google carIn closed areas, private carparks, or an empty race track, testing out a self-driving car is no issue as you won’t have to worry about running over pedestrians or hitting other cars. If there were to be any damage, it would be contained, but we suppose eventually this testing needs to be done in real life if manufacturers want to make self-driving cars a reality.

Well the good news is that it looks like the state of Virginia is on board with self-driving cars as more than 70 miles of the state’s Northern highways will be opened to self-driving cars for testing purposes. Dubbed Virginia Automated Corridors, the tests will be overseen by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institution and will cover Interstates 95, 495 and 66 as well as on U.S. 29 and U.S. 50.

According to Myra Blanco, the director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, “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.” This will no doubt prove to be a challenge for companies looking to develop self-driving cars.

This should allow cars to be pushed to their limits in a real-life scenario where there will be many cars and drivers on the road, thus forcing the cars and their computers to adapt and react quickly to the various styles of driving on the road, so here’s hoping to successful tests in the future!

Filed in Transportation. Read more about .

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