As Michigan looks to become the autonomous vehicle mecca of the world, General Motors continues to stand side-by-side with the Planet M initiative.
Kettering University, formerly owned by GM, revealed its latest proving ground for future GM vehicles this past Monday. The proving grounds will be used as hands-on experience for students. The site also hopes to attract further investment and partnerships for product research and development into autonomous and electric vehicle propulsion.
Kettering University hopes the site will also help enrich students’ experiences who have experience across multiple disciplines, as well as enhance curriculum for vehicle testing and crash safety in mechanical engineering.
“Kettering has a rich history of graduates who have gone on to forge new roads in the auto industry and these facilities will build on that tradition, as well as continue to promote Flint’s reputation as Vehicle City,” said Kevin Kerrigan, senior vice president of the Automotive Office for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
“This proving ground will create fantastic hands-on experiences for students, as well as provide an additional state-of-the-art research asset for our state, potentially attracting more industry partners looking to perform product research and development.
Comments
Awesome news! It sounds like they make some excellent progress getting it opened fairly quickly.
Here’s a link to the news article on the Kettering site that has additional information.
https://news.kettering.edu/news/kettering-university-gm-mobility-research-center-will-position-flint-and-michigan-forefront
Kettering has been working on autonomous vehicles for decades. They had small projects in the works when I was there in 1995.
in other words, Kettering SAE team now has a big blacktop to break their car on.