YPSILANTI TWP. — Officials of the Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. announced Tuesday that the company has a new long-term partnership with the American Center for Mobility to support the advancement of connected and automated vehicle technology.

As one of ACM’s Founder-level sponsors, HATCI will contribute $5 million to support the creation of a collaborative test environment in southeast Michigan.

Located at the historic Willow Run site in Ypsilanti Township, ACM is creating a proving ground where companies will collaborate to develop CAV and future mobility technologies, as well as work on standards and education programs.

“Hyundai’s investment supporting ACM strengthens our long-term commitment to the advancement of safety and mobility through automated vehicle technology,” said HATCI President Andy Freels. “Working together with industry, academia and government provides a collaborative environment to support new and innovative mobility solutions. …As a founding member, we will help set the direction for CAV standards and test advanced technologies in a safe environment for the North American customer.”

The creation of the testing environment — just seven miles from HATCI’s engineering headquarters — will enhance HATCI’s development and validation of advanced driver-assistance systems and CAV technologies. The ACM will provide testing under unique and extreme conditions in a repeatable and controlled environment to improve the safety of these systems for the customer. This collaboration will advance safety, connectivity, cybersecurity and autonomous technologies.

Testing emphases will include:
* Sensor technology development
* Vehicle/infrastructure communication
* Specification development for infrastructure scenarios such as: rural, residential, highway, overpasses, off-road, and urban
* Severe test conditions featuring various weather situations

“We have been working closely with Hyundai and are thrilled they have decided to take the next step with this significant investment to further our collaboration,” said John Maddox, president and CEO, ACM. “The Hyundai team has some unique developments they are working on and we are eager to help them achieve their goals.”

The contribution from Hyundai brings ACM’s fundraising total to $101 million to develop the 500-acre testing site at Willow Run. The Center’s first phase of construction is nearing completion and the testing and validation, product development, education and standards center will open in December.

Hyundai joins other ACM founders — AT&T, Toyota, and Ford — which announced their support of ACM earlier this year.

The ACM project is a joint initiative with the Michigan Economic Development Corp., the State of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Transportation, the University of Michigan, Business Leaders for Michigan and Ann Arbor Spark, the economic development agency for Washtenaw and Livingston counties.

As one of Hyundai Motor Group’s six centers focused on research and development, Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. was established in 1986 just outside Ann Arbor. The center is Hyndai’s design, technology and engineering division for North America. More at
http://worldwide.hyundai.com.

The American Center for Mobility is a non-profit testing, education and product development center for future mobility, designed to enable safe validation and self-certification of connected and automated vehicle technology, and to accelerate the development of voluntary standards.

More at www.acmwillowrun.org