Free Info at http://info.hotims.

com/73012-715
 MARCH 2019

Ford’s
Autonomous
Future
Sherif Marakby’s
team is leading
the Blue Oval
toward its 2021
self-driving
debut.

Radar
Developments

Get to
Know Veoneer

Thermal Simulation
for AVs
MATLAB SPEAKS
DEEP
LEARNING With just a few lines of MATLAB®
code, you can use CNNs and training
datasets to create models, visualize
layers, train on GPUs, and deploy to
production systems.

mathworks.com/deeplearning

©2019 The MathWorks, Inc.

Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-701

Contents
2 Editorial
4 The Navigator
6 SAE AV Activities
A listing of SAE International’s autonomous vehicle-related offerings across
the organization.

8 Autonomy for the Masses

Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC aims to do for AVs what the Model T did for
just about everyone. CEO Sherif Marakby explains.

14 Speeding Thermal Analysis for Autonomous EVs

Solving thermal challenges is vital to AEV development. Siemens PLM’s
new Simcenter integrated simulation package offers a high-fidelity,
easy-to-use solution.
18 New Mobility’s Mega-Mappers
Most believe ultrahigh-definition mapping is crucial to make high-level
automated driving possible. Developing these maps is a huge undertaking—
one that’s enjoying a massive investment of money and talent.
Sherif Marakby, CEO of Ford Autonomous
Vehicles, is confident his company’s first
self-driving production vehicle will debut in
2021. He is photographed inside ‘The Factory’
on Michigan Ave. in Detroit’s Corktown
district. Photo by Keith Tolman/VIS Alliance.

22 From a Blip to a Boom

Automotive radar rides the 77-GHz technology wave toward greater
capability and vehicle safety.

26 The Swedish Word for AV Tech

Veoneer, a new Tier 1 supplier with well-established roots, is moving rapidly
into AI, says veteran research boss Ola Boström.

28 Safety Testing for AVs is Just Beginning

There is much work to be done in creating accurate, reliable tests for occupant
crashworthiness tailored to new AV designs and seating configurations.

30 Industry Unsettled on Vehicle Connectivity Standard
As data and data-sharing become more crucial to the transportation evolution,
the auto sector has yet to gain consensus on the best connectivity format.
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering™, March 2019, Volume 1, Number 1.
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (ISSN pending, USPS –
Application to Mail at Periodicals Postage Prices is Pending at
New York, NY and additional offices) is published in March, May,
July, September, November by Tech Briefs Media Group, An SAE

32 Road Tested
Transportation-infrastructure expert Kirk Steudle reflects on the rapid
progress toward the connected-AV future and the challenges ahead.
34 Modeling the Road Ahead for AVs
Detailed virtual environments are vital to developing, testing and validating
autonomous systems.
36 Is the Future of Aerial Autonomy Up in the Air?
As autonomous-drone and air-taxi concepts debut, legal hurdles will need
to be cleared before the skies are automated.
International Company®, 261 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1901, New York,
NY 10016 and printed in Mechanicsburg, PA. Copyright © 2019
SAE International. Annual print subscription for SAE International
members: first subscription, $20 included in dues; additional
single copies, $30 each North America, $35 each overseas. Prices
for nonmember subscriptions are $100 North America, $150
overseas. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering, P. O. Box 47857, Plymouth, MN
55447. SAE International is not responsible for the accuracy of
information in the editorial, articles, and advertising sections of
this publication. Readers should independently evaluate the
accuracy of any statement in the editorial, articles, and advertising
sections of this publication that are important to him/her and rely
on his/her independent evaluation. For permission to reproduce
or use content in other media, contact copyright@sae.org. To
purchase reprints, contact advertising@sae.org. Claims for
missing issues of the magazine must be submitted within a
six-month time frame of the claimed issue’s publication date.
Address all communications for subscriptions or circulation to
Tech Briefs Media Group, Circulation Department, 261 Fifth

38 Autonomy Meets Agronomy Avenue, Suite 1901, New York, NY 10016

John Deere sows some autonomy ideas at CES 2019.

Audited by

40 Upcoming, Ad Index

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING March 2019 1

Editorial
It’s more than just a magazine EDITORIAL Midwest/Great Lakes:
IN, MI, WI, IA, IL, MN
Bill Visnic Chris Kennedy
This issue of Autonomous Vehicle amount of its resources to the needs Editorial Director +1.847.498.4520, x3008
Bill.Visnic@sae.org ckennedy@techbriefs.com
Engineering marks its transition to a of its members and the automotive, Lindsay Brooke Midwest/Central Canada:
standalone publication, after debuting commercial-vehicle and aerospace Editor-in-Chief
Lindsay.Brooke@sae.org
KS, KY, MO, NE, ND, SD, ON, MB
Bob Casey
last year as a supplement to SAE sectors to address the AV “revolution.” Paul Seredynski
+1.847.223.5225
bobc@techbriefs.com
Senior Editor
International’s longstanding flagship, SAE last year launched its Office Paul.Seredynski@sae.org Southern CA, AZ, NM,
Rocky Mountain States:
Automotive Engineering. Your outsized of Automation to coordinate the orga- Ryan Gehm Tim Powers
Associate Editor +1.424.247.9207
response to AVE during its launch trajec- nization’s wide-ranging AV-related Ryan.Gehm@sae.org tpowers@techbriefs.com
tory proves there is strong demand for activities, not the least of which is the Jennifer Shuttleworth
Associate Editor
Northern CA, WA, OR,
Western Canada:
credible and balanced coverage of the development and publication of scores Jennifer.Shuttleworth@sae.org Craig Pitcher
Lisa Arrigo +1.408.778.0300
engineering behind automated driving. of technical standards—more and more Custom Electronic cpitcher@techbriefs.com
Products Editor
You’ve provided the critical mass of which support AV research, develop- Lisa.Arrigo@sae.org International
to make AVE a viable (and from what ment and deployment. Europe – Central & Eastern:
Contributors Sven Anacker
you’re telling us) must-read publication In a pioneering initiative, SAE also Kami Buchholz Britta Steinberg
Detroit Editor +49.202.27169.11
in both print and digital formats (www. established its Demo Days program sa@intermediapartners.de
Stuart Birch steinberg@intermediapartners.de
sae.org). This magazine’s mission aligns (https://www.sae.org/news/2018/05/ European Editor
Europe – Western:
Terry Costlow
with that of SAE as a trusted convener sae-demo-days-in-florida) to boost Electronic Technologies Editor
Chris Shaw
+44.1270.522130
and thought leader; we conceived AVE public’s confidence in and awareness Ian Adcock, Steven Ashley, chris.shaw@chrisshawmedia.co.uk
Matthew Borst, Dan Carney, China:
to be a unique platform for constructive of AVs. It’s a hands-on (and hands-off!) Bruce Morey, Don Sherman, Alan Ao
Paul Weissler +86.21.6140.8920
dialogue—not just in the engineering experience that continues in 2019. alan.ao@sae.org
community, but in the other disciplines SAE also has established in the DESIGN Japan:
Lois Erlacher Shigenori Nagatomo
touched by the potential for automated West Coast tech region and in the Creative Director +81.3.3661.6138
Nagatomo-pbi@gol.com
driving to transform society. Pittsburgh “Silicon Valley East” area a Ray Carlson
South Korea:
Associate Art Director
This notion is clearly on display series of popular Meet Up events that Eun-Tae Kim
+82-2-564-3971/2
within the pages of this issue, from combine social-professional networking SALES & ksae1@ksae.org

editor-in-chief Lindsay Brooke’s exclu- with tech presentations from leading MARKETING Integrated Media
Joe Pramberger
sive interview with Ford Autonomous entities in the AV sector. Recent Meet Up Publisher Consultants
joe@techbriefs.com Angelo Danza
Vehicles chief Sherif Marakby, to detailed themes have included machine vision Debbie Rothwell +1.973.874.0271
adanza@techbriefs.com
overviews of the current state of radar- and artificial intelligence and Level 3 Marketing Director
drothwell@techbriefs.com Christian DeLalla
sensing technology and high-definition driver reengagement. The initial Meet Martha Tress +1.973.841.6035
Recruitment Sales Manager christiand@techbriefs.com
mapping. Only AVE delivers incisive Up in Pittsburgh in late February was +1.724.772.7155 Casey Hanson
Martha.Tress@sae.org
analysis from regular columnist Sam hosted by Aurora and its chief product +1.973.841.6040
chanson@techbriefs.com
Abuelsamid, perhaps the industry’s most officer, Sterling Anderson. Details on REGIONAL SALES Patrick Harvey
North America +1.973.409.4686
plugged-in observer of the automat- how to participate: www.meetup.com pharvey@techbriefs.com
New England/Eastern Canada:
ed-vehicle (AV) ecosystem, while well- Digitally, the SAE MOBILUS tech- ME, VT, NH, MA, RI, QC Todd Holtz
Ed Marecki +1.973.545.2566
known legal expert Jennifer Dukarski is nical resource platform has a newly- +1.401.351.0274 tholtz@techbriefs.com
emarecki@techbriefs.com Rick Rosenberg
another regular voice, boosting aware- launched Automated & Connected +1.973.545.2565
CT:
rrosenberg@techbriefs.com
ness of the many legal challenges facing Knowledge Hub (https://saemobilus. Stan Greenfield
+1.203.938.2418 Scott Williams
AVs and their adoption. sae.org/automated-connected/) that greenco@optonline.net +1.973.545.2464
Mid-Atlantic/Southeast/TX: swilliams@techbriefs.com
A n d Autonomous Vehicle provides mobility engineers and other MD, DC, VA, WV, TN, NC, SC, GA,
Engineering leverages veteran tech- interested parties with one-stop AV info. FL, AL, MS, LA, AR, OK, TX SUBSCRIPTIONS
Ray Tompkins +1.800.869.6882
nology correspondents to deliver I’ve heard many times that if there’s +1.281.313.1004
rayt@techbriefs.com
AEI@kmpsgroup.com

relevant AV information from every an AV-industry watch phrase for 2019, its NY, NJ, OH: REPRINTS
Ryan Beckman
corner of this dynamic mobility space. “cut the hype, get down to business.” We +1.973.409.4687 Jill Kaletha
rbeckman@techbriefs.com +1.574.347.4211
But equally important, SAE believe you’ll find SAE and Autonomous jkaletha@mossbergco.com
PA/DE:
International is doing far more than Vehicle Engineering the place for the Desiree Stygar
+1.908.300.2539
simply bringing you this magazine. The impartial view of how that’s going. dstygar@techbriefs.com

