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

  • P3s offer new options for public transit agencies
    March 28, 2018
    David Crawford welcomes new US guidance on public-private partnerships in the public transit sector. Public-private partnerships (P3s) are becoming increasingly favoured as a means of cost-effectively delivering much-needed public transit projects across the US. Previously, researched examples have tended to be on the large-scale while information on the potential for smaller, more localised schemes has been comparatively sparse. In a bid to fill that gap, the ‘Public Transportation Guidebook for Small
    Read More
  • China paves way to enhanced safety with C-V2X
    September 30, 2021
    China is blazing a trail for C-V2X technology and paving the way for deployments worldwide, explains Qualcomm Technologies' Jim Misener
    Read More
  • Developments in travel information display systems
    August 1, 2012
    David Crawford looks at recent developments in travel information display systems. It is important to remember that we are investing in Real-Time Passenger Information [RTPI] to increase ridership," says Robert Burke, Managing Director of New Zealand transit tracking technology specialist Connexionz, which has been involved in at-stop and remote passenger information since 1995. "Superior information improves the perception of public transport reliability and gives the passenger more choices and greater con
    Read More
  • ITS Australia supports Melbourne’s world first ‘urban laboratory’
    January 6, 2017
    ITS Australia has welcomed the Victorian Government’s announcement of a unique hi-tech transport project for Melbourne. The National Connected Multimodal Transport (NCMT) test bed will develop pilots and facilitate collaborations between government, industry and academia. It will utilise thousands of sensors and wireless units fitted to roads to provide insight into how to manage transport systems and road networks in a more efficient way. The urban laboratory would cover approximately 7 kilometres
    Read More

Highlighted Content