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

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • America explores road user charging options
    November 27, 2017
    Jack Opiola casts an eye over the numerous road user charging pilots underway in the US. In the USA, congestion mitigation and improving mobility have often focused on network improvements, increased road capacity, improved public transport, high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes or ‘express lanes’ and ITS measures – all of which require political capital and major funding. Nowadays, political capital is as hard to obtain as funding because more political leaders are recognising the decline of fuel excise tax in
    Read More
  • TRL and GOBOTiX team up on vehicle research
    May 28, 2014
    The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has teamed up with robotic technology consultants GOBOTiX to create a vehicle that will be used to test a variety of advanced vehicle functionality. TRL, with a long history in studies of the development and impact of advanced vehicle technologies, has donated a Toyota Prius to GOBOTiX, who will adapt the vehicle for innovative systems research. The first step will be for GOBOTiX to install drive-by-wire systems to replace mechanical linkages and actuators for
    Read More
  • IRD: from the ground up
    September 16, 2021
    IRD is undertaking a comprehensive review of its road safety and monitoring solutions. A series of initiatives is building on the company’s in-pavement expertise, bringing considerable additional value for the customer to the traditional range of products while complementing these with wholly new technologies
    Read More
  • Largest solar highway project in the US opens to rest stop visitors
    August 24, 2012
    One year after breaking ground, the largest solar highway project in the US — a partnership between Portland General Electric and the Oregon Department of Transportation — is now open to visitors stopping to take a break from their travels along Interstate 5 in Oregon. Growing clean, renewable energy amongst farm fields of corn and cabbage, the Baldock Solar Station is a 1.75-megawatt solar array boasting nearly 7,000 solar panels across seven acres of the Baldock Safety Rest Area, located on Interstate 5 n
    Read More

Highlighted Content