Myra Blanco, director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s Center for Automated Vehicle Systems, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Virginia is taking a different approach than other states by helping manufacturers, none of which have yet been specifically named for this project.
“Other states are saying you need to prove that independently you can do all this testing. What we are trying to do is show them how to do the testing and how to facilitate the process as well,” Blanco told the news outlet. “I think this is going to help us advance the technology and, even more important, to attract companies and satellite offices in the northern Virginia area to develop these new concepts.”
Self-driving vehicles will first be tested on private tracks — the institute’s Smart Road in Montgomery County and the Virginia International Raceway in Halifax County — before they're allowed on the roads, and once on the roads, the vehicles will be required to have a human driver behind the wheel for safety.