German towns to test self-driving cars

Five German towns, Hamburg, Munich, Ingolstadt, Düsseldorf, Dresden and Braunschweig are to become testing grounds for self-driving cars, Minister for Transport Alexander Dobrindt has told tabloid Bild am Sonntag. Dobrindt made the announcement at the start of a funding programme for automated driving, for which the Ministry of Transport will provide US$89 million (€80 million) in funds towards a research project by 2020. He said: “Automated driving systems are gradually taking effect. Automated braki
August 10, 2016 Read time: 1 min
Five German towns, Hamburg, Munich, Ingolstadt, Düsseldorf, Dresden and Braunschweig are to become testing grounds for self-driving cars, Minister for Transport Alexander Dobrindt has told tabloid Bild am Sonntag.

Dobrindt made the announcement at the start of a funding programme for automated driving, for which the Ministry of Transport will provide US$89 million (€80 million) in funds towards a research project by 2020.

He said: “Automated driving systems are gradually taking effect. Automated braking assistants and digital driving are already reality. In five years, we will have standard highly-automated systems that steer our cars digitally along the motorway.”

During the pilot phase, tests will determine whether self-driving cars recognise traffic lights, crossroads and other obstacles in road traffic. So far, self-driving cars have been tested mainly on motorways in less complex conditions.
Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • Reflecting on five years of important ITS progress
    January 7, 2013
    Former head of the ITS Joint Program Office Shelley Row has passed the baton to a new director. Now working as an independent consultant, here she reflects on her five years at the helm of the JPO and what the future may hold for ITS in the US. During a mid-morning in Paris earlier this year, having just landed, I decided to take a trip on the city’s subway (Paris’ underground metro) into the city centre. A family with a small boy – about nine years old – boarded the same train. They were American and we st
    Read More
  • Ford targets fully autonomous vehicle in 2021
    August 17, 2016
    Ford has announced its intention to have a high-volume, fully autonomous vehicle in commercial operation in 2021. The new vehicle will be a Society of Automotive Engineers-rated level 4-capable vehicle without a steering wheel or gas and brake pedals. It is being specifically designed for commercial mobility services, such as ride sharing and ride hailing, and will be available in high volumes. SAE level 4 is one level below full automation and is defined as ‘mode-specific performance by an automated
    Read More
  • Bosch launches automated driving initiative in China
    April 19, 2017
    German automotive supplier Robert Bosch is to collaborate with Chinese internet group Baidu and map providers AutoNavi and NavInfo, in a deal that will use data collected by Bosch’s radar and video sensors in vehicles to generate and update high precision maps for automated driving. In addition, Bosch and Baidu have set up a test vehicle for partially automated driving on Chinese motorways. The vehicle, based on a Jeep Cherokee, is equipped with Bosch components, including five mid-section radar sensors and
    Read More
  • Russia invests in ITS technology
    May 11, 2012
    Russia’s transport systems are developing on a grand scale with ITS central to the plans, thanks in no small part to a recently relaunched ITS Russia. Jon Masters interviews the organisation’s chief executive officer Vladimir Kryuchkov Over coming years many of the biggest deployments of new technology for transport are likely to be seen in Russia. For a political and economic superpower, the world’s biggest country has only recently started to harness ITS for the good of its transport networks. But the sca
    Read More

Highlighted Content