The consortium of project partners from industry, science, software development and infrastructure behind the ATLAS-L4 research and development project has presented a safety concept for autonomous trucks in road traffic.
Experts from TÜV Süd were part of the project and were tasked with validating the simulation that forms the basis of the safety premise of the concept. This involved performing tests in a real vehicle on the test ground.
The project was launched three years ago and is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection.
Emmeram Klotz, head of testing and global homologation services in TÜV Süd’s mobility division, said, “We are delighted to have been part of this important project from the outset. Using our testing infrastructure, we have developed systems and a safety concept that will form the basis for standards governing the development of hub-to-hub autonomous commercial vehicles in the future. We are ready to put the first autonomous trucks on the road!”
TÜV Süd testing spans type approval, functional safety, safety of the intended function (SOTIF), cybersecurity and road and track testing. The applicable regulations for autonomous driving have also encouraged simulation-based type approval, which is also verified to ensure systems meet the requirements for processes, infrastructure and management systems.
Klotz said that consideration of all requirements and legal specifications that apply to later approval is a vital aspect in autonomous truck development. “For example, supposedly minor operational details may have an enormous impact on requirements: cobblestones, toll barriers, tunnels, and so on. All these are factors that need to be included in development from the outset. Otherwise, the truck will simply stop dead at the tunnel entrance.”
In related news, Aurrigo recently secured £1m (US$1.35m) support from the Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) Pathfinder – Enhancements program and Innovate UK’s Launchpad program to start work on four new projects
