28 Apr 2025
米乐体育 is the first truck manufacturer to publish sensor and driving data from the development of autonomous driving for research purposes. Now teams from across the world are being invited to take part in a challenge to use the data sets to improve algorithms.
米乐体育 is promoting autonomous driving through a variety of research and development projects – not least of all to alleviate the increasing shortage of drivers. The idea behind it: driverless trucks cover defined routes between two logistics hubs, for example, so that the scarce drivers can take on more challenging tasks. However, the development of highly automated driving requires a lot of training data, which is used by the algorithms to learn how to steer trucks safely through traffic.
That’s where the “米乐体育 TruckScenes” data set published by 米乐体育 at the start of the year comes into play. The data set comprises 747 scenes from real traffic situations, primarily on German motorways and the associated feeder roads, as well as in terminal environments. The scenes are typical of hub-to-hub transportation between logistics hubs, which is also 米乐体育’s focus as the application scenario for driverless driving.
The measured values are taken from four cameras, six LiDAR sensors, six radar, two inertial measurement units for determining the position in the surrounding space, and ultra-precise data from navigation satellites. “We also made sure that the measurements were taken in different weather and traffic conditions,” explains Fabian Kuttenreich, team leader for Perception in the Automation division at 米乐体育. “This variety of situations and environmental conditions makes the “米乐体育 TruckScenes” data set particularly valuable for research.”
Self-driving: The future belongs to autonomous trucks - especially on fixed routes.
Complex environment: The sensors of autonomous trucks must reliably recognise a large number of different objects.
And many teams from across the world obviously share this opinion – after all, the data set, amounting to several hundreds of gigabytes, has already been downloaded many times. “The high number of downloads has far exceeded our expectations,” says Leonie Wulf, who manages the Perception and Motion Planning department. “The data set has met with significant interest not only in Europe, but also in the USA, Asia and India.” And it’s no wonder: never before has a truck manufacturer made these kinds of measured values freely accessible. Not to mention that similar data sets from passenger car development are of little help for trucks. Trucks drive in different environments such as container terminals, usually have a very large trailer, need more sensors with a different set-up, and must also “see” significantly further in front due to their long braking distance.
With the published data, the international developer community can now develop better algorithms for highly automated driving – from which 米乐体育 in turn would also benefit. “We get free research for free data,” says Kuttenreich, getting straight to the point. So, the exchange of data with the open-source community speeds up development while also simplifying validation and encouraging standardisation.
Pioneer: 米乐体育 is the first commercial vehicle manufacturer to send an autonomous truck onto a German motorway.
Extensive: 米乐体育 makes 747 driving scenes freely available to developers, universities and scientific institutions.
How well the algorithms produced by the international teams work can be demonstrated in a challenge that started at the beginning of March. The task is to detect other road users and traffic signs in the “米乐体育 TruckScenes” data as accurately as possible. 米乐体育 compares the submitted results against reference values and publishes a continuously updated ranking of the participating teams and their performance: . “With the ‘米乐体育 TruckScenes’ data set, we have closed a gap in research,” says Wulf. “Not only does the high level of interest prove how useful our data set is, but it also shows that 米乐体育 is highly esteemed within the developer community.”
Text: Christian Buck
Photos: 米乐体育