As more vehicles introduce autonomous driving features, making vehicles increasingly self-driving, it is vital to test how humans interact safely with these features. Equally important is understanding how manufacturers can design and test user interfaces that assist rather than confuse in risky and stressful situations, such as when a child steps into traffic or a car suddenly changes lanes.

An open day at the University of Michigan’s Mcity project in Ann Arbor recently showcased new methods for testing these features remotely, known as teleoperation. Greg Stevens, research director at Mcity, hosted the event, which prominently featured VI-grade team's expertise and products. He acknowledged the ‘outstanding partnership’ with VI-grade in developing the research, especially highlighting contributions from Iain Dodds, North American (NA) technical director, and Scott Bergeon, NA technical specialist.

The live demonstration illustrated how digital infrastructure integrates with the physical infrastructure of the Mcity Test Facility to enable remote use of the test track. A real autonomous car was driven on the actual Mcity proving ground, controlled remotely. The event showcased our GEN1 COMPACT simulator equipped with our full software stack (VI-DriveSim, VI-CarRealTime, and VI-WorldSim).

During the demonstration, when the real car (ego car) encountered a scenario with a curb on the right and double line on the left, a virtual obstacle was injected in front of it by sending a virtual model created in VI-WorldSim to the ego car’s front camera. This simulation placed the ego car in a stuck position without an apparent escape route. The teleoperation mode then allowed the COMPACT simulator operator to take control of the real car and manoeuvre it to a position where it could resume autonomous driving.

This application holds significant potential, as any testing condition can be virtually modelled and subsequently “injected” into the real vehicle to observe its reactions. This process is commonly referred to as Vehicle-in-the-loop (ViL).