Mercedes to test autonomous vehicles at secure US Navy base

Mercedes-Benz is to begin testing its autonomous cars on a unique site in California, at the Contra Costa Transportation Authority Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS), the largest test bed site in the US. Since mid-September the company has also held an official licence, issued by California, to test self-driving vehicles on public roads. The additional testing opportunities provided by the CNWS site will enable the company to significantly expand the scope of its research activities. With a test ar
October 3, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
1685 Mercedes-Benz is to begin testing its autonomous cars on a unique site in California, at the Contra Costa Transportation Authority Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS), the largest test bed site in the US.

Since mid-September the company has also held an official licence, issued by California, to test self-driving vehicles on public roads. The additional testing opportunities provided by the CNWS site will enable the company to significantly expand the scope of its research activities.

With a test area covering 2,100 acres, the CNWS site is currently the largest and most secure test bed site in the US. It features a network of surfaced roads resembling an urban grid plan, making it an ideal location for testing autonomous vehicles in surroundings that are as close to real life as they can be. For security reasons the testing ground, which is operated by the US Navy in conjunction with the City of Concord and the Contra Costa County Transportation Authority, is not accessible to the public.

“We can use the test site in Concord, California to run simulation tests with self-driving vehicles in a secure way, including specific hazardous situations", explained Dr Axel Gern, head of autonomous driving at 5403 Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Inc. (MBRDNA). "Taken in conjunction with the results of our test drives on public roads, these tests will help us with the ongoing development of our autonomous cars." He emphasised, however, that the focus of research continues to lie in tests undertaken in a real-life environment.
Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Connected Vehicles test vehicle to vehicle applications
    January 19, 2012
    In the US, the ITS Joint Program Office is about to conduct a series of Driver Clinics intended to gauge public reaction to Connected Vehicle safety technologies and applications. Starting in August, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) will test Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) applications with everyday drivers in what it describes as 'normal operational scenarios'. These Driver Clinics are being carried out at six locations across the US and together with the subsequent model deployment beginning in 2012,
    Read More
  • UK government funds connected vehicle development with a Flourish
    February 5, 2016
    The UK government has selected the Flourish consortium as a winner of its multi-million pound research grant to fuel development in user-centric autonomous vehicle technology and connected transport systems. The new programme, co-funded by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, will focus on the core themes of connectivity, autonomy and customer interaction. The three-year project, led by Atkins and worth US$8 million, seeks to develop products and services that maximise the benefits of connected and
    Read More
  • ITF Corporate Partnership Board projects highlight ways forward
    October 29, 2014
    The findings of the first four projects launched by the ITF Corporate Partnership Board (CPB), the organisation's platform for engaging with the private sector, have been announced. CPB projects are designed to enrich policy discussion with a business perspective. They are launched in areas where CPB member companies identify an emerging issue in transport policy or an innovation challenge to the transport system. Led by ITF, work is carried out in collaborative fashion in working groups consisting of CP
    Read More
  • Drive C2X project hosts final demo event
    June 20, 2013
    The European project Drive C2X has hosted its final major demonstration, Making cooperative systems cooperate, in a two-day event at the Lindholmen Science Park in Gothenburg, Sweden. The event featured an experts’ day and a public day, where visitors gained hands-on experience of the Drive C2X functions in a running field operation test (FOT) and the unique opportunity to drive cars equipped with the DriveC2X system that provides warning and information based on car-to-infrastructure (C2I) and car-to-car (
    Read More

Highlighted Content