Both on long-haul routes and in urban traffic, an autonomously drive commercial vehicle must develop the "Sense-Plan-Act" capability to perfection. This requires a number of sensors for sensing, intelligence for planning, and a number of actors to be able to act.
In the environment model – the main enabler for automated driving – the sensors and the intelligence are key.
Based on the information delivered by the Cameras, Radars and Lidars, an intelligent central control device marries the different signals to produce a coherent image: the environment model. The driving lanes are determined; objects are defined, classified, and placed at the correct position; applicable rules are read.
Vehicle-to-X contributes additional information that the seeing sensors can’t possibly collect because it is outside their visual range. The central intelligence thus creates an environment model that extends far beyond the driver's typical range of vision and that the vehicle's electronics can understand.