Four Citroën C4 Picasso demonstrators equipped with autonomous driving features have already travelled 60,000 km in "hands off" mode on express roads in Europe since testing began in mid-2015, PSA Group said.
"The priority objectives of these tests is to fine-tune the various operating safety aspects of the systems and detect any potentially hazardous situations in relation to infrastructure and other road users," the automaker said in a statement.
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Data from the different test environments have helped improve driving algorithms and on-board intelligence to ensure that the group's self-driving cars are safe on the road.
"As a result, the autonomous driving system has achieved a high level of reliability in all situations," PSA said.
The group has expanded its work on operating safety with the System-X and Vedecom research institutes. It is also working with the CTAG automotive technology centre of Galicia in Spain to validate interactions between drivers and self-driving cars.
Ten self-driving cars developed by the PSA Group are being tested internally or by various group partners. New requests for authorisation have been filed to broaden the number of trials on the open road and ensure that autonomous vehicles react appropriately in all circumstances.
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By GlobalDataIn the next few weeks, the PSA Group will begin new 'eyes off' experiments with non-expert drivers under the supervision of test engineers to assess safety in real-life conditions.
From 2018, the group will offer driver-monitored automated driving features and, from 2020, will introduce completely autonomous driving features enabling the driver to give the car full control.
Editor's note: There are five levels to which autonomous vehicles can be automated: hands on, hands off, eyes off, mind off, and driverless.
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