The global driving simulator market is growing quickly. Its value, estimated at US$1.59bn (£1.16bn) in 2021, is expected to reach US$2.37bn (£1.73bn) by 2026, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.3%.
There are multiple drivers behind this, including a high need for driver assessment, the rise of electrification, connectivity and autonomous/driver assistance technologies that all require accurate simulation to support stringent testing regimes, and the requirement to analyze driving condition risks without exposing drivers to physical danger.
There is also a certain degree of what might be called pent-up demand, as projects requiring simulation that were put on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic are now being urgently reinstated (an effect that we at Agility3 have also noticed with regard to the infrastructure programs that rely on our road, rail and construction simulation solutions).
In any event, the processes of developing and testing motor vehicles, and the act of driving them, are all more reliant on simulator technology than ever before, and the expectations of that technology are growing too.
This is where AVSimulation’s expertise, experience and heritage really deliver. With its roots in a Renault simulation joint venture going back over 30 years, which ultimately resulted in the creation of Scanner, the company was commissioned by Renault to develop the most advanced driving simulator ever built for its ROADS (Renault Optimisation Autonomous Driving Simulator) program, which focused on simulating and validating ADAS and autonomous driving features.
Scanner is now in use at more than 250 corporations and has been the subject of over 500 scientific papers, so it is not only a long-established and proven technology but one that has taken technical innovation to new heights too.
Furthermore, Agility3 has entered into a partnership with AVSimulation to bolster its capabilities even further (more on the tie-up here). By combining the latest version of Scanner with Unreal Engine – a powerful 3D core – AVSimulation has created a solution that contains many more tools for managing and analyzing dimensions, light, colorimetry, visual effects, rendering passes, optimizers and profiling.
The outcome is faster development, vastly more photorealistic content and a far more lifelike experience for the end user.