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Mercedes-Benz to Test Self-Driving Cars at Former Naval Weapons Station

Mercedes-Benz and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority are turning the Concord Naval Weapons Station property into the nation's largest secure testing site for self-driving vehicles.

German automaker Mercedes-Benz and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority are turning the Concord Naval Weapons Station property into the nation's largest secure testing site for self-driving vehicles and new transportation technology, officials announced Wednesday.

The luxury car company and the transportation authority will temporarily use the nearly 20 miles of existing paved roadways on the base to test autonomous vehicles, as well as cars that communicate with each other and with traffic signals.

"We can use the test site in Concord ... to run simulation tests with self-driving vehicles in a secure way, including specific hazardous situations," said Axel Gern, head of autonomous driving at Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Inc., in a news release. "Taken in conjunction with the results of our test drives on public roads, these tests will help us with the ongoing development of our autonomous cars."

Mercedes-Benz and the transportation authority have a 12-month renewable license from the Navy to use the 2,300-acre site, which eventually will be turned over to the city of Concord for redevelopment. This interim use is not expected to interfere with the schedule to begin transferring property to the city in early 2016.

Neither the Navy nor Concord is receiving money for the use of the weapons station. It is unclear whether Mercedes-Benz plans to hire local workers for the testing project.

"The city worked with the Navy to not have there be a fee for renting the property, so to speak, because we feel it's an important thing for the county and an important thing for the city if they can test these cars," said Michael Wright, executive director of the Local Reuse Authority. "If it ultimately leads to something that's built or incorporated out on the base, then that's great."

The weapons station property provides a unique environment for testing self-driving and connected vehicles and advanced traffic signals. It includes long, straight stretches of paved roadway and places where the road curves around stationary features on the base, Wright said. The network of streets in the bunker complex is laid out like a city grid, with intersections.

The Contra Costa Transportation Authority is an affiliated testbed site with the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is pushing vehicle-to-vehicle communication as a way to reduce collisions. For example, if a motorist doesn't notice that the car in front of them has slowed or stopped, the vehicle will know and respond accordingly.

The authority plans to test stoplights that communicate with passenger cars and buses and automatically turn green if traffic is sparse.

"There's very limited connected infrastructure right now, and that's what we're trying to bring and expand throughout the country," said Jack Hall, program manager for intelligent transportation systems at CCTA. "The goal is to not have cars idling at stoplights, to reduce congestion and (achieve) the vision of zero automobile fatalities." Automakers are including connection technology in cars they are building today, and Hall expects that by 2025, vehicles that talk to each other and to traffic signals will be commonplace.

(c)2014 the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)