Mobileye to test Self-driving Cars in Germany

  • August 5, 2020
  • William Payne

Intel subsidiary Mobileye has received a permit to perform self-driving car testing anywhere in Germany, including urban and rural areas as well as the Autobahn at regular driving speed of up to 130 kilometres per hour. The company is set to begin testing in real-world traffic in and around Munich.

Mobileye becomes one of the first non-OEM companies to receive a permit to test AVs on open roads in Germany. Until now, AV test drives in Germany have primarily taken place in closed and simulated environments. The permit was issued by independent German test house TÜV SÜD, which provides test vehicle validation for the German Government.

The new permit will allow Mobileye to road test the functionality and scalability of its self-driving system (SDS) for MaaS and consumer autonomous vehicles. The Mobileye SDS is comprised of a vision sensing technology, True Redundancy with two independent perception sub-systems, crowd-sourced mapping in the form of Road Experience Management (REM) and its pioneering Responsibility-Sensitive Safety (RSS) driving policy.

Although the first tests of AVs using Mobileye’s SDS will be completed in Munich, the company plans to also perform AV testing in other parts of Germany. In addition, Mobileye expects to scale open-road testing in other countries before the end of 2020.

In order to obtain the authorisation, Mobileye-powered AV test vehicles underwent a series of safety tests and provided technical documentation. Part of the application also included a detailed hazard analysis, vehicles safety and functional safety concepts and proof that the cars can be safely integrated into public road traffic – an assessment that was made possible using Mobileye’s RSS.

The company recently acquired MaaS platform Moovit and has embarked on a number of collaborations to test and deploy self-driving vehicles in France, Japan, Korea and Israel.

As Mobileye begins self-driving vehicle testing in Germany, Mobileye and Moovit will start demonstrating full end-to-end ride hailing mobility services based on Moovit’s mobility platform and apps using Mobileye’s AVs. Intel is pursuing the goal of continuing to develop technologies together with Mobileye and Moovit that will make roads safer while improving mobility access.

“Mobileye is eager to show the world our best-in-class self-driving vehicle technology and safety solutions as we get closer to making safe, affordable self-driving mobility solutions and consumer vehicles a reality. The new AV Permit provides us an opportunity to instill even more confidence in autonomous driving with future riders, global automakers and international transportation agencies. We thank TÜV SÜD for their trusted collaboration as we expand our AV testing to public roads in Germany,” said Johann Jungwirth, vice president, Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), Mobileye

“With the TÜV SÜD AV-permit we bring in our broad expertise as a neutral and independent third party on the way to safe and secure automated mobility of the future,” said Patrick Fruth, CEO Division Mobility, TÜV SÜD. “Our demanding assessment framework and test procedure considers state-of-the-art approaches to safety and combines physical real-world tests and scenario-based simulations.”