Self-driving vehicles developed in Slovakia. A university joins forces with companies

Slovakia may soon have a modern research and development workplace for smart mobility of international importance.

The Slovak University of Technology (STU) in Bratislava signed a memorandum with the representatives of Siemens, Mobility & Inovation and Slovakia Ring Agency. They will collaborate on the research and development of smart autonomous vehicles, alternative drives and progressive vehicle constructions, the TASR newswire reported.

The memorandum is the outcome of the project focused on the integration of autonomous technologies in SimRod e-vehicles that has been carried out at STU’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (SjF) in cooperation with Siemens.

Other opportunities appear

The project and the subsequent collaboration on developing smart self-driving vehicles is an opportunity to improve the quality of education and give students hands-on experience, including work with top software for simulations and the creation of so-called digital twins.

“The door to launch cooperation with other industrial companies interested in R&D is also opening for us,” said Ľubomír Šooš, dean of SjF STU, as quoted by TASR.

The aim is not to compete with technology giants.

“We want to search for partial topics that can be implemented in Slovakia within our industry’s capabilities,” said Ľuboš Magdolen from STU, who led the project, as quoted by TASR.

In relation to this R&D project, the Mobility & Innovation company plans to implement the new autonomous elements for the current development of a new ultra-light e-bus for city transport. The introduction of such a vehicle to traffic will also be the aim of the future research carried out by the memorandum signatories, TASR reported.

Source: spectator.sme.sk