organization is directing a significant Bill Visnic, Editorial Director

2 March 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

 Optical Filters to
Improve LIDAR
Sensor Performance

Your Optical Coating Partner

alluxa.com
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-702
The Navigator
Needed: a step beyond STEM
For more than a decade, education advocates
have made the case for a greater effort in teaching
kids about science, technology, engineering and
math. As an engineer, I’m all for STEM. More of
our population needs to understand these topics.
However, as I get older and continue to observe the
impact of technology on humanity and society, I’m
more convinced than ever that we need an ‘A’ for
Art included in that bundle.
Sam Abuelsamid Science is all about building a fundamental
Senior Analyst
understanding of how the world around us works.
Navigant Research
Math is the language used to express that under-
Sam@
abuelsamid.com standing. Engineering is about applying that knowl-
edge to solve real problems, and
technology is the result of all those It’s not enough
other efforts. The key word in all four for engineers
of these areas is “how.”
All too rarely in these disciplines to focus on
do we ask the equally (if not more) the technical
important questions of why or who? details of
Why are we choosing to address
certain problems and not others? making AV
Who will be helped, and who will be driving systems
hurt…or helped? function. We
Much of STEM focuses on articu-
lating the quantitative. But all too often must also have
we leave out the qualitative. The result empathy for the
is that we frequently end up doing humans that
things or creating products because
we can. What we often leave out is the these machines
discussion of what people will do with will serve.
these tools that we develop.
More study of the Arts and Humanities is
crucially important as technology becomes ever
more sophisticated. The absence of understanding
how people will use the tools at their disposal—and
in some cases abuse them—often leads to products
that society may well be better off without.
Take the case of automated driving.
As humans, there is no question that we do
in fact make the mistakes that lead to most traffic
crashes and fatalities. However, when you consider
that Americans now drive more than 3.2 trillion
miles per year and yet we only have a reportable
crash about every half-million miles (about once
every 30 years for the average driver), we’re actually
pretty good at it. We manage to negotiate our way
4 March 2019
through all kinds of weather and traffic conditions
on a daily basis, mostly without incident.
The modern development of automated
driving was launched in 2003 by DARPA in hopes
of taking soldiers out of the way of deadly roadside
bombs in war zones. But it soon became clear
that the technology had important civilian uses
for reducing traffic deaths and enabling mobility
for those who can’t drive. Over the last five years,
there has been a veritable land rush of startups
hoping to make a fast buck on the technology by
disrupting traditional transportation and automo-
tive industries.
While it’s certainly important to
find a pathway to revenues in order
to have a sustainable business, it’s not
sufficient to simply focus on grabbing
the same affluent urban dwellers who
already use ride-hailing services. We
need to design mobility that addresses
the needs of all of society. That means
creating safe, affordable systems that
enable lower-income residents to get
to jobs. It means systems that the
elderly and disabled can access with
minimal or no human assistance.
But such systems also need to
account for the ways that other people
will interact with them. Engineers can’t
assume optimal human behavior.
People will continue to jaywalk in the
path of AVs; cyclists will cross vehicle
paths without signaling. Predicting “normal” human
behavior is proving to be one of the biggest chal-
lenges for AV developers.
Then there are those who simply feel threat-
ened by automation and take out their frustrations
with vandalism and violence as some Arizona resi-
dents have done with Waymo test vehicles.
It’s not sufficient to focus on the technical
details of making an automated driving system
function. These machines are meant to serve human
beings, making lives safer, more convenient and
less stressful. Engineers must also have empathy
for the humans that these machines will serve. A
broader spectrum of education that encompasses
humanities topics is an essential part of that. ■
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
 dataspeedinc.com
DATASPEED inc. contact@dataspeedinc.com
making mobile easier ®

(866) 263-8811

A COMPLETE
BY-WIRE
SOLUTION

DATASPEED ADAS KIT

The ADAS Kit is an automotive-grade hardware and software solution that allows seamless
electronic control of a vehicle’s brake, throttle, steering, and shifting to enable development and
testing of autonomous vehicle applications. The Kit taps into the vehicle’s existing control system
and CAN bus messaging with minimal modifications to production parts and without disabling
safety features. It can be installed within a day, allowing your engineers to get up and running
quickly. Contact Dataspeed today to learn more about the ADAS Kit.

Global Leader in By-Wire Technology, with Over 450 ADAS Kits Installed
Engineers Well-Versed in the Automotive Industry
Located in Metro-Detroit, Close to Automotive OEMs
and Tier 1 Suppliers

Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-703

SAE AV Activities

SAE International’s AV-related activities

New in 2019, Autonomous Vehicle
Engineering will feature a listing of SAE
International’s autonomous vehicle-re-
lated offerings across the organization
to help keep readers up to date on
ongoing activities, training/professional

SAE International
development, meetings, publications and
standards development. The offerings
included here are just some of the events
and products available. Visit sae.org for
more details and activities (links included SAE Demo Day gives the public hands-on experience in an automated vehicle. In Decem-
below) or call SAE International at 1-877- ber, participants took test rides in an AV and visited interactive displays showcasing asso-
606-7323 (U.S. and Canada only) or 1-724- ciated technologies at Babcock Ranch, Fla. Another event is scheduled for April 4, 5 and 6
just prior to WCX in Detroit. Keep an eye on SAE.org for more info.
776-4970 (Outside U.S. and Canada).

WC X S A E Wo r l d C o n g r e s s Training/Education self-driving vehicles and driver assistance

Experience
The mobility industry’s annual event for
engineers, executives, OEMs, suppliers,
decision-makers, disruptors and the
entire spectrum of the mobility-engi-
neering field. WCX features a Leadership
Summit, keynotes, technical sessions,
Learning Lab, and the Knowledge Bar.
In addition, Connect2Car has been inte-
grated into WCX.
When: April 9-11, 2019 – Detroit, Mich.
What: Experience three days of
expert-led technical education, peer-to-
peer networking, a technology-driven
exhibit floor and global mobility solu-
tions that are shifting the marketplace.
From IoT, Big Data and connectivity to
automated and unmanned vehicles, and
from safety, blockchain and powertrain
to sustainability and cybersecurity, WCX
covers every corner of the industry.
Technical sessions offer 1,000
hours of technical content from
leading subject-matter experts. In the
Automotive Electronics/Connectivity/
IoT/Smart City track alone 188 technical
papers will be presented. See specific
details at www.sae.org/attend/wcx/
program/technical-sessions
For more info.: www.sae.org/attend/wcx
Introduction to Highly Automated
Vehicles
This course is designed to familiarize
participants with the technologies
enabling advanced driver assistance
systems (ADAS) and how they integrate
with existing passive occupant crash
protection systems. Participants will learn
how ADAS functions perceive the world,
make decisions and either warn drivers
or actively intervene in controlling the
vehicle to avoid or mitigate crashes.
When: April 8-9, 2019 - Detroit, Mich.;
July 22-23, 2019 - Glendale, Calif. and
November 5-6, 2019 - Troy, Mich.
What: Examples of current and future
ADAS functions, various sensors used
in ADAS, including their operation and
limitations, and sample algorithms, will
be discussed and demonstrated. The
course uses a combination of hands-on
activities, including computer simulations,
discussion and lecture.
For more info.: www.sae.org/learn/
content/c1603/
Accident Reconstruction, the
Autonomous Vehicle and ADAS
In this course, participants get a detailed
look at the rapidly growing field of
systems. What is available, how does it
work, and what will happen in a crash
scenario? How does it affect product
liability and accident reconstruction?
Some auto manufacturers are equipping
most of their new vehicles with such tech-
nology and it’s important for the forensic
engineer to “stay ahead of the curve.”
When: April 11, 2019 - Detroit, Mich., and
August 6, 2019 - Herndon, Va.
What: Topics examined include how to
determine if the systems were installed,
if they were enabled, and if they func-
tioned as designed. The presentation will
be interspersed with many videos and
photos, allowing attendees to experi-
ence for themselves the implications of
this new field. Examples of the systems
at work will be demonstrated.
For more info: www.sae.org/learn/
content/c1869/
LIDAR and Infrared Cameras for
ADAS and Autonomous Sensing
This two-day seminar examines ADAS
and autonomous-vehicle technologies
that have disrupted the traditional
automotive industry with their chal-
lenges and potential to increase safety
while attempting to optimize the cost

6 March 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING


of vehicle ownership. This course will
provide the foundation to build on for
these two technologies in automotive
applications. It will include a demonstra-
tion model for lidar and infrared camera.
When: April 10-11, 2019 - Detroit, Mich.,
and August 6-7, 2019 - Troy, Mich.
What: The seminar will begin with a
review of infrared basics, then dive into
lidar. The second half will cover infrared
camera topics with focus on driver moni-
toring for interior and machine vision for
exterior. It will review rolling and global
shutter imagers, wavelength selection, use
of secondary optics, continuous vs pulsed
IRED operation, thermal design, power
consumption, eye-safety certification and
HMI considerations. There will be a brief
review of iris recognition, cabin monitoring
and face recognition, and will end with a
short discussion on trends and challenges
facing optical sensing in AVs.
For more info.: www.sae.org/learn/
content/c1896/
Events
SAE Automated and Connected
Vehicle Systems Testing Symposium
A new two-day event, hosted by
Clemson University–International Center
for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR),
will bring together thought leaders
from academia, research, industry, and
government throughout the automo-
tive engineering industry to discuss
the latest automated vehicle testing
programs, data acquisition and analytics
approaches and research.
When: June 20-21, 2018 - Greenville, S.C.
What: Technical experts will discuss
ideas and methods to bridge the gap
between technologies and products to
address the top challenges of automated
vehicle use within the public transporta-
tion system. This event will dive deeper
to address the underlying engineering
frameworks, showcase the engineering
challenges, discuss systematic choices
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
and down-selection processes, and the
comparative analyses needed to create
reliable engineered products.
For more info.: www.sae.org/attend/
automated-and-connected-vehicle-sys-
tems-testing-symposium
Innovations in Mobility
Rapid advances are challenging the
mobility industry with new business
models, new methodologies in vehicle
development and manufacturing, unprec-
edented levels of automation and the
need for new infrastructure.
When: October 29-31, 2019 - Novi, Mich.
What: Through three days of expert-led
technical education, peer-to-peer
networking, and a technology-driven
exhibit floor, this hallmark event
addresses the fundamental issues faced
by the mobility industry amid the rapid-
ly-advancing technology marketplace in
the critical areas of smart manufacturing,
next gen materials, advanced propulsion,
smart mobility and infrastructure and
automated and unmanned mobility.
For more info: www.sae.org/attend/
innovationsinmobility
Publications
SAE International Journal of
Connected and Automated Vehicles
SAE International Journal of Connected
and Automated Vehicles furthers the
state of the art of engineering research
by promoting high-quality theoretical
and applied investigations in the arena
of connected and autonomous vehicles
(CAVs) in on-road, off-road and aerial
operational environments.
The Journal, from Editors-in-
Chief Prof. Dr. Daniel Watzenig, Graz
University of Technology and Virtual
Vehicle Research Center and Terry
Fruehling, Encore Semi, Inc., seeks
to further these goals by publishing
peer-reviewed scientific papers that
showcase strong theoretical and
SAE AV Activities
empirical contributions and findings
to the body of engineering knowledge
surrounding various facets of the life-
cycle treatment of connected and auto-
mated vehicles, with an emphasis on the
system perspective.
For more info: www.sae.org/publications/
collections/content/E-JOURNAL-12/
Standards
Unmanned Systems (UxS) Control
Segment (UCS) Architecture:
Architecture Technical Governance
AS6522
The UCS technical governance comprises
a set of policies, processes, and standard
definitions to establish consistency and
quality in the development of architec-
ture artifacts and documents. It provides
guidance for the use of adopted industry
standards and modeling conventions in
the use of Unified Modeling Language
(UML) and Service Oriented Architecture
Modeling Language (SoaML), including
where the UCS Architecture deviates from
normal UML conventions.
This document identifies the defining
policies, guidelines, and standards of tech-
nical governance in the following subjects:
• Industry standards adopted by the
AS-4UCS Technical Committee: These
are the industry standards and speci-
fications adopted by AS-4UCS in the
generation and documentation of the
architecture.
• UCS Architecture Development: UCS
specific policies on the development of
the UCS Architecture.
The AS-4UCS Technical Committee
governance policies are intentionally
minimal. The object is to provide direc-
tion specific to the intent and scope of
developing architecture artifacts that
follow a consistent set of specifications
and industry best practices. Standards are
referenced within policies.
Learn more: www.sae.org/standards/
content/as6522/ ■
March 2019 7
People/Ideas
Autonomy for the
Masses
by Lindsay Brooke
Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC aims to do for AVs what the
Model T did for just about everyone. CEO Sherif Marakby explains.
Henry Ford was not quite a year away from rolling
out his world-changing Model T when, in 1907, the
Chicago Hosiery Co. built a factory branch in Detroit’s
Corktown district. Today the exterior of that same
three-story brick building on Michigan Ave. appears
unchanged from its sock-sewing past, aside from the
Spin electric scooters on the front sidewalk. But inside,
it’s abuzz with the innovative stuff that a 21st-century
Henry would love.
Open floor plan. No offices. Rolling desks. A few
tiny meeting rooms. White boards galore. And fairly
high levels of ambient noise. Since opening in May
2018, “The Factory,” as its 220 employees call it, has
been home to Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC—the
dedicated business unit that aims to launch Ford’s
first self-driving, hybrid-electric production AV in
2021. Also based there is Team Edison, Ford’s EV
advanced-planning group. Together, they are the
vanguard of Ford’s multi-billion-dollar thrust into
connected, multi-modal mobility. Ford leadership
wanted both teams to work—and ideally, live—within
the urban ecosystem where their products initially will
be used most.
Sherif Marakby agrees. “It makes so much sense
for us to be here, close to the customer,” Marakby, the
CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, enthused. “When
this opportunity came up, it took me all of about a
second to say, ‘I’ll go! I want to be in the city!’ I’ve lived
in the area for 28 years but only spent a little bit of it
working in Detroit.”
8 March 2019
His organization’s role and passion is technology
commercialization—”to make autonomy work for
the masses,” Marakby told SAE’s Autonomous Vehicle
Engineering. It involves defining who the customer
is—and that’s not someone driving the car anymore.
“With AVs, we tailor the vehicle experience to the
passenger and to goods,” he explained. “Providing a full
service with AVs involves the app, how you approach
the vehicle as a rider and how the vehicle comes to
you—and lets you know it’s your car.”
Such changes, along with little matters such as
ensuring the vehicle obeys traffic laws and operates
safely in all environments, “are a major reason that
our teams are located in a different place—so we can
think differently,” he said.
Marakby’s a realist about the technical chal-
lenges and financial burden that come with the
changes. In a tightening global vehicle market, Ford
is investing $1 billion over five years in Argo AI,
whose algorithms and sensor-fusion expertise are
vital assets for the Autonomous Vehicles team. (Talks
with Volkswagen toward a potential joint venture
on self-driving vehicles, including VW investment
in Argo AI, were reportedly progressing when AVE
went to press.) Acquisitions by Ford Mobility of
other tech start-ups, including Autonomic (cloud
computing software) and TransLoc (transit-services
software) bolster the team’s toolset.
“At the end of the day, my organization has to be a
viable business,” he asserted. “We have our own P&L.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

