A driverless vehicle developed by Taiwanese and Canadian experts is hoping to take the top prize when the winners of an autonomous vehicle challenge are announced in Dubai next month, which could bring recognition to the sector in Taiwan.
Li Kang (李綱), an associate professor at National Taiwan University’s (NTU) mechanical engineering department and one of the key developers, said the project is one of three finalists in the “start-ups” category at the Dubai World Challenge and Exhibition for Self-driving Transport.
The category is the second-highest tier of the competition, one rung below the “leaders” class for well-established driverless vehicle companies.
Photo: CNA
It requires that competing vehicles demonstrate basic navigation in controlled environments and use an advanced driver assistance system to perform “the entire dynamic driving task on a sustained basis.”
“Our vehicle is the largest among the three finalists, and it is designed to withstand the high temperatures in Dubai,” although the vehicle would not eventually be driven there, Li said at a news conference on Monday.
The main event would be the awards ceremony.
The Taiwan-Canada team would win US$1 million if it takes the top prize or US$500,000 if it finishes second, according to the organizer, which said the competition is among Dubai’s efforts to make 25 percent of all trips in the emirate “smart” and driverless by 2030.
The Taiwanese-Canadian project was named a finalist in November last year based on documents and a video submitted to the organizer.
Teams of inspectors visited Taiwan in June and the locations of other projects for final evaluations, with the winner to be announced at the Dubai ceremony.
Although the vehicle to be displayed in Dubai in conjunction with the awards ceremony would be a converted hybrid truck used by Formosa Plastics Transport Corp (台塑汽車貨運), the vehicle tested in June was an 8m by 2.5m by 3m electric-powered truck.
It was put to the test in different scenarios, such as in hilly, foggy conditions, and tasked with detecting traffic lights and different types of vehicles nearby and respond accordingly, Li said.
The technology used in the project has been in part supported by Canada-based iAuto Technology, which provides vehicle control systems to deliver the algorithm developed by Taiwanese experts like Li.
“You can imagine our role as taxi drivers, who take orders from passengers and operate on their own to arrive at the destination,” said My Lin (林明彥), general manager of iAuto Technology’s Taiwan branch.
Other project participants include the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院), whose direct short-range communications (DSRC) technology has been applied to the truck.
DSRC allows vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, making it capable of detecting in advance upcoming situations on the road to make driverless cars safer, said Cheng Sheng-ching (鄭聖慶), deputy general director of ITRI’s Information and Communications Research Laboratories.
They all have high hopes for the exposure participating in the competition could bring.
Lin believes demonstrating Taiwan’s research and development capabilities through the competition could result in investment and cooperation opportunities in the sector.
Whether the team wins or loses, the trucks will be used at Formosa Plastic Group’s (台塑集團) naphtha cracker complex in Yunlin County, Formosa Plastics Transport Corp chairman Chen Sheng-kuang (陳勝光) said.
Li, Lin and Chen said they hoped that the project could expand the driverless vehicle market in Taiwan, which is currently based on demand from auto companies and solutions from the academia.
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