Photo: Daimler AG
Following other major automakers into the realm of autonomous driving, German group Daimler announced on Thursday that starting next year it will begin testing such technologies in California.
Daimler will be working together with auto part supplier Bosch and IT giant NVIDIA to create the cars needed for the testing program. According to the available information, Daimler will go straight for Level 4 or 5 autonomous vehicles.
The location of the test has not yet been announced, but the company says “a major city in the Silicon Valley will become the first pilot-testing city for Bosch and Daimler.”
Daimler, the owner of perhaps the largest car sharing fleet in the world, plans to use autonomous vehicles as part of the fleet of cars offering mobility solutions to customers all over the world. The tests to be conducted in California are meant to show how such services will function and what needs to get fixed before the official introduction.
“The decisive factor is to introduce a safe, dependable and mature system,” said in a statement Michael Hafner, Daimler head of automated driving.
“Safety has the highest priority and is the constant theme of all aspects and development stages on our way to the start of series production. If in doubt, thoroughness comes before speed.”
The investments made by carmakers in developing self-driving cars are not sure to yield the desired results. A study by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) found that it is unlikely such technologies will be embraced on a wide scale in the decades to come.
The study says that by the year 2030, Level 4 and 5 systems will constitute only 4 percent of new vehicles sold on the global market. By 2040, that number is likely to increase to a little over 25%.
In all, including lower level systems, some 55 percent of cars sold by that year would have some type automated systems.
The location of the test has not yet been announced, but the company says “a major city in the Silicon Valley will become the first pilot-testing city for Bosch and Daimler.”
Daimler, the owner of perhaps the largest car sharing fleet in the world, plans to use autonomous vehicles as part of the fleet of cars offering mobility solutions to customers all over the world. The tests to be conducted in California are meant to show how such services will function and what needs to get fixed before the official introduction.
“The decisive factor is to introduce a safe, dependable and mature system,” said in a statement Michael Hafner, Daimler head of automated driving.
“Safety has the highest priority and is the constant theme of all aspects and development stages on our way to the start of series production. If in doubt, thoroughness comes before speed.”
The investments made by carmakers in developing self-driving cars are not sure to yield the desired results. A study by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) found that it is unlikely such technologies will be embraced on a wide scale in the decades to come.
The study says that by the year 2030, Level 4 and 5 systems will constitute only 4 percent of new vehicles sold on the global market. By 2040, that number is likely to increase to a little over 25%.
In all, including lower level systems, some 55 percent of cars sold by that year would have some type automated systems.
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