Keith Tolman/VIS Alliance
With no formal office of his own, CEO Marakby sets up his laptop wherever he can find space in The Factory.
I set the specification, and the customer experience,
and work on the ecosystem. I also direct the program
team that directs the vehicle development. Everything
that is needed for autonomy to eventually run a service
and make money is in this organization.”
Moving fast
A native of Cairo, Egypt, Marakby studied neural
networks at the University of Maryland, as part of his
degrees in electrical and electronics engineering. “At the
time, in 1990, neural nets were theoretical—how the
brain works, how logic flows and how you can connect
the parts. I remember taking classes thinking, ‘I can
grasp this—I know how to design circuits!’ But I didn’t
know how to apply it.” Few did then. He’d planned to
move to Silicon Valley after graduation, but landed at
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
People/Ideas
Ford, building his engineering career in infotainment,
electrified-vehicle and driver-assistance programs.
“Every time I wanted to expand and do some-
thing different, Ford gave me the opportunity to do it,”
Marakby noted. Attendees of SAE’s early Hybrid & EV
Symposia will remember him presenting Ford’s electri-
fication progress. Launching an EV and four hybrids
within a short timeframe in Dearborn somewhat
prepared him for the rapid work pace at Uber, where
Markaby detoured for about a year in 2016.
“I had to open my mind when I was there,” he
said. “It’s a very casual but super-fast environment. It
moves fast to get the job done. And that wasn’t hard to
translate into Ford, believe it or not. It’s [Uber] a group
of people, like those who work in this building, who
think and work differently.”
March 2019 9
People/Ideas
“At the end of the day, my organization has to be a viable business.”
In a wide-ranging interview at The Factory,
Marakby discussed progress his team has made in its
first 10 months, and challenges ahead. Some highlights:
On a hybrid AV, rather than electric in
2021: “We’re on a technology journey toward the
battery-electric AV, but we’re not there yet. We modeled
the upcoming AV on learnings from our thousands of
miles of carrying people and goods in Miami and other
Wanted: An edge-case Standard for AVs
Ford and other developers need a standard for edge cases
and use cases for homologating AVs—”for testing, devel-
opment and signing off AVs,” Marakby explained. “Because
when we sign off on an AV and say, ‘It’s ready to go,’ that
means it’s ready to not have a driver. Which means it has to
work 100 percent of the time.”
That vehicle must “know” all edge cases where unpre-
dictable things could happen. Ford has a lot of experience
in ADAS, but such automated systems have human drivers
to take over. Fully self-driving vehicles don’t.
“We have redundancies in steering, braking and other
systems, but we have to make sure that the edge cases—
whatever can happen and wherever we’re launching, works,”
he stated. “And we have to test for it. So, I feel a standard
around those cases is needed. It would be tremendous.”
He noted that discussions around the issue are just getting
started within the industry.
–LB
10 March 2019
Keith Tolman/VIS Alliance
In Miami, “we learned we can cover a 100-square-mile area
and do a lot of work.”
cities. Hybrid propulsion offers great fuel economy,
range, and the ability to carry the significant loads—
electrical and otherwise—of an AV. Hybrids can work
in all thermal conditions without losing range.
“In transport services, it’s all about uptime, which
is very different than selling a vehicle. Even a huge
battery in an EV will not be able to run 15 to 20 hours
a day with a 50 percent loss due to loads without
charging. You can’t take an AV offline for eight hours
to charge it; that’s not practical for operators.”
On AV benchmarking: “We benchmarked
the airline industry, which is built on utilization and
customer experience. They know what giving time
back to the consumer means, and that the experience
is different between customers. It may be more time
for working. For sleeping. For playing games. The
customer may not want to use any of the screens in
the vehicle; or only the big one; or they may want to use
their own device. By not having everything designed
around the driver, the interior space becomes flexible.”
On Ford adopting cellular V2X in 2022:
“There is already critical mass around V2X (vehi-
cle-to-everything connectivity) and we believe in it.
We’re developing a ‘heavy compute’—all the sensor
hardware on board—and V2X will lighten up that
on-board compute tremendously. For non-AVs there
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

are a lot of benefits to V2X as well. We feel that working
with cities and infrastructure is a good path for us and
through cellular communication is how we’ll be able
to give information.”
New-age engineers: “You need a mix of skills
and a willingness to change. It’s combining back-
ground and experience with new talent that tends
to be right out of school or comes from a different
industry. Mixing the two is really important—we’re
trying to bring the agile-software and robust-auto-
motive mindsets together. But you must be careful
how you mix. You’re not asking people to blend in;
you’re asking them to bring their thinking to work
with other people.
“I learned that in this environment, when you
bring in someone from outside the industry, make
sure they have a buddy, someone from in the team that
understands the industry so they can navigate their way
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
People/Ideas
around the company. Mix the internal and external
knowledge while making the new folks successful.”
On Ford deciding to “own” the O/S: “We
have a group of software engineers here who are
creating the code for, lack of better terms, dispatch
and routing of the AV service. The operating system.
We call it ‘orchestration’ of the fleet and it’s important
for AVs, particularly when they encounter construc-
tion zones, detours and closed roads. We do the app,
the dispatch routing and even payments. Nobody’s
done this before for AVs. Owning this capability is
very important—integrating the whole ecosystem and
making sure it works every time is inherent to working
with AVs on the streets of any city.”
On learnings from the Miami testing: “We
learned we can cover a 100-square-mile area and
do a lot of work. Partnering with businesses such as
Postmates and Walmart, we got the pick-ups pretty
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-704 March 2019 11
People/Ideas

they’re delivering.”
On 2019’s focus: “It’s a big year for industrial-
izing and commercializing what we showed in Miami.

Keith Tolman/VIS Alliance

Ford set up The Factory to be non-hierarchical, with open access to the CEO.
Here, Marakby chats with Alex Buznego (at left) and Joe Provenzano.
right…and the deliveries pretty wrong! But now we
can map the streets showing where the deliveries
are, years before we begin actual service. The map of
Miami where we’re operating now is very different
from where we started. It’s no longer ‘downtown only.’
Now, we have to understand each business, what
A lot of activity around the ecosystem, routing the
vehicle, vehicle development and engineering all the
redundancies. We have execution plans throughout the
year; 2019 gets ready, with safety drivers, to build the
whole ecosystem, run the businesses with Walmart and
other companies. Zoom in on where and how we’re
going to operate. Take the step from ‘we know how to
do it’ to actually doing it. The first phase of building it
to scale is this year.”
On AV hype: “We know what everybody is using
for hardware—and it’s just not ready. And all of this
tech needs a viable business to provide the services—
with call centers, apps, dispatch algorithms that make
sure the vehicle obeys all traffic laws, parks itself safely,
etc. AVs can’t do that yet.” ■

Bright
Ideas for
Dimmable
Glass
Dimmable sunroofs for sunload control.
Self-darkening combiner HUDs for enhanced
visibility. Sensor shrouds that conceal
cameras for enhanced performance and
aesthetics. Darkening panels to enhance
passenger privacy.

Connect with Gentex for dimmable glass

solutions for today’s vehicles based on
tomorrow’s emerging technologies.

Today’s Features » Tomorrow’s Technology

GENTEX.COM | GENTEXTECH.COM

Gentex-AVE-Dimmable-Glass-2019.indd 1 2/25/19 9:14 AM

12 March 2019 Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-705 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
 EB robinos
DNA for automated driving

Key software components to bring automated driving

functions and systems to mass production
Full environment model software stack
Highly accurate information about the vehicle position
Comprehensive electronic horizon solution
Code-generation based supervision of system parameters

Download your free trial version of EB robinos

www.eb-robinos.com

Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-706

Software

Speeding Thermal
Analysis for
Autonomous EVs
by Bruce Morey

Solving thermal challenges is vital to AEV development.

Siemens PLM’s new Simcenter integrated simulation package
offers a high-fidelity, easy-to-use solution.

Siemens PLM recently introduced a new Simcenter
software solution for thermal simulation used in
autonomous electric vehicle (AEV) development. The
product is designed to help engineers quickly solve
heat-related challenges related to the vehicles’ high-
power electronics.
Speed and ease-of-use were important consider-
ations in development of this tool. While traditional
CAE simulations are useful, automakers are finding
that restricting simulations to a few experts leads to
a slow and costly engineering process. The answer is
software that a design-and-release engineer devoted
to specific AEV components can exercise. In general,
this has come to be known as the “democratization of
CAE,” and Siemens PLM hopes to accelerate this trend
with the new offering.

