Four Citroën C4 Picasso demonstrators equipped with autonomous driving features have travelled 60,000km in ‘hands-off’ mode on express roads in Europe since testing began in mid-2015.
The priority objectives of these tests by the PSA Group are to fine-tune the various operating safety aspects of the systems and detect any potentially hazardous situations in relation to infrastructure and other road users.
Data from the different test environments has helped improve driving algorithms and onboard intelligence to ensure that the Group’s self-driving cars are safe on the road. As a result, the autonomous driving system has achieved a high level of reliability in all situations.
At the same time, the PSA Group has expanded its work on operating safety with the System-X and Vedecom research institutes, and is also working with the CTAG automotive technology centre of Galicia in Spain to validate interactions between drivers and self-driving cars.
A total of 10 self-driving cars developed by the PSA Group are being tested internally or by various group partners. New requests for authorization have been filed to broaden the number of trials on the open road and ensure that autonomous vehicles react appropriately in all circumstances.
In the next few weeks, the PSA Group will begin new ‘eyes off’ experiments with non-expert drivers under the supervision of test engineers to assess safety in real-life conditions.
September 27, 2016
