Modern cars are becoming ever more complex, testing the myriad driver assistance systems you find on most vehicles today has become a very time intensive process. Volkswagen plans to cut down the development time for these systems by designing a virtual validation process which will conduct these tests in simulated environments instead.

"We are continually developing Volkswagen vehicles and taking innovations into all segments," says Board Member for Development Dr. Frank Welsch. "We are building on our strong global development team and grasping all the opportunities offered by digitalization."

Volkswagen claims that the first benefit of virtual validation will be that the assistance systems can be trained continuously in various scenarios which should dramatically increase their learning speed. The second projected benefit will be the ability to more effectively and efficiently develop complex networked vehicle functions as the current hardware-based tests require physical test rigs.

While most of these systems are still in the early development phase, Volkswagen is already testing software developed in-house that will be used for teaching assistance systems on the I.D. model family.

The Volkswagen Group's IT Virtual Engineering Lab are developing complex software dubbed SimFAS that can simulate real-world conditions in a 3D environment. By testing driver assistance systems in these life-like environments engineers can optimize each component far more easily. The software is currently assessing how the upcoming virtual parking lot pilot behaves in a simulated parking lot, a system that will be incorporated into upcoming I.D. models.

Going forward, Volkswagen wants to develop a virtual concept car that can digitally represent a physical prototype, allowing engineers to conduct most of their testing of the exterior, interior, and even the multimedia systems without ever leaving the lab. We just knew that all those years of playing racing car games was time well spent.