With the self-driving taxi to the Wiesn: TUM presents projects on autonomous driving
Created: 2023-01-07 16:28
By: Max Wochinger
The research van "EDGAR" uses cameras and software to recognize people, explains TUM doctoral student Phillip Karle.
© Dieter Michaelek
How can autonomous cars finally become a reality?
The vehicle technicians from the Technical University in Garching provide insights into their research.
Garching – With the self-driving taxi to the Oktoberfest?
This should be possible in 2024 - with an autonomous shuttle around Munich's Bavariaring.
The chair for vehicle technology in Garching wants to test its limits with the research van "EDGAR" at the Oktoberfest, says the doctoral student Phillip Karle.
Is it a good idea to unleash a self-propelled two-and-a-half ton truck on an intoxicated crowd?
Karle waves it off.
"Our software is very reserved." And after all, a safety driver is also there.
Driver.
If the scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have their way, they should rather be called passengers;
because even driving the cars should soon be a thing of the past.
At various stations, professors, students and doctoral students showed how we could be on the road in the future.
The TUM workshops in Garching are reminiscent of an automobile show – or a software and video game fair?
The two areas have long been intertwined.
Hardware alone costs half a million euros
The "EDGAR" research vehicle, for example, is much more than an ordinary VW bus: it is equipped with cameras, lasers and radar systems.
On a screen, Karle shows how the sensors record and track people in the workshop.
The system can even spot and classify ties and bags.
The hardware alone costs half a million euros.
Believes in the future: Bavaria's Science Minister Markus Blume (CSU).
© Dieter Michaelek
The Bavarian Minister of Science Markus Blume (CSU) does not wear a tie, but "EDGAR" still recognizes him as a human being.
Autonomous driving "will come," he says, "thanks to the things that are being developed here." The TUM team has developed what is known as open-source software for the research bus, which is intended to cover all aspects of autonomous driving.
It is freely available – and can be further developed by other scientists.
Because the future of mobility can only be researched together, according to TUM's creed.
Remote Control Trucks
"EDGAR", for example, is just one of ten vehicles that are to be distributed to cooperating universities in Bavaria.
The chair works together with the Fraunhofer Institute, with cities, public transport companies and companies from the private sector.
The Free State is pumping money from its "High-Tech Agenda" funding initiative.
The funding and cooperation also enable spin-offs, in 2019 about three TUM students founded the start-up "Fernride".
They want to send trucks onto the road – without a driver.
A human operator will steer the autonomous truck remotely.
The mobility of the future: The TUM presented its research status on autonomous driving in Garching.
© Dieter Michaelek
In fact, the transportation industry is going through a severe crisis;
According to Fernride, there would be a shortage of over 400,000 truck drivers in Europe alone.
The Garching start-up wants to compensate for this lack of long-distance drivers.
It is on the right track: It won the German Mobility Award and has been able to make investments in the tens of millions.
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So will there soon be deserted 18-ton trucks on the A9?
The researchers do not dare to predict when autonomous vehicles will finally become a reality.
But one thing is certain: the future of mobility will be exciting.
More news from Garching and the district of Munich can be found here.
