Michigan and Texas are investing heavily in driverless research facilities and working to lure private companies with big bucks. Driverless advancement is not the only venture contemplated. Robotics and artificial intelligence are also on those lists.
Toyota is going to Ann Arbor to team up with the University of Michigan. This is another billion dollar venture and represents Toyota's third research center, the first two being in Palo Alto, CA, at Stanford, and Cambridge, MA, at MIT. I know this has been reported before, but I like the article.
Texas A&M, a school I know pretty much nothing about, is taking a big risk and investing in a huge campus expansion,10 miles from its existing campus, to allow for the type of public-private gown/corporate partnership that Toyota is doing in Michigan. But the Texas plan is a "build it and they will come" venture to be built at a World War II-era site. This will be a $150 million investment.
Wise investments as the giant is ahead?
Meanwhile Google is planning on making driverless minivans with Chrysler. The signatures, however, are not yet on any documents. When the documents are signed, that deal will fuel driverless media speculation for a while.
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