ARPA-E Nextcar Field Day
Field Evaluations of Vehicle Energy Efficiency for Next-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Automated On-Road Vehicles (NEXTCAR) Phase II Technologies
Under the ARPA-E Award No. DE-AR0001916 with American Center for Mobility for Field Evaluations of Vehicle Energy Efficiency for NEXTCAR Phase II Technologies, ACM and its project partners, National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Leidos and Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI), have accomplished testing and validation of energy savings improvements through connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies developed by Michigan Technological University, Ohio State University, Southwest Research Institute and University of California, Berkeley.
We are pleased to announce that an on-site field-day event on June 05, 2025, will be organized at ACM to demonstrate the energy efficiency improvements of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J3016 Level-4 capable NEXTCAR Phase-II light duty vehicles.
On field-day, the participants will experience a combination of mixed augmented reality with wearable AR goggles with integrated traffic simulations and ACM on-track vehicle-in-the-loop (VIL) testing under targeted scenarios with different levels of traffic density that have been developed by ACM and its project partners to evaluate the energy efficiency improvements of NEXTCAR Phase-II light duty vehicles.
Participants will have the opportunity to engage directly with the NEXTCAR and ACM project teams, gaining firsthand insights into their cutting-edge innovations, project goals, and the collaborative work driving advancements in mobility.
The Field Day event is open to all. Please register and RSVP to reserve your seat:
For more information, please contact the project PI: [email protected]
Agenda
| 8:00 AM | Project Team Setup | 30 minutes |
| 8:30 AM | Event inauguration ARPA-E ACM | 10 minutes |
| 8:40 AM | Event Briefing by project PI | 10 minutes |
| 8:50 AM |
Program and Project Overview
|
1 hour |
| 9:50 AM | Mini break / DOE delegates head towards ACM track for field day on-site demo | 10 minutes |
| 10:00 AM | Track Demo Round I (DOE delegates) | 1 hour |
| 10:00 AM |
Technical Overview Session NEXTCAR teams' booths open for presentation & post ACM, NREL, Leidos and MTRI booths open for presentation ACM site visit (EV testbed and tracks) Private Meeting rooms available for team participants and industry delegates |
2 ½ hours |
| 11:00 AM |
Track Demo Round II Field Day Demo opens to all participants |
1 ½ hours |
| 12:30 PM | Lunch | 1 hour |
| 1:30 PM |
Track Demo Round III Field Day Demo opens to all participants |
3 hours |
| 1:30 PM | Technical Overview Session (continuation) | 3 hours |
| 4:30 PM |
Event Closing remarks and feedback ARPA-E NEXTCAR teams ACM and project team |
30 minutes |
| 5:00 PM | Networking snacks and drinks | 1 hour |
| 6:00 PM |
About NEXTCAR program:
Recent rapid advances in driver assistance technologies and the deployment of vehicles with increased levels of connectivity and automation have created multiple opportunities to improve the efficiency of future vehicle fleets beyond in new ways. The projects that make up ARPA-E's NEXTCAR Program, short for "NEXT-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Automated On-Road Vehicles," are enabling technologies that use connectivity and automation to co-optimize vehicle dynamic controls and powertrain operation, thereby reducing energy consumption of the vehicle. Vehicle dynamic and powertrain control technologies, implemented on a single vehicle basis, across a cohort of cooperating vehicles, or across the entire vehicle fleet, could significantly improve individual vehicle and ultimately fleet energy efficiency.
About ACM ‘METRICS’ project:
Funded by the DOE/ARPA-E, the “Measurement of Energy Efficiency through Track Testing within Augmented Reality Integrated Simulations for CAV System (METRICS)” project supports small-scale research, testing, and validation of the four ARPA-E NEXTCAR II teams to support further quantification of the energy benefits of eco-driving applications over realistic real-world driving and dynamic operational scenarios to inform development of future energy efficiency criteria for these technologies.
About ACM:
Located in Southeast Michigan on over 500-acres at the historic Willow Run site in Ypsilanti, the American Center for Mobility (ACM) is a global development center for transforming the way industries advance safe, sustainable, and secure mobility technologies. ACM offers: an Advanced Mobility Proving Ground with test environments featuring specialized infrastructure, equipment, facilities and resources; An EV Charging testbed for testing EV charger performance; An innovation and technology campus with an industrial tech park for the co-location of mobility companies; Event and demonstration areas for showcasing mobility technologies and convening industry activities. The American Center for Mobility is open to private industry, start-ups, government, standards bodies, and academia.