WCPO-TV: UC wants to connect driverless cars, smart roads
UC engineering professor Jiaqi Ma demonstrates a test vehicle his research team will use to explore safe and efficient driverless transportation in Ohio
Engineers at the University of Cincinnati demonstrated a new driverless car they are using to study traffic networks that will make transportation safer and more efficient in Ohio.
UC College of Engineering and Applied Science assistant professor Jiaqi Ma Ma told WCPO-TV he is investigating how driverless cars can communicate with each other and distant traffic lights to keep moving most efficiently while preventing accidents.
A Tesla graphic illustrates the 360-degree sensor package. Graphic/Tesla
UC is sharing a $7.5 million federal grant with Ohio State University and Ohio University for the joint research project.
Ma and his research team equipped a Lexus sport utility vehicle with lidar, radar and cameras to detect obstacles and global-positioning satellite navigation for autonomous driving.
"This is basically our daily job now," Ma told WCPO. "We keep enhancing the software, making sure the vehicle can complete different maneuvers."
Ma is academic director of the Greater Cincinnati Advanced Transportation Collaborative in UC's Office of Research.
The collaborative is working with Cincinnati, the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana Regional Council of Governments, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, the Ohio Turnpike and Drive Ohio.
So far the vehicle is limited to driving loops around the parking lot at UC's 1819 Innovation Hub while researchers hone the obstacle-avoidance and networking technology. And Ma wants to extend his work to drivereless shuttles that could operate at the airport.
Featured image at top: UC equipped a driverless Lexus hybrid SUV with radar, lidar, global-positioning satellite navigation and cameras. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Creative Services
UC assistant professor Jiaqi Ma is director of the new Greater Cincinnati Advanced Transportation Collaborative. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Creative Services
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