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Editorial
M O BI
LITY
Germany is at the pioneering edge of many of the technologies associated with autonomous driving, helped by significant
government investment and funding programs, such as the “100 days of automated driving” program in June,
which spawned 14 joint projects (63 individual concepts) and investment of EUR 80 million. While the large companies
are almost obliged to start R&D projects in this direction, such funding programs mean that Germany’s Mittelstand
of small-to-medium enterprises is joining in, creating numerous R&D projects from which the car manufacturers can
cherry-pick.
“In Germany, we have the technology, we have
a well-developed concept. We are ready and
we want to get it going. Producers are testing
on stretches of road in Germany all the time.
Really, the most significant barriers to
overcome before we do get it going are now
regulatory.”
— Karsten Schulze, Senior Vice President for Active
Safety and Driver Assistance at Germany’s Automobile
and Traffic Engineering Association (IAV)
In an article by BMWi, Mr Schulze also stated that Audi
and BMW in Germany have already had many successful
recent tests. Despite this, BMW still sees several limitations
in the last leg of development for fully driverless
technology.
“Today’s technology allows customers to
experience driving assistant features;
however, technology is not ready for highly or
fully automated driving. Future autonomous
driving requires 5G standard, highly dynamic
HD mapping, laser/lidar technology and very
precise camera systems, respectively “super
computers”. Further improvement of
infrastructure on highways is also necessary.
For these reasons we expect the first highly
and fully automated driving enabled BMW
iNnext vehicle to market by 2021.”
— Manfred Poschenrieder, Spokesperson Efficient
Dynamics, BMW Group
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