Autonomous driving: Max Schmidt tests new technology – Ebersberg

At first glance, not much reveals that the VW GTE that Max Schmidt is testing driving these days is anything but special. Only the cylindrical black lidar – stands for: “light detection and rangefinding,” a type of laser-operated radar – mounted on the surface, catches the eye. But as is well known, the waters still flow deeply, so only a look inside reveals what it’s all about: a self-driving car, provided by the Ergonomics Chair at the Technical University of Munich.

Schmidt has to put “autonomy” in perspective immediately: “There are three levels of autonomy in traffic. The first is nothing more than good cruise control. The third level will be a vehicle that operates entirely on its own.” The prototype is a level 2 vehicle with various features. This includes the intelligent lane change assistant. The car learns whether the turn signal is activated or not and, in the latter case, generates resistance in the steering wheel – so that it behaves correctly. The car also sees if the car is in the other lane and can react accordingly.

The trolley adjusts the distance and speed automatically

“You no longer have to worry about distance and speed,” Grafinger reports. You can set different distance levels, according to your taste, and the car automatically scans for traffic lights and adjusts the speed accordingly. “When I was on the highway, I drove through a distance and checked the speedometer – I never felt comfortable.”

Schmidt still has to keep his hands on the wheel and stay focused on the track the whole time. In a split second, he should be able to take charge again. This vehicle is not necessarily intended as a precursor to a Tier 3 vehicle anyway. Instead, an ergonomics chair fleet exists to test how people interact with self-driving vehicles, and how they feel while driving. “This is why older people, like me, often use it, because skepticism about such compounds is still widespread among them,” Schmidt says.

Sometimes there is still a feeling of nausea

He himself has a few reservations here, a retired physics teacher and former president of the Association of Linguists have been coming in and presiding over the chair for over ten years, and he’s already auditioned for early park assistants. Now he screams at three-quarters of an hour of test drive on the highway and voluntarily allows himself to monitor several cameras indoors and a microphone. Each suggestion and expression is recorded in order to be able to draw conclusions about comfort and potential problems.

Open the detail view

One such problem, for example, is that the car recognizes speed signals – but only relatively late, which then leads to more or less sudden braking. “Now I understand my wife better, who always accuses me of braking too late and not driving with sufficient insight,” Schmidt says. In other situations, too, there is sometimes a feeling of nausea, for example when the car brakes sharply on its own because the tractor is on the road and forming a pillar, or when the steering wheel becomes stubborn due to the lack of a turn signal.

Level 2 is welcome at Schmidt, level 3 instead

In general, however, Schmidt welcomes technical help: “Bad habits are corrected and due to the control of distance and speed, I drive more comfortably. You can treat yourself with more mental breaks without losing focus.” That’s why Schmidt also believes that Level 2 driving aides will be more widespread in the future, just without a clear lidar on the surface.

On the other hand, he remains skeptical when it comes to Level 3 vehicles, such as those developed by Tesla. “Reading the newspaper while driving – I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I want to be in charge.”

At the end of the discussion, the question of the efficiency of these vehicles was also brought up when Schmidt said he could drive a Porsche: “I don’t like this picture, an old man in a Porsche on the highway, then, at a rate of 130 meters along a kilometer per hour.” Many autonomous electronic cars that have been heralded as futuristic technology are horsepower beasts that take up huge amounts of space and resources and thus, at least for now, remain luxury products. So it may be a while before you notice them on the street – or you don’t.