Fraunhofer-Allianz Verkehr
Autonomous driving moves society and the professional world. While on the one hand it is being discussed under which circumstances and under which legal conditions (fully) automated driving is possible, on the other hand the research and development departments are constantly advancing the technological possibilities. Last but not least, prominent examples such as the Google car, Daimler's Bertha-Benz drive in Baden-Württemberg, the distance travelled by a self-driving Audi A7 from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas and the self-driving vehicles in the city traffic of Shanghai, Parma and Braunschweig show the rapid technological progress. But automated driving also offers potential for freight transport and innovative logistics solutions.
The transformation to autonomous driving takes place in five stages. Before vehicles can operate autonomously in all situations, efficient and affordable technologies must be developed. Aspects of reliability and cyber security must be clarified. Answers to ethical and insurance law questions must be found. Legal framework conditions must be created for this purpose. The currently volatile social acceptance and the expected market acceptance must be taken into account. These socio-technical aspects result in a branch of research that deals with the occupants of automated vehicles and their activities from a technological, psychological and sociological point of view, which go far beyond the classical aspects of human-vehicle interaction.