Lawrence Tech Shows Off Autonomous Vehicle Expertise BY MATT ROUSH
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awrence Technological University (LTU) is the three-time reigning champion of a global collegiate competition for autonomous vehicles. So it’s no surprise that the North American International Auto Show picked LTU, along with a Russian technology company and a Korean auto parts company, to create an autonomous taxi service for the auto show. A team of LTU students, led by computer science professor C.J. Chung, was tabbed to participate in the deployment of 10 four-passenger autonomous taxes, which will ferry show-goers from Detroit’s TCF Center to downtown Detroit hotels. The autonomous taxi fleet was to have been part of NAIAS 2020, which was moved from January to June to take advantage of Detroit’s delightful late-spring weather vs. winter’s cold and snow. But the global coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 show in June. So, Chung said, the project has been moved to the 2021 auto show. 28 | TechCentury | Summer 2020
LTU’s partners in the effort are Hyundai Mobis, the parts and service arm of the Korean automaker, and the Russian technology company Yandex. The vehicles will be programmed to take passengers to their destinations, although there will be a driver to take control if needed. The Yandex-Mobis-LTU collaboration was one of five corporate mobility challenge projects announced by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer last October. “We’ll be evaluating the on-demand riding service through a mobile app and testing their vehicles, collecting data, and writing a report on the vehicles and the service,” Chung said. Sponsored by Mobis, Chung and his students have been working for more than three years on autonomous vehicle software—code that is now integrated into an autonomous two-passenger electric vehicle that is regularly seen in testing around LTU’s Southfield campus. Chung said the taxis would follow predetermined routes from the auto show at TCF Center to and from downtown Detroit hotels and entertainment venues. “Mobis is excited for this opportunity to expand our collaboration with
