AImotive and Groupe PSA are partnering to test a new highway pilot program to deliver level 4 autonomous driving capabilities on highways at speeds of more than 80 miles per hour.
The project will deploy artificial intelligence functionalities such as adaptive cruise control, fully automated lane change, autonomous take-over and collision avoidance. The goal is to demonstrate how AI can be used for future autonomous highway driving at level 4.
The first phase of the partnership began in May, installing full stack hardware and software technology into a Citroën C4 Picasso vehicle that served as a demonstration for AI-based detection algorithms. The second phase focused on AI-powered L4 autonomous capabilities at highway cruising speeds up to 80 mph. Future tests will look to evaluate the features on a span of French highway at speeds up to 186 mph.
The tests will evaluate the simulation software before moving to real-world testing, and the companies plan to test the technology across simulated environmental conditions such as weather, traffic and lighting.
“Testing Artificial Intelligence for future level 4 (mind off) and level 5 (driverless) autonomous vehicles is a priority for Groupe PSA, as these techniques are promising to handle complex situations such as a human driver would do,” says Carla Gohin, senior VP of Head of Innovation at Groupe PSA.
The test on level 4 autonomous driving is the first step toward developing level 5 fully autonomous driving that is a necessary step toward the widespread adoption of self-driving cars, AImotive says.
