Germany Plans Highway Test Track For Self-Driving Cars

An anonymous reader writes with news about a new project to test autonomous vehicles in Germany. "The German government wants to convert part of the A9 Autobahn in Bavaria into a test-field for advanced car technology. The project is key to ensuring the country's 'digital sovereignty,' according to its transport minister. The track, part of the 'Digitales Testfeld Autobahn' project, would be launched this year, Alexander Dobrindt said on Monday in an interview (in German) with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. The plan involves equipping the road with infrastructure to allow cars to communicate with each other and the road's own sensors to provide necessary data on traffic. 'Cars with assisted driving and later fully-automated cars will be able to drive there,' Dobrindt said. Germany, a major European car producer, wants to have robotic car technology that's not dependent on foreign companies, the minister said. Domestic producers 'won't rely on Google' he stressed."

Comments

Still sounds like early flight...

[Firethorn]

I'm still reminded of what I've read about the Wright Brother's attempts at powered flight, up against dozens of other teams, some with national support.

I look forward to seeing them, because with efforts taking place in Germany, Japan, and the USA to just name the 'big 3', somebody is probably going to succeed in fairly short order(still years though).

Car accidents cost us enough to more than pay for it.

Re:Still sounds like early flight...

[TWX]

Inevitably someone will invent new Bott's dots that install like the old ones that can be sighted by the lane tracking system, and contain directional flow, speed, lane number, and other information that can be passively interrogated by RFID, and when they need to be changed, they can be scraped up like existing ones are. Might not be good for urban city streets, but should be good for highways and freeways, and combined with object detection and tracking and a computer's ability to predict speed and direction changes of other cars and of objects, there shouldn't be much of a need for more than that.

I think it's a mistake for cars to communicate with each other. I don't trust programmers to write bug-free and exploit-free software to run on those cars, and I don't want someone's car lying about its speed or other characteristics such that it may cause me to crash.

not sure where we're going though

[nimbius]

Germans are almost five times more likely to use transit at least weekly according to a NatGeo study. 71% of us commute by foot on a regular basis and the rail system is one of the timeliest and most advanced in europe. Our buses? triple articulation is common, bright panoramic windows mandatory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

We're known for the autobahn, which is in my opinion a relic from the weimar republic and doesnt serve well in the 21st century. 1 gallon (roughly four litres) in germany also doesnt come cheap. at $6 a gallon im certainly not interested.

After work when im in the car, can I have a Monchshof Kellerbier? of course not. Can I relax and eat a snack? probably not. Selling America on autonymous cars seems like a no brainer; you drive everywhere there. Unless you're a lorry operator or taxi, its hard to justify Fahrschule and its cost in Germany. I'll keep my Sparpreis and my Bahn pass for now.

Re:what about liability? and maybe even criminal l

[Firethorn]

but I'm guessing the Germans have their share of less than ideal drivers.

Sure, but they're the 1%ers, not the 99%ers, because just getting a license is much harder and the German Police will bust your ass for things like tailgating or not signaling before they will for speeding.

As for the AC's worry about an auto-drive car hitting somebody. I'm sure it will happen, but will be incredibly, incredibly rare.

So rather than 'hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street going to Church Sunday morning', it'd be more along the lines of 'failed to stop in time when pedestrian unexpectedly darted into the road and the car couldn't stop fast enough due to black ice'. Which, like the real world, generally ends up with the pedestrian being considered at fault for darting into traffic, especially during bad weather.

Still, the manufacturer of the auto-drive system will probably end up taking at least some of the liability in that case, but there's an equally good chance they'll be let off the hook because the owner/operator of the vehicle modified it somehow (or grossly failed in maintenance like replacing bald tires). I predict that once the systems are good enough, congress will pass some sort of limited liability law so that those killed by malfunctions only get something like $1M, which helps with predictions so the manufacturers know how much liability to bake into the price of their systems. Remember, it's saving lives on the whole, we don't want to drive them bankrupt.

Your situation isn't everybody's.

[Firethorn]

There's still a lot of cars in Germany, something doesn't have to apply to 90% of people to still be highly useful.

Also, self-driving cars can also increase fuel economy through a combination of reduced speeds(no rush if you're reading), more fuel efficient driving(let the car figure out the ideal acceleration rates and such), and perhaps even stuff like predicting the next light to avoid having to stop at all.

Oh, and if you want to keep your export economy...

Lack Of Faith

[JimSadler]

Since VW can't even create power windows that are reliable I have little hope for Germany creating a good self driving car.

Re:what about liability? and maybe even criminal l

[Tom]

Just think of a auto drive loosing control and plowing through a school crossing killing a dozen children. Who or what is responsible? The passenger? Or the computer?

The school that put its children on the fucking Autobahn, a high-speed road that is by law off-limits to pedestrians, bicycles and anything else that can't reach and maintain the minimum speed of 60 km/h.