Cars that drive themselves are not that far off in the future. But before they can hit the streets, they have to be tested. The Lausitzring sees this as a great business model and invests heavily – with the help of the state. By Andreas Friedel
It sounds like a distant future, but it’s closer than you might think: cars that drive on their own. Whether Sydney, Shanghai, New York or Berlin; every city has its own special road network and such autonomously driving cars should be able to find their way around in every city.
But before they can hit the road, they have to be tested. Dekra sees a large market here and is investing heavily. A new test area is being built in the visitor car park at the Lausitzring for more than ten million euros. From next summer, the streets of cities will be modeled there, explains Uwe Burckhardt from the operator Dekra.
It has also been clear since Tuesday that the state is funding the project with a total of 2.14 million euros. The funding decision was handed over on the sidelines of the joint cabinet meeting of the state governments of Brandenburg and Saxony at the Lausitzring. The Lausitzring is to be expanded to become the leading test center in Germany for autonomous driving.
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Computer fakes cities
“The equipment at the crossings, possible shading and house silhouettes are always set up and dismantled according to the situation, as required by the customer scenario,” says Burckhardt, visualizing how containers serve as a facade. Entire streets are therefore not recreated. There are no ghost towns. Buildings are roughly modeled at best. A computer takes care of the rest, which pretends to the vehicles to be tested that they are in New York, for example.
There, the cars are then confronted with changing traffic situations. “We have to let them drive across the site in very short reaction times,” explains Burckhardt, explaining how the cars are supposed to drive through the virtual cities at real speed. The engineers at Dekra must also be able to communicate with the test vehicles in real time. That is why the “City Courses” project also includes setting up our own mobile phone network in the 5G standard, a so-called campus network. In this way, self-driving cars that will one day be allowed on the road can also communicate with each other.
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Residents fear more noise
However, the new test area is not entirely undisputed. Residents fear more noise. Dekra argues: Only motorsport events make noise. The test operation is much quieter. The development plan was approved last week. Just in time before the handover of the funding notice on Tuesday. According to Burckhardt, construction on the new project will start in a few weeks. “We are very excited about the opportunities this will open up for us.”
In the summer of 2023, the “City Courses” should go into operation. But that’s not all. Dekra is already planning further and wants to build another test track. It should be possible to simulate journeys on country roads and motorways. This project will be integrated into the existing high-speed test oval at the Lausitzring. “With the new routes, we are even better prepared for the conditions that we will need over the next ten years to test and introduce series-ready assisted and automated driving,” says Uwe Burckhardt.
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Broadcast: Antenne Brandenburg, June 21, 2022, 3:12 p.m
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