A proving ground to test new models of KAMAZ vehicles is under construction next to the Scientific and Technical Center of KAMAZ.
According to Ramil Giniyatullin, Chief Test Designer – Head of the Chief Test Designer Service of the Scientific and Technical Center, the decision to build a proving ground on the territory adjacent to the Scientific and Technical Center was made so that any research engineer could leave his office and immediately start testing. This will significantly speed up the development process, system refinement, and, as expected, help significantly improve the product quality.
The R&D facility of the Scientific and Technical Center will test all designed KAMAZ vehicles for handling and stability, braking, external noise. Electronic control systems and ADAS will be tuned up there too. A city will be built with models of buildings, with intersections and traffic lights to test robotic vehicles in conditions close to real life. There will be a large tunnel on a road section where radars and lidars of driver assistance systems will be tested. In addition, there will be special tracks with hills and pits of different sizes, cobblestone roads, Belgian and basalt pave sections for ABS and ASR testing.
“We will be able to carry out a great number of tests, 70-80%, right here. We are not talking about 100%. Some tests, as before, will have to be carried out on the NAMI proving ground in Dmitrov near Moscow. The matter is that trucks, especially such heavy trucks like ours, require high speed for some tests. The track of our proving ground is 770 meters long. And 40-tonne road trains, for instance, won’t be able to develop high speed on such a short road section,” Ramil Giniyatullin explained. “In addition, we’ll continue carrying out various special tests for our vehicles on proving grounds in Moscow and Astrakhan regions, in the Crimea, and in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.”
The construction is expected to be finished in October 2022. But the first roads can be used already this quarter. KAMAZ will not be content with the area of only 11 hectares. It will be possible to expand the proving ground by another five hectares in the future.