GoMentum Station

Connected- and autonomous-vehicle testing ground

GoMentum Station is a testing ground for connected and autonomous vehicles at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS) in Concord, California, United States. The property was acquired and repurposed by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority.

In October 2014, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority announced that the GoMentum Station proving grounds would be used to test self-driving cars; according to them, "The public will not have access to the test site, and the self-driving cars will be restricted to the test bed site. With 2,100 acres (850 ha) of testing area and 19.6 miles (31.5 km) of paved roadway, the CNWS is currently the largest secure test bed site in the United States".[1] Mercedes-Benz is reported to have licenses to test new driving technology, including smart infrastructure such as traffic signals that communicate with cars.[citation needed] Among the site's other notable features: "a 7-mile (11 km)-long roadway is great for testing high-speed driving, and a pair of 1,400-foot (430 m)-long tunnels" for sensor testing.[2]

Among the roughly 30 partners listed on the company's site are automakers Toyota and Honda, ridesharing companies Uber and Lyft and China-based autonomous driving company Baidu. In summer 2015, reports suggested the Apple electric car project was interested in using the site, as members of Apple's Special Project group were reported to have met GoMentum representatives but there were no subsequent reports of Apple personnel and vehicles actually using the site.[3][4]

In August 2019, GoMentum announced the October launch of its V2X (vehicles-to-everything) testing facility.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Self-Driving Cars Headed to Contra Costa" (PDF) (Press release). Contra Costa Transportation Authority. October 1, 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 31, 2014. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  2. ^ "Here's Where Driverless Cars Are Learning the Rules of the Road". Time.
  3. ^ Philip Elmer-DeWitt (15 August 2015). "Here's the autonomous vehicle test bed Apple asked to see". Fortune.
  4. ^ Harris, Mark (August 14, 2015). "Documents confirm Apple is building self-driving car". The Guardian.
  5. ^ "GoMentum V2X Lab". YouTube. 2019-08-15.

External links

  • Official website

Video

  • Movie from Honda about an autonomous driving test of the company on the grounds of GoMentum station of 23 July 2015; accessed on 15 January 2016 – provides an interesting insight into the area.

38°00′53″N 122°00′31″W / 38.01472°N 122.00861°W / 38.01472; -122.00861