Siemens PLM

Siemens PLM emphasizes maintaining

the digital thread in its thermal design software.

14 March 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

 Software

Integrated physics
AEVs, with their power-hungry sensor fusion boxes,
have significant thermal-management demands.
While properly addressing these power and thermal
loads is important even in combustion-engine auto-
mated vehicles, it is paramount in battery electrics.

Siemens PLM
Keeping the battery pack not too cold, and the
sensors and electronics not too hot, makes all the
difference when every fraction of a kilowatt hour
counts. The electronics alone, if not optimized, can The new Simcenter Solution for Design-centric Thermal Simulation for Auton-
reduce an AEV’s range by as much as 35%, according omous EVs combines three existing solutions in an easy-to-use format, with
seamless connection among electrical, electronic and mechanical domains.
to Siemens.
The new integrated CAE solution package
combines three of Simcenter’s CAE simulations: three are now linked—for component thermal and
FLOEFD for 3-D thermal analysis; MotorSolve for electric powertrain performance, connectivity between
electric motor design, and Flomaster, a 1-D CAE for simulation of electric motor performance and system
electric powertrain thermal energy management. All simulation for electrical and thermal management.

Leading OEMs and Tier 1s are disrupting

automotive electronic system development

Get Ahead of the Curve

with Synopsys’ industry-leading
Virtual Hardware ECU solution

• Start SW development 12 months

before HW availability
• Perform continuous system testing

www.synopsys.com/autovdk

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-707 March 2019 15

Software
FloEFD CFD is full-featured 3-D fluid flow and
heat transfer analysis. It includes engineering models
such as porous media, PCB and LED model. It is built
into major MCAD systems such as Creo, CATIA
V5, Siemens NX, Solid Edge, according to Siemens.
It also includes an electronics cooling module for
detailed thermal modeling of electronic models.
Battery electrochemical-thermal simulation capa-
bilities are available.
MotorSolve is Siemens’ design and analysis
software for brushless DC, induction, switched
reluctance and brushed DC machines. It is based on
finite element analysis with automatic mesh refine-
ment, post-processing and domain knowledge to
compute design parameters that are of interest to a
motor designer.
The third element, Flomaster, is a 1-D solver for
thermo-fluid system or other simulations that can
be captured in 1-D. For higher accuracy, individual
components can be solved in 3-D using FLOEFD, and
then summarized and connected in the 1-D Flomaster
model. “The 1-D and 3-D CFD solutions are dynam-
ically linked simulations,” said Puneet Sinha, MAD
Automotive Manager at Siemens PLM.
16 March 2019 Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-708
In the hands of engineers
Just as important as the physics is the intended user:
mainstream automotive engineers. Enhancing ease of
use, according to Sinha, are simulation automation, a
built-in database, and model representation from data.
“There is a seamless connection among electrical,
electronics, and mechanical domains,” he said. There will
also be some access to design optimization and genera-
tive design capabilities in this initial roll-out. He antici-
pates these features to be strengthened in future releases.
The combined package is especially useful for
generating thermal “digital twin” simulations of the
powertrain, processors, and sensors, according to
Sinha. These and other key enabling technologies are
anticipated to be used in next-generation AEV designs.
This latest tool can be viewed as a further develop-
ment in the “democratization of CAE” trend among CAE
providers in the last few years. This movement views acces-
sibility of CAE to non-specialists as the next, vital step in
making CAE useful to industry. This also means that the
user of Siemens’ FLOEFD software, in particular, will not
need to know about some of the trickier aspects of CFD,
such as mesh creation, selection of a laminar or turbulence
flow model, or what type of turbulence model to apply. ■
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
 SAE MOBILUS ™

TECHNICAL RESOURCE
PLATFORM
Your critical advantage to develop
the future of mobility engineering
SAE MOBILUS™ is your destination for mobility engineering resources with instant access to explore,
discover, and share more than 226,000 of SAE’s current and historical standards, technical papers,
eBooks, magazines, and more.

For more information

THE FEATURES YOUR PEERS REQUESTED
+1.888.875.3976
Developed with extensive user feedback, the SAE (U.S. and Canada only)
MOBILUS
platform features intuitive, easy search +1.724.772.4086
and navigation so engineers and students can focus on (Outside U.S. and Canada)
solving essential problems facing the mobility industry.
Visit saemobilus.org
The customizable dashboard keeps pertinent materials
accessible by allowing saved searches, personal
document annotations, and custom folder creation

Dynamic redlining visually represents revision tracking

for standards, eliminating a tedious manual process

Improved, intuitive site search returns focused results

with content snippets so you can preview the resource
before you download

COUNTER 4 reporting provides administrators

with accurate, timely content usage data to enable
informed subscription decisions

P17172963 Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-709

Software
New Mobility’s
Mega-Mappers
by Stephen Baker
Most believe ultrahigh-definition mapping is crucial to make
high-level automated driving possible. Developing these
maps is a huge undertaking — one that’s enjoying a massive
investment of money and talent.
A yellow sign on a mountain highway shows an
S-shaped curve. This is a primitive map, and hardly a
faithful representation of the road. Instead it delivers a
simple signal to the driver: Get ready for turns.
Road cartography has evolved over centuries with
a unifying purpose: to guide human beings from point
A to point B. Complexity often gets in the way. “You
don’t want too much detail,” says Wei Luo, formerly
a product manager at Google Maps and now chief
operating officer at Deepmaps, a Palo Alto, California-
based startup. “That can confuse people.”
At the same time, though, the cartographer counts
on the map’s user to fill in many of the missing pieces—
and respond to changes. After all, the user is a fellow
Deepmap
Deepmap’s data-point “view” of the world.
18 March 2019
human being. Maps, like language, are symbols that
bridge human minds.
New-age cartography for autonomy
But this is changing. The newest field of cartography—
creating maps for autonomous vehicles—is designed for
a different user: a software program. Unlike a person, the
navigation program demands specifics—every squiggle,
every raised curb, every passing lane, all of them cali-
brated by the centimeter. At the same time, and far more
challenging, automated navigation must adapt to imme-
diate unknowns. How should it provide guidance to the
destination if a fallen tree lies in its path? While a human
driver might swear under their breath and improvise,
most software programs will require detailed guidance.
An entire industry is rising up to create this
new breed of map, a fundamental technology for the
nascent autonomous industry. After all, the purpose
of the vehicle is to reach a destination. The map tells
where it is and how to get there, the AV’s connection
to the physical world.
Creating these maps requires precise three-di-
mensional recording of every street and byway—itself
no mean feat. But it also requires muscular layers of
artificial intelligence (AI) to interpret what it encoun-
ters along the way and then to respond appropriately.
Often within a fraction of a second.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

Here Technologies
Here Technologies’ maps contain detailed roadway information crucial to precision
automated navigating.
It’s a massive undertaking that
feeds this growing field of research.
Google’s Waymo, the industry’s AI
behemoth, is developing maps for its
autonomous fleets. It’s joined by a host
of start-ups, including venture-funded
DeepMind and Carmera in the U.S.
and European-led Here Technologies,
which is backed by Daimler, Volkswagen
and other automakers. The winners in
this market will be positioned to run
the world’s geo-platforms, tracking and
guiding much of the movement on our
planet. “It’s a very hot field for research,”
says John Dolan, a robotics professor at
Carnegie Mellon University.
Dealing with change
A central challenge for autonomy-cen-
tric mapping is adapting to change.
“The system actually has to be 4D, says
Deepmap’s Luo. “That’s 3D plus time.”
To incorporate time into the map,
each system must devise a method for
harvesting reliable, up-to-the-minute
data. Some, like Waymo, use the sensors
on their own fleets of AVs. Others look
to crowdsourced data or piggyback on
the onboard LIDAR and other sensors.
Once the sensors are in place
and sending back streams of reports,
the data-gathering part of job is
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Software
straightforward. “You start with a very
rich base map,” says Ro Gupta, founder
and CEO of Carmera, a New York start-
up. “That’s not trivial,” he says, “but it’s
somewhat a solved problem.”
It’s the flood of data itself that creates
immense challenges. Each AV, says Luo,
generates about one petabyte per hour
of navigational data. Software must sift
through this avalanche of data to find the
fragments that are meaningful and then
“decide” whether to take action. This is
an enormous cognitive enterprise—and
requires strong doses of AI.
The initial challenge is simply to
spot a change. As the data pours in, the
base map is certifying that everything is
matching. Stop sign? Check. Left-turn
lane? Check.
Then it encounters something new:
A white space at a street corner where
there used to be a pine tree. The system
notes a change. But is it more signifi-
cant than other changes, like falling
leaves or fresh puddles? A human
being might immediately recognize the
white space as a parked truck, and not
give it a second thought. The software,
however, lacking human experience and
intuition, must probe for clues. Is there
more data to corroborate the observa-
tion? How many times have objects, like
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-710
Software

a tree, gone missing before? Is there any correlation Cloud or no cloud?

in such cases to accidents or other troubles? Is traffic
continuing unimpeded?
In responding to changes, time is of the essence.
One logical approach would be to reduce data flows
and associated latency by programming the sensor
vehicles to report only when they detect changes from
the base map. If the traffic is flowing on the usual three
lanes on Broad Street, why add to system “noise” by
reporting it? The trouble, though, says Carmera’s
Gupta, is that unperceived changes will be missed.
“You lose the false negatives,” he says.
Updating this new variety of map raises all manner
of issues regarding data management. How much of
the geo-data, for example, should the vehicle itself
interpret and what proportion should be uploaded
to cloud-based AI systems?
On one hand, the cloud can harvest from multiple
sources, match them with historical patterns, and
provide expanded intelligence. But even with ultra-
speedy 5G cellular networks expected to be widespread
within three years, the back-and-forth of data transfer
raises latency concerns. What’s more, since network

Just say the words: what3words

If you’re standing in the middle of And it’s blazingly precise. The
New York’s Rockefeller Center or torch of the Statue of Liberty, for
on a beachside road outside Cape example, is “toned.melt.ship.” in the
Town, South Africa, how do you tell what3words universe. The nearby
a rideshare where to pick you up? cafe on the island is “puzzle.pies.
Most places on our planet, from ties,” and the flagpole plaza is
fields and beaches to parking lots, “corn.camps.spite.” In this scheme,
lack an address. And sometimes every place on earth is many plac-
the number is on a front door that’s es, each with its own address.
hard to find, or around the block. What3words is positioning itself
Mercedes-Benz is the first automaker to incorporate what-
Our current address system, de- as the navigation app for the next
3words into its navigation-system programming. Speak
veloped in the 18th century for post- phase of mobility—whether for
the 3-word “address” and the system will direct the driver
al delivery, is frightfully imprecise. locating dockless scooters in Santa
to that exact 3-square-meter place on the earth.
A decade ago, this impreci- Monica, summoning a flying drone
sion was causing problems for a taxi in Dubai, delivering food to
British concert promoter named famine victims in Yemen, even find-
Chris Sheldrick. He struggled to tell ing a parked car at Disney World.
delivery companies exactly where The key, as in most digital tech-
to drop off drums sets or to direct nologies, is for the app to entrench
musicians from their hotel to the itself as a standard. Already, the
correct backstage door. Computers company has deployed the app in 26
didn’t have this problem, Sheldrick languages. And what3words already
knew. With geo-mapping, they could Developers of what3words believe the system will offer has scored a production-vehicle coup
pinpoint any place on earth by its vast new possibilities for navigation of unmanned aerial with its installation on the 2018 Mer-
longitude-latitude coordinates—New vehicles (UAVs). cedes Benz A-Class, where it’s linked
York’s Statue of Liberty, for example, to the speech-enabled navigation
was 40.6892° N, 74.0445°. But try giving longitude and latitude coor- system. Just say “Gosh.weds.lost,” and the vehicle navigation system
dinates to an acid-rock drummer and see if he gets to the show. will direct you to the centerfield gate at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.
The trick, Shedrick saw, was to create a navigation system for the But in coming years, mapping will need to cover more than 57
post-postal economy. This is the almost magical idea of what3words. trillion squares of global real estate. How to tell a drone, for ex-
The company has mapped the world as a grid of 57 trillion ample, to deliver dim sum to a 14th-story balcony in Hong Kong?
squares. Each one is three square meters and each has its own “We’re looking at vertical,” says the company’s chief marketing
“tag”—a combination of three words separated by periods. Aston- officer, Giles Rys Jones. The challenge is to add a new dimension
ishingly, the whole scheme requires just 38,000 words (less than a of complexity while staying true to the human-friendly formula—
what3words

quarter of the 171,000 words in the Oxford English Dictionary) to still, preferably, with just three words.
cover the entire planet. —SB

