German cars learning US traffic regulations

Mercedes-Benz is expanding its research activities in the US, now that it has received a licence permitting it to test autonomous vehicles on public roads in California. The company says it now plans to take autonomous driving to a new level in the US, despite the differences between US and German traffic systems, which it says are vast. While motoring in Germany commonly takes place on narrow roads, the roads in the USA are frequently wider and may have more than six or even eight lanes. Traffic lights
September 19, 2014 Read time: 3 mins
1685 Mercedes-Benz is expanding its research activities in the US, now that it has received a licence permitting it to test autonomous vehicles on public roads in California.

The company says it now plans to take autonomous driving to a new level in the US, despite the differences between US and German traffic systems, which it says are vast. While motoring in Germany commonly takes place on narrow roads, the roads in the USA are frequently wider and may have more than six or even eight lanes. Traffic lights are installed on the opposite side of the road, there are numerous scenarios for merging onto roads and at a so-called four-way stop the first to reach the junction is allowed to go first.

"These are all situations which do not exist in this form in Germany," explains Axel Gern, head of Autonomous Driving at 5403 Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America (MBRDNA). "So we need to teach our research vehicles these situations here in the USA." In future, these vehicles will be tested on the road almost every day. As in the test drives in Germany, these research vehicles from Mercedes-Benz in the USA are also current models belonging to the S- and E-Class.

Professor Thomas Weber, member of the board of management of Daimler responsible for Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development, says: "Through our new research activities we aim to promote the topic specifically in the USA, as the traffic system in the USA differs from the system in Germany in numerous aspects. The knowledge that Mercedes-Benz gains will help to achieve significant strides in the further technological development of autonomous driving,"

The autonomous cars are driven by specially trained test drivers. The cars are specially equipped with safety features; the driver must recognise clearly when the car is in autonomous driving mode and must be able to override this mode at any time; in addition, the car must be capable of stopping autonomously at any time.

"In Germany, we demonstrated in the Bertha-Benz drive back in August 2013 that autonomous driving is technically possible in complex urban and rural traffic," observes Thomas Weber. "With the test drives in California we are now broadening the horizon for our research vehicles by additionally teaching them American traffic regulations."
Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • December 17, 2013
    Drive C2X tests ITS systems in Finland’s demanding weather conditions
    The VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland is involved in an extensive international Drive C2X project that tests and develops intelligent transport solutions, aimed at improving safety and efficiency in road traffic and reducing the carbon footprint of motoring. The project includes large-scale testing of inter-vehicle communication and communication between vehicles and the roadside infrastructure system. The tests are being carried out using cars from Mercedes-Benz, Opel and Volvo in slippery and deman
    Read More
  • July 21, 2016
    Daimler launches its ‘bus of the future’
    Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz Future Bus made its first autonomous trip on a public road recently, when it was driven at speeds of up to 70 km/h on a section of a bus rapid transit route in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The 20 kilometre route, which links Schiphol Airport with the town of Haarlem, provided a challenge for the bus, with its numerous bends, tunnels and traffic signals. Although a driver was on board for safety reasons, for the most part the bus met the challenge autonomously, stopping at bus sto
    Read More
  • November 2, 2016
    Ertico coordinates big data debate
    David Crawford finds that agreeing a common data standard for auto manufacturers’ onboard sensors, navigation system companies and map makers is proving a complex task.
    Read More
  • April 16, 2012
    VISSIM benefits from German SKRIBT research project
    SKRIBT, a research project which is part of the ‘Research for Civil Security’ programme funded by Germany's Federal Ministry of Education, has focused on protecting critical bridges and tunnels. PTV, which was one of the research project's 10 consortium partners, says the knowledge and expertise gained from this project have been used for the company’s traffic simulation tool VISSIM. SKRIBT (Schutz kritischer Brücken und Tunnel im Zuge von Straßen) analysed threat scenarios, such as storm, flooding, expl
    Read More

Highlighted Content