Highly Automated Driving - a Long Way Ahead
Author: Michael Vogel
The vision of highly automated driving has become more tangible in recent years. Nevertheless, there are still many unresolved technical and regulatory issues.
Michael Knight's vehicle K.I.T.T. was the secret star of the TV series “Knight Rider”: the vehicle could think, speak and drive on its own. K.I.T.T. is something like the cinematic gold standard of highly automated driving. To be more specific: the previously unattained gold standard. Even after many years of extensive technological development, this has not changed. Because for highly automated driving, two things have to go together: technology and regulation - and there is still a long road ahead.
When it comes to the development of highly automated vehicles - in the scene, people are reluctant to talk about autonomous vehicles beyond marketing - there are two fundamentally different approaches: the revolutionary and the evolutionary. The revolutionary approach means that companies equip cars of this kind with many modern sensors and computing units in order to be able to drive safely and in a highly automated manner in a complex, unpredictable environment. This means a great deal of effort and expense, which does not yet make their use on the mass market realistic. There are many new technologies in use here, many of which - such as artificial intelligence - are still the subject of research.
Automated driving - the current status of self-driving cars
Evolutionary refers to companies using existing technology to be able to drive safely and highly automated, at least in clearly defined, limited scenarios. “This approach, which is not yet suitable for the mass market in terms of costs, is mainly being pursued by companies from the USA and China, whereas the approach using sensor technology which is already suitable for the mass market is mainly being pursued by European companies,” says Uwe Burckhardt, Head of Test and Event at the DEKRA Lausitzring. “Both approaches can achieve the desired goal, and they will also converge in the intermediate term if modern sensor technology and computing power gradually become cheaper as a result of further technical development and scaling. The future will show which approach will ultimately be the right one.”
All vehicles with a revolutionary approach are also on the road in cities with favorable weather conditions: no snow, little fog. Otherwise they would quickly run into problems. The most technically advanced vehicles in the world are currently those developed by Google subsidiary Waymo. Their robotaxis are part of the urban streetscape, especially in San Francisco. According to the California Public Utilities Commission, the company's vehicles completed around 312,000 journeys in the state as of August 2024, a figure that doubled over a three-month period. In addition to San Francisco, Waymo is also active in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix. The company is investigating what would be necessary for a robotaxi operation in a further 25 US metropolitan areas. Waymo's activities are an extremely capital-intensive business. “And these vehicles would currently be difficult to comply with European regulations,” says Burckhardt. “Ultimately, when it comes to highly automated driving in the USA, the operators are subject to product liability because they alone have to ensure safe operation - an approach that would be considered as unthinkable in Europe, for example.”
Incidentally, the largest competitor in terms of robotaxi numbers, the GM subsidiary Cruise, discontinued operations at the beginning of December 2024. A serious accident involving a Cruise vehicle in 2023 and the subsequent massive amount of criticism from regulators regarding Cruise's inadequate quality and safety standards led to this, in addition to the current difficult overall economic situation of the automotive industry.
Although the technical approach in China is quite similar to that in the United States, there is a clear difference on the part of the regulatory authorities, as Burckhardt notes: “Because highly automated driving is desired politically, the legal framework for the introduction of these technologies is much more favorable.” However, such regulations within China currently only apply locally. One flagship Chinese project are the robotaxis operated by Baidu subsidiary Apollo Go in the city of Wuhan. Around 400 vehicles have been on the roads here since summer 2024.
The current situation for vehicles in Europe - the rules and regulations
In Europe, the region of evolutionary thinking, robotaxis are not currently at the top of any company's agenda. Instead, interest is focused on so-called people movers, sensor-equipped minibuses for local public transport, as well as trucks. These people movers travel at low speed in clearly defined, tightly restricted areas. There have been and still are many research and pilot projects. Trucks are also used in clearly defined scenarios: For example, the connecting route between two distribution centers close to the freeway or use on large company premises.
