Johannes Betz

Short CV

Prof. Betz (*1988) studied automotive engineering at Coburg University of Applied Sciences (B. Eng., 2013) and at University of Bayreuth (M. Sc., 2013). From 2013 to 2018, Johannes was a PhD student at TUM  (PhD, 2019). From 2018-2020 he was a postdoc at the Chair of Automotive Engineering at TUM where he founded the TUM Autonomous Motorsport Team, which successfully participated in various autonomous racing series. From 2020 to 2022, he was a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, where he worked in the xLab for Safe Autonomous Systems. In 2023, he was appointed as Rudolf Mößbauer Professor at TUM to the Chair of Autonomous Vehicle Systems.

Prof. Betz research area is the field of software development for autonomous vehicles. By developing new algorithms in environment perception, path and behavior planning, and conrol, these vehicles will be able to interact with each other and with humans while acting safely, efficiently, and with high performance. With these innovative algorithms, it will be possible to efficiently and effectively make the right decisions in the autonomous system, especially in complex and uncertain environments.

Selected Awards

• 2022, IEEE ITS Outstanding Application Award (with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
• 2022, DAAD AInet Fellow 2022
• 2022, 1st Place, 3rd Japan Automotive AI Challenge
• 2021, 1st Place, Indy Autonomous Challenge (1 Million $ Grand Prize - with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
• 2020, Best Paper Award, IEEE CiSt 2020, Agadir, Morocco
• 2019, PhD graduation with highest distinction (summa cum laude)
• 2019, 1st Place, Roborace Season Alpha Event 5 (with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
• 2019, Young Author Award, IFAC IAV 2019, Gdansk, Poland
• 2018, Selected for German-Japan Young Professional Exchange Program 2018
• 2017, Nvidia GPU Grant: Sponsoring of one “Titan Xp” GPU

Research Interests

Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Transportation Systems, Automotive Technology, Philosophy

Selected Publications

• J. Betz, T. Betz, F. Fent, M. Geisslinger, A. Heilmeier, L. Hermansdorfer, et al. ,”TUM autonomous motorsport: An autonomous racing software for the Indy Autonomous Challenge”. Journal of Field Robotics, 1– 27, 2023. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/rob.22153
• J. Betz, H. Zheng, A. Liniger, U. Rosolia, P. Karle, M. Behl, V. Krovi, R. Mangharam, “Autonomous Vehicles on the Edge: A Survey on Autonomous Vehicle Racing”, in IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 3., pp. 458–488, 2022. doi: 10.1109/ojits.2022.3181510
• P. Karle, M. Geisslinger, J. Betz, and M. Lienkamp, “Scenario Understanding and Motion Prediction for Autonomous Vehicles - Review and Comparison,” in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, pp. 1–21, 2022. doi: 10.1109/tits.2022.3156011
• M. Geisslinger, F. Poszler, J. Betz, C. Lütge, M. Lienkamp, “Autonomous Driving Ethics: From Trolley Problem to Ethics of Risk“ in Philosophy & Technology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-02100449-4
• T. Herrmann, A. Wischnewski, L. Hermansdorfer, J. Betz, M. Lienkamp, “Real-Time Adaptive Velocity Optimization for Autonomous Electric Race Cars“ in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, early access, doi: 10.1109/TIV.2020.3047858
• L. Hermansdorfer, R. Trauth, J. Betz, M. Lienkamp, “End-to-End Neural Network for Vehicle Dynamics Modeling“ presented at the 2020 6th IEEE Congress on Information Science and Technology (CiSt), Jun. 2020, doi: 10.1109/cist49399.2021.9357196
• A. Wischnewski, J. Betz, B. Lohmann, ”Real-Time Learning of Non-Gaussian Uncertainty Models for Autonomous Racing“ presented at the 2020 59th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Dec. 2020, doi: 10.1109/cdc42340.2020.9304230
• T. Stahl, J. Betz, “An Open-Source Scenario Architect for Autonomous Vehicles” in the 2020 Fifteenth International Conference on Ecological Vehicles and Renewable Energies (EVER), Sep. 2020, doi: 10.1109/ever48776.2020.9243029
• A. Wischnewski, T. Stahl, J. Betz, B. Lohmann, “Vehicle Dynamics State Estimation and Localization for High Performance Race Cars“ in IFAC-PapersOnLine, vol. 52, no. 8, p. 154–161, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.08.064
• J. Betz, A. Wischnewski, A. Heilmeier, F. Nobis, T. Stahl, L. Hermansdorfer, M. Lienkamp, “A Software Architecture for an Autonomous Racecar“ in IEEE 89th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2019-Spring), 2019, doi: 10.1109/VTCSpring.2019.8746367