Driverless car test site aims to open by fall

FILE- In this Sept. 25, 2012, file photo, California Gov. Edmund G Brown Jr., front left, rides in a driverless car to a ceremony in Mountain View, Calif., for the signing of a bill allowing for testing of driverless vehicles in the state. On Friday, Dec. 27, 2013, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed two bills allowing similar testing in Michigan. The Michigan laws permit operating driverless vehicles on state roads, as long as a human driver is in the vehicle as a safety backup. The measures also provide partial shielding of manufacturers from liability suits. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

University of Michigan and state government officials aim to have a 32-acre driverless car test site running by September — in time for a global conference on intelligent transportation systems.

Gov. Rick Snyder and other state and university officials gathered Tuesday at Detroit's auto show to outline plans for the Mobility Transformation Facility, a $6.5 million site on the Ann Arbor university's North Campus.

It will offer a simulated urban environment with roads, intersections, building facades, traffic circles and a hill.

Two developments enable the facility — a new state law letting companies test driverless but occupied cars on roads, and a street-level research project in Ann Arbor involving 3,000 people in networked vehicles.

The 2014 World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems runs Sept. 7-11 in Detroit.