President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday opened the nation’s first closed testing ground for self-driving cars, the Taiwan CAR (connected, autonomous and road-test) Lab in Tainan.
“Autonomous car technology is an opportunity that Taiwanese industries cannot miss,” and it is expected to help bring local vehicle component manufacturing and the entire technological industry to new heights, she said.
Following the enactment of the Act for Uncrewed Vehicle Technology Innovations and Experiments (無人載具科技創新實驗條例) last year, other traffic regulations, and financial and insurance systems are being planned, Tsai said.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
Tsai and former premier William Lai (賴清德) — a former Tainan mayor — toured the lab site in a car made by the Automotive Research and Testing Center, one of three at the facility, with the vehicle easily moving around a car-shaped barrier.
The Taiwan CAR Lab covers 1.75 hectares in the Salun Smart Green Energy Science City compound and features 13 simulated traffic scenarios, the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) said.
The other vehicles at the lab were made by Acer Inc (宏碁) and National Cheng Kung University faculty, and they can achieve level 4 automation — high automation without human presence in specific conditions, NARL Planning and Promotion Office associate researcher Chang Lung-yao (張龍耀) said.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
However, crew members are required to be on standby inside the vehicles at this stage, Chang said.
Building the Taiwan CAR Lab cost about NT$250 million (US$8.12 million at the current exchange rate) and took nine months, he said, adding that test dummies, fake motor scooters and a rain simulation would be added later.
Automated cars have to undergo testing within a closed area before they can be tested on open roads, and step-by-step progress is more suitable to Taiwan given its limited market scope, Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) said.
The ministry is collaborating with the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan to ensure that the safety standards for local autonomous cars match global criteria, Chen said.
Driverless navigation is a cross-disciplinary industry that is open to students in all university departments, especially as some researchers are studying passenger behavior in such vehicles, he added.
The Office of Science and Technology is consulting with the six special municipalities about using larger autonomous buses for public transport in designated areas, which might happen next year, office Executive Secretary Tsai Zse-hong (蔡志宏) said.
A group of Cheng Kung students attended yesterday’s opening ceremony to see a model car they helped developed with Juang Jyh-ching (莊智清), a professor of electrical engineering, and other faculty members.
Integrating data collected from the vehicle’s sensing, positioning and controlling systems was the most challenging part of developing it, and their team would continue to work on improving related technology for future road testing in populated areas, the students said.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
RSS