Kick Off Self Driving Challenge 2024

From February 12, students from 3 universities and 6 colleges are ready for the sixth edition of the challenge. The final will take place on June 14, 2024.

We welcome the following educational institutions to the SDC 2024: University of Groningen, Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, TU Eindhoven, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Fontys University of Applied Sciences, NHL Stenden, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, The Hague University of Applied Sciences and the University of Twente. Previously, the challenge was on the Assen TT circuit. This year the challenge will be organized for the first time at the RDW test track in Lelystad.

With the Self Driving Challenge, the RDW offers young talent the opportunity to further develop in the field of smart mobility. A unique and innovative process in which student teams compete with each other by racing against each other on the Lelystad test track with self-driving vehicles. The team that races a self-driving vehicle around the circuit flawlessly and safely in the fastest time is the winner of the Self Driving Challenge. The educational process starts every year in February and ends with a final on the circuit more than five months later, on June 14, 2024.

The Self Driving Challenge aims to gain knowledge about the complexity of autonomous vehicles and the way in which these vehicles make choices. With a new design, the organization wants to meet the current knowledge needs of the RDW. We want to prepare ourselves even better for a future in which self-driving technology plays an increasingly important role, both in use on the road and in the type-approval process. The student teams compete with each other by having self-driving vehicles perform a number of tests as best as possible on the test track. Such as stopping at a traffic light, parking and taking into account a crossing pedestrian. The team whose self-driving vehicle completes the tests best and fastest is the winner of the Self Driving Challenge.

To test the developed software in the interim, the RDW organizes weekly test days on the Lelystad test track. The RDW also organizes online knowledge sessions and participating student teams receive additional training from knowledge partners. The organization will announce the exact schedule for the test days, knowledge sessions and training during the kick-off of the challenge and can be followed on the website: www.selfdrivingchallenge.nl. The kick-off is a closed part within the Self Driving Challenge. Registration is therefore mandatory and can be done via: selfdrivingchallenge@rdw.nl.

RDW is a public service provider (ZBO). We stand for safety, sustainability and legal certainty in mobility. Our tasks concern the safety and sustainability of vehicles. From design on the drawing board to disassembly or export. The RDW is an approval and registration authority, supervisor and public service provider. Legal certainty and reliability are the basis of our services. In 2024 we will have been doing this for 75 years, every day, throughout the Netherlands.