TUV Rheinland Partners with NARLabs to Lay Foundations for Autonomous Driving

TAIPEI,July 10,2020 -- The COVID-19 epidemic has placed many industries under pressure. It has also created an even better opportunity for autonomous driving applications. The non-contact business model means it is now possible to implement autonomous driving in closed courses for the "last mile." At the height of the epidemic,autonomous driving was used by Wuhan in China and California in the U.S. to transport food and medical supplies between fixed locations in a bid to reduce personal contact and risk of transmission. Advances in autonomous driving technology have always been closely followed by industry. National governments have been preparing for the age of autonomous driving,as existing legislation is inadequate to cover the future of vehicles. New policies and regulations are now being drawn up to realize the vision for future urban mobility.

Taiwan CAR Lab

The National Applied Research Laboratories (hereafter referred to as "NARLabs"),TUV Rheinland Taiwan (hereafter referred to as "TUV Rheinland") have formed a strategic partnership on autonomous driving. The two parties are engaged in the exchange and integration of their respective resources,using a closed autonomous vehicle testing course and joint laboratories near the Tainan High Speed Rail Station. The joint effort is aimed at building a feasible proposal for the future of autonomous driving in Taiwan.

Under the strategic cooperation framework,the NARLabsis responsible for the planning of the national smart driving policy. The "Taiwan CAR Lab" at Shalun in Tainan will serve as the autonomous driving test environment,providing autonomous driving vendors with a real-world environment for testing mixed traffic on a closed course.The latest international technological developments will be introduced by TUV Rheinland to help design the validation safety standard for autonomous vehicles in closed courses.The two parties will engage in multilateral cooperation on project development,planning,and revision of national/local laws. Industry,government,academic,and commercial entities will be connected together to promote the development of related industries.

Dr. Kuang-Chong Wu,from the NARLabs,says that through cooperation with TUV Rheinland it can introduce international autonomous driving vehicle testing standards and build the certificationenvironment to assist the domestic vehicle components,automotive electronics,and ICT industries to accelerate integration into the international supply chain.

Wallace Pan,General Manager,New Business Development of Mobility Division at TUV Rheinland,says: "In the future,cars will be like a mobile phone on wheels. The increasing maturity of Internet-of-Vehicles technology means most cars will be able to connect to the Internet. At the moment there are two main types of connectivity technologies: DRSC and C-V2X. Since C-V2X is compatible with 5G,we expect it to replace DRSC one day. Autonomous vehicles need to go through a series of tests before they can touch the road. A safe autonomous driving design must take the application scenario,functional safety,and network security into account. All of these three components are essential." At the moment,most commercial implementations for autonomous vehicles are on short,fixed routes. Examples of these include transport routes in closed areas,such as airports and harbor docks.

As a leading international provider of technical services,TUV Rheinland has over a century of experience in automotive testing. We continue to take part in and bear witness to the development of new industry technologies. For the smart transport sector,our services include automotive functional safety,information security,whole vehicle and component product testing and certification,certification and testing of onboard wireless communications,safety assessments for domestic/foreign autonomous vehicles,safety assessments for autonomous driving courses,and independent verification and validation for smart transportationservices.

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