The 'fake city' built especially for testing autonomous vehicles

Waymo plans to test all kinds of autonomous vehicles at its new facility in Ohio. — Waymo/AFP

Waymo, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet, plans to reproduce real-world city driving conditions in an artificial environment built in Ohio, United States. This fake city will be used to test autonomous vehicles – driverless cars and trucks – in a variety of urban scenarios.

The project is being built in collaboration with the Transportation Research Center (TRC) on a site situated near East Liberty, Ohio. As well as carrying out driving simulations adapted to the city and the road, Waymo also plans to use the new facility to test its vehicles in all kinds of weather conditions, including snow.