MITRE, a government-sponsored nonprofit research organisation, has announced a partnership with Mcity at the University of Michigan to develop a virtual and physical autonomous vehicle (AV) validation platform for industry deployment. The collaboration, announced during the NVIDIA AI Summit in Washington, D.C., aims to address the current regulatory challenges facing the AV industry.
As part of this collaboration, MITRE will use Mcity's simulation tools and a digital twin of its Mcity Test Facility, a real-world AV test environment, in its Digital Proving Ground (DPG). The joint platform will deliver physically based sensor simulation enabled by NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud Sensor RTX APIs.
The current regulatory environment for AVs is highly fragmented, posing significant challenges for widespread deployment. Companies navigate regulations at various levels — city, state and the federal government — without a clear path to large-scale deployment. MITRE and Mcity aim to address this ambiguity with comprehensive validation resources open to the entire industry.
Mcity currently operates a 32-acre mock city for automakers and researchers to test their technology. Mcity is also building a digital framework around its physical proving ground to provide developers with AV data and simulation tools.
One of the largest gaps in the regulatory framework is the absence of universally accepted safety standards that the industry and regulators can rely on. The lack of common standards leaves regulators with limited tools to verify AV performance and safety in a repeatable manner, while companies struggle to demonstrate the maturity of their AV technology.
By providing both physical and digital resources to validate AVs, MITRE and Mcity will be able to offer a safe, universally accessible solution that addresses the complexity of verifying autonomy.
A core piece of this collaboration is sensor simulation, which models the physics and behaviour of cameras, lidars, radars and ultrasonic sensors on a physical vehicle, as well as how these sensors interact with their surroundings. Sensor simulation enables developers to train against and test rare and dangerous scenarios safely in virtual settings.
MITRE and its ecosystem are actively developing the Digital Proving Ground platform to facilitate industry-wide standards and regulations. The platform will be an open and accessible national resource for accelerating safe AV development and deployment, providing a trusted simulation test environment.
Mcity will contribute simulation infrastructure, a digital twin and the ability to seamlessly connect virtual and physical worlds with NVIDIA Omniverse. By integrating this virtual proving ground into DPG, the collaboration will also accelerate the development and use of advanced digital engineering and simulation for AV safety assurance.
As developers, automakers and regulators continue to collaborate, the industry is moving closer to a future where AVs can operate safely and at scale. The establishment of a repeatable testbed for validating safety — across real and simulated environments — will be critical to gaining public trust and regulatory approval, bringing the promise of AVs closer to reality.