A proving ground is an installation or reservation in which technology such as weapons, military tactics and automobile prototypes are experimented with or tested.
Proving grounds can be operated by government bodies or civilian industries.
They are distinct from military training areas which are run by the military and intended for the routine training and exercising of troops across the terrain.
In the United States, there are several military facilities that have been explicitly designated as proving grounds.
With the advent of self-driving cars, new proving grounds specially dedicated for them have appeared, and existing conventional proving grounds have been retooled for the testing of highly automated or fully autonomous vehicles.