Scania opened an 85-hectare proving ground built for autonomous and active-safety tests

Scania inaugurated a research and development proving ground in Södertälje on October 19, an investment of approximately SEK 975 million across roughly 85 hectares. The company said the site strengthens the TRATON GROUP’s ability to develop, test and validate transport solutions under controlled and realistic conditions.

The facility adds 13 kilometers of paved roads and 4 kilometers of gravel roads, with 230,000 square meters of paved test surfaces and 54,000 square meters of gravel. Scania listed five technology areas it is designed around: electrification, autonomous systems, safety, vehicle dynamics and conventional technologies.

The software-relevant part is the configurable ground. Scania said dedicated areas can be set up for active safety and autonomous-driving scenarios at varying levels of complexity, and that engineers can build realistic traffic scenarios and raise their complexity gradually. It named automatic emergency braking, lane support and blind-spot warning as the assistance functions the environment is meant to exercise.

Three irrigated braking tracks carry different friction characteristics — asphalt, concrete and basalt tiles — which allow braking tests with different grip on each side of the vehicle, and the basalt section includes a curve for braking while cornering.

Repeatability was the stated design driver. The paving specification was chosen for long service life and for the surface evenness needed for comparable tests over time, including banked curves, and gradients reach 22 percent.

Scania said the ground makes it possible to run tests that previously required external test facilities. Niklas Klingenberg, head of group research and development at TRATON, called it “an important addition to our landscape.”