Autonomy is evolutionary, not revolutionary, so industry excitement must be balanced with a
strong focus on the more technical aspects such as the need to comprehensively test
automated driving functions before launching them to the market.

It is the less attention-grabbing, grassroots research and development that will play a key role in making
autonomous vehicles part of our day-to-day mobility mix.

Validation of Automated Driving Systems
Real-world vehicle testing is essential to better understand how automated driving functions
respond to everyday driving situations. This is why the MOVE_UK project is collecting key
intelligence from a fleet of production vehicles driven on public roads.

Continue reading The biggest challenges being faced in the world of autonomous driving at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

Testing lies at the root of any innovation. In the case of autonomous vehicles, it’s crucial not only for safety, but also for ironing out kinks in development and ultimately persuading people that cars without drivers are a good idea.

However, as has already been seen, when AVs, or rather the people responsible for them, get it wrong in real-world scenarios, the effects can sometimes be devastating.

Unsurprisingly, those involved in developing AVs spend a good deal of time testing in virtual worlds. Thanks to advances in computing power and software, it’s now possible to create any kind of urban environment in which to test, plus being able to layer on a wealth of everyday scenarios involving virtual people means that nobody gets hurt.

Continue reading Sim cities: How virtual worlds for testing AVs are built at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

Jaguar Land Rover has taken a major step toward its promise of delivering fully autonomous vehicles within 10 years after a self-driving Range Rover successfully navigated a complex public road route in the UK.

The prototype Range Rover Sport, which had been modified to include additional navigation sensors as well as radar and lidar, took to the challenging Coventry Ring Road, which is known for its difficult conditions. The vehicle was able to drive with traffic, change lanes, and handle junctions and exits at the speed limit of 40mph without the need for human intervention.

The trial is part of UK Autodrive – a £20m (US$26.3m) government-funded project that had been running for the past three years and concludes later this month.

Continue reading Self-driving Range Rover trialled on UK roads at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

The city of Beijing has granted Daimler a licence to test Level 4 AVs on designated roads around the city. This makes it the first car manufacturer outside China to be allowed to test AVs in China’s capital.

The first of these licences were awarded in March, when Chinese tech company Baidu was granted the first five T3 temporary licence plates. Daimler is now partnering with Baidu for technology development, making it the first car maker outside China to obtain such a licence in Beijing.

Daimler’s test teams will now be able to use 33 roads totalling 105km outside the Fifth Ring Road and away from densely populated areas.

Continue reading Daimler is first non-Chinese car maker to obtain Beijing AV testing licence at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

The city of Shanghai in China has granted BMW a Shanghai Intelligent Connected Autonomous Driving Test Licence, which will allow the car maker to test Level 4 AVs on selected roads totalling 5.6km.

BMW is the first European manufacturer to obtain the licence and follows two Chinese companies – SAIC Motor and electric vehicle startup Nio, neither of which sell cars in Europe or the USA – which were awarded licences at the beginning of March.

BMW will deploy a test fleet of 7 Series fitted with autonomous technology. It will start with two cars in May and add up to seven by December.

Continue reading BMW receives testing licence for Shanghai at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

Ohio Governor John Kasich signed an executive order on May 9 to open the state’s roads to AV test programs. Ohio joins 33 other US states to have announced AV initiatives, issued executive orders or enacted legislation to allow the testing of autonomous vehicles.

The five-page document states that Ohio wants to “maintain its leadership role nationally and globally as a premier testing ground for autonomous vehicle technologies.”

It will allow the testing of Level 3-5 AVs on all public roads and highways. Provisions are included for the testing of AVs without an operator in the vehicle, although in that case, authorities need to be informed of the routes and areas in which testing will be performed.

Continue reading Ohio welcomes autonomous vehicle testing to its roads at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

Siemens PLM Software has announced a partnership with the American Center for Mobility (ACM) to share its Siemens Simulation and Test solution with the non-profit testing, education and product development facility.

The ACM is one of 10 USDOT-designated AV proving grounds and was designed to enable safe validation and self-certification of connected and automated vehicle technology, and to accelerate the development of voluntary standards. The aim of its partnership with Siemens is to support the virtual and physical testing and validation of automated and connected vehicles.

The ACM will benefit mainly from Siemens’s Simcenter software portfolio, which includes PreScan, a simulation environment that produces realistic, physics-based simulation of raw sensor data for potential driving scenarios and traffic situations.

Continue reading Siemens collaborates with American Center for Mobility on AV testing at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

Select districts of Frisco, Texas, will be able to make use of free, on-demand AVs from July of this year when the California-based self-driving car company Drive.ai begins the deployment of a number of Level 4 autonomous driverless vehicles in the city.

The AVs will operate for six months within a geofenced area of the city and can be hailed to fixed pick-up and drop-off locations using a smartphone application. Drive.ai estimates that during the six-month pilot, the service will offer rides to 10,000 people.

This pilot program is a model for the deployment of self-driving vehicles in a public setting.

Continue reading On-demand self-driving car service pilot to be launched in Texas at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

The first on-road trial of autonomous vehicles in New Zealand will enter a second phase in 2018 with the addition of the first vehicle designed and built locally. The ohmio Lift will be trialled on private roads at Christchurch Airport.

Ohmio Automation chief executive Stephen Matthews said this first build of the self-driving ohmio Lift is a significant milestone for the company. “It is proof of our capability and realisation of our world-class driverless vehicle technology, pioneered in New Zealand,” he said.

“We are very excited to partner with Christchurch Airport. Their vison to realise the future allows us to demonstrate ohmio vehicles successfully operating as a first-mile last-mile strategy in the airport context.

Continue reading Ohmio: Autonomous vehicle to join on-road trial in New Zealand at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

AB Dynamics has developed a computer-controlled carrier for vulnerable road user (VRU) targets, LaunchPad, designed for use in ADAS and autonomous vehicle test scenarios.

“Testing using soft targets is vital to ensure active vehicle systems respond as intended, but as we move towards autonomy the test scenarios are becoming much more complex,” said Jeremy Ash, commercial manager, AB Dynamics.

“LaunchPad forms an essential part of our portfolio, ensuring that all aspects of a real-world test scenario can be precisely represented and controlled. As all of our equipment uses the same software, they can be easily choreographed with the subject vehicle.

Continue reading New VRU carrier for ADAS and autonomous vehicle testing at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.