As regional leaders prepare for challenges that are to result from the massive Foxconn Technology Group plant in southeastern Wisconsin, the possibility of driverless vehicles is being studied as one way to deal with traffic issues.
State highway planners are studying the possibility of including special lanes for driverless vehicles on Interstate 94 (I-94), Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce president Tim Sheehy said.
There are currently no highway lanes dedicated to autonomous vehicles, a US Department of Transportation spokesman said.
State money has been earmarked to widen I-94 to eight lanes and improve local roads as Foxconn, known in Taiwan as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, develops a US$10 billion flat-screen manufacturing plant in Mount Pleasant, about 40km south of Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The facility could employ 3,000 to 13,000 people, Foxconn said.
State transportation planners are considering many options to deal with the plant’s traffic, said Michael Pyritz, a spokesman for the transportation department’s southeast region.
“It’s on the table,” Pyritz said of dedicated lanes for driverless vehicles. “But boy, there’s a lot of stuff on the table.”
One possibility includes putting driverless lanes between the plant and Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport to help move supplies and products to and from the factory, Sheehy said.
The autonomous vehicles are still in the testing stages.
Foxconn is best known for producing the iPhone for Apple.
In Wisconsin, the company is receiving US$3 billion in state incentives and could get as much as US$764 million in local assistance and infrastructure spending for the factory.
The company believes the panels built at the factory are to be used in a number of different fields, including crowd security, medicine, advanced manufacturing and driverless car displays.
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