This initiative also aims to limit human intervention in vehicle operation and control, and improve traffic capacity and conditions.
“We are very proud to lead a flagship project within the Spanish automotive industry, which will allow us to take a major technological leap forward, bringing autonomous vehicles into the present by joining forces with top-tier partners from the business and academic worlds,” explains Josep Maria Forcadell, Chief Technology Officer of Ficosa.
This initiative is supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, within the PTAS (Sustainable Automotive Technology Program) call for proposals, and is subsidized by CDTI (Center for Industrial Technological Development).
The consortium, coordinated by Ficosa, comprises a group of representatives from the industrial and academic sectors, including Capgemini Engineering, Idneo-Nextium, Hi Iberia, Nommon, Datik, Inelmatic Electronics, and Orim Management. The final demonstration of InPercept, with a budget of 8 million euros, is scheduled for the end of 2023.
Moving towards autonomous driving
: Currently, vehicles have various autonomous driving functionalities (known as Level 3) in which they assume the driver's responsibilities while driving. However, to achieve higher levels of autonomy (between Level 3 and Level 5), it is necessary to continue improving Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). According to data from the DGT (Spanish Directorate General of Traffic), these systems have the potential to impact 57% of accidents recorded in Spain, also preventing an annual cost of €4.3 billion in vehicle maintenance. Nearly 93% of traffic accidents are caused by human error, and of these, 80% are due to a loss of attention in the three seconds prior to the accident.
The systems currently available on the market have several limitations in terms of vehicle perception and understanding of different scenarios, especially when it comes to detecting vulnerable vehicles and road users. Therefore, more advanced systems are required, and it is necessary to develop a "vision" platform, understood as the ability to create a dynamic representation of the reality surrounding the vehicle that allows for informed decisions regarding the activation of safety mechanisms, route planning, and efficient energy management. InPercept aims to create this "vision" platform.
To achieve this goal, the project is structured around the following objectives:
• Obtaining new vehicle exterior perception systems that allow for improved detection of environmental elements in demanding situations and conditions.
• Developing an interior perception system for monitoring the driver and occupants, as well as Human-Machine Interface (HMI) systems.
• Developing advanced vehicle positioning and connectivity technologies that enable perception and cooperative driving.
• Implementing AI-based algorithms and models for in-vehicle decision-making.
• Managing data and developing new Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to improve vehicle and road user safety, with a focus on vulnerable road users (VDUs), such as pedestrians and cyclists.
• Demonstrating the positive impact of these developments in complex smart city and fleet management use cases.
