European venture to show safe automated driving
Automated vehicles are predicted to provide both safer and more sustainable transport on European roads. The HEADSTART research project will develop test methods to show that the functions used in automated driving are sufficiently safe.
Safety is a fundamental requirement for automated driving and research is needed to solve complex issues. Project HEADSTART (Harmonized European Solutions for Testing Automated Road Transport) focuses on the functions related to positioning, communication between vehicles and cyber security. In order for the automated functions to be sufficiently safe, all three of these features must be reliable. The project is a collaboration between partners from nine European countries and will last for three years, 2019-2021. The Swedish participants; Chalmers University of Technology, RISE, AstaZero, the Volvo Group and Veoneer are all part of SAFER Vehicle and traffic safety centre.
”The HEADSTART project strengthens SAFER's project portfolio for research in automated driving. The research will be important for the continued work to contribute to a safe and sustainable transport system, in which future automated vehicles will have a key role”, says Magnus Granström, SAFER's director.
The project will compile existing test methods and tools, while taking into account the views of authorities, vehicle manufacturers and other stakeholders across Europe. The goal is to achieve coherence around four test cases.
The Swedish parties are researching, among other things, what requirements can be placed on automated vehicles in different scenarios, and how this is linked to the technical requirements of the vehicles' equipment. The partners from SAFER will finally conduct a demonstration on the proving ground AstaZero to show how the safety of the technologies can be evaluated in an appropriate manner.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824309.
Contact details:
SAFER, Chalmers: Magnus Granström, 0734-060424, and Jonas Sjöberg, 031-7721855
RISE: Jan Jacobson, 010-5165697
Volvokoncernen: Lars Bjelkeflo, 031-3226668
Veoneer: Christian Svensson, 0733-614287
AstaZero: Katarina Boustedt, 010-5166195
