  Context: Competitions for self-driving cars facilitated the development and
research in the domain of autonomous vehicles towards potential solutions for
the future mobility.
  Objective: Miniature vehicles can bridge the gap between simulation-based
evaluations of algorithms relying on simplified models, and those
time-consuming vehicle tests on real-scale proving grounds.
  Method: This article combines findings from a systematic literature review,
an in-depth analysis of results and technical concepts from contestants in a
competition for self-driving miniature cars, and experiences of participating
in the 2013 competition for self-driving cars.
  Results: A simulation-based development platform for real-scale vehicles has
been adapted to support the development of a self-driving miniature car.
Furthermore, a standardized platform was designed and realized to enable
research and experiments in the context of future mobility solutions.
  Conclusion: A clear separation between algorithm conceptualization and
validation in a model-based simulation environment enabled efficient and
riskless experiments and validation. The design of a reusable, low-cost, and
energy-efficient hardware architecture utilizing a standardized
software/hardware interface enables experiments, which would otherwise require
resources like a large real-scale test track.
