Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge

In May 2011, the first Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC) was held at the A270 highway, Helmond, the Netherlands. The GCDC is initiated by High Tech Automotive Systems (HTAS) and TNO and supported by the Community of Helmond, SRE and the Province of North-Brabant. 

For this open competition the brightest minds have been invited to create the best solutions and to test them by means of a challenge based on cooperative driving.

Similar as many other densely populated regions, the infrastructure in the Netherlands is being stretched to full capacity and beyond. As a result congestion is a national problem; traffic jams are a regular feature all over the country. The energetic cooperation of industry, research institutes, road operators and government is vital to successfully tackle traffic problems. The GCDC is initiated to bring these parties and people together and to catalyze cooperative driving technologies in an international perspective.

The GCDC contributed to the acceleration of ITS implementation, not only in the Helmond-Eindhoven area in the Netherlands, but it supported the development of cooperative technology in all the countries of the involved teams, ranging from North (Sweden) to South (Spain) of Europe and from West (UK) to East (Turkey) as well.

For more information about the organization, the scenario’s, international participating teams, the winner, movies and more:

www.gcdc.net

Bastiaan Krosse (TNO)

Project Manager of the GCDC