According to recent studies 94.7 million self-drive vehicles will be sold annually round the world by 2035 and it is estimated that by 2039 half of all new vehicles sold will offer the option of fully autonomous driving.

Just about every major automaker is developing automated vehicle technology. Sector experts predict we’ll see the first highly automated production vehicles by 2020 with fully automated cars expected by 2025.

The European Commission has decided to meet this situation head on by awarding the project ENABLE-S3 (European Initiative to Enable Validation for Highly Automated Safe and Secure Systems) to a consortium of partners from over 15 countries. The aim of ENABLE-S3 is to prepare the ground for accelerated application of highly automated and autonomous systems in the automotive, aerospace, rail and maritime mobility domains as well as in the healthcare domain.

GMV is participating in two use cases: on the one hand it is leading Traffic Jam Pilot with V2x, centered on the automobile sector, and, on the other, it is also taking part in Reconfigurable Video Processor for Space, led by Thales Alenia, with activities centered on the space sector.

In the automobile use case GMV’s activities will give rise to a highly automated pilot scheme that will improve traffic safety, reduce congestion and enhance environmental benefits.

In the space domain GMV will apply ENABLE-S3 methodologies to the validation of a technological demonstrator under extreme space conditions. This demonstrator, also arising from this project, will consist of the use of reconfigurable FPGAs in flight to exchange vision-based navigation implementations according to each phase of any space mission. In other words the same hardware will be reused, saving costs and loads.

The virtual testing, verification and coverage-oriented test-selection methods to be carried out in ENABLE-S3 will help to bring validation activities and costs down to a reasonable level. The resulting validation framework will ensure European industry’s competitiveness in the global automation race.

The project activities will also open up huge market opportunities for GMV. In the very near future the automation of many safety-critical systems in both the space and automobile sector is bound to produce a thriving business of new developments.