COLCHESTER, Conn. — A new one-mile-and-a-half loop will go miles for Consumer Reports' car safety research. Consumer Reports just cut the ribbon on its $1 million dollar “Self-Driving Car Testing Course” at its Colchester complex and the track is now up and running.
Kelly Funkhouser, Consumer Reports Manager of Vehicle Technology said the new track will focus testing on “Advanced Driver Assistance Systems” or ADAS.
Funkhouser said to think in terms of testing both safety and comfort features that are being offered in more and more vehicles such as “adaptive cruise control” and “lane centering” systems.
“We designed this course to be very challenging to the vehicles of today – that way we can have all the vehicles of tomorrow be challenged,” she said.
Funkhouser said that by testing the new systems that enhance driver assistance, the team at Consumer Reports will now be able to "test the building blocks for self-driving cars," but she said actual self-driving cars are not available to people -- yet.
With the addition of the twisting and turning mile and a half worth of track, Consumer Reports now boasts over six miles of test courses in total.
“We’re able to mimic real roads and use real cars that consumers can go out and buy today, all right here in Connecticut,” Funkhouser added.
Jimmy Altman is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at jaltman@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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