Edge Case Testing

The World's Most Critical Scenarios Don't Wait for the Weather.

Many edge cases are never tested

Not because they are unimportant. Because they occur too rarely.

Public road testing is essential. However, many safety-critical scenarios occur so infrequently that they may never be encountered, even after thousands of kilometers of testing.

Validate the scenarios that truly matter with controlled, repeatable testing under defined environmental conditions—including rain.

Key Benefits

✓ Repeatable edge-case testing
✓ Defined rain and visibility conditions
✓ Safe testing of critical scenarios
✓ High-quality validation and AI training data
✓ End-to-end support for your test campaign

The challenge: Why 1.000 kilometers are not enough

The Problem of the "boring mile".

A vehicle can travel thousands of kilometers without ever encountering a truly critical scenario.
While public road testing provides valuable operational data, many important situations remain underrepresented:

Pedestrians emerging from occlusions
Unexpected obstacles on the roadway
Heavy rain and spray
Low visibility conditions
Glare from sunlight or headlights
Complex combinations of environmental factor

Safety is not determined by average driving conditions.
Safety is determined by how a system performs during rare and unexpected events.

The real question
It is not: “How many kilometers have been driven?”
It is: “Which critical scenarios have actually been tested?”

Why rain is a critical test condition

One environment factor, multiple system challenges.

Rain affects multiple vehicle systems simultaneously.
It can impact:

Camera perception
Radar performance
LiDAR performance
Sensor fusion algorithms
Object detection and classification
Path planning and decision making

Natural rainfall creates an additional challenge:
It cannot be scheduled, controlled, or reproduced. A scenario observed today may never occur again under the same conditions.
With defined rainfall conditions, engineers can systematically evaluate system performance and compare results across software versions, sensor configurations, and vehicle platforms.

Which edge cases are often undertested?

Perception and Sensor Performance

Heavy rainfall • Water spray from leading vehicles • Sensor contamination • Low-contrast objects • Sun glare • Rain combined with oncoming traffic

System Boundary Conditions

Sensor degradation • Sensor outages • Reduced system performance • Fail-operational and fallback scenarios

Vulnerable Road Users

Occluded pedestrians • Vulnerable road users under poor visibility • Unexpected roadway entries • Hidden cyclist scenarios

Complex Scenario Combinations

Rain and darkness • Rain and glare • Rain and heavy traffic • Reduced visibility and vulnerable road users

Digitrans' Testing Expertise

Purpose-Built Infrastructure for Scenario-Based Validation

Repeatable Outdoor Rain Testing

Defined and controllable rainfall conditions for reliable test execution.

Real-World Outdoor Environment

Testing under realistic environmental conditions without the limitations of public roads.

Soft Targets and Scenario Infrastructure

Safe simulation of vehicles, pedestrians, children, cyclists, and other road users.

Edge-Case Scenario Development

Support for planning, execution, and evaluation of complex test campaigns.

Flexible Campaign Execution

Fast adaptation to changing project requirements.

Operational Test Support

Our team can prepare, execute, and manage test campaigns on your behalf. This allows your engineers to focus on analysis and development while minimizing travel and on-site resource requirements.

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More Information

Customer voices:

AD/ADAS - testing systems and autonomous driving in the rain

"The unique design of the outdoor rain plant at the Digitrans Test Center in St. Valentin enables systematic and reproducible testing of ADAS sensors in rain under real conditions for the first time."

Arno Eichberger Institute of Automotive Engineering – Graz University of Technology

“Digitrans' cooperation and expertise were crucial to the success of our tests. In particular, the state-of-the-art artificial rain test facility was a game changer, providing us with an unparalleled testing environment."

Ayoub Hichri – CELADEasyMile R&D Ingenieur Autonomous Vehicles

“The team has done an exemplary job in creating a testing environment that not only meets but surpasses the expectations for a state-of-the-art development site, ensuring that test scenarios conducted here offer high fidelity insights into actual performance and conditions.”

Sami KoshinenVTT Technical Research Center of Finland