6 November 2023 – The Hi-Drive user education campaign launches today across 11 countries in Europe.

Automated driving (AD) could offer a wide range of opportunities for mobility, including improved road safety and environmental benefits. The impact of deployment of automated driving will depend not only on the uptake of the technology by the users, but their understanding and use of the AD functionalities.

The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness about the different driver support features and automated driving functions that exist in today’s vehicles and are present on European roads. The aim of the user education campaign is to rectify misconceptions about AD, encourage safe driving practices and advocate for the benefits of automated vehicles.

14 automated driving functions are covered in the campaign that range between driver support features, advanced driver assistance systems and automated driving functions which belong to levels 0 to 3, of internationally recognized levels of driving automation by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

By improving user awareness on the different functions, this can lay the foundation for better uptake of automated vehicles and understanding of these technologies among drivers.

It is also important for drivers to remain aware of the limitations that these technologies currently have. Vast majority of these functions still require drivers’ attention.

The digital campaign has been translated into 10 languages and will run from November 2023 until October 2024. The campaign is being led and implemented by the FIA Region I network of automotive and mobility clubs including ACI Italy, ADAC Germany, AMZS Slovenia, ANWB The Netherlands, Autoliitto Finland, HAK Croatia, IAM Road Smart UK, MAK Hungary, MCF France, RACB Belgium and RACC Spain.

About Hi-Drive

The Hi-Drive project is a research project co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme to address the challenges of high automation.

Being the largest European automotive project in the field of Automated Driving (AD) and cooperative driving, the Hi-Drive project advances the broad deployment of high driving automation by extending the Operational Design Domain (ODD) of automated driving functions. The project creates a deployment eco-system including the user, both as a subject to study and by educating consumers via national driver associations.

The project tests, demonstrates, and evaluates robust high automation functions in vehicles, in a large set of traffic environments such as on motorways, in cities and cross-border scenarios, paying specific attention to demanding and error-prone conditions.

The Automated Driving campaign is part of the project’s awareness-raising efforts on automation functions in vehicles.

For more information about the Hi-Drive project, please visit www.hi-drive.eu.