New renderings released during this week’s Florida Autonomous Vehicle Summit in Tampa reveal the latest vision for America’s new center for transportation advancement in Florida: SunTrax.
Situated on 475 acres in Polk County, SunTrax is composed of a 2.25-mile-long, high-speed oval test track around a 200-acre infield. The multi-lane track will make it the only high-speed autonomous vehicle testing facility in the southeastern United States.
The high-speed oval track will be complete and available for rental use next spring.
“As a high-tech hub for the research, development and testing of emerging transportation technologies, SunTrax places Florida at the forefront of the connected and autonomous vehicle industry,” said Paul Wai, Executive Director and CEO of Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise.
Slated to be complete by spring 2021, SunTrax’s 200-acre infield will feature various segmented testing environments including:
- An urban area to simulate intersection configurations and complex lighting, signing and signalization conditions,
- A roadway geometry track made up of complex horizontal and vertical curves, plus irregular grade changes,
- A pick-up/drop-off area to replicate various multi-modal passenger transfers, such as airports and transit centers, and
- An augmented reality pad to create immersive, computer-generated environments.
When fully operational, SunTrax will provide various testing spaces to aid in the study of tolling technology, lane marking, intelligent transportation systems and connected and autonomous vehicles.
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