20 March 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

 Software
Here Technologies

Map-developer Here Technologies envisions a variety of useful near-term services, such as guidance about parking
availability, springing from its rich map data.

connections are never guaranteed, autonomous vehicles

must be equipped to interpret deviations from the base
map for themselves and respond appropriately.
In these early days, most of the mapping compa-
nies are focusing on small samples of the earth’s
roadways. Naturally, many concentrate on the areas
where autonomous driving tests and services are
underway. Waymo and Deepmap, for example, are
Here Technologies

busy in parts of Arizona and California. Carmera,

which has agreements with companies that operate
delivery fleets, is modeling New York City, San
Francisco and retirement villages in Florida, where
its partner, Voyage, is operating autonomous shuttle
services. The exception is Here Technologies, which
is harvesting anonymized data throughout much
of Europe and North America from sensors on
hundreds of thousands of vehicles manufactured by
European automakers.
Monetization matters
One problem, particularly for the venture-backed
startups, involves timing. While they’re making large
investments now, the widespread use of fully-automated
vehicles (SAE Level 4 and 5) may be a decade away, or
perhaps longer. In the meantime, they’re searching for
intermediate markets for their next-generation maps.
“With this transition taking place, how can we use this
data to help the driver [now]?” asks Matthew Preyss,
a product marketing manager at Here Technologies.
Preyss suggests the new maps will enhance
City streetscape represented by Here’s HD mapping software.
current navigation services, like Waze, Google Maps
and TomTom, with more up-to-date road status and
course corrections. But the maps could also feed new
services, such as augmented reality and parking avail-
ability, providing detailed information on the route in
both audio and video. The challenge, as always when it
comes to maps and human beings, will be to provide
helpful data while culling distracting detail.
However, keeping humans in the loop during
this period of development also has an advantage:
the maps themselves can learn from the drivers’
responses to the data—and focus the AI on signifi-
cant changes along the route—the ones that demand
a response. In this way, we human drivers, over the
next decade, will be “educating” the navigation
engines poised to replace us. ■

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING March 2019 21

Sensors

From a Blip to
a Boom
by Sebastian Blanco

Automotive radar rides the 77-GHz technology wave toward

greater capability and vehicle safety.
Since it first appeared in automobiles in the
1980s, radar has become a reliable and increasingly
cost-efficient tool for detecting objects on the road
and along the roadside. The technology is forecast
to be in 50% of all new cars and light trucks by 2020,
where it will be “fused” with other onboard sensors—
cameras, lidar, ultrasound—to offer multiple layers
of detection and reliability in various environments
and scenarios.
“Making traffic accidents a thing of the past is
going to require a full ‘stack’ in the car, the brain and
using sensor fusion,” stated Michael Peredo, senior
solutions engineer for Velodyne LiDAR. Speaking with
SAE’s Autonomous Vehicle Engineering at the 2019

Bosch

A telltale radome in a Tesla front grill.

22 March 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING


CES, he noted that although his company obviously
focuses on lidar, radar remains a vital component of
tomorrow’s vehicle-sensor suite.
In July 2017, the FCC adopted new rules to expand
the spectrum for automotive radar use. The agency
is phasing out 24 gigahertz (GHz) and is opening
frequencies for automotive use into the contiguous
five GHz of millimeter waves within the 76-81 GHz
band. In addition to providing higher resolution in
depth perception and range, experts note the change
to 77-GHz also enables a reduction in antenna area and
less interference with other on-board systems.
The FCC’s rule change has triggered greater focus
on radar technologies among the supply leaders—
Robert Bosch, Aptiv, Continental, Denso, Hella,
Valeo, Veoneer, and newcomer Magna, whose Icon
radar was developed in collaboration with Uhnder.
Semiconductor suppliers in this space, such as Infineon,
UniPhi
COMPLIANCE,
INNOVATION,
OR TIME TO
MARKET?
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Sensors
NXP, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments have
followed suit with new signal-processing developments.
“The sensors, ultimately, will be millimeter-wave
radar,” Peredo observed, which is “less susceptible to
snow, rain, and dust. It’s really good at spotting a car.” Its
capability also dovetails with that of lidar. For example,
77-GHz automotive radar translates to 2.3-mm wave
radar. Velodyne’s lidar operates near-infrared at 905
nanometers. Modern radar thus shines, so to speak, in
low-visibility situations where lidar suffers. 
“You don’t want [the sensors] to disagree, and you
want [the artificial intelligence algorithm] to weigh
radar more heavily in its dynamic assessment of the
data” in snowstorms and heavy rain, for example,
Peredo said. “Because of these operational differences,
they really complement each other in a self-driving
vehicle or in a driven vehicle with these additional
safety features.”
Delivering on all three is a challenge in an increasingly
complex embedded software development environment—
especially with ISO 26262.
Now, with UniPhi, you can add a new level of intelligence
to Model-Based Design, so that you are no longer forced
to choose between competing program objectives.
Learn how UniPhi can help you deliver on all three.
simuquest.com/sae19
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-711 March 2019 23
Sensors

ZF
Radar delivers significant object-detection benefits in slow-speed urban driving. In this scenario from ZF, the vehicle com-
bines two lateral front radar units, a front camera and the braking system. With the combined camera and radar signals, the
vehicle can detect a pedestrian crossing the street even when turning. ZF’s braking system then can safely stop the car. This
function meets the criteria for Euro NCAP 2020.

Higher-res solutions technologies and perception systems, said his compa-

Sensor fusion is also the name of the game at ZF. At
CES, the German tech giant showed three new radar
sensors: the Gen21 full-range radar (for SAE Level
4 and 5 autonomous driving), the Gen21 mid-range
radar (for Level 2 and up), and the Gen5 short-range
corner radar (to detect stationary and moving objects,
up to 160 meters away). All operate at 77 GHz.
“Each and every sensor has its pros and cons,”
explained Damit Bartulovic, ZF’s global sales lead for
ADAS. “With radar, you can just get rid of the negative
aspects of any light device, like camera and lidar. When
it comes to automated driving, you will want to have
not only two sensors being redundant but also a third
one due to the fact that if one is telling you, ‘I see an
object’ and the other one is telling you ‘I don’t,’ you
need a third one to arbitrate.
“To balance out this portfolio, it makes sense to
have not only one, but two or three different sensors,”
he asserted.
Martin Randler, ZF’s director of sensor
ny’s challenge was to build a radar that has lidar-like
resolution. He said the company’s new offerings are
“very close” in resolution performance.
“For Level 4, you always need a mixture of tech-
nologies,” Randler said. “If you’re going to build a
redundancy to lidar, you need to have similar capa-
bilities. If the redundancy is only one-tenth the reso-
lution, that’s not enough.”
ZF’s full-range device can bring high-resolu-
tion radar to Level 4 and 5 autonomous vehicles.
The antenna pattern is larger and the resulting point
cloud looks more like something like one would see
with lidar.
“This is why we believe radar is going to be
important in the future, as performance increases
in a way that’s suitable for Level 4 and 5 automated
driving,” Bartulovic said.  
Not all radar-related tech at CES was looking
forward, literally or figuratively. Steelmate, a Chinese
company, showcased an aftermarket 12-24-volt

24 March 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

 Sensors

Aintein’s two-chip solution OPTICS AS UNIQUE

AS OUR CUSTOMERS.
The explosion of new players in the mobility-radar space in-
cludes Ainstein, which at the 2019 Detroit auto show debuted
a new imaging radar sensor for AVs. Dubbed K-79, the sensor
is designed for self-driving industrial vehicles in hazardous
conditions. Ainstein—the name is a portmanteau of [Albert]
Einstein and AI—got its start with radar-based altimeters and
collision-avoidance sensors for drone aircraft. Two years ago,
the company expanded into the automotive space.
The K-79 is Ainstein’s third automotive sensor product. It’s
being tested on a specialty vehicle by an unnamed customer
that is using just the imaging radar to navigate in dusty condi-
tions, where cameras and lidar have trouble collecting data.
The K-79 is able to build a 2D point cloud for mapping,
produce 3D shapes of this objects that it detects and distinguish
between vehicles and pedestrians.
Ainstein’s imaging radar is an
improvement over other radar sys-
tems because it cascades two radar CUSTOM PRECISION
sensors to increase the resulting MANUFACTURING POLYMER OPTICS
image resolution, claimed company
Injection Molding Improve Performance
sales engineer Andrew Megaris. He
Diamond Turning Design Support Simplify Design •Trim Weight
said lidar has about a one-degree Assembly & Bonding Reduce Costs
angle of resolution and most radars
have about 15-20 degrees. “We’re
at about 2.5 degrees, and there’s (909) 480-3800 | DIVERSEOPTICS.COM
still room to improve,” he said.
Ainstein K-79 shown Each of the two radar chips in
at CES’19. Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-712
the K-79 can handle eight chan-
nels. Joe Liu, Ainstein’s chief radar
diverse-optics_TBMG_3375x4625_2-5-19.indd 1 2/5/19 10:12 AM

Know Thy
technologist and global director of automotive products,
said adjusting the chip placement can even open up more
channels. The company also is considering using four chips in
the eventual production version of the K-79, which would give
the resulting image even more resolution.
Components.
“Stacking the chips together certainly is one of the key Understanding the limits of your components
technology enablers,” Liu said. So is more processing power. is the first step to innovative design.
“As you generate more and more data, you need more
processing power to process it,” he said. “This is basically a
digital camera that has a lot of processing power that can
allow us to create these real-time point clouds that basically
look like lidar, in some cases even better.”
Even with four chips, Ainstein’s radar sensors will cost
less than a lidar system, Liu claimed, because adding chips
does not linearly increase. “Lidars are currently about three
orders-of-magnitude more expensive than radar, so even
Sebastian Blanco

if I increase this by a factor of 10, we’re still way under the

cost of lidar,” he said. “This is what the OEMs have been
begging us for.”
–SB
Eco-friendly temperature testing right on
your benchtop streamlines autonomous
blind-spot detector, based on 79-GHz microwave radar, vehicle engineering work. R&D teams prize our
that it aims to retail for around $2,000. Steelmate’s interna- Cold/Hot plates for reliability & performance.
tional account manager, Kitty Yang, said blind-spot detec- battery testing • display components
tion has been increasingly popular in China in recent years. sample prep • curing • TIMs
The company wants to offer the technology for mid- and mobile electronics • LOCA materials
low-price cars already on the road. Steelmate’s next version ® Made in USA
will offer parking assist and collision alert, Yang said. ■ 4048 W. Schubert Ave.• Chicago IL 60639
Ph 773.342.4900 • teca@thermoelectric.com
ThermoElectric
Cooling America
Corporation
www.thermoelectric.com

