Porsche has partnered with Berlin-based startup Kopernikus Automotive to use autonomous driving technologies for vehicles at the marque’s workshop at its Ludwigsburg facility.

The aim of the partnership is to enable vehicles to drive autonomously from their parking space to the lifting platform and back again. The only thing workshop mechanics will need to do to move the vehicles is control them through a tablet.

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What’s particularly interesting about the pilot program is that the vehicles are not controlled solely thanks to onboard sensors, but also with the help of various other sensors placed throughout the workshop.

“This is a move away from sensors in the vehicle to sensors in the external environment, and a move away from relatively rigid programming to data-based intelligent systems,” project manager for Automated Driving at the Porsche workshop, Alexander Haas explained.

Porsche says the system means repairs can be performed more cost-efficiently and quicker. The test also allows Porsche to gather important information on artificial intelligence-based autonomous driving, with the carmaker believing that in the future, similar technologies could be used at ports, in logistics, and in car parks.

It took Porsche and experts from Kopernikus Automotive less than 100 days to roll-out the autonomous system at its workshop in Ludwigsburg. Vehicles were driven autonomously more than one million virtual test kilometers before being tested in real-life.