How Co-Simulation Accelerates the Future of Autonomous Driving

For autonomous vehicles to be able to handle any scenario that could happen on a public road, extensive testing and validation is required. It is not only time-consuming, but also cost-intensive endeavor to reach the needed number of test miles and thus ensure safety without driver interventions. Such autonomous vehicles have to manage traffic, pedestrians and cyclists, and changing weather conditions. The control algorithms are fed with huge amounts of data. If all test driving would be done on real roads, this process could easily take several years to be completed. An impossible task for manufacturers. To take the fast lane to autonomous safety and reliability, simulation is the key: Vehicle manufacturers can run thousands of different scenarios in virtual test beds that equal hundreds of miles driven on real roads to reach validation and go-to-market faster.

From simulation to co-simulation

Simulation is an efficient way to supplement real-world testing, but also comes with some challenges. Replicating, for example, specific road conditions, driver behaviors, traffic schemes and motion characteristics is complex and every aspect requires specific expert knowledge that needs to be connected in the right way.