Brabant gets 70 km long test route for self-driving cars

Between Helmond and Tilburg there will be a test track with a length of seventy kilometers where companies can try out self-driving cars. It concerns an existing stretch of road that can be expanded and used for other experimental automotive techniques.

In addition to self-driving cars, tests with platooning can be held on the route. In this case, trucks drive behind each other at a fixed distance and are connected to each other. There is a great need among companies to test autonomous driving on public national, provincial and local roads.

The intention is that the part of the existing road designated for the tests will be extended to Breda and Den Bosch. Noord-Brabant deputy Christophe van der Maat says at Omroep Brabant: “The fact that testing can be done here on a total network of different roads makes this test environment unique”.

The arrival of the test track was announced during Automotive Week 2017, which will be held in Helmond. Part of this was a record attempt on electric driving on Sunday: a procession of 746 electric vehicles drove in column from Helmond to Eindhoven.

Update: As Gody points out, the route is also suitable for testing with WiFi-p, which was developed by NXP and is intended for automotive network applications.