autonomous driving

Bosch and Daimler to pilot automated driving in California

Bosch and Daimler have chosen in a city located in the San Francisco Bay in Silicon Valley, California, as the pilot location for a first test fleet developing fully-automated and driverless driving.

Bosch and Daimler will offer customers a shuttle service with automated vehicles on selected routes. Daimler Mobility Services is envisaged as the operator of this test fleet and the app-based mobility service.

The pilot project will demonstrate how mobility services such as car sharing (car2go), ride-hailing (mytaxi) and multi-modal platforms (moovel) can be intelligently connected to shape the future of mobility.

Groupe PSA carries out autonomous driving tests in L3Pilot project

Since the start of April, Group PSA’s vehicles equipped with level 3 autonomous driving functions have been operating on open roads in France as part of the European L3Pilot project.

Six to eight vehicles will undergo intensive driving tests to validate autonomous functions on dual carriageways.

The project is strengthening Groupe PSA’s expertise in the development of autonomous vehicles, thanks to a global ecosystem of partners, including European carmakers, research centres and roads authorities.

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Groupe PSA to starts autonomous driving tests on open roads in China

Groupe PSA has obtained a licence to start autonomous driving tests on open roads in Chongqing, China, the first French carmaker to do so.

Groupe PSA has autonomous car experience in Europe, the challenge is to integrate Groupe PSA’s technology into the Chinese ecosystem as the environment, infrastructure, map system and road users are different.

The company is the first car manufacturer to have tested the autonomous car on open roads in France from July 2015 onwards, as well as the first carmaker to obtain the authorisations to carry out autonomous mode tests with “non-expert” drivers in March 2017.

Visteon and Tencent partner on autonomous driving and intelligent cockpit solutions

Visteon Corporation, a leading global cockpit electronics supplier, and China internet technology leader Tencent will cooperate to develop autonomous driving and intelligent cockpit solutions, initially for Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) R&D Center in China.

Under the agreement, Visteon’s SmartCore cockpit domain control platform will incorporate Tencent Automotive intelligence (TAI) solutions to enable user interaction and control based on facial expression and voice and gesture recognition.

Visteon, Tencent and GAC R&D will jointly develop, and share research results for, intelligent technologies for an integrated cockpit project targeted for commercialisation on GAC pure electric vehicles starting in 2020.

Mercedes Benz Vans presents its ‘Vision Urbanetic’

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Mercedes-Benz Vans presented its Vision Urbanetic, a study that opens up new perspectives on autonomous driving.

It is said to enable the needs-based, sustainable and efficient transport of people and goods – and meet the needs of cities, companies from a wide range of industries, as well as travellers and commuters in innovative ways.

The concept reduces traffic flows, relieves inner-city infrastructures and contributes to a new urban quality of life. At the same time, it offers an outlook on future-oriented technologies for the interaction between human and machine.

ZF promotes sensor portfolio for autonomous driving

At CES this year, ZF highlighted its sensor portfolio for detecting vehicle surroundings – both inside and outside of the vehicle – to help to enhance the safety of conventional and automated vehicles.

The resulting architecture – including a new, full-range radar, solid-state LiDAR, innovative cameras and acoustic sensors – are combined with supercomputers from the ZF ProAI product family to create a powerful overall sensor system.

“As system architects for autonomous driving, we’ve developed a sensor set which equips cars with all of the necessary senses to digitally detect their surroundings,” said Torsten Gollewski, head of Advanced Engineering at ZF and general manager of Zukunft Ventures GmbH.

ZF shows off technology for new forms of urban mobility at CES 2019

Novel urban mobility choices are one of the biggest drivers behind the development of autonomous driving. A primary example is autonomous ride-hailing, a service based on shared rides in robo-taxis or robo-shuttles.

At CES 2019, ZF will unveil a steering wheel and pedal-free robo-taxi to show how its technologies enable new forms of urban mobility.

Users can hail the taxi using their smartphone or tablet and it will manoeuvre autonomously to pick them up. It can then chauffeur them to where they wish to go.

Bosch presents tomorrow’s mobility today

Bosch will present its new concept of shuttle at The Consumer Electronics Show CES 2019 in Las Vegas on January 8-11.

A light, airy, minimalistic design, a futuristic outer shell made of display screens and glass, and a spacious interior – the description of a new class of vehicle and a new kind of mobility: driverless electric shuttles that glide almost silently through city centres and are seamlessly connected with their environment.

These may soon be a common sight on our city streets. Bosch provides components and systems for automating, connecting, and electrifying the shuttles, but shuttle mobility won’t be possible without mobility services.

Continental study uncovers mixed feelings about automated driving in Germany

According to the Continental Mobility Study 2018, German drivers are ambivalent about automated driving.

While around two thirds would prefer to be chauffeured electronically through stressful traffic jam situations or narrow roadworks on the highway, the number of people who doubt the technical reliability of the technology has risen from 48 to 57 percent in the last five years.

Just under two thirds of respondents express anxieties about automated driving – compared with around half five years ago. Accidents that occurred during test drives in the USA have likely played a role in this.

ZF developing 3D interior observation system for autonomous driving

ZF is developing a three-dimensional Interior Observation System (IOS) capable of detecting and classifying vehicle occupants, determining their size, location and position, and whether or not they are in active control of the vehicle.

While ZF is well-known as a world leader in the production of forward facing object recognition cameras that sense the external vehicle environment, the company has also been involved in the development of interior observation cameras for more than ten years.

Due to the trend toward advanced safety and vehicle automation, interest in interior camera technology has intensified and ZF is now developing a 3D camera interior observation system supporting a broad variety of potential safety, comfort and AD applications.