Two PhD students from the Department of Automotive Technologies at BME, Abdulagha Dadashev and Szilárd Hunor Tóth, participated in a one-week international research mobility program at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) as part of the UpGrade Mobility Winter School 2025. The workshop focused on the theme of “Future Commercial Vehicle”, providing a high-level international environment to explore the latest developments in cooperative automated mobility, autonomous commercial vehicles, and future road freight transport.

During the program, held between 1–5 December, our students presented their own research topics:
– Abdulagha Dadashev introduced his work on cooperative V2X communication strategies.
– Szilárd Hunor Tóth gave a talk on motion planning and control for autonomous vehicles operating at the limits of handling, presenting recent progress in reinforcement learning–based approaches.

The Winter School offered numerous opportunities to engage with PhD students from across Europe and with KIT researchers. The participants also joined industrial visits, including tours at Daimler Truck and Rosenbauer. Throughout the week, several promising directions for future collaboration emerged, such as:
– exploring edge-computing solutions to support safety-critical V2X tasks,
– advancing research in cooperative automated driving,
– analysing tire characteristics for autonomous driving at the limits of handling.

The program concluded with an in-depth discussion on the current state and future of autonomous commercial vehicles led by Prof. Eric Sax. On the final day, the organisers also offered a guided tour of Karlsruhe, showcasing the city’s history and cultural heritage.

For our participants, the Winter School provided an excellent professional experience, fresh research inspiration, and valuable international connections—further strengthening our department’s presence in the global community of cooperative intelligent mobility research.