed site at the CNWS to advance its technologies.  Honda also plans to participate in a consortium committed to making Contra Costa County home to a premier testing facility for automated drive technologies.

GoMentum Station, a 5,000-acre facility, is the largest secure test-bed of its kind, located at the CNWS.  The CNWS was officially closed in 2007 and is currently in the process of being transferred to the City of Concord.  GoMentum Station contains 20-miles of paved, city-like roadway grids, buildings and other urban infrastructure, providing a realistic environment that will help accelerate the development of automated and connected vehicle technologies.  The public will not have access to the test-bed site, and the automated vehicle testing will be restricted to the site.

Honda will leverage modified versions of Acura's flagship RLX sedan for development and testing at GoMentum Station.  New, prototype sensors and cameras added to the vehicle will work hand-in hand with the array of forward, reverse and corner sensors that enable a suite of AcuraWatch safety and driver assistive technologies on the production RLX.

"The Concord Naval Weapons Station is an ideal proving ground to augment Honda's research and development efforts because it is a controlled environment that can be continuously modified to represent a wide array of settings that an automated vehicle must navigate, especially for urban operation," said Paul Cummings, group lead for Systems Integration, Automated Vehicle Research, Honda Research Institute USA.  "This program will bring a new level of robustness to Honda's industry-leading efforts in the area of automated and connected vehicle technology."
Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • April 5, 2017
    Autonomous vehicle takes to the road in UK
    An autonomous shuttle is to take to the road as part of the UK GATEway Project (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) research into public acceptance of, and attitudes towards, driverless vehicles. In the latest phase of the GATEway Project a prototype shuttle will begin driverless navigation of a 2km route around the Greenwich Peninsula, using advanced sensors and state-of-the-art autonomy software to detect and avoid obstacles whilst carrying members of the public participating in the research stu
    Read More
  • March 14, 2017
    Dutch tech firm awarded autonomous transport contract in Dubai
    Dutch developer of sustainable mobility solutions, 2getthere, has been awarded the contract to deliver a new automated vehicle system in Dubai that will link new waterfront lifestyle destination Bluewaters with the city’s network of metro stations. The project is part of Dubai’s objective to have 25 per cent of all trips completed by automated systems by 2035. The new transport system will have a capacity of 5,000 people per hour per direction, with the automated vehicle connection between Bluewaters and
    Read More
  • April 25, 2012
    US to test connected vehicle technologies in six cities
    The US Department of Transportation has announced the six cities where it will hold Driver Acceptance Clinics for the connected vehicle programme. The first clinic will be held in Brooklyn, MI, near Detroit, in August, while the remaining clinics will be held in Minneapolis, Orlando, FL, Blacksburg, VA, Dallas and San Francisco.
    Read More
  • July 27, 2012
    In vehicle systems allow drivers to provide travel information
    The use of a Vehicle Data Translator will allow every vehicle on a given segment of road to contribute to a highly accurate, readily accessible source of localised weather information, thus improving safety in all conditions. Sheldon Drobot and William P. Mahoney III, US National Center for Atmospheric Research, Paul A. Pisano, USDOT/Federal Highway Administration, and Benjamin B. McKeever, USDOT/Research and Innovative Technology Administration, write. On the morning of June 10 2009, under the cover of den
    Read More

Highlighted Content