Skip to main content

Aimsun unveils test platform for AVs in digital cities

Aimsun has released a software platform for the large-scale design and validation of path planning algorithms for autonomous vehicles (AV). The company says Aimsun Auto allows test vehicles to drive inside digital cities - virtual copies of transportation networks, where users can safely explore the limits of AV technology. Paolo Rinelli, global head of product management at Aimsun, says Auto removes the need to drive around seeking conditions that users want to test or to “script each actor’s behaviour
May 24, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
16 Aimsun has released a software platform for the large-scale design and validation of path planning algorithms for autonomous vehicles (AV).


The company says Aimsun Auto allows test vehicles to drive inside digital cities - virtual copies of transportation networks, where users can safely explore the limits of AV technology.

Paolo Rinelli, global head of product management at Aimsun, says Auto removes the need to drive around seeking conditions that users want to test or to “script each actor’s behaviour frame-by-frame”.

“Auto can execute thousands of concurrent instances much faster than real time on private or commercial cloud infrastructure, effectively covering the equivalent of millions of autonomous miles overnight,” he adds.

The solution is expected to complement sensor testing tools and driving simulation software, being able to integrate into a test environment and providing a scenario generation engine ordinary and non-compliant solutions.

It can be used analyse traffic violations such as rolling stops, running red lights, jaywalking or speeding as well as the dilemma of an AV ‘choosing’ who to spare in a fatal accident, the company adds.

Artificial intelligence start-ups can use Auto to validate the development of the AV stack – domain controllers which handle perception, decision and control. Government regulators can use the platform to test and authorise the deployment of AVs on public roads while AV test tracks can utilise Auto to generate synthetic traffic for testing AVs in an augmented reality environment.

According to Rinelli, Auto allows users to “run wide-area regression tests t ensure that a new release of autonomy stack continues to meet prior safety standards”.

The platform also provides estimates on overall journey time, emissions profile, energy consumption and smoothness of ride for door-to-door trips, Rinelli concludes.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Trust is the key, says Cubic’s Crissy Ditmore
    August 7, 2019
    Trust is the key to encouraging people to take up shared mobility and MaaS services, thinks Cubic Transportation Systems’ Crissy Ditmore. She tells Adam Hill why sharing must be the way forward Crissy Ditmore is on the move. Director of strategy at Cubic Transportation Systems since September last year, she lives in Boise, Idaho, but doesn’t see a great deal of the city as she is “90% of the time on the road”. This is appropriate for someone whose business is working out how to get people from place to p
  • StreetLight Data maps future
    February 20, 2019
    Laura Schewel of StreetLight Data talks to Adam Hill about the importance of measuring what you do – and about how paint will remain perhaps the most important piece of technology in the city planners’ armoury for a decade to come Transportation is dangerous, responsible for 30% of global cargo emissions today. Some experts believe that it will be responsible for 80% by 2050. And that’s before you even get on to the safety question - just ask tech entrepreneur Laura Schewel. “Transportation is getting wo
  • Aimsun launches free Viewer for mobility simulations
    April 27, 2020
    Aimsun has launched a free tool which will make it easier for people working from home to see modelling output from the company’s Next software.
  • Optis and LeddarTech partner on virtual testing of Lidar Systems
    January 11, 2018
    Optis has teamed up with LeddarTech to enable the industrial simulation of advanced Lidar solutions and enhance the design process of smart and autonomous vehicles. It will allow transportation companies to virtually test and integrate their next generation of Lidar developed around the LeddarCore integrated circuit (IC) before its actual release. The Optis simulation solutions are leveraged to virtually recreate cameras and Lidar operations on autonomous cars and simulate their use in real life scenarios