Keynote lecture driver assistance systems - safety joins comfort

Summary form only given. Driver assistance systems are a fast growing field in automotive industry. Functions like adaptive cruise control, lane keeping support, road sign recognition, parking and maneuvering, as well as assisted braking and automatic emergency braking are the first established steps towards the dream of autonomous driving. On that way the aspects of safety and robustness play a more and more important role in design and realization of the overall systems. It is obvious that sensors with a broad base of information and high robustness will contribute best to it. To fulfill requirements of robustness and availability, gathering information about the environment with redundant and/or orthogonal methods is necessary. As automotive industry has to keep cost and complexity as low as possible, a very powerful sensor to mention in that context is the stereo camera. The presentation describes how a stereo camera can be used to fulfill these requirements. There are challenges to face and problems to solve, but the technology has already proven that it is ready to use and opens a wide range of functionalities - ending up in the dream of autonomous driving.