A new Hardware-in-the-Loop method for the design of Advanced Driver Assistance (ADA) systems for road vehicles is presented. This method, called VEHIL, aims to support the development and verification of ADA systems, increasing the level of reproducibility, effectiveness and safety of the testing process. To this end, a test vehicle, positioned on a roller bench, is placed in a simulated traffic environment. A selection of simulated traffic participants is represented by wheeled mobile robots in order to provide the test vehicle’s environment sensor input. VEHIL is positioned in the development methodology as commonly used by OEM’s and 1st Tier suppliers and the added value of VEHIL is illustrated by means of three test cases regarding sensor mapping, ACC and collision mitigation