Bad weather on demand. (WIP).

Realizing that bad driving conditions (wet, snowy) could be good business, Virginia's Department of Transportation and Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute have jointly developed a test bed for automotive test engineers dubbed the "Smart Road" that provides rain and snow (and coming soon: fog) on demand. Fourteen different sections of pavement make up the road and each layer of each segment are fitted with sensors that monitor factors like ambient temperature, moisture penetration and material stress. Data from the road and from instrumented vehicles that travel on it is gathered through a fiber optic network that is linked to a wireless communication system. This data collection grid was designed to be "self-healing," meaning that information can travel down many redundant pathways from one point to another, so if one connection is broken, many others are available. (The Smart Road's designers consulted with construction giant Bechtel, which engineered the electrical conduits for Boston's Big Dig, before any cable was laid. Bechtel's advice: determine what you need then double it, then double it again.)

The bad weather coveted by test engineers is created by 75 towers that sprout irregularly-patterned water nozzles from their overhanging arms. Air and water pressure and flow can be adjusted to create conditions from a fine mist to a drenching rain. The system can generate two inches of rain an hour or four inches of snow when the temperature is low enough.

Automotive companies that want to test lighting or nighttime visibility systems can utilize the Smart Road's flexible road lighting setup. Designed to simulate conditions just about anywhere on the planet, each height-adjustable light pole is equipped with three different kinds of highway luminaries. The light poles are spaced so that 40-, 60-, 80- and 120-meter distance intervals can be replicated.

The Transportation Institute has worked with several automakers including GM, Ford and Volvo either on joint research or simply as a provider of the Smart Road's many technological goodies. (During one project, GM demanded such secrecy that a corps of cadets from Virginia Tech were brought in to provide security.) They are currently testing suspensions with Volvo, and pursuing a project with Visteon on vehicle rollover. And, though it is run by Virginia Tech, the Smart Road is also open for research conducted by other universities. One such project was a drunk driving simulation coordinated by Johns Hopkins University, where the Institute provided the high-tech monitoring and even the paramedic service, but not, officials are quick to point out, the booze.