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Self-driving cars

Another state gets serious about self-driving cars

USA TODAY

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Add the Buckeye State to the list of those getting serious about self-driving cars.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich talks about the state's efforts to get in on self-driving cars

An automotive test track and proving ground in central Ohio –- the country's largest not owned by an automaker -– will update to allow the testing of self-driving vehicles using $45 million in state grants.

With the investment, the Transportation Research Center in East Liberty, which partners with Ohio State University, aligns itself with the auto industry's thrust to bring autonomous vehicles to mainstream car buyers.

The TRC plans to build the industry's largest high-speed intersection, where connected vehicles can approach at full speed while relying on technology to allow them to pass within seconds of each other. The facility will also feature an urban network with traffic lights and roundabouts, plus a rural section with wooded roads.

Several automakers, including Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Volvo and Volkswagen, have vowed to begin selling fully autonomous or mostly autonomous vehicles within the next five years. Traditional automakers are under intense pressure from newcomers such as Apple, Tesla and Waymo –- the new name for Google’s Self-Driving Car Project -– that are exploring self-driving cars and technology.

Ohio's Transportation Research Center, which is near Honda's U.S. research and development headquarters, hosts the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's only research and test laboratory, where the agency developed guidelines for the auto industry to follow in bringing self-driving cars to market.

With the updates to the TRC, automakers can pay to test their vehicles on the same roads where those standards were developed, said Mark-Tami Hotta, director of the TRC.

Gov. John Kasich is asking the state to dedicate $12.5 million from the two-year state budget.

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