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-713 25

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning
The Swedish Word for
AV Tech
by Lindsay Brooke
Veoneer, a new Tier 1 supplier with well-established roots, is
moving rapidly into AI, says veteran research boss Ola Boström.
The first automotive camera with built-in Deep
Learning—considered to be a significant step forward
in autonomous-vehicle sensor technology—is due to
launch this year. It was developed and will be manufac-
tured by a Tier 1 whose name is still seeking broader
recognition in the industry.
“What is a…Veoneer?” asked an engineer waiting
in the taxi line at this year’s CES, when a monorail train
wrapped with the company’s logo flashed past above.
Building brand cred among countless other spin-offs
Veoneer
Veoneer VP of Research and Innovation Ola Boström earned his Ph.D in
Theoretical Physics. In 2017, he was honored with the U.S. Government
Award for Safety Engineering Excellence for his research on vehicle safety
technology including advanced seat belt and air bag systems. He also is a
pioneer in neck injury research.
26 March 2019
and tech start-ups who are clawing for visibility takes
time, of course, even for the independent, public-
ly-traded Swedish company with 8,600 employees,
formerly known as Autoliv’s Electronics segment.
“We are the largest pure player in ADAS—
cameras, radars, ECUs, restraint control units,”
claimed Ola Boström, Veoneer’s VP of Research and
Innovation. “We’re now in lidar. Our existing product
portfolio was a good starting point for supplying auto-
makers around the world. More advanced features for
Euro NCAP 2020 and [SAE] Levels 2 and above are
in development and will be in the market soon. These
will apply Deep Learning architectures,” he told SAE’s
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering.
A branch of Machine Learning in artificial intel-
ligence (AI) science, Deep Learning uses deep neural
networks to conduct multi-object detection and classi-
fication for AVs. It is essential for operational edge-case
decision-making and mapping. “AI is a growing chunk
of our business and our hiring,” Boström said.
It’s also woven into Veoneer’s strategic fabric.
The company is a founding partner in Sweden’s “AI
Innovation,” a new national incubator for AI. And
together with Volvo Cars, it created a unique software
company called Zenuity which Boström maintains will
soon be a “powerhouse” in vehicle-sensor technologies
and applications. “It was easy to recruit a great team of AI
experts for Zenuity; we didn’t have to advertise,” he noted.
Veoneer is the only integrator of the Zenuity
software. Volvo owns half, but has no exclusivity or
first-to-market advantage.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

Veoneer
Deep Learning will be part of a new vision-system product launched by Veoneer this year. The technology is vital for
multi-object detection and classification and operational edge-case decision-making.
Building trust in AVs
In addition to growing its internal expertise, Veoneer
has recently made precisely-aimed tech partnerships.
One, with Nvidia, resulted in development of a new
supercomputer that Veoneer has yet to talk about
in detail. Another is with Seeing Machines, whose
FOVIO-based driver monitoring system is used by
GM in the Cadillac CT6’s Super Cruise driver-assis-
tance system. Boström’s engineers also are working
with voice-recognition specialist Nuance.
Boström speaks enthusiastically about Veoneer’s
collaborative work with both MIT’s AgeLab and
Affectiva—the emotion-measurement company that
grew out of the MIT Media Lab. Affectiva has developed
software to recognize, via camera, human emotions
based on facial cues or physiological responses.
“We take that technology and put it in the car,” he
explained. “If you want to create trust, you have to have
a collaboration, and the car needs to understand the
persons in the car. That’s why we’re starting to use these
technologies. How will it evolve? We’re trying to find out.”
“Building human trust in driver-assistance and
autonomous systems is a primary challenge facing AV
developers across the industry,” Boström asserted. “It
starts with the systems in today’s SAE Level 2 ADAS-
equipped vehicles,” he said.
“If a traffic speed sign is covered or missing,
the car should tell the driver it can’t see the sign,” he
offered. “According to the car’s map, the speed limit
should be 10 mph because there’s a school close by.
So, the car slows down now for you, but it can’t see
the sign. The car admits it can’t see the traffic sign.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning
For drivers, this is creating trust. You don’t have 100
percent reliable information about the speed limit, but
there’s a communication to the operator. It’s not about
100% reliability; it’s about 100 percent transparency.”
SAE Level 3 currently is a big question mark in the
AV development journey, Boström believes. “It might
go away; we might not see any Level 3, so it goes back
to a split between Level 2 and Levels 4 and 5.”
“In our testing, we see that people can either drive
or ride. There’s no middle ground,” he said. “We’re
working to make Level 2 driving simpler and simpler.
Right now, in the industry we see a lot of confusing
technology—the important thing with Level 2 is that
the car is communicating to the driver/user.”
Boström said the 1.4 million traffic fatalities
worldwide (in the face of rising numbers of road users)
“is what Veoneer is attacking.” He joined Autoliv in
1995 and prior to the Veoneer spin-off was leading
research activities in biomechanics, robotics, human-
factor engineering and real-life traffic analysis.
“The first day I started at Autoliv, I was told by my
boss at the time, ‘Don’t make the Research Dept. grow
too large and centralized,’” as happened at some OEMs.
For this reason, Boström is set on keeping his Veoneer
team small. With tech centers in Japan, Korea, China,
France, Germany, Sweden, and a large new facility in
Southfield, Michigan, the unit also works with univer-
sities, with OEMs and other partners. However, he says
the word ‘Research’ in his title, and what his team is
doing, “is a bit of a misnomer.” A more accurate focus is
integration, because “getting our new technologies into
vehicles and onto the road, is what’s most important.” ■
March 2019 27
Standards
Safety Testing
for AVs is Just
Beginning
by Christopher O’Connor
There is much work to be done in creating accurate, reliable
tests for occupant crashworthiness tailored to new AV designs
and seating configurations.
NHTSA’s plan to eventually update its New Car
Assessment Program (NCAP) with new crash-test
protocols is good news for both consumers and the
mobility safety-systems industry. A revised NCAP
will likely feature enhanced occupant safety testing as
well as testing of active-safety features such as adaptive
cruise control and automatic braking.  Even the slightest changes in backrest angle can have a
It’s also a positive step for autonomous vehicle (AV)
developers. Studies show U.S. consumers are still resis-
tant to the idea of self-driving cars, and such testing will
provide the public with assurances that these vehicles are
safe. This should serve to “warm up” consumers to the
idea of a world with AVs, boosting demand and paving
the way for an increasingly safer mobility future.
While the inclusion of testing procedures for active
safety features would set an important precedent, this
is only the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, AVs have
proven that they are not immune to crashes. There is
much work to be done, particularly when it comes to
creating accurate, reliable tests for occupant crash-
worthiness tailored to new AV designs and seating
configurations. And even though such designs may
still be a few years away from mainstream consumer
adoption, it would be a mistake to wait.
28 March 2019
Occupant-position challenges
Reclining seats are one of the first significant design
changes that will demand a new set of occupant crash-
worthiness tests. We will be more apt to recline the seat
in an AV because we won’t have to pay attention to the
road; we may be watching a movie or even taking a nap.
significant impact on occupant susceptibility to injury
in the event of a crash.
Let’s say an occupant is sitting in a car seat that has
its backrest position set at 23 degrees. Reclining the seat
to 33 or 43 degrees is not an extreme difference, yet the
rate and severity of injury could increase significantly
under each of these circumstances. While current
anthropomorphic test dummies (ATDs) gather more
sensor data than ever before, they are not designed for
these new seating conditions.
New seating positions present another challenge.
We’ve all seen the new seating layouts for AVs presented
in concept cars. Passengers can sit facing one another, as
in a railcar, because no one will need to drive or focus
attention on the road. Rotatable seats are another new
feature, allowing passengers to change their view and
look at the surrounding scenery at any angle they prefer.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
 Standards

“
We should resist temptation to delay the introduction of new

”
NCAP testing protocols.

While seeing these new layouts may spark the imag-

ination and excitement for future automotive travel,
they too will require major crash-test protocol changes.
Roundtable and quad seating positions mean that what
was once a frontal crash is now essentially a side or rear
crash. Entirely new crash testing procedures need to be
developed to address these likely impact scenarios.
Of course, there are additional questions to
ponder, such as the development of new seatbelts,
airbags and seats. New seating positions will send a
ripple effect of needed changes throughout the safety
systems community. Suppliers will need to reconfigure
their products and collaborate with vehicle OEMs to
modify restraints and conduct tests to ensure vehicle
crashworthiness.

Next steps are vital

The mobility industry needs to bring the best and the
brightest together to develop and refine new tests that
From top: Lindsay Brooke; Zoox

would assess occupant crashworthiness of AVs in a

comprehensive manner. While it’s true that there are
some vital pieces of equipment that we may not yet
have at our disposal—such as adaptable ATDs that
are currently in the design phase—we should resist
the temptation to delay the introduction of new NCAP
testing protocols. There is much we can do immedi-
ately in this area. Virtual testing, for example, can be Today’s anthropomorphic test dummies (top) gather more sensor data than
used now to provide a reliable simulation of occupant ever before, but they are not designed for the new seating conditions in AVs,
such as the Zoox concept vehicle shown.
impact during a crash under various conditions.
AV safety also represents a prime opportunity for
private industry and government to work together, of testing for occupant crashworthiness. While a world
bringing together their collective expertise in various where driverless cars rule the road is still many years off,
aspects of testing. For example, there is value in automotive OEMs are continuing to set ambitious goals
combining the government’s experience in crash- for the roll-out of these vehicles on to our roads.
testing cadavers with private industry’s strength in If we ignore the need for specialized tests, we risk
developing and executing physical and simulated tests. finding ourselves in a never-ending game of catch-up
When it comes to building and nurturing a thriving that will put lives at risk and threaten our opportunity
AV market, we can’t rest on the fact that the U.S. leads the for global AV market leadership. ■
way in AV innovation. Addressing occupant crashwor-
thiness is just as important to promoting a thriving AV
market as are other widely publicized priorities, including Christopher O’Connor is President and
CEO of Humanetics Innovative Solutions,
ensuring infrastructure and road readiness, and estab-
the leading developer and manufacturer
lishing consistent nationwide policies governing AVs. of anthropomorphic test dummies (ATDs)
It would be a significant mistake to wait for further based in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
development of AV technologies before tackling the issue

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING March 2019 29

V2X

Still Unsettled on
Vehicle Connectivity
Standard
by Terry Costlow

As data and data-sharing become more crucial to the

transportation evolution, the auto sector has yet to gain
consensus on the best connectivity format.

As autonomous vehicles inch closer to reality,
a diverse range of companies and public entities are
exploring ways to maximize their positive impact on
traffic flows and congestion.
Communication at all levels, both between vehicles
and between public and private interest groups, will be
an important element for improving efficiency.
Connectivity is growing in importance, sparking
major changes throughout the transportation industry.
The many aspects of the auto’s role in the Internet of Things
were recently explored by a range of panelists during the
2019 SAE Connect2Car@CES conference in Las Vegas.

