A Tour of CR's New $1 Million ADAS Auto Test Loop

The Y-intersection on the ADAS test loop at the Consumer Reports Auto Test Center in Connecticut.

Published May 4, 2023

By Andy Bergmann, Mike Monticello

More than half of new cars today come with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that can automate certain driving functions. “When ADAS technology is done right, it can make driving safer and easier,” says Kelly Funkhouser, Consumer Reports’ manager of vehicle technology. “But poorly designed systems can put drivers at risk.”

We built the 1.5-mile ADAS test loop at our Auto Test Center so that we could safely evaluate these increasingly common systems. The $1 million loop is designed to the specifications of U.S. public roadways and with features including curves, hills, split lanes, lane merges, and exit ramps, allowing us to test ADAS functions such as lane centering assistance, lane departure warning, and adaptive cruise control in real-world driving scenarios.

Y-INTERSECTION

This section mimics when a lane splits off to the right, without any dotted lines to deter the vehicle from heading in that direction. We use it to see if the car’s steering assistance system keeps the vehicle heading straight, or if it veers over to an off-ramp the driver didn’t intend to take.

BLIND SPOT

This two-lane section of the track lets us evaluate how well blind spot warning systems alert the driver that there is a vehicle in an adjacent lane. We can also test how well different manufacturers’ automatic lane change systems work.

LANE SPLIT

This section evaluates a steering assistance system’s “decision-making” ability. After a curve, the road splits from a single lane into two lanes, allowing us to observe whether the system chooses the left lane or the right lane, or just “gives up” and disengages.

STEEP HILL

Here, the loop heads up a steep hill with a curve, which causes the camera systems on many vehicles to point toward the sky. We’re testing how well the systems make predictions about where the lane lines (and the road) are headed with limited visibility.

LARGE CURVES

This long, sweeping curve allows us to see whether the driver assistance system can recognize the bend ahead, potentially even reducing the speed of the adaptive cruise control to help the steering assistance system keep the vehicle within the lane lines.

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Andy Bergmann

Andy is the director of design and data at CR. His data-driven design work has been featured on CNN, FastCo, Washington Post, NPR, NBA, and Sports Illustrated. He was formerly an executive creative director at CNN and is the author of "The Starry Giraffe" (Simon & Schuster). Follow him on Twitter: @dubly

Mike Monticello

Mike Monticello is the manager of road tests and reviews for the autos team at Consumer Reports. He has been with CR since 2016. Mike has been evaluating and writing about cars for nearly 25 years, having previously worked at Road & Track magazine and Edmunds.com. On the weekends, he usually switches from four wheels to two, riding one of his mountain bikes or motorcycles. Follow him on Twitter @MikeMonticello.