Germany and France: Joint test track for autonomous driving

D ie Federal Minister Alexander Dobrindt and his French counterpart Alain Vidalies agreed to set up the Franco-German digital test field on Wednesday (February 8th, 2017). The test field is intended to test automated driving in cross-border real traffic.

Test cross-border systems

The tests should start in the first quarter of 2017. The new test field originally led from Merzig in Saarland via Saarbrücken to Metz in France. With the entry from Luxembourg, the new test track forms a ring: It leads via Merzig and Saarbrücken in Germany, Metz in France and Bettembourg in Luxembourg.

Among other things, the cross-border “car to car” - and 'Car to infrastructure' communication via LTE /5G mobile radio, automated and networked overtaking, threading, braking, continuous traffic warning services and the cross-border operation of the eCall emergency call system. The Federal Ministry of Transport is making around 100 million euros available to fund specific research projects in these test fields.

So far, the technologies for autonomous driving have already been tested on a test field on the A9 motorway in Bavaria and in inner-city test fields throughout Germany .