Changing the Future of Mobility: Advanced Transportation Innovation

1/15/2016

Research partnerships and innovations from the University of Michigan and our industry partners are creating exciting advances in automobile and other forms of transportation. U-M researchers are key contributors in many areas, including electrification technologies, digital solutions (connected vehicles and mobility), advanced materials (safety and improved fuel economy) and energy enhancements (battery development, wireless charging and thermal management).

Nowhere is this potential more evident than in the rapidly evolving area of transportation wireless communications. Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) and Vehicle to Pedestrian (V2P) communications are improving the safety, sustainability and accessibility of the transportation environment. At the U-M Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), Dedicated Short-Range Communication applications detect potential hazards in a vehicle’s path, even those the driver does not see.

Advances in the monitoring and controlling of vehicles bring new risks largely due to inadequate security provided by the Controller Area Network (CAN), the de facto standard for in-vehicle networks. U-M inventors from the College of Engineering, Dr. Kang Shin and Dr. Kyusuk Han, and from UMTRI, Dr. Andre Weimerskirch, collaborated to develop a novel protocol called ID Anonymization for CAN (IA-CAN), which enhances the security of automotive communications while minimizing performance overhead. Safeguards similar to those in online banking will be essential for the electronic control of vehicles, and IA-CAN may provide the solution for a safe environment.

In addition, the University of Michigan created the Mobility Transformation Center (MTC) with a team of industry, government and academic partners in 2015 to develop a commercially viable ecosystem of connected and automated vehicles. As part of this partnership, U-M has constructed Mcity, a unique 32-acre facility for evaluating the capabilities of connected and automated vehicles and systems.