Author: EUCAR September 18, 2017 Share this:

Europe’s automotive industry has joined forces with suppliers, universities and research institutes to test and evaluate automated vehicle technologies in real traffic conditions.

L3Pilot (Piloting Automated Driving on European Roads) is the EU flagship project testing the viability of Automated Driving for a safe and efficient transport. 13 OEMs participate in currently the biggest project for large-scale pilots for SAE Level 3 functions. The 100 test vehicles are exposed to variable conditions in 11 European countries with 1,000 test drivers all over Europe. The tested functions cover a wide range from parking to overtaking, urban intersection driving and cross-border testing. The technical approach for the project includes:

1. Creating a standardised Europe-wide piloting environment for Automated Driving.
2. Providing a Code of Practice for the development of Automated Driving function.
3. Coordinating the different pilot activities to acquire the required data.
4. Assessing automated driving functions.

The project kick-off meeting took place at Volkswagen Group Research in Wolfsburg, Germany on 13 and 14 September 2017. The stringent user-centric approach of L3Pilot will lead to the optimal design and handling of Automated Driving functions and will generate knowledge about the most effective way of implementing these systems. Furthermore, it will contribute to knowledge about L4 and L5 function developments, and potential pitfalls while driving automatically.

L3Pilot is particularly concerned with users’ perspectives on automated driving, studying user acceptance and their driving and travel behaviours. “We are certain that our systems will be successful when they meet the user needs,” said Project Coordinator Aria Etemad (Volkswagen AG). “The systems are designed for the drivers and we will consequently focus on them.”

This project is co-funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 723051. Follow all news related to L3Pilot on the project website and on Twitter @_L3Pilot_.

Project facts: