Aug. 1, 2017—The American Center for Mobility's (ACM) autonomous and connected vehicle testing facility has secured its first large-scale sponsor, with Toyota Motor supporting the site to the tune of $5 million, according to Ann Arbor Business.
An announcement made Monday, July 31, said Toyota Motor North America and the Toyota Research Institute are making the $5 million contribution that puts the automotive company at a founding sponsor level for ACM's testing facility being built
Toyota is the first automaker to announce a sponsorship of the ACM site, something president and CEO John Maddox said is the start of an exciting new collaboration and an example of "Toyota's forward-thinking vision."
ACM is a nonprofit created in January 2016 as a collaborative initiative between the State of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Michigan Economic Development Corp., the University of Michigan, Business Leaders for Michigan and Ann Arbor SPARK.
The facility is the next step in creating autonomous and connected vehicles and testing them for real-life road conditions and scenarios, said Toyota officials.
"Toyota believes the creation of this unique test environment will help support the development acceleration of innovative CAV technologies, because it allows technologies testing under a safe and controlled environment," a statement from both organizations said.
