Open Road Testing and Field Operational Testing (FOT)
Verifying the Precision of Vehicle Safety Systems in Real-Life Conditions
Open Road Testing and Field Operational Testing (FOT)
Open Road Testing and Field Operational Testing (FOT) are vital steps in ensuring that your vehicle's systems, from Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to other essential components, perform flawlessly in real-world conditions.
As the future of mobility is shaped by connected, automated, and autonomous driving, ensuring the safety and reliability of these systems is critical. Open Road Testing services form a vital part of the automotive validation chain, bridging the gap between data collection and final validation.
Starting with comprehensive data collection from vehicle sensors and systems, we validate performance in diverse driving environments. This data forms the foundation for further simulations and testing phases. Once systems are refined through simulations and track testing, we proceed to Open Road Functional Testing. Here, vehicles are rigorously tested under diverse driving conditions on actual roads, ensuring that all Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous functions work seamlessly and safely in real traffic environments.
For systems that cannot be safely tested on open roads, our state-of-the-art proving grounds offer a controlled environment to conduct these critical evaluations with precision and safety.
Benefits of Open Road Testing
- Real-World Validation
Open road testing offers the opportunity to verify the accuracy and effectiveness of the latest vehicle safety systems in actual driving environments with a broad coverage of different and complex environmental situations. It allows that the systems or vehicle under test are assessed under unforeseen circumstances.
- Support for Autonomous and Connected Vehicles?
The future of mobility is heavily reliant on connected, automated, and autonomous driving. Open road testing services ensure these advanced driving technologies are safe, efficient, and reliable. This testing is vital to ensure that ADAS and AD systems can handle the complexities of real-world driving scenarios.
- Enhanced Safety and Reliability
Open road testing evaluates the long-term durability of vehicles and critical components like tires, engines, sensors, and gears. Testing is conducted across various terrains, road types, and test tracks to evaluate performance under real-world conditions and gather comprehensive data. This data helps ensure that vehicles and systems meet rigorous safety and durability standards.
DEKRA, a global player in Open Road Testing
At DEKRA, our expertise in Automotive Testing and technologies uniquely positions us to support customers in evaluating vehicle and road infrastructure sensors for compliance with safety requirements, ensuring reliability and precision. Our Open Road Testing approach comprehensively covers diverse and complex environmental conditions. We test vehicles under real-world scenarios, including unforeseen challenges, cold and hot climate, providing crucial insights into their performance.
Open Road Testing - Our scope
LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging)
It uses laser pulses to measure distances and create high-resolution 3D maps, offering excellent object detection and terrain mapping with high accuracy and detailed 3D spatial data, although it can be less effective in adverse weather.
Radar (Radio Detection and Ranging)
It emits radio waves and measures their reflections to detect objects and determine their speed and distance. It is robust in all weather conditions, capable of detecting objects through obstacles, and excels at measuring speed and distance. However, it has a lower resolution compared to LiDAR and can struggle to detect small or stationary objects.
Cameras
They capture visual data in the form of images or video, providing high resolution and the ability to capture color and texture. This makes them useful for object recognition and classification, but they are affected by lighting conditions and require substantial processing power for real-time analysis.
Ultrasonic sensors
Parking sensors are an integral part of modern ADAS systems that make parking and maneuvering much easier and increase safety. By combining ultrasound, radar and camera technologies, these systems can provide precise information about the vehicle's surroundings and thus assist the driver or even control the vehicle autonomously.
Open Road Testing - Our Services
Open Road Data Collection Testing
Our open road data collection service is a complex but crucial process for validating advanced driving systems and autonomous vehicles. By leveraging our global presence, we conduct extensive open-road testing, covering a wide range of data collection activities. Our holistic approach goes beyond data gathering, providing valuable insights into vehicle performance, durability, and system functionality.
Data Labelling and Anonymization
Open Road Functional Testing
Endurance Testing
E-mobility Field Testing
Stability Tests - Measurement Equipment