Out in the middle of a desert a company is building something that at first glance seems utterly pointless: A fake city. Capable of holding an entirely imaginary population of 35,000 people this city will have an industrial sector, a suburban centre and even a park.
There’s just one thing that’s missing, and that’s people. Instead this city is going to be filled with robots, from drones to self-driving cars to DARPA’s life-saving superhero ‘bots.
Being built by the Center for Innovation Testing and Evaluation this giant complex is actually being modelled on the ‘Nuclear Towns’ in the 50s that were used by the US Military to test the first atomic bombs.
The hope is that this giant city-sized laboratory will be able to help Google, Amazon and even Apple test the new generation of automated robots without the risk of them actually crashing into buildings full of real people.
Construction will finish within the next year or so and companies can begin testing after then.
With regulators in the UK and the US remaining incredibly cautious about the benefits of drones, the city will act as a template upon which tech companies can perfect their products.
Source: Huffington Post