We are just back from Lerum, Sweden and, no, we didn\u2019t see any moose. (You\u2019ll hear more about the Swedish trip later.<\/A>) But seriously, you are probably wondering why the moose? Well actually, a moose could be a hard-to-identify obstacle for self-driving vehicles or, in this context, truck convoys* \u2013 so, yes, our giant yet sage friend can be a safety hazard.<\/P><\/p>\n And speaking of safety, it is still one of the mission-critical elements on the agenda when we are talking about autonomous driving. Safety of the passengers inside and safety of the entire ecosystem and infrastructure outside the vehicles, including pedestrians, bicyclists, other drivers and passengers, other autonomous vehicles, buildings, public infrastructure, and\u2026 yes, even a moose*.<\/P><\/p>\n But what else needs to happen before we are all ordering self-driving cars to pick us up? At the 2018 Simcenter Conference Europe held in Prague last December, we had an extraordinary opportunity to interview two industry insiders in the field of autonomous driving: Joe Barkai, AI pioneer, author and Chairman SAE Connected Cars, and Jan van den Oetelaar, CEO TASS International, a Siemens Business — the company behind Simcenter Prescan<\/A>. <\/P><\/p>\n I have to admit, it was fascinating to hear about the progress we have made. Technically today, we do have self-driving vehicles, but it was a bit of a revolution to think about all the things outside the technology that we haven\u2019t seriously taken on board. But don\u2019t just let me ramble on about the challenges that lie ahead. Werner Custers whipped up another one of his excellent little movies\u2026<\/P><\/p>\n <\/p>\n