Overview
Mobility, especially the automotive industry is facing enormous changes through dynamic developments in the fields of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving. Car manufacturers push these technologies to a very high extend and the high number of initiatives planned for testing autonomous vehicles worldwide shows the existing awareness for the forthcoming change.
From the technological perspective, an intelligent combination of analysis, simulation, virtual testing and formal verification incorporating new methods and quantifiable measures is now indispensable. Besides the variety of technical challenges to be solved, framework conditions and a high acceptance among the population for autonomous driving need to be built up.
AVL, Magna Steyr, VIRTUAL VEHICLE (ViF), Joanneum Research (JR) and the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) as core partners aim with ALP.Lab to set up a test centre and innovative environment for autonomous driving passenger cars in Austria, with the following unique selling propositions:
- Comprehensive range of private and public test tracks with focus on traffic situations specific to Austria (tunnels, narrow radii on highways, mountain roads, toll stations, etc.), as well as on Austrian-specific weather conditions (snow, rain, low sun, etc.).
- Unique combination of a mobile and a road-linked data acquisition concept and full digital consistency on all test stages (from simulation to public road testing) for the testing of technologies on all 6 SAE levels (independent from the degree of automation).
- Involvement of all relevant stakeholders in the core consortium (science, applied research and development, manufacturers, infrastructure operators, cities and communities, etc.), as well as close coordination and involvement of existing test regions throughout Europe from the very first beginning.
With ALP.Lab as comprehensive test environment for ADAS technologies Austria as location will have the one-time opportunity to position itself as a frontrunner, thereby ensuring Austria and all players in the value chain an immense competitive advantage and significantly shaping the forthcoming system transformation.