BUSINESS BRIEF

Automakers join UM
 in driverless-car studies

5/7/2014

DETROIT — General Motors, Ford, and Toyota are joining the University of Michigan in establishing a testing site for driverless cars that will simulate a cityscape, and will work with the school to help make such vehicles commercially viable, officials announced Tuesday.

The Michigan Mobility Transformation Center’s 32-acre testing site near the Ann Arbor school’s North Campus is to be completed this fall. The university’s regents last year approved the $6.5 million for the project. Groundbreaking was Tuesday.

Other companies involved include Bosch, an auto industry supplier; Econolite, which makes traffic control equipment; and Xerox.