City pilot
Stadtpilot is a project at the TU Braunschweig with the aim of making a computer-controlled automobile drive autonomously in public transport on the city ring of Braunschweig , a two-lane, heavily frequented ring road. On the one hand, a safety driver is required for legal reasons, on the other hand, the project vehicle called Leonie cannot yet recognize traffic lights, so red or green must be entered manually. A corresponding ride on the city ring took place on October 8, 2010 with a large media presence.
Stadtpilot is a follow-up project of the CarOLO team with which the TU Braunschweig took part in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge with the car Caroline . As in the previous project of the TU, the institutes for electrical engineering, computer science and mechanical engineering work together. The project vehicle is a VW Passat equipped with passive and active sensors. Compared to other international projects, the vehicle extensions appear rather subtle. The project software controls the steering, accelerator and brake.
The project objective demonstrated in front of the media is for the vehicle to automatically merge itself out of a parking space into regular traffic, change lanes and turn on a predetermined course, return to the starting point and park. This would be a worldwide first achievement.