RELATED: Honda to invest $124M for new wind tunnel in East Liberty
Employees showed how they test automatic emergency breaking to prevent a car from hitting a pedestrian crossing the street or to stop a car from backing in to a child.
“If the driver does not apply the break then the vehicle stops itself or slows down itself,” said Mark-Tami Hotta, TRC president and CEO.
The automatic breaking technology applies to other cars, too, he said. All those tests and much more are happening at the research center, the largest independent proving grounds in North America.
The facility is owned by Honda of America Manufacturing, but has many different customers, Hotta said. Honda is a major regional employer, with 1,400 workers from Clark and Champaign counties.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s testing center is at the research center.
“We’d like to say that we’re the epicenter,” Hotta said. “We’re the largest, we’re independent.”
Chao was invited to tour the facility by Portman, she said, who wanted to show her the work done in Ohio.
“It has been so impressive to view this whole facility, to meet the wonderful professionals that are so dedicated to reducing highway fatalities and injuries and to improving our country’s infrastructure,” Chao said.
The TRC is a major employer in Logan County with more than 450 employees and more than 1,000 customers, and it could see more due to expansions in the near future.
RELATED: Honda’s Logan County plant plays major role in redesign of CR-V
“With the new expansion, we anticipate the customers will increase,” Hotta said. “Therefore our support needs will increase so will local jobs as well local spending in the economy.”
Honda recently announced it will invest $124 million to build a high-tech wind tunnel at the research facility. Construction of the wind tunnel is expected to begin this spring, the Springfield News-Sun previously reported, and should be operational by summer 2020.
The tunnel will be able to produce wind speeds of up to 192 miles per hour.
The research center also recently announced plans to build a new SMART Center, Smart Mobility Advanced Research and Test Center. The funding for the $45 million first phase has already been secured, Hotta said.
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