Experience, Results and Lessons Learned from Automated Driving on Germany's Highways

TLDR

BMW Group Research and Technology has been testing automated vehicles on German highways since spring 2011. The project aimed to determine the technologies required for automated driving. Core technologies—environment perception, localization, driving strategy, and vehicle control—were developed to safely operate prototype automated vehicles at speeds up to 130 km/h on German highways. The project logged thousands of kilometers of real‑world driving, producing performance results, lessons learned, and insights into system improvements.

Abstract

The BMW Group Research and Technology has been testing automated vehicles on Germany's highways since Spring 2011. Since then, thousands of kilometers have been driven on the highways around Munich, Germany. Throughout this project, fundamental technologies, such as environment perception, localization, driving strategy and vehicle control, were developed in order to safely operate prototype automated vehicles in real traffic with speeds up to 130 km/h. The goal of this project was to learn what technologies are necessary for automated driving. This paper presents the architecture and algorithms developed during this project, results from real driving scenarios, the lessons learned throughout the project and a quick introduction into the latest developments for improving the system.