MOB-LAB

MOB-LAB was a pioneering mobile laboratory that enabled VisLab to validate computer vision technologies on real roads, transforming research prototypes into practical intelligent vehicle systems. It introduced some of the earliest real-time vision-based ADAS capabilities, including lane and road-boundary detection, vehicle localization, obstacle detection, and driver warning functions, laying the foundations for modern lane keeping, collision warning, and autonomous driving systems.

That year: Amazon was founded — e-commerce was born on the early Web.

ARGO and MilleMiglia

ARGO was the first low cost autonomous vehicle developed by VisLab to demonstrate that reliable self-driving was possible using only passive stereo vision and without modifying road infrastructure. It introduced real-time autonomous lane following, road geometry estimation, obstacle detection, and automatic steering, culminating in a 2,000 km autonomous journey across Italy in 1998. A worldwide milestone in vehicular robotics.

That year: Google was founded — search reshaped the Web.

TerraMax — DARPA Grand Challenge

In total autonomy, TerraMax completed the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge: a 132-mile unknown off-road course across mountains and deserts. TerraMax was the only vehicle to finish using vision as its main perception technology, and became the first autonomous truck to prove that large off-road vehicles could navigate complex desert terrain without human intervention.

That year: YouTube launched — video went online for everyone.

TerraMax — DARPA Urban Challenge

TerraMax was one of 11 vehicles to pass qualifications and compete in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. With 11 cameras providing all-round vision, it introduced advanced capabilities such as autonomous intersection handling, traffic merging, obstacle avoidance, route planning, and 360-degree situational awareness, paving the way for modern autonomous logistics and military vehicles.

That year: the iPhone launched — the smartphone revolution began.

BRAiVE prototype

BRAiVE (BRAin-drIVE), was a pioneering autonomous vehicle to demonstrate safe self-driving in real urban traffic with an extended and perfectly integrated sensor suite — 10 cameras, 4 laserscanners, laser beams, radar, GPS, and IMU — and four onboard PCs. Its landmark public-road tests showed fully autonomous handling of traffic lights, roundabouts, pedestrian crossings, highway junctions, and mixed urban traffic with no driver intervention, advancing the state of the art in autonomous driving.

That year: the App Store opened and Android phones arrived — mobile apps took off.

Porter and VIAC

VIAC (VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge) was the first and still the only intercontinental autonomous drive ever: about 13,000 km from Parma to Shanghai over three months, ending with a parade at the 2010 World Expo. A truly unique experience. It proved long-distance autonomous navigation, platooning, obstacle avoidance, and route following in real traffic across a then-unusual geographic scale.

That year: Instagram launched — the social camera era began.

PROUD

PROUD (Public ROad Urban Driverless-car test) was the first demonstration of a vehicle driving autonomously in mixed public traffic and part of the ride was taken with nobody in the driver’s seat, proving that self-driving technology could safely handle real urban and highway environments. Zero human interventions! The test showcased autonomous negotiation of traffic lights, roundabouts, pedestrian crossings, freeway junctions, and merging traffic, marking a major milestone toward fully driverless vehicles.

That year: the iPhone 5s introduced Touch ID — biometrics went mainstream on phones.

Piero Angela on BRAiVE

Famous Italian journalist Piero Angela's 2014 visit to VisLab brought autonomous driving research to a national audience when he personally rode through Parma aboard the BRAiVE self-driving vehicle for a SuperQuark feature. The demonstration showcased BRAiVE’s ability to perceive traffic and autonomously control steering and speed in real urban environments, helping introduce the public to the future of driverless vehicles. The segment aired on Rai 1 on January 2, 2014 in the episode “Il cervello contro la macchina: la grande sfida.”

DEEVA — The ultimate VisLab autonomous vehicle

On March 31, 2014, DEEVA — VisLab’s new driverless vehicle prototype — was presented to the media. A breakthrough in autonomous driving design: 20+ cameras and 4 laserscanners, while still looking like a normal vehicle. The processing was running on 17 PCs, using about 5 kw of power from an additional battery.

That year: Amazon Echo launched — conversational AI entered the home.

The President of Emilia Romagna region rides on BRAiVE

Stefano Bonaccini, President of the Emilia-Romagna Region, took a ride on BRAiVE — experiencing VisLab's autonomous driving technology firsthand on the path from research to real-world deployment.

That year: the Apple Watch shipped — wearables went mainstream.

The Italian Prime Minister rides on Deeva

Then Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi arrived at the University of Parma's Tecnopolo aboard VisLab's driverless DEEVA, taking a short autonomous tour of the Science and Technology Campus.

That year: AirPods launched — wireless earbuds became everyday tech.

EVA — Embedded Vehicle Autonomy

The EVA vehicle marks VisLab's next-generation autonomous platform on Ambarella silicon — continuing decades of public-road experience toward production-ready AD.

That year: the first 5G networks went live — mobile internet leveled up.

Ministers and Torino's Major test DEEVA on top of Lingotto

As part of Torino Smart Road testing, Luigi Di Maio and Turin Mayor Chiara Appendino rode on VisLab's autonomous vehicle on the historic Lingotto rooftop track — including high-speed runs on the oval.

That year: GPT-2 showed AI writing fluent text — generative models went viral.

EVA demo in California's downtown environment

Autonomous driving demonstrations with EVA in Santa Clara, California, running VisLab's AD stack on Ambarella CV2 computer-vision SoCs.

CES 2024 — EVA using a single CV3

At CES 2024, Ambarella and VisLab demonstrated EVA driving autonomously with perception and planning on a single Ambarella CV3-AD SoC — vision and radar, no LiDAR.

That year: generative AI reached consumer phones at scale — on-device assistants went mainstream.

EVA testing in Ohio on complex highway scenarios

Autonomous driving demonstration with EVA at Oculii's headquarters in Dayton, Ohio — showcasing VisLab software together with Oculii imaging radar in Ambarella’s sensing stack.

Porter donated to MAUTO — Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile

VisLab donated one of its historic Porter vehicles — a symbol of decades of autonomous driving research — to the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile (MAUTO) in Turin, where it is on public display among the milestones of automotive history.

That year: generative AI agents and multimodal models moved further into everyday products and workflows.

Testing expands across Italian cities

VisLab extends autonomous driving testing to additional Italian cities, broadening real-world validation across diverse urban layouts, traffic cultures, and road conditions beyond the traditional Parma base.