Google Dancing Cheek to Cheek with Multiple Partners

Alaska: Google sends emissary Ron Barnes, its state legislative representative, to flirt with Alaskan officials. It's mutual flirting at this point, with no commitments, between Google and Alaska to decide whether to test Google cars in the frozen state. Alaska provides lots of snow and ice and quiet roadways. 

US Department of Transportation: Not exactly driverless, but driverless-related news, in Google's participation in the DOT Smart Cities' challenge. Google will be collecting and aggregating vehicular travel data in cities, which data will then be plowed into improving driverless vehicle capability. Here's an explanation of the arrangement.

The project, called Flow, is part of a joint venture between the DOT and Sidewalk Labs, a company run under Google-turned-Alphabet, to aggregate anonymized data to better understand traffic patterns and congestion areas in cities. 

Over in Michigan, another dance tune

The state of Michigan and GM are getting more serious about testing and developing self-driving vehicles. In a addition to MCity, the state will have a new testing facility, Willow Run, to be headed by a University of Michigan official and to be fitted up with some state money. The official headed up the program that oversaw MCity. More information here.

Dancing alone, Ford announces the creation of its subsidiary, Smart Mobility. Ho hum news, really.