Researching in autonomous and advanced driver assistance systems, we want to make a considerable contribution to the development of the future's accident-free, efficient and environmentally compliant vehicles. It's our goal to establish intelligent driver assistance and car controlling technologies, right up to universally usable autonomous functions, which can be easily plugged in a modern, modular transportation system.

The German Ministry of Education and Research, or "Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung", funds innovative, interdisciplinary projects, with the intention to develop them into successful, market-ready products.

In October of 2006, while still in Palo Alto, we bought a Dodge Caravan which had belonged to a handicapped person in Canada. The car had been modified so that the handicapped person could drive using a linear lever for brake and gas and a small wheel for steering the front wheels.

Technology is rapidly converging so that autonomous cars will become a reality in a few more years. Most high-end vehicles have now a myriad of microprocessors connected through a CAN or optical bus. The important actuators in such vehicles can be controlled using computers (brake-by-wire, steer-by-wire, etc.).