Groupe Renault - 2020 Universal Registration Document

84 GROUPE RENAULT I UNIVERSAL REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2020 Find out more at group.renault.com 01 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT GROUPE RENAULT With this experiment, which began in 2019 and continued in 2020, Renault is undertaking a new approach to prepare and design the cars of the future. The fleet of 10 vehicles was launched, and a number of functional developments have been made to adapt to different uses. After Greater Montpellier and La Poste in the Paris region, several companies of all sizes and in various sectors have expressed an interest in testing the vehicle in 2021. TORNADO PROJECT: autonomous mobility services in rural areas. The aim of the TORNADO project is to define and test the technologies and conditions necessary for the roll-out of autonomous mobility services in low-density areas. Launched in September 2017 and running for 36 months (until November 2020), the TORNADO project explored different use cases aimed at meeting the needs of rural areas. Led by Groupe Renault and co-managed by Rambouillet Territoires, this research project was carried out in conjunction with approximately 10 industrial and academic partners. Autonomous mobility is not a challenge reserved for large cities. Autonomous vehicle trials must take into account the specificities of sparsely populated areas where transport solutions are often scarce, with many rural areas facing specific challenges. The TORNADO research project, which ends today, accordingly aimed to identify the technologies and communication infrastructure necessary for the roll-out of autonomous mobility services in rural and peri-urban areas, through two use cases and thanks to collaboration between industrial and academic partners, a region and local populations. In this context, two electric and autonomous mobility services were tested, with validation periods in the field on a real scale and environment: an on-demand shared vehicle service (Renault ZOE) directly P connecting the Gazeran rural train station and the Bel Air: La Forêt business park in Rambouillet; another via a shuttle service with stopping points within the Bel P Air business park. The technical component of the TORNADO project consisted in defining and developing autonomous driving solutions as well as communication technologies and infrastructure: that ensure a maximum level of safety: hardware, software, P on-board and remote solutions, vehicle-infrastructure communication, etc. ; that adapt to the specificities of peri-urban and rural areas: P narrow roads, roundabouts, obstacles blocking visibility, lack of road markings or landmarks, heterogeneity of road edges, narrow tunnels with a single lane, etc . complexity and diversity of traffic scenarios in rural and peri-urban environments required it, among other things: For Groupe Renault, the challenge was to run an electric vehicle completely autonomously over a distance of 13km, in a direct link between the Gazeran train station and the Bel Air business park in Rambouillet, representative of these specific features. The to increase the perception capabilities of autonomous vehicles P with real-time 360-degree detection of the environment (type of objects, size, distance from the vehicle); to be able to locate and control the autonomous vehicle to within P 20 centimeters to ensure that it stays in its lane, on roads that can be very narrow, regardless of the shoulder; to make up for temporary loss of GPS signal or total lack of P visibility, such as when passing through a single-lane tunnel; to achieve, in autonomous mode, “acceptable” speed levels as P close as possible to the reality of passengers and other road users, namely up to 70 km/h. On this route, project partners were able to test the role of connected infrastructure elements (connected lights and fixed cameras enabling vehicles to take into account objects beyond their own perception). Simulation tools for autonomous vehicles ELID 2 : exploring new uses for autonomous vehicles To invent the cockpits of the autonomous vehicles of the future, Renault has been using a new research tool: ELID 2 (Experience Life in Delegation), an innovative, customizable demonstrator. Based on the design of an ESPACE V cockpit, ELID 2 looks like the front part of a vehicle and is coupled with a simulator to represent an autonomous driving situation. Everything has been designed so that while in the demo car, the driver or front-seat passenger feels like he/she is in a self-driving vehicle on the road and can perform normal activities in the car. This means that if the driver wants to relax and watch a movie, the seat can recline and a screen rise from the dashboard. They can also share their film with the passenger or choose other activities such as writing emails or surfing the Internet. ELID 2 can be fully customized. All of its features (dashboard, screens, steering wheel, seats, etc .) can be changed easily. The demo model will thus be able to evolve over the next few years and take into account new areas of research or technological development. This research tool is used by ergonomists to test cockpit solutions and study the behavior of occupants during the main phases of autonomous driving: activation of autonomous mode, autonomous driving, and resumption of manual driving. Renault R-NEST: using stimulation to fight hypovigilance at the wheel The Renault R-NEST project (Renault Research Tool for NEuroscience STudies) was developed by the Groupe Renault Research department as a neurophysiology research tool and demo model for these types of system. The purpose of this research is to help reduce accidents caused by driving fatigue.