In addition, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have independently launched highly developed car driver assistance systems that enable hands-free highway driving under clearly defined boundary conditions - in terms of traffic situation, speed and weather conditions.
Maik Beermann, Head of External and Government Relations at DEKRA, emphasizes that in addition to technical progress, there is still a lot to be done, especially with regard to regulation, “otherwise the vision of highly automated driving will end at national borders at the latest”. Currently, there are only isolated solutions everywhere. Germany has already regulated driving at automation level 4 by law. France has followed suit, and the UK wants to do the same in 2025. Level 4 means that a highly automated vehicle can manage without human control in defined scenarios, even in emergency situations.
“At EU level, regulation is not yet as advanced as in Germany and France,” says Beermann. “The law only defines scenarios in which highly automated driving is permitted, but not driving on freeways, for example.” What these scenarios have in common is that there is little traffic and the areas are limited in terms of space in order to ensure a high level of road safety with relative ease and, above all, in a controlled manner. Examples include vehicles transporting passengers between two airport terminals or the transportation of goods in logistics areas. Beermann hopes that generalized regulation will now be “tackled more quickly” following the recent EU elections.
In the United States, too, the situation currently resembles a patchwork quilt, with a few states such as California having already passed far-reaching laws. The situation in China is similar, with the government there planning to standardize the legal provisions nationwide in 2025. “This would be an additional motivation for economic regions such as North America and Europe to quickly push ahead with standardization in their own region,” believes Beermann. “Only when the major economic areas have found their own regulatory standards for highly automated driving will global harmonization be within reach.” This is also important for the industry, because otherwise a lot of effort would be required for localization.
Test sites are a decisive success factor
Uwe Burckhardt points out that test sites such as the DEKRA Lausitzring will play a key role in safeguarding the future of highly automated vehicle technologies: “It is possible to compare the simulations with real driving tests and validate them there.” After all, test drives on public roads are not enough to ensure that a highly automated car is safe on the road, as they cannot cover almost every conceivable hazard scenario. “That would not be possible due to the number of kilometers that need to be covered for statistical reasons,” says Burckhardt. Instead, simulations help to create the necessary depth of protection. However, these simulations then have to be validated - at least for characteristic cases and extreme cases - with real test drives on test sites such as the DEKRA Lausitzring. The DEKRA Lausitzring is the largest independent test circuit in Europe. With its consistent, strategic focus on safeguarding automated and connected driving functions, it is already able to reproduce almost 80 percent of the relevant traffic scenarios.
“However, it's not just about comparing the results of simulation and real driving,” says Burckhardt. “It is crucial to harmonize the three tools of simulation, reproducible test site scenarios and driving in real traffic with a holistic methodology. This allows the manufacturer's development and simulations to be validated in a suitable manner using the necessary relevant scenarios - with the aim that the overall system can be classified as safe based on the knowledge obtained in this way.”
Due to technical, regulatory and economic conditions, Burckhardt and Beermann are convinced that highly automated driving will be used primarily in commercial applications in the foreseeable future, because the technological effort will pay off more quickly with the savings in personnel costs - for example in robotaxis, automated trucks and traffic concepts for the last mile. Yet that means we will have to wait quite a long time for a car like K.I.T.T. for our private use.
The industry association SAE has specified how automated driving systems can be differentiated:
- Level 0: Humans alone are responsible for driving.
- Level 1: The human takes over the task of driving, but can be supported by, for example, Lane Keeping Assist or Adaptive Cruise Control.
- Level 2: Multiple assistance systems assist with steering, braking or accelerating at the same time. However, control and environmental monitoring still lie with the human driver.
- Level 3: Assistance systems take over large parts of driving tasks. Humans can temporarily divert their attention from traffic, but always have to be ready to take over driving completely.
- Level 4: In certain scenarios, the systems alone are responsible for driving the vehicle. This also applies to emergency situations.
- Level 5: The vehicle is autonomous in all traffic situations and in all road and environmental conditions. Humans no longer have to intervene, and may not even be able to due to the lack of control elements.