Among the urban traffic in Hamburg, Germany, will be a fleet of five e-Golf automated test vehicles from Volkswagen Group Research. According to the company, it will be “the first time Volkswagen has begun to test automated driving to Level 4 at real driving conditions in a major German city.”
Hamburg is currently undergoing a construction project to create a 9-km digital test bed for automated and connected driving. The entire endeavor won’t be completed until 2020, however, Volkswagen will be using a completed 3-km portion for its current autonomous driving tests.
Hamburg is also working on smart traffic lights that support infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication.
Axel Heinrich, head of Volkswagen Group Research, says: “The tests center on technical possibilities as well as urban infrastructure requirements. In order to make driving even safer and more comfortable in future, vehicles not only have to become autonomous and more intelligent—cities must also provide a digital ecosystem that enables vehicles to communicate with traffic lights and traffic management systems as well as with one another.”
The e-Golf fleet is using 14 cameras, ultrasonic sensors, seven radars, and 11 laser scanners, among other technology, to drive to Level 4 autonomy. “Up to 5 GB of data are communicated per minute during the regular test drives, each of which lasts several hours. Computing power equivalent to some 15 laptops is tucked away in the trunk of the e-Golf,” according to Volkswagen.
All this tech and computing power allows the vehicles to navigate the urban world with millisecond decision making. Volkswagen points to three types of artificial intelligence (AI) approaches used in the design—pattern recognition, neural networks, and deep learning.
Test drivers will be seated in the driver’s seat during the trials for safety precautions.