Drones are being used as part of a new research project being implemented by Austrian mobility technology company AVL to provide self-driving cars with more data about atypical traffic situations.

The drones hover above the traffic and collect more information than the sensors in the test vehicles, for example how close and fast the car two rows behind is approaching. Additional knowledge is generated in favor of autonomous driving, as thousands of test drives are carried out as part of this project. The data obtained is integrated into virtual driving environments for digital testing. Not every conceivable scenario can be reproduced even on state-of-the-art test sites. For this reason, there is an increasing focus on digital testing in conjunction with AI. AVL is collaborating with the German startup Deepscenario on this research project. AVL is an important partner of the international automotive industry, especially in the areas of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving (AD).