Immendingen Test and Technology Center
Huge test facility built on former military base site
Mercedes-Benz’s Immendingen Test and Technology Centre is 86km long and can test up to 400 vehicles simultaneously.
Construction of the Immendingen Test and Technology Center, where the new headlight testing facility is located, began 10 years ago on a former military base. To date, approximately 30,000 test vehicles have traveled a total of 100 million kilometers, equivalent to traveling around the Earth approximately 2,500 times.
The site covers an area of 520 hectares, with a total length of 86 km of test roads and 286 intersections, recreating real-world road environments, from complex urban intersections to mountain roads with an elevation difference of 180 m, cobblestone roads, rough roads, highways, and off-road terrain. Road signs and road markings from Europe, the United States, China, and Japan are also installed, and up to 400 vehicles can be tested at the same time.
Furthermore, the “artificial sun” can reproduce low sunlight and strong backlighting, and can also simulate heavy rain and splashes of water.
Light testing can now be performed on up to five vehicles
The Light Testing Center, which is 135 meters long and 8 meters high, can conduct headlight tests on up to five vehicles.
The newly opened Light Testing Center is an indoor facility measuring 135 meters in length and 8 meters in height, making it the largest facility of its kind in the automotive industry. This makes it possible to test headlight systems under consistent, reproducible conditions, regardless of time of day, weather, or other environmental factors.
The Light Testing Center stretches 135 metres and perfectly replicates various rural roads. The asphalt mixture used on the road surface has been specially developed to replicate as faithfully as possible the reflective properties of roads that change over time. The area can accommodate up to five vehicles testing in parallel, simulating oncoming and preceding vehicles.
Reflector poles and pedestrian dummies can be installed on both sides of the road at 20m intervals. The Light Testing Center has an investment of 10.5 million euros (approximately 1.826 billion yen) and was completed after two years of construction.
Introduction of “Automated Endurance Circuit”
The company has introduced an “automated endurance circuit” where test vehicles are driven under fully automated driving by a driving robot, making it possible to operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The Immendingen Test & Technology Center, equipped with advanced testing facilities, has introduced a series of innovative test facilities that break new ground in the automotive industry, including the “Automated Endurance Circuit,” where test vehicles can be driven fully autonomously using driving robots.
The course contains deep holes, steps, and cobblestones, which can place a great strain on the chassis and body. Furthermore, automation has improved driving accuracy and driving reproducibility, significantly reducing the burden on the test driver.
The ability to operate 24/7 has also significantly reduced testing times, with some vehicles having been driven up to 6,000 km, which is equivalent to 300,000 km in real-world driving conditions. In other words, 1 km on an automated endurance circuit is equivalent to 150 km on extremely rough roads dotted with deep potholes.
Realizing more efficient testing through digitalization
At the Immendingen Test and Technology Centre, various tests can be carried out digitally before any real road tests are carried out.
All facilities at the Immendingen Test & Technology Center are equipped with “digital twins” (computer-generated data collected from the real world), and all test facilities are digitally enabled. Any vehicle can be digitally reproduced and used as load data for preliminary simulations and test benches. This makes it possible to conduct thousands of kilometers of “digital driving” before actually driving.
When setting up the chassis of a new vehicle, more than 100 specifications are digitally tested in advance, and only the optimal ones are installed on the prototype vehicle and proceed to actual driving tests. The ability to conduct almost all tests centrally in one place, with the exception of snow, ice, and extreme high temperatures, is a major strength of the Immendingen Test & Technology Center.
