With ASFINAG, Eva Tatschl-Unterberger, Managing Director of DigiTrans GmbH, brings an important partner on board to push the developments of a real test field for automated driving on highways in the Linz central region.
Between the A1 and A7 highway interchange in Linz / Ansfelden, the development of a test field for automated driving is currently being conceptualized. The “Test Field North” project developed by Digitrans is now also supported by ASFINAG . The cooperation at the “Testfield North” shall help to better understand traffic systems and automated vehicles and their intentions and to create the basis for safe automated driving.
„The better we understand exactly what is happening on our roads, the more accurately we can test the competence of an automated vehicle and make it much safer. ASFINAG’s support at the Test Field North is an essential contribution to be able to generate a 360° scenario database in Upper Austria, which will help us to make automated vehicles fit for the traffic situation in Upper Austria.“
DI Eva Tatschl-Unterberger, MBA / CEO DigiTrans GmbH
Automated vehicles communicate constantly, and at the "Test Field North" the means of communication for this can be tested together with ASFINAG.
Thanks to this cooperation, Upper Austria now has the opportunity to test communication tools for automated and connected driving in real-world operations. For this reason, an important focus of the “Test Field North” is the development and testing of C-ITS communication. This involves sending important traffic data from the infrastructure to the vehicles. Conversely, vehicles will later also be able to collect relevant traffic data anonymously and forward it to the infrastructure for onward transmission to other road users. Several projects with networked and automated use cases are now planned in cooperation with ASFINAG. The developments from the cooperation are intended to provide access for national and international researchers and developers to modern infrastructure at the Test Field North.
© DigiTrans GmbH 2021
„Digitrans is an important partner for us on the road to the connected, automated driving of the future and part of our European network to further develop and roll out infrastructure-based services in a customer-oriented manner..“
Ing. Mag. Bernd Datler / Managing Director ASFINAG Maut Service GmbH
360° view of traffic events to form the basis for safety and trustworthiness for automated driving
Thanks to ASFINAG , Austria has one of the most modern and highest-quality highway networks in the world. Maintaining and further developing this infrastructure for the future of modern mobility concepts, such as automated driving, is therefore a top priority. In Upper Austria, however, there has not yet been any rich real data to replicate traffic scenarios in the simulation and thus test automated driving and the technologies behind it. The cooperation with ASFINAG should help to combine existing infrastructure data, vehicle data and environmental data into a 360° scenario database. This will also provide the basis for testing the trustworthiness of automated vehicles at the “Test Field North” and provide meaningful qualification methods for testing the trustworthiness of automated vehicle technologies with AI support.
About the Test Field North - the future vision of automated driving in Upper Austria
The “Test Field North” is to be expanded over the next few years together with ASFINAG and numerous other technology partners up to a total route length of 30km. Starting from the highway junction in Ansfelden near Linz, the Test Field North extends along the city highway (Mühlkreisautobahn A7) to the Bindermichl Tunnel. The further route is to lead via the Wienerstraße exit onto Wankmüllerhofstraße in the direction of Ebelsberg. In Asten, the route rejoins the A1 highway network in the direction of Linz / Salzburg.
The route will be built up step by step. In the first project phase, the selective expansion of individual traffic-relevant points will start. An extension in the direction of Ennshafen and St. Valentin to the Digitrans test site will integrate additional regional roads into the overall network in a next step.
Planned routes at the Testfield North © DigiTrans GmbH
Goals of the „Test Field North“ project
- Creating the basis for safe autonomous driving
- 360° view of critical traffic scenarios
- Create meaningful qualification methods to test the trustworthiness of automated vehicles
- Understand scenarios and traffic flows in detail
- Create foundations for future decisions
- Investigate and develop new traffic concepts
- Test communication tools for automated driving
- Understand and explore requirements in different weather conditions
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