The ZalaZONE Automotive Proving Ground is a European unique car testing facility. It has been specifically designed for testing conventional vehicles, but it also allows validation tests for autonomous, hybrid, electric, and connected vehicles. The proving ground is built on more than 250-hectare, has 14 track elements. Also, it has a Conference Centre along with a Test Centre, serving as the base for test track customers. The Dynamic Platform is a continuously expansive surface with a diameter of 300 meters. This module provides the ability to perform high speed manoeuvres at a vehicle’s dynamic limits such as slalom or double lane changes and brake tests under safe testing conditions. The Braking platform is designed for testing the functionality and efficiency of a vehicle’s braking system. This proving ground module with lanes of differently paved surfaces mimics eight separate road surface types, from slippery mirrored ice to course asphalt. The High-speed Handling course is the module designed to test vehicle dynamic behaviour, including vehicle handling and its corresponding technical specifications. The 2 km long, 12 m wide track element with multiple cornering opportunities is often compared to a small racetrack where vehicles can travel at an average speed up to 120+ km / h. The Motorway is quite a unique module worldwide. It contains both highway entrance and exit lanes, straight and curved sections, as well as both asphalt and concrete pavement to simulate real road driving conditions, such as those experienced while driving on a standard highway. On the Slopes track module, you can find 7 different climbs with gradients varying between 8% and 30% and additionally a separate return route. 4 of these climbs are partially paved with special ceramics, which when wet, provide a grip similar to ice. A dedicated track for testing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems is the ADAS module. The low-speed or wet surface handling track is primarily used for testing tyres and electronic stability control systems but can also be used for driving technique trainings. The track, which is almost 1300 metres long and 6 metres wide, is equipped with an integrated watering system along its entire length. The Smart City Zone is one of the special features of ZalaZONE, designed to test autonomous and connected functions. With an area of 15ha, this artificial smart city environment showcases the types of roads, intersections, roundabouts, and other typical objects found in most urban settings. In this smart city test environment, the full spectrum of communication technologies is available for testing through either Wi-Fi-based and/or cellular 5G systems. In addition to the ZalaZONE investment, a complete and complex road test environment is being developed on local urban and regional roads. A network of streets in the city of Zalaegerszeg, as well as some parts of the M76 highway and the M1 and M7 motorways will be fitted with smart city and other intelligent transportation system elements. The hub of innovation activities related to the proving ground is the ZalaZONE Research and Technology Centre where joint research programs with universities take place. An important research area is simulation. A virtual model of the proving ground has been created to cm accuracy, on which virtual cars can drive and perform tests in the same way as real vehicles do on the actual test track. Thanks to serious scientific research activities the ZalaZONE team has been able to achieve and demonstrate a vehicle’s autonomous control in different traffic situations, under a 5G data connection allowing for parallel virtual and real track manoeuvres. Another successful result from researchers at here is the capability of “drifting without a driver” in an autonomous car, illustrating a research performance level only found in a few similar facilities around the world.
Most of the university student testing takes place at the University test track module. It is a scaled-down version of the larger test track but with all the important elements maintained in its design.
The DRONEMOTIVE competence centre, another important ZalaZONE milestone soon-to-be-established and is an example of the continuous investment into innovative technology here. This facility will research, test, and validate the drone in its various roles as a new strategic mobility tool.
The ZalaZONE Automotive Proving Ground’s mission is to encompass the complete testing cycle, one which starts from virtual testing in its simulation laboratories to real but confidential prototype testing on the proving ground an onto the full but safe real-world traffic integration testing on public roads. Thus, a complete test environment is being created for future vehicles and their related communication technologies both on the proving ground and the public road network in Hungary, while extending to international roads in cooperation with Austria and Slovenia through our cross-border cooperation agreements.