Oxbotica uses ‘metaverse’ to accelerate AV safety

Oxbotica MetaDriver is a suite of tools that includes virtual real world simulation, automated discovery of challenging scenarios, and real-time data expansion. It is designed to help AVs answer three core questions: ‘Do I see it right?’, ‘Am I doing it right?’, and ‘Can I trust myself right now?’

MetaDriver generates a range of scenarios which are used to test and refine AV operations and behaviours without ever needing to physically drive in them, aiming to accelerate commercial readiness. It also provides the ability to build a digital twin representation from real-world gathered data.

The AI has learned to automatically seek out rare, unusual and unseen scenarios known as ‘edge cases’. This allows the testing of autonomy systems against ‘corner cases’, and for the systems to learn to handle them. 

According to Oxbotica, MetaDriver offers edge-case discovery rates at an average of 1,000 times faster than traditional testing methods and up to 35,000 times faster in some situations.