Stadtpilot: First fully autonomous test drives in urban traffic

The Stadtpilot project aims at autonomous driving on Braunschweig's inner city ring road. For this purpose, an autonomous vehicle called “Leonie” has been developed. In October 2010, after two years of research, “Leonie's” abilities were presented in a public demonstration. This vehicle is one of the first worldwide to show the ability of driving autonomously in real urban traffic scenarios. This paper describes the legal issues and the homologation process for driving autonomously in public traffic in Braunschweig, Germany. It also dwells on the Safety Concept, the system architecture and current research activities.