Autonomous vehicle arrangement and method for controlling an autonomous vehicle

A method for controlling an external communication system of an autonomous vehicle having an input unit for travel orders, a route planning unit containing a position finding device and a digital street map, a vehicle course generating unit for generating a vehicle course from a present location to a desired destination, an external communication system, an object recognition device, a vehicle control unit, a vehicle drive system actuation and a plurality of sensors, comprising the following steps:

• a) providing an input to the input unit representing a desired travel destination;
• b) transmitting the input travel destination to the route planning unit;
• c) detecting the current vehicle location by the position finding device;
• d) determining a route, defined in route segments, from the current vehicle location to the travel destination by a digital map and optimization algorithms, taking into account any traffic information provided over the external communication system;
• e) transmitting to the vehicle course generating unit from the route planning unit the individual route segments to be traveled and the current location of the vehicle;
• f) generating an optimized course for the transmitted route segments, taking into account any traffic information provided over the external communication system and infrastructure information stored in the digital map and/or detected by the plurality of sensors;
• g) transmitting the generated course, the vehicle condition data and the data acquired by the plurality of sensors to the vehicle control unit;
• h) verifying in the vehicle control unit the functionality of individual vehicle modules and sensors and any intervention in the vehicle actuator system in order to bring the vehicle into a safe condition in the event of system defects relevant to safety;
• i) generating a control vector for individual vehicle drive system actuators for implementing the generated course, taking into account data acquired by the object recognition device;
• and
• j) transmitting the control vector to the control unit for controlling the vehicle actuator drive system to cause the associated control data to be transmitted from the control vector to the individual vehicle actuators.