Europe’s largest virtual vehicle development research centre is located in Austria: Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH, a COMET K2 centre, brings its many years of expertise to current projects on autonomous driving and green mobility.
The idea behind the founding of the Virtual Vehicle research centre in Graz over 20 years ago was to make testing more cost-effective for industry by conducting virtual crash tests. Since then, both the technologies and digital possibilities as well as the research questions and mobility requirements have changed and developed significantly, in the direction of green mobility.
Today, Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH is Europe’s largest research centre for virtual vehicle development. Around 300 employees in Graz are conducting research projects in areas including autonomous driving, optimising batteries for electric mobility, and improving rail track technology.
“We create dynamic digital twins which develop in parallel with reality and can be used in a variety of automotive and rail vehicle industry applications.”
explains Anton Fuchs, Head of Operations. “We have been granted more than 65 patents internationally, many of which have been incorporated in products made by partners and customers in the automotive and rail vehicle industries. We are very proud of this.”
Anton Fuchs attributes Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH’s success in becoming a key player in Austria’s innovation and research scene to its status as an FFG-funded COMET K2 centre. “It wouldn’t have been possible to gain our international visibility and establish our international network and expertise without this funding,” he says. “Our partners abroad, whether research or industry partners, look at the COMET programme with a certain degree of envy. This efficiency and focus is definitely a unique selling point of the FFG.”