Autonomous driving - How do we steer automated driving in the right direction?
Congress Autonomous Driving was a success!
The slogan was: How do we steer autonomous driving in the right direction?
This congress was organised by KIVI Region Gelderland and KIVI Department of Traffic & Transport.
In 2016, KIVI Region Gelderland, together with Arnhem and Nijmegen University of Applied Sciences, organised a congress on Self-Driving Cars. After eight years, we thought it would be a good idea to check whether progress had been made.
Before the congress started, we were given a demonstration of a self-driving Renault Twizzy. This drove around the campus of Arnhem and Nijmegen University of Applied Sciences entirely by itself. To see if it reacted alertly, a dummy was driven in front of it. The HAN was careful and therefore for this demonstration no volunteer from the audience was used. The Twizzy stopped neatly on time.
Frans Tillema, lector of Automotive explained to us that in the future we will have to rely on automatically driving cars and vans. He tried to convince us that this is a must. To reinforce his becoming, he had invited five speakers.
Peter Morsink gave, partly from the KIVI Traffic & Transport department, the vision of Royal HaskoningDHV and CROW in the field of automation in mobility. Besides individual mobility (cars), we have public transport and transport of goods. The CROW/RHDHV report elaborates on this and uses so-called Hubs for passenger transport. At a HUB, you switch from one means of transport to another, for example from your bicycle to a shuttle. The shuttle then takes you to another HUB, the train station. Of course, you can also drive your automatic car directly to the train station. I can imagine that if everything fits together well, this is a great solution.
Jorrit Kuipers talked about the development of autonomous driving buses in the province of Groningen. This has to do with operating costs and the lack of drivers.
Then it was the third speaker's turn, Jeroen van der Werf. VDL, together with the company Schaeffler, is focusing on the development of autonomous driving Shuttles. Shuttles of the past still had a so-called steward inside, but now this has been replaced by teleoperations. A key point is that the shuttle knows where it is and "sees" what other traffic is driving and walking on the road. With the shuttles, we are talking about level 5.
After the break and tours of the Automotive lab, it was Mark Vroegop of RDW's turn. RDW's motto is: Everyone safe and sound on the road. They also have a promise: Safety, Sustainability and Legal Certainty in Mobility. Mark Vroegop discussed the different levels of automated driving. This goes from 1 to 5. Actually, only at 5 can you speak of automatic driving. This is a challenge; the car must then be able to drive itself through a busy city like Amsterdam, for example.
Tom Alkim was the last speaker to talk about his experience with self-driving taxis in San Francisco. This is a very busy city and it seems like self-driving taxis have a mind of their own. Sometimes they don't know how to handle a particular situation. This is especially the case when multiple self-driving taxis are involved.
To conclude: I think that after this conference, there will still be a number of people who think they can drive the car better themselves. When we organise another congress in about eight years' time, we will find out.
On behalf of KIVI Gelderland and KIVI Traffic & Transport,
Gerard Thomas.
The sheets of the presentations can be found under 'Documents'
Below some videos:
https://www.kivi.nl/uploads/media/6630c09e4822e/vid-20240425-wa0001.mp4
https://www.deingenieur.nl/artikel/san-francisco-krijgt-taxis-zonder-chauffeur
The sheets of the presentations can be found under 'Documents'. A number of videos can be found at the bottom of this page.
This conference is organised by KIVI Region Gelderland in cooperation with KIVI Department of Traffic and Transport, HAN Academy of Engineering and Automotive and Royal HaskoningDHV
Our mobility needs to be cleaner, safer and more efficient to keep cities liveable and accessible. Can automated driving contribute to this?
It is the middle of the night just outside Vlissingen in Zeeland. The road is deserted, but in the distance two headlights approach. It is a truck. One that seems to have been driven straight out of a science fiction film. Most striking detail: it has no cabin. And therefore no driver either. Slowly, the truck disappears into the night again. This scene is not a film scene, but a trial in Zeeland with automatically driving trucks. at night, self-driving trucks bring onions along a fixed 3-kilometre route to a distribution point.
Technology has evolved at a rapid pace. Perhaps faster than social acceptance, according to concerned reactions from the region on social media.
With autonomous driving, many people have an image that vehicles can completely take over all driving tasks from the driver. That the driver can sit in the back seat with a laptop and the technology will take care of the rest. When and if this highest level of automated driving (also referred to as level 5) will become reality remains to be seen. Especially in crowded cities, it will be a challenge. The fact is that drivers can already leave more and more tasks to their car. Level 1, 2 or even 3, where cars can park themselves, keep distance from their predecessor, or stay within their own lane, are already all around us. So the field of automated driving is growing rapidly.
Speakers:
Peter Morsink, Leading Professional Smart Mobility and Road Safety at RoyalhaskoningDHV
Jorrit Kuipers Automatic training & assessment of human and robot drivers (robotTUNER)
Jeroen van der Werf, Lead Smart Mobility at VDL Enabling Transport Solutions
Mark Vroegop, Sr. Advisor Connected & Automated Vehicles / Program Manager
Tom Alkim, Strategic Advisor Connected & Automatic Mobility at MAPtm
Programme:
14.30 Demonstration of Self-Driving Twizzy/Streetdrone (separate for registration)
15.00 Reception and registration congress
15.45 Welcome and introduction by Frans Tillema, HAN Academy of Engineering and Automotive
16.00 Presentation Peter Morsink, RHDHV: Vision on automated driving
16.30 Presentation Jorrit Kuipers, robotTUNER: Autonomous driving of public transport buses in Groningen and Metropolitan Region of The Hague Rotterdam MRDH
17.00 Presentation Jeroen van der Werf, VDL: Autonomous driving Shuttles
17.30 Sandwich meal and tours of Automotive lab
19.00 Presentation Mark Vroegop, RDW: EV vehicles for admission by RDW
19.30 Presentation Tom Alkim, MAPTM: Experiences with autonomous driving Taxis in US
20.00 Panel discussion based on questions
20.30 Closing
Chairman of the day: Sjanne Wolterink
During the tour, we will see, among other things:
- VR Truck simulator à Truck cab in which technology supports you with VR glasses to easily dock longer and heavier trucks,
- Cooperative Agro-robots, which should help bring crops autonomously off the land in the future,
- Scale 1:3 trucks that dock autonomously and can be controlled remotely.
https://www.kivi.nl/uploads/media/6630c09e4822e/vid-20240425-wa0001.mp4
https://www.deingenieur.nl/artikel/san-francisco-krijgt-taxis-zonder-chauffeur
Waymo Driver promotional video