Volkswagen Starts its Autonomous Car Testing in Germany

Volkswagen has begun its testing phase for self-driving cars, CNBC reported.  The vehicles will undergo testing by the company’s group research in Hamburg, Germany.  Five e-Golfs will be used to test for a three kilometers section of the road in the city.

The vehicles are equipped with radars, laser scans, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors. There will be test drivers placed behind the car’s steering wheel during the testing in order to keep an eye on the performance and take charge of the vehicle in case of an emergency.

According to Volkswagen, The vehicle’s trunk will be equipped with computing power “equivalent to some 15 laptops”. Along with it, the sensor technology will help the vehicle to gather data from other vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians. During the testing, Different AI techniques such as pattern recognition and deep learning will also be deployed.

A digital testing bed stretching a distance of 9 km is being built for connected and self-driving vehicles in Hamburg. The platform is expected to be ready by next year. The city’s traffic lights will also be upgraded in order to assist communications between infrastructure-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure.

People familiar with the matter stated that the test center is based on technical possibilities as well as urban infrastructure requirements.

In order to ensure safety in the roads, vehicles not only have to become autonomous and intelligent but cities must be upgrading their digital connectivity in terms of traffic signals, and traffic management to coordinate with one another.