TRL has completed work to fully automate its DigiCar driving simulator, to support its research into the human response to automation and its general acceptance by the driving population.
TRL has developed the software required to enable DigiCar to run as a partially or fully automated vehicle as and when required.
Dr Nick Reed, principal human factors researcher at TRL, said: “We are delighted to have completed this development using a flexible web-based platform to enable partial or full automation of DigiCar.
“This opens the potential for a range of studies to investigate how automation of the driving task will affect driver behaviour and how transitions between vehicle automation modes are understood by drivers.”
TRL describes DigiCar as a “sophisticated research tool to understand driver behaviours and reactions to environments both within the vehicle itself and outside”.
Click here to see a video demonstration of TRL’s DigiCar operating in different automated modes.
After being a passenger in the TRL Volvo last week on Bruntingthorpe airfield (with newly painted lines to follow in crystal clear conditions) I worry about any increase in automation as the Volvo could not follow a fresh white line and but for driver intervention would have taken us off road into the grass! Make driving more involving not less. I’m all for improvements but cars are too much like an extension of your living room now.
Olly, Lancs
0
So realistic – just like real-life driving, when we drive on deserted roads through deserted towns. Also, look at the vehicle’s speed (in driverless mode) as it goes down the narrow street between the buildings (at 02:20).
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
0