Autonomous driving needs functional safety in all areas

Minister of Economics Dr Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut visited the Paravan Mobility Park in Pfronstetten

"Get in, name the destination, drive off" - until the vision of autonomous driving is finally reality of our lives, there is still a lot of work to be done - especially in terms of safety. This is already one of the most discussed topics of our time. During a visit to the mobility park of Paravan GmbH in Pfronstetten - Aichelau, the Baden-Württemberg Minister of Economic Affairs, Dr Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, learned about the innovative developments of the Swabian tinkerers - from mobility for the disabled, background information on autonomous driving, especially with regard to the functional safety of the relevant transmission systems such as accelerator, brake and steering, to future-oriented mobility concepts.

"Nowhere else in the world is there such a concentration of vehicle development expertise in such a small area as in Baden-Württemberg. Digitalisation and autonomous driving on the one hand, and changing mobility requirements and user habits on the other, pose current challenges for the industry to reinvent mobility. At the same time, this change also opens up very good opportunities for new technologies and business models. Paravan GmbH is an excellent example of how our medium-sized industry is leveraging market potential through innovative strength and high-quality, safe products and services. This is precisely how our SMEs are actively shaping the transformation process in the industry and securing high-quality jobs," said the Minister during the visit.

"With the drive-by-wire system "Space Drive II", Paravan offers a fully redundant system for controlling the accelerator, brake and steering, which is certified according to the highest quality and manufacturing guidelines and has TÜV or road approval", informs Paravan Managing Director Roland Arnold during the tour of the company. This means that it can be used immediately for autonomous driving in stages 4 and 5 - fully automated and driverless, respectively. In disabled mobility, these redundancies have always been imperative. "A disabled person without intact limbs or with a high cross-section cannot simply grab the steering wheel in an emergency," Arnold explains.

At the latest since the serious accidents in connection with autonomous driving, the safety issue has come to the fore. At the Paravan Mobility Park, prototypes, test vehicles and show cars from well-known car manufacturers and suppliers are equipped with SPACE DRIVE II. "A central component of the system is the interface management between sensor technology, driving intelligence and drive-by-wire technology, through which suppliers of a wide range of sensors and driving classes can access the system," says Andreas Frisch, strategy and management at Paravan GmbH. "This makes it unique for developers, who can thus access a road-approved system."

The focus of the visit was the "Motionboard" mobility platform developed by Paravan, which manages entirely without a steering column. "Here, drive-by-wire technology has been consistently developed further and equipped with the corresponding electronics and sensor technology for autonomous driving," explains Arnold, who wants to set up his own test track between Aichelau and Pfronstetten. Talks with the authorities are already underway. The vehicle serves Paravan to further develop its own technologies, also with a view to mobility for the disabled. "Autonomous driving will change this area profoundly," says the managing director. The areas of application are diverse. The platform can be used equally in urban transport, in tourism as a people mover or in industry as a cargo mover.