At the signing ceremony;
ITU Rector Prof. Dr. İsmail Koyuncu said, “One of the most important pillars of digitalization today is the artificial intelligence technology, which is gaining importance day by day and is integrated with many industries. It is now possible to use it extensively in autonomous vehicle applications and tominimize the problems caused by human error. At ITU, we had been already working on this technology. But now, thanks to the R&D project we start with the vehicle manufacturer Karsan and its autonomous technology business partner ADASTEC, we will both be able to implement a completely domestic and national technology and have the chance to provide information and experience to other sectors with the new experiences we will gain. I hope that this project will be enhanced with the pioneering engineering perspective of Istanbul Technical University and turn into a success story.”
Dr. Ali Ufuk Peker, CEO of ADASTEC, emphasized the added value of the work in his statement and said: “From production to sales, and service based business models, the automotive industry is one of the largest industrial and service sectors in every country in the world. Thanks to the R&D studies, academic publications, product and workforce demands from industry autonomous vehicles will be able to use more sophisticated and value-added information. We are very proud and pleased to undertake such a project under the leadership of ITU.”
Okan Baş, CEO of Karsan, said: “With its pioneering role, Karsan started working to manufacture the public transportation vehicles of the future. Accordingly, at the beginning of the year, we introduced Autonomous Atak Electric, the first serial-manufacturedLevel-4 automated bus in Europe and America. After receiving our first order from Romania, we are now happy to respond to the request of ITU, one of the most respected educational institutions in Turkey. As part of this, we aim to deliver Autonomous Atak Electric for the 2021-2022 academic year. It is an honor for us and our country that our driverless 8-meter bus will be utilized and developed within the scope of R&D activities of ITU.”
Autonomous Atak Electric Bus, developed by the joint work of Karsan's R&D team and ADASTEC using the flowride.ai software on Atak Electric, Karsan's 100% electric model in the 8-meter class, will be used in project development studies within the scope of R&D activities of the university. This will pave the way for industrial and technology companies and the academia to develop technological products and services with high scientific depth and commercial potential.
With ADASTEC’s flowride.ai software, Autonomous Atak Electric can navigate through streets without a human driver, is equipped with LiDAR sensors all around. Autonomous bus comes with innovative technologies such as an advanced RADAR in the front, high-resolution image processing with RGB cameras and extra driving safety thanks to thermal imaging cameras. Offering a Level-4autonomous driving experience in combination with these technologies,Autonomous Atak Electric can drive itself on a pre-arranged route. Capable of reaching speed of up to 50 kilometers per hour in all road conditions night and day when in self-driving mode, the bus can autonomously perform tasks previously done by a human driver such as pulling into bus stops on the route, managing the passengers getting on/off, navigating through roundabout, thorough fares or traffic lights etc.