FCA's US unit said it spent US$30m at its Chelsea Proving Grounds in southeast Michigan to further development and testing of autonomous vehicle and advanced safety technology.
The completely new facility, which begins testing programmes this month, has a dedicated autonomous, highway speed track, a 35 acre safety feature evaluation area plus a "command centre".
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The facility will allow for testing of various levels of autonomy and enables the company to evaluate vehicles using test protocols from third parties, such the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), US New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) and European New Car Assessment Program (EuroNCAP), plus additional automatic electronic brake test simulations.
The highway track has capability to develop autonomous vehicle systems under a wide range of challenging environments, including obstacles, tunnels, varying road lighting conditions, and interstate [motorway] style exit and entrance ramps.
The command centre covers more than 6,500 square feet and houses computer equipment vital to GPS capability and test vehicle communication.
The ADAS facility accommodates testing of automatic emergency braking and automated parking technologies on the new 35 acre paved test track.
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By GlobalData"The [facility] will help support and enable the successful rollout of the company's five-year plan laid out earlier this year," said FCA CEO Mike Manley, who is also COO for the NAFTA region.
"Our ability to test for autonomous and advanced safety technologies enables [us] to offer our customers the features they want across our brand portfolio."
Chelsea Proving Grounds opened in 1954 and has since expanded to 4,000 acres with 100 miles (160km) pf road surface plus replicas of the off-road Rubicon and other challenging trails. The site runs 24/7/365 and employs 900.
