ALTEN enabled virtual safety validation for a leading manufacturers first Level-4 autonomous vehicle, applying simulation and data-driven methods to ensure performance and accelerate testing efficiency.

Challenges

Developing and validating autonomous driving systems requires testing across countless real-world traffic scenarios — a process that is both costly and time-consuming when conducted on physical vehicles.

Key challenges included:

• The need to safely and efficiently validate Level-4 driving functions in highly dynamic environments;
• High costs and long lead times of traditional on-road testing;
• The difficulty of replicating rare or complex traffic situations in physical conditions.

Solutions

ALTEN Engineers developed a virtual test drive platform that utilizes real driving data to conduct safe and repeatable virtual tests under realistic conditions.

Key engineering contributions included:

• Data fusion: Processing and filtering vehicle-recorded data to extract key parameters such as response, speed, and braking behavior;
• Environment and vehicle simulation: Building virtual models of both vehicle and surroundings to replicate real-world driving disturbances and edge cases;
• Discrepancy correction: Comparing results between physical and virtual tests to identify and correct handling inconsistencies.

ALTEN assembled a multidisciplinary engineering team — including data scientists, vehicle dynamics engineers, robotics engineers, and simulation experts — enabling an agile and integrated project approach.

Outcomes

• Accelerated validation process for Level-4 autonomous driving functions;

• Significant reduction in cost and time for system testing;

• Enhanced test safety and ability to simulate rare, high-risk driving scenarios;

• Reinforced client confidence in virtual-based validation for future autonomous vehicle programs