AUTOMATE press launch

AutoMate – Automation as accepted and trustful teammate to enhance traffic safety and efficiency

AutoMate is a Horizon 2020 European Research project, which began on 1 September 2016 and is set to last 36 months, ending in August 2019. The project’s research revolves around the theme of Safe and Connected Automation in Road Transport, more specifically car automation.

Since human drivers will remain part of the picture for a long time to come, the currently mainstream driver-less approach appears flawed. A shift of paradigm towards a driver-more approach is needed, and AutoMate is working towards making it possible.

AutoMate’s objective is to develop, evaluate and demonstrate the “TeamMate Car” concept: driver and vehicle mutually understanding and supporting each other in the cooperative pursuit of safe, efficient and comfortable driving.

Through the achievement of this main objective, AutoMate is expected to positively impact several aspects:

  1. Improve road safety, by reducing both human errors and automation limits;
  2. 2. Boost the competitiveness of the European Automotive sector for automated vehicles that are accepted and trusted by end-users;
  3. Produce technological innovation in terms of driver state measurement and HMI strategies;
  4. Enhance efficiency and traffic flow, while lowering development costs.

AutoMate is the result of a well-balanced European Consortium, made of a total of 10 partners, coming from Germany, Slovakia, Italy and France. Each partner brings to the project their high-level expertise to ensure that project goals are reached, and expected results achieved.

The AutoMate Consortium intends to develop 7 core technical enablers which will allow to fully validate the TeamMate Car approach: (1) Sensor and Communication Platform; (2) Probabilistic Driver Modelling and Learning; (3) Probabilistic Vehicle and Situation Modelling; (4) Adaptive Driving Manoeuvre Planning, Execution and Learning; (5) Online Risk Assessment; (6) TeamMate HMI; and (7) TeamMate System Architecture.

The corresponding innovations will be integrated and implemented on several car simulators and real vehicles to evaluate and demonstrate the project’s progress and results in real-life traffic conditions.

The partners believe that the full implementation of these enablers in highly automated passenger cars is crucial to fully exploit the automation’s potential, improve traffic safety and bring these cars to the market while encouraging the end-user’s uptake and acceptance.