Qualcomm

Qualcomm in late 2018 demonstrated the latest CV2X technology in collaboration with Ford and motorcycle maker Ducati;
the company said advanced cellular 5G New Radio (NR) capability will improve CV2X even further.

30 March 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING


Vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity
While telematic links now improve infotainment and
navigation for drivers and passengers, the societal
benefits for safety and efficient transportation will
come when vehicles can talk to each other and to the
infrastructure. Many speakers noted that vehicle to
vehicle/infrastructure (V2X) communications are a
necessity for driverless vehicles.
“When two autonomous cars meet at an intersec-
Terry Costlow
tion where the traffic light is off, they need to share data
instantaneously,” said Ami Dotan, CEO at Karamba
Security. “If not, they’ll slow down traffic while they
wait for each other.”
It may be a while before cars routinely talk to each
other as they drive. In the shorter term, many companies
are looking at different types of valet parking functions,
with vehicles that drop people off, search the Web for
open spots they can park in, then return to the driver
when called. This application can reduce wasted time
spent circling areas to search for parking spots. However,
it may increase congestion at drop-off and pickup spots.
“People are interested in saving their time, they
see a lot of benefits if they don’t have to park their car,”
said Anuja Sonalker, CEO at Steer, a startup that makes
self-parking software. “In cities and places like airports,
autonomous vehicles will be pulling up to curbs to pick
people up and drop them off, which takes a lot of time,
especially if passengers have difficulty moving. Curb
space will become prime space.”
The impact of connected and autonomous
vehicles on urban lifestyles was another area that
generated a high level of interest throughout the
six panel sessions. Government agencies are open
to building an infrastructure that links connected
vehicles to stoplights and other elements, according
to many speakers. They foresee a time when the auto
industry and regional transportation agencies work
together to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion.
“We are changing the way we see public-private part-
nerships,” said Seleta Reynolds, General Manager of
the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. “Our
problems need to be the OEM’s problems.”
Partnerships key to data sharing
Some industry groups are open to this sort of data
sharing. It can bring significant benefits at fairly low
costs. However, there must be standards that ensure
that all vehicles and infrastructure facilities can use
information. That’s currently in question, with some
speakers promoting dedicated short range commu-
nications (DSRC) and others backing cellular vehicle
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
V2X
The Assoc. of Global Automakers’ John Bozzella (left) and the Regional
Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada’s Tina Quigley (right) were
among panelists discussing connectivity’s role in smart cities at SAE Inter-
national’s Connect2Car conference at CES 2019.
to everything (C-V2X).
“We need to get the balance right and ensure
that public safety is improved,” said John Bozzella,
CEO at the Association of Global Automakers.
“Communications can be added at costs that, compared
to asphalt and other infrastructure, are relatively small.
We’ve got to make sure the investments we make are
right. We do not want to roll something out that we
need to walk back and start over.”
Most governmental transportation managers
appeared open to sharing data with vehicles. They
feel this aspect of the Smart Cities movement can help
them rein in costs by maximizing roadway usage.
“We see ourselves as a partner,” said Tina Quigley,
General Manager of the Regional Transportation
Commission of Southern Nevada. “We can provide
information like telling drivers when a light will turn
green so we can increase the number of cars that pass
safely through an intersection. That can help reduce
the amount of asphalt we have to add.”
Some panelists wondered whether OEMs will be
willing to let others see data from their vehicles. While
much data will remain proprietary, speakers noted
that automakers have become more willing to share
information in recent years. Growing acceptance of
open source software has fostered sharing through
Genivi and the need for cybersecurity has prompted
many companies to transmit data to the Automotive
Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Auto-ISAC).
“Automakers share more information now than ever
before through groups like Genivi and Auto-ISAC,”
said Andrew Till, Vice President of Technology at
Harman. “If we don’t share within industry, govern-
ment may step in.” ■
March 2019 31
People/Ideas
Road Tested
by Lindsay Brooke
Transportation-infrastructure expert Kirk Steudle reflects on
the rapid progress toward the connected-AV future and the
challenges ahead.
“In the auto industry, mechanical and electrical engi-
neers work from the tire up. Civil engineers work from
the tire down,” quips Kirk Steudle. “And although it’s
taken a while for both to understand each other’s jargon,
the connected-and-autonomous vehicle is forcing them
all together—to solve problems for society’s mobility.”
Steudle, a registered professional engineer, has
been at the vehicle-to-road nexus his entire career. Last
October he retired as director of the Michigan Dept. of
Transportation where, among many achievements, his
leadership helped put the state and its core industry in
the vanguard of connected-car and AV-related devel-
opments, testing, and infrastructure standards. During
his final year at MDoT, he also served as interim CEO
of the American Center for Mobility, the new 500-acre
The tunnel used for signal-interference testing at the
American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The
facility is a successful example of public-private collabo-
rations vital to creating safe and reliable AVs.
32 March 2019
AV proving ground and test center near Ann Arbor.
Now senior VP of the Transportation Systems
Group at Econolite, a traffic-network engineering
and integration company, Steudle spoke with SAE’s
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering about transportation’s
evolution and the challenges ahead.
“Looking back to 2006, ‘smart’ phones hadn’t yet
been invented. The DARPA Challenge for self-driving
vehicles was happening, but at the state DoT level
we weren’t talking about automated or autonomous
driving; we were talking about connected vehicles
and the infrastructure,” he recalled. “And there was
significant conversation asking why should states be
involved: Why can’t the auto industry work this out
themselves? After all, DoT’s aren’t involved with seat
ACM
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

Building public confidence in AV tech
During a recent visit to the American Center for Mo-
bility, AVE spoke with Jeff Rupp, the CTO and chief
safety officer, about ACM’s role in creating standards
for connected and self-driving vehicles.
“I think ACM’s niche related to new standards
under development is in helping our industry clients
explore and try out new test methods or proce-
dures before they become a standard,” he said. “As
new procedures develop, we may be the first to
test them out and show publicly-available data. We
Lindsay Brooke
would provide some transparency to the industry
and in doing so help the public develop confidence
in what the industry’s doing.”
belts or stability control, went the argument.”
Government-industry collaboration has since
proved to be vital in accelerating progress. The Crash
Avoidance Metrics Partnership (CAMP) between Ford
and General Motors, working with NHTSA, helped
implement crash-avoidance countermeasures in
passenger cars to improve traffic safety, and proved V2I
(vehicle-to-infrastructure) technology could work. The
U.S. DoT’s Safety Pilot Model Deployment, launched in
2011 in Ann Arbor, “put this subject on the front stage,”
Steudle said. “It proved that we could have different auto-
makers talk to each other and that it could be successful.”
In a demonstration at ITS World Congress
that sprung from the Safety Pilot program, U.S.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood stepped out
of a demo vehicle to declare, “This is going to save
people’s lives,” Steudle explained. “He understood that
this could be game-changing.”
Traffic signals and communications
Getting policymakers into the seats of connected and
autonomous vehicles is important, because the demos
(such as those conducted by SAE) “help demystify the
technology. The more demos we can do, the better,”
Econolite senior
VP Kirk Steudle
is a globally-rec-
ognized expert
in transportation
Lindsay Brooke
systems and re-
lated technology
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
People/Ideas
New AV-related standards will only apply to the
whole vehicle system—which Rupp noted might in-
clude off-board communication—DSRC, V2V or C-V2X.
“There’s no standardization yet, no winning technology.
Everyone’s still exploring at breakneck pace,” he ob-
served. “The industry recognizes that eventually there
needs to be a point where collectively we say, ‘How
safe is safe enough?’ It’s tough for these companies
to decide when it’s okay to move from a competitive,
secretive mode, to a data-sharing and collaborative
ACM’s chief technolo- mode. NHTSA’s trying to encourage that now. Everyone
gy and safety officer wants to do it and know they need to do it.”
Jeff Rupp. —LB
Steudle asserted. “Having a test driver behind the
wheel provides a level of comfort to the passenger”
in these activities.
Steudle sees a trend in states and cities investing
heavily in their traffic-signal systems—updating the
technology and adapting it for the increased use of
connected AVs. “The competing communications
protocols—cellular V2X/5G and DSRC—still have to
be worked out. That’s frankly not going to get solved by
an infrastructure provider or a state DoT,” he explained.
“It’s going to get decided by the auto companies and the
telecoms.” Unlike in China, government in the U.S. “is
not going to select and mandate a technology.”
But he noted that public agencies are hedging on
their traffic-signal investments because of the C-V2X
vs. DSRC battle. “If we knew which technology we’re
going to use, implementation could accelerate. But
the agencies have to be careful they’re not buying a
bunch of Betamax.” As a result, some are specifying
dual communication modes—”to make sure their stuff
is ready for the future.” Steudle believes that cellular/5G
is the ultimate solution—when it arrives.
The subject of on-road testing of AVs was “a huge
debate” at Michigan DoT during Steudle’s tenure as
director. “The big public discussion is, how many
crashes are too many?” he observed. “But if we do
nothing, some 37,000 people will continue to be
killed each year. In the long run, I believe autonomous
vehicles will help reduce road fatalities.”
Looking ahead six years, Steudle forecasts “technol-
ogies not invented yet, and far greater precision in those
currently employed such as vehicle guidance, will trans-
form a lot of things related to mobility. By 2025,” he said,
“I think we’ll have lots of models offering true hands-free
driving for freeway use. They’ll be heavily driver-assisted,
not autonomous”—an important distinction which he
believes industry needs to better define. ■
March 2019 33
Software
Modeling the Road Ahead for AVs
Detailed virtual environments are vital to developing, testing and validating autonomous systems.
by Kami Buchholz
The next million miles of autonomous-vehicle test
roadways are about to deploy from a start-up compa-
ny’s virtual-world toolbox.
“For each mile of real-world autonomous-vehicle
testing, developers will test hundreds of thousands of
simulated driving miles,” declared Alex Goldberg, CTO
of VectorZero, a Carlsbad, California, start-up company
whose RoadRunner software product debuted in July
2018. The next release is nearing deployment.
RoadRunner enables users to create virtual roads
that incorporate curvature, vertical slope, banking
and crowning.
“These virtual environments can include imagined
locations as well as real-world courses and roadways.
With RoadRunner’s intuitive user interface, anyone can
create complex roadways and intersections in minutes,”
Goldberg told Autonomous Vehicle Engineering.
Gil Amid, Vice President of Operations and Business
Development for Foretellix, an Israeli-based start-up
focused on giga-scale intelligent verification of autono-
mous systems, likes the ease-of-use with the RoadRunner
product. “It enables a quick and productive way to build a
selection of road topologies using a comfortable graphical
user interface,” said Amid.
The ability to create virtual roads with intersec-
tions, lane markings, traffic signals and other features
is vital on the pathway of achieving SAE Level 5 auto-
mation, Goldberg noted.
Traffic flows underneath and on a highway overpass in this image created by RoadRunner software.
34 March 2019
“[SAE] Level 5 requires robust and safe behavior
in an immense number of scenarios and locations —
far too many to test on real roadways,” he said. “That’s
why the ability to model detailed virtual environments
and scenarios is critical to enable testing of unlikely
scenarios for both internal development and regula-
tory validation of autonomous vehicle candidates.”
Virtual roads can be a viable testing companion
to closed-course and public-road testing of auton-
omous vehicles.
“Let’s say you want to recreate the scene where
there has been an accident involving an autonomous
vehicle,” said Peter Fryscak, VectorZero’s Director of
Business Development. “With RoadRunner, you can
quickly model the roads and surrounding environment
and then load it into your simulator to reproduce and
study the incident.”
RoadRunner scenes can be built on Windows or
Linux platforms. “We can import geographic informa-
tion system (GIS) files, aerial images, elevation maps,
point-cloud and other data for translation into a real-
istic scene. That scene can then be exported in simu-
lation formats, including OpenDrive, Unreal, Unity,
and FBX,” Fryscak explained.
VectorZero’s upcoming release is called a scenario
editor. “This product will include a wide range of
configurable vehicular and pedestrian traffic partic-
ipants with convincing animations,” said Goldberg. ■
VectorZero
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
NEW WEBINARS
ELECTRIC DRIVE NOISE AND VIBRATION ANALYSIS
Available on Demand Speaker
One of the challenges in electric drive engineering is to ensure
acoustic passenger comfort. This 30-minute Webinar demonstrates
how – with a coupled multiphysics simulation framework – the
multi-domain noise and vibration analysis of an electric drivetrain
is carried out by integrating structural, electromagnetic, and
multibody system simulations. Thomas Reimer
SIMULIA Industry
Solutions Manager,
Dassault Systèmes

