South Korean automotive supplier Hyundai Mobis said it will soon test its autonomous car model, named M.BILLY, in Michigan, US.
The testing will be for level 3 and level 4 autonomous driving system development.
The company currently has three test cars. It plans to increase the number to over ten by the end of 2018.
The autonomous car model will be tested in the US, from the middle of this month. The company plans to extend tests to Korea and Germany in the next few months.
For the testing, Hyundai Mobis has chosen Kia K5 (Optima), which has been embedded with the company’s autonomous driving system.
The level 3 vehicle requires a driver at the wheel and a level 4 system with high automation does not require a driver at the wheel.
Hyundai Mobis intends to check the safety of the vehicle first, hence it is will first test it on a track similar to public roads. Real-world driving tests will follow later.
The company is expected to receive test licence to conduct the testing next month in South Korea and in June for Germany. Once it receives the licences, M.BILLY, the vehicle will undergo the functionality and safety tests as in the US and will take driving test on public roads in the two countries.
It stated that thorough preparation is needed to in order to ensure that local laws in the each of the country are complied with, as each of the three countries has its own rules and regulations for testing autonomous vehicles.
Germany has adopted a law that sets a legal framework for self-driving cars in June and it needs cars with autonomous driving system to be equipped with a black box to record the journey underway.
The vehicles to be testing are claimed to have been equipped with sensors developed by Hyundai Mobis. They include eight different types of sensors including front-view camera, radar, lidar, ultrasonic sensor, surround view monitoring and total of 25 sensors.
Presently, M.BILLY only has front-view radar developed by Hyundai Mobis but the rest will be installed from the third quarter of this year in line with the development schedule, the company stated.
By 2021, the company plans to increase its R&D investment to 10% on auto components sales in order to make more concentrated effort on developing core technologies for future vehicles.
It also plans to devote about 50% of all its R&D investment to the study of Information and communication technology (ICT), including sensors for autonomous driving.
