Jean Todt, former President of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, also attended the ceremonial handover of the ZalaZONE Automotive Proving Ground on 26 March.

In his speech, he emphasized that ZalaZONE provides an excellent opportunity to develop and test new safety technologies contributing to the improvement of traffic safety. The opening ceremony was followed by a demonstration of Budapest University of Technology and Economics and CollMot by presenting a joint choreography of the autonomous drone swarm and the autonomous drifting car. Jean Todt took a close look at the exceptional demonstration by sitting inside the drifting car and expressed his appreciation to the developers.

Autonomous drifting is the result of BME’s research to improve traffic safety, for which a patent has been filed. The point of drifting is that the vehicle can travel in a controlled way beyond the dynamic limits, thus widening the potential trajectory field for automated cars, which can even save lives in a critical situation by avoiding a potential collision.