SOLUTIONS FOR DIGITAL BATTERY ENGINEERING

Available on Demand Speakers:
Batteries are the new fuel tanks in electric vehicles
(EVs). This 30-minute Webinar provides an overview of
solutions for digital battery engineering and dives into
specific applications on topics such as coupled thermal-
electric-displacement analysis, charging-induced
expansion, ultrasonic welding analysis, and general Fabien Letailleur
Senior Manager,
Youngwon Hahn
Senior Industry
structural analysis. Transportation & Solutions Manager,
Mobility Initiatives, Dassault Systèmes
Dassault Systèmes

DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF AN INVERTER

POWER MODULE FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Available on Demand
Power electronics in an electric vehicle manage the Speakers:
transfer of electrical energy from the battery to various
vehicle components. The high voltage at which the power
electronics need to operate, together with fast switching
speeds, pose significant design challenges including
thermal management, EMC compliance, circuit protection,
and reliability. This 30-minute Webinar provides solutions Fabien Letailleur
Senior Manager,
Krishna Gundu
Senior Industry
to these challenges. Transportation & Solutions Manager,
Mobility Initiatives, Dassault Systèmes
Dassault Systèmes

Sponsored by: Hosted by:

For additional details and to register visit: www.sae.org/webcasts

Smart Mobility
Is the Future of
Aerial Autonomy
Up in the Air?
by Jennifer Dukarski
As autonomous-drone and air-taxi concepts debut, legal
hurdles will need to be cleared before the skies are automated.
Autonomous vehicle technology literally has
nowhere to go but up. At CES ’19, more than 170
exhibitors showed aerial drones of various shapes and
sizes. Potential use cases for these devices appear to be
limitless, but technical, legal and regulatory hurdles
must first be overcome.
Drones are categorized by vehicle weight. The
small devices weighing between 0.55 and 55 pounds
(.25 kg to 25 kg) are known as Unmanned Aircraft
Systems (UAS) and are lightly regulated. Drones
exceeding 55 lb are regulated as traditional aircraft.
Operators must obtain proper registration, licenses
and certification for airworthiness.
Drones have a foothold in today’s aerial-vehicle
marketplace—but air taxis are not far behind. One of
Amazon
Retail juggernaut Amazon has promised it will launch some
form of aerial drone package delivery to augment its tradi-
tional ground-based service.
36 March 2019
the most impressive CES displays was the Bell Nexus, an
air taxi concept that is claimed to be capable of carrying
five passengers up to 150 miles, at speeds up to 150 mph
(241 km/h). Initially designed to have a human pilot, the
Nexus is an eVTOL—hybrid-electric vertical take-off and
landing craft. It employs a single gas turbine to generate
electricity for six tilting ducted fans and their batteries.
Bell is aiming for $0.50-per-mile operating
costs for Nexus. It is partnering with Uber to create
a network of city-based flying taxis as a ride sharing
service. At least 19 companies are developing similar
products. Many are approaching the “on-demand
aviation” market with eVTOL or conventional VTOL
solutions to minimize problems in crowded cities.
However, making VTOL a reality will require addi-
tional infrastructure and air-traffic control. Some
facility options include vertiports (hubs with the ability
to take off, land and charge) and vertistops (a single
landing pad) that require only discrete locations rather
than converting an entire roadway or traffic system.
Legal challenges for aerial autonomy
Significant time is being dedicated to mitigating the
legal risks of drone delivery services. As these devices
are typically sized according to their design payload,
heightened regulation is expected for the drones them-
selves and their operators.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

Both images: Bell
The Bell Nexus, a vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) air-taxi concept revealed at CES 2019 is powered by a hybrid-electric propulsion
system incorporating six tilting ducted fans.
Privacy rights have also entered the discussion.
One relates to surveillance; drones may capture images
as they deliver their packages. There are also the
myriad risks of drones trespassing on private property,
colliding with other aircraft, or with ground vehicles
and people, and otherwise causing damage and public
nuisance. As the world saw recently with illegal drone
activity at major U.K. airports, it is likely that more
such issues will make headlines as companies begin
to employ this technology in new ways.
Air taxis, by comparison, would live under the
current regulatory schemes set by the U.S. Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) and European
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and a few others.
Autonomous VTOL systems will face their first chal-
lenge when regulators agree to the set of rules that
apply to general aviation aircraft. They will need to
be certified under Federal Aviation Regulation Part
21.17(b)—the FAA’s type certification for very light
aircraft—to demonstrate an “equivalent level of safety”
as proven in an experimental program.
This certification, unlike the self-certifying regime
used by the ground vehicle industry, confirms that
an aircraft is manufactured to an approved design
and complies with airworthiness requirements. After
accepting or addressing any missing standards, the
airplane definition and detail definition phase begin.
Then the craft is built and tested. Upon completion, it
moves to certification.
This process can cost millions and require signif-
icant time to achieve. Boeing’s eVTOL made its first
autonomous test flight in January 2019, hovering for
under a minute. Airbus followed suit the same month.
Experts predict that production-ready VTOL craft will
be available as early as 2020, but development is still
in the early stages and certification challenges loom.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Smart Mobility
Looking forward
Proponents like Uber believe that the design of any
VTOL must be safer than driving a car when consid-
ering a fatality-per-passenger-mile (FPPM) basis.
Indeed, Uber suggests that the target should be one
quarter of that found under the current regulations.
Under FAR Part 135, statistics show that operations of
small commuter flights tend to have twice the fatality
rate of privately-owned ground passenger vehicles.
Uber advocates that VTOL air taxis should cut this
number to half the ground vehicles’ FPPM.
To achieve this and to mitigate safety risks, systems
must be designed for optimum redundancy and
robustness. Take-off and landing and flight controls
will need to address hazardous states and edge cases,
with focus on the heightened risk in aerial vehicles.
It will be many years before an autonomous air
taxi system enters commercial operation. In Uber’s
October 27, 2016 white paper titled “Fast-Forwarding
to a Future of On-Demand Urban Air Transportation,”
the company acknowledges the “serious potential”
but also the need to move stakeholders to address the
“political, policy, infrastructural, and socio-economic
issues” that surround autonomous VTOL flight.
Recent developments such as those unveiled at
CES clearly show that stakeholders are mobilizing.
Autonomous air transport is in our future. ■
A self-described “recovering engineer”
with 15 years of experience in automo-
tive design and quality, Jennifer Dukarski
is a Shareholder at Butzel Long, where
she focuses her legal practice at the inter-
section of technology and communica-
tions, with an emphasis on emerging and
disruptive issues that include cybersecurity and privacy, infotain-
ment, vehicle safety and connected and autonomous vehicles.
March 2019 37
Emerging Technologies
Autonomy Meets
Agronomy
by Terry Costlow
John Deere sows some autonomy ideas at CES 2019.
Iconic agricultural equipment giant John Deere is
spearheading the expansion of digital controls in farm
machinery and in so doing was the first off-highway
equipment maker ever to display agriculture machinery
at the 2019 CES consumer electronics conference.
Deere’s autonomous tractor dominated the small
vehicles in the outdoor autonomous-vehicle section,
while a hulking combine harvester towered over
drones and personal robots on the show floor.
The S700 combine demonstrated the advanced
nature of ag equipment. It uses enhanced GPS tech-
nology to guide the vehicle with accuracy of 2.5 cm
Deere’s autonomous tractor demonstrated the company’s competitive electronics at CES in Las Vegas.
38 March 2019
(0.98 in). Guidance is enhanced by a camera that helps
the vehicle navigate through crop rows. As grain is
harvested, it’s monitored by a camera that checks to
see that separation is handled efficiently.
“Mechanically, the S700 is not a lot different than
the S600, it’s all software and technology that differ-
entiate it,” Zachary Bonefas, senior staff engineer at
Deere, told Autonomous Vehicle Engineering. “During
harvesting, a computer vision system looks at the clean
grain as it goes in, and the system can adjust if there’s
too much plant material going in. It can also see if
there’s broken grain. We’re trying to get the most grain
Terry Costlow
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
 Emerging Technologies

with the least extraneous material.”

Deere opted to attend CES, which brings around

Terry Costlow
180,000 attendees to Las Vegas each January, in part to
demonstrate the importance of agriculture in society. The
company also hoped to enhance the electronic industry’s
The enhanced GPS technology (center) gives Deere accuracy down
view of off-highway equipment, which many so-called digital to a few centimeters.
citizens may see as largely mechanical. 
“By 2050, the world population will grow to 8 billion and
there will be less land to grow the food they’ll need,” said John Digital technologies are also being used to automate a
Teeple, Director of Advanced Technology for John Deere’s number of tasks on the vehicle. For example, automated systems
Intelligent Solutions Group. “We want more people to understand can handle the steps of turning vehicles around at the end of rows.
the importance of agriculture. An implicit part of being here is to Other repetitive functions are also being controlled by software
interest people in ag. We want people from digital companies like and microcontrollers, freeing operators to focus on other tasks.
Google and Facebook to see that they can take the technology Teeple noted that ag equipment operators do many
they do and use it for a greater purpose—feeding the world.” different jobs, so it will be some time before fully autonomous
Bonefas noted that Deere is among the leaders in the vehicles eliminate the need for human operators. However,
rollout of artificial intelligence (AI), which was one of the digital controls can help these operators become more efficient,
hot topics at CES. While many automakers are in the early so fewer operators are needed. ■
stages of implementing AI, the S700 represents Deere’s third
commercial use of the technology. It uses a neural network
built with FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays) to adjust to
the changes in operating conditions as grain is harvested. The
rollout of AI will quicken as the company further integrates
the 50+ employees of Blue River Technology, a Silicon Valley TS-7553-V2
AI company acquired in 2017. Industrial IoT Gateway
“We’re looking at using computer vision and AI to classify NXP i.MX6UL 698MHz ARM Cortex-A7 CPU
weeds and precisely control the application of herbicide to
4 GB MLC eMMC Flash
weeds,” Teeple said. “That’s a fundamental breakthrough; we
think it could save millions of gallons of herbicide and reduce
its environmental impact. This technique also works with fertil-
izer, continuing our goal of doing more with less.”
Terry Costlow

Nine-Axis MEMS MotionTracking Device

The S700 combine harvester was a huge presence on the CES show Industrial Temp Range -40 °C to 85 °C
floor, where many products are handheld.

www.embeddedARM.com
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-714 39
UPCOMING FROM THE EