Research Center for Autonomous Road Vehicles

Despite the recent pair of fatal crashes involving self-driving cars, there’s wide agreement that autonomous vehicles will sharply reduce the number of people who die in motor vehicle accidents. In the U.S. alone, traffic accidents claim more than 30,000 lives a year; experts say that by the middle of this century, that toll could fall by up to 90 percent.

“I think we’re going to be really surprised by how many things change,” says Dr. Chris Gerdes, director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford University.

Driverless cars may not end America’s long-running love affair with the automobile. But with fleets of autonomous vehicles offering low-cost, convenient transportation that can be summoned in minutes, fewer people may want to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to own and maintain their own vehicle.

“We’re moving to a future where people don’t own cars,” says Dr. Daniel Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis.

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The intelligent road Aurora, completed in the autumn of 2017, offers the opportunity to test intelligent transport systems and proactive road condition management by providing the supporting physical infrastructure and data services.

The 10-kilometre intelligent road section  offers the opportunities for testing automated vehicles and their related technologies in challenging road and weather conditions. The road is equipped to support the technical performance of the vehicles.

“Now we can see how automated driving affects the road network and the demands this places on winter road maintenance. The authorities, especially those which plan, build and maintain the road network, are now offered the opportunity to gain useful information about road maintenance and management”, says Reija Viinanen, Director of Aurora Collaboration.

In addition to the authorities, clients also benefit from this opportunity: “The road users’ services, which are based on real-time data gained about the road and road conditions, form the cornerstones of intelligent transport. Our objective is safe and smooth transport”, says Viinanen.

Source: www.liikennevirasto.fi

You can read the original article here.

The South Korean government opens the K-City in October this year. It is the world’s largest test bed for self-driving cars. In the K-City, self-driving car developers can repeat their tests with various scenarios and road environments.

In November last year, the government allowed trial self-driving car operation across the country. The opening of the K-City is to provide more assistance for the developers by offering the testing ground as large as a city. A large number of South Korean companies, such as SK Telecom, Naver and Samsung Electronics as well as automakers like Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors, are expected to gather in the area to refine their technology and services.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport of South Korea, the K-City is currently under construction based on the intelligent transportation system of the Korea Transportation Safety Authority. The facility with an area of approximately 360,000 square meters is scheduled to be equipped with bus-only lanes, expressways, zones for autonomous parking and so on.

Source: www.traffictechnologytoday.com

You can read the original article here.

The CityPilot autonomous bus technology of Mercedes-Benz, used by the company’s Future Bus vehicles, made a trip in the Netherlands that signals the next step toward the implementation of self-driving vehicles in public transportation.

The CityPilot technology was adapted to take into account the specific requirements for a city bus to operate, with radar, GPS and a dozen cameras built into the Future Bus to detect obstacles, pedestrians and traffic signals.

According to the automobile manufacturer, the Future Bus powered by CityPilot is capable of reaching top speeds of 43 miles per hour or about 70 kilometers per hour, on the open road, and is able to recognize objects and people. The bus is also capable of making precise stops at pick-up locations, opening and closing its door before moving automatically.

Source: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/170436/20160719/mercedes-benz-self-driving-future-bus-made-landmark-12-mile-trip-across-amsterdam.htm

In the field of autonomous vehicles BME is planning the development of multilevel and efficient laboratories, recruitment of talented foreign students and reaching international scientific results.

“The pillars of RECAR (Research Center for Autonomous Road Vehicles) are education, research and a Hungarian test track” – summarized Zsolt Szalay, Head of Department of Automobiles and Vehicle Manufacturing.

In the “Future cars” workshop Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, claimed that the test track (which enables testing of autonomous vehicles) is a profitable investment on national level.

The full article can be reached on the website of BME (in Hungarian)!

BME and ELTE in cooperation with RECAR are planning the launch of 2 bilingual masters programmes:  both will start in February of 2018. The graduates of the Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering of BME will be awarded an engineer title and the graduates of the Faculty of Informatics of ELTE will be awarded the computer engineer title.

“One of BME’s main objective is to offer quality masters programmes, we have now a new addition for our line” – told us BME’s rector.

You can find a Hungarian press release here with some additional information!

The rector of the BME has signed a cooperation with 2 well-known global multinational companies Bosch and Knorr Bremse. This is a very special moment: BME as leader in higher educational engineering studies,  ELTE as leader in natural science studies and the SZTAKI academic research institute,  which highly specialises in autonomous vehicle resarch have banded together with the mentioned global giants to make these MSc courses a reality. “According to the signed letter of intent, the programmes will be launched as soon as the accreditation is granted to these faculties. With this, we will further further develope the industry and raise the number of innovative researches.” – Józsa János added.

Details can be found here.

The development of intelligent vehicles is being helped with the Audi TT simulator, which is located within the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) grounds. We get a real-time animation  of the vehicle and it’s surroundings, which is projected on the windshield of the vehicle, with the help of information gained  highly complex models from it’s drive train, brake systems, steering systems, wheels, running geers. This makes the simulator a unique driving experience.

Acting according to the current research trends, we have founded RECAR in September 2015, with the initiation of BME. Soon ELTE and MTA-SZTAKI have joined the new autonomous vehicle research project.