Self-Parking Cars
06.11.22
Autonomous driving: Federal Motor Transport Authority presents catalog of requirements
By Christian Tamm
A very first step towards autonomous driving has been taken: The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has presented an initial catalog of requirements.
If you believe the car managers - including Audi boss Markus Duesmann - e-mobility is old hat. The new “big thing” is automated and, above all, autonomous driving. There is still a long way to go before the technologies can be used in general road traffic. There is a legal basis, but there was no set of rules that would make this law applicable by means of an operating license for autonomous cars from the KBA.
That is now changing. Because the KBA recently presented an initial catalog of requirements. It defines the conditions under which systems for driverless parking in the multi-storey car park, the "Automated Valet Parking" (AVP), may be activated. A very first step towards autonomous driving. The catalog represents a turning point for automobile traffic in Germany.
What is AVD and which systems already exist?
The AVD system goes back to a development by Daimler and Bosch. It received a kind of special permit from the authorities in 2019 so that it could be operated for the first time in the parking garage of the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. According to the manufacturer, it was “the world’s first fully automated and driverless parking function to be officially approved for everyday use.”
You can leave your car in a separate area after the barrier and start the parking process using the app. The car - the system can be ordered in the current S-Class, for example - then independently searches for gaps while the owner goes on his way. This function corresponds to level 4 of 5 automated driving. However, it was not allowed to be used in general; the frame was missing.
The technical requirements catalog of the KBA now forms this missing framework. If all requirements are met, AVD can be used as the first autonomous system in this country - in future vehicles and subsequently in those where it is already installed. “With the catalog of requirements for autonomous driving functions, we are creating the prerequisites for the safe operation of motor vehicles without a driver at national level. The KBA is thus setting international standards in this area and is proving to be an innovation driver for the new mobility,” says Richard Damm, President of the KBA in Flensburg.
What is in the catalog of the Federal Motor Transport Authority?
The KBA catalog is extensive - therefore only a short excerpt is possible. During the AVP drive, the car is only allowed to drive at a speed of ten km/h - with a tolerance of two km/h. Security is generally an issue for the KBA. In the so-called AVP area of application, "there must be a sufficient number of options at clearly visible and easily accessible points with which, when activated, all AVP vehicles located in the geographic AVP area of application and belonging to the overall AVP system can be brought directly into the AVP deactivation be transferred to a minimum-risk state". In other words, it needs an emergency stop switch. An AVP trip should also only be activated when no one is in the car. And in the end, the vehicle has to go into a safe state on its own, for example engaging the parking brake.
It becomes quite complex, both technically and ethically, in the following: The overall system should be designed in such a way that the car recognizes all “relevant objects and people in the AVP area and reacts to them safely, so that the basic freedom from collisions with these objects and people is guaranteed “. If an accident is unavoidable, the protection of human life must have the highest priority - without the weighting of personal characteristics.
What is the legal basis?
There have been legal regulations for autonomous driving in Germany since mid-2021. According to this, autonomous vehicles may take part in road traffic, but only in operating areas that have been defined and approved by the authorities. According to the Federal Ministry of Transport, shuttle traffic, trips between two distribution centers or so-called dual mode vehicles - as with the AVP - should become legally possible. However, technical supervision by a natural person is intended. "This makes Germany the first country in the world to bring vehicles without drivers from research into everyday life," said the ministry. The aim was to bring vehicles with autonomous functions into regular operation by 2022.
Audi: “We are satisfied with the result”
Audi has welcomed the publication of the first catalog of technical requirements for autonomously driving cars at the request of our newspaper. This would create further approval requirements for the fully automated driving function "Automated Valet Parking" (AVP). "We see great potential in automated driving functions," said a spokesman. The aim is to offer the "greatest possible benefit" with needs-based and situation-based support.
From today's perspective, the Ingolstadt car manufacturer assumes that such automated parking functions will be available as a series development in the second half of this decade. The four rings were not entirely uninvolved in the KBA catalogue: together with the VW software company Cariad, along with other manufacturers and suppliers, they were "participated in an advisory capacity in the development". Audi is satisfied with the result, the spokesman explains.
As Audi told our newspaper, they are currently working with Cariad on the development of the AVP parking functions. "For testing, we use both Audi facilities, such as the multi-storey car park at the GVZ, and areas at Cariad."
As early as 2013, Audi showed the public what autonomous parking could look like - back then with a pilot project in the multi-storey car park at Ingolstadt's North Train Station.
nationaltechnology.co.uk
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