Autonomous Streetcar

by: Ron Zampolin

While we have focused greatly on the self-driving car and its advances throughout the year, Siemens made sure not to overlook simpler implementations of autonomous technology. In Germany, Siemens Mobility has been working in perfecting an autonomous streetcar, and has made over 450 passenger free trips through Potsdam in the past year. The streetcar uses similar technologies to self-driving cars; lidars, radars, cameras, and a complicated slew of interactive software to properly judge surrounding traffic patterns.

Fortunately for Siemens, “the complexity is certainly lower.” Not having to deal with shifting lanes and properly judging turns leads to an easier build for their vehicle. Essentially all the functionality required is starting and stopping the streetcar, and although this does come with its own difficulties of understanding the surrounding environment and also properly accelerating and decelerating for passenger comfort, the functionality is much lower than a self driving car.

In the future, Siemens looks to perfect their technology, and hopes to have their system emulate “the behavior an experienced driver would have,” effectively having smooth stops and starts rather than quick changes once traffic is seen.