Motorists driving through Germany this holiday are likely to encounter them: strange, black and white traffic signs along the highway that no one seems to know what they are for. The fact that they are not intended for humans makes it even more mysterious.
They are located on the A9 Munich-Ingolstadt motorway, but also on the A93 at the Holledau junction, which branches off in the direction of Regensburg to the Wolnzach exit. There are thirteen in total and they are all exactly 2.5 kilometers apart. Even the Germans don’t know what they mean and they don’t have to.
The strange traffic signs are intended for self-driving cars. They enable the digital autonomous vehicles to determine their exact location and are therefore not intended for humans. According to experts, autonomous cars will soon be part of everyday life and these vehicles are already being tested on the A9, as Germany has designated this highway a digital test area.
Autonomous driving
The test route offers all the conditions for extensive testing of the steering functions for autonomous driving: straight stretches, curves, hilly landscapes and alternating two-, three- and four-lane sections. The ultimate goal is to determine the exact location of the vehicles based on the signs, so that different test runs can be compared in detail.
There is no certainty that the self-driving car will come. Experts think the costs of keeping cars operating flawlessly under all conditions are too high. There is a chance that highways and back roads will ultimately be perfectly suitable for autonomous driving, but that in the center of a large city, for example, you will have to take the wheel yourself forever. Computers are still unable to match the human mind in complex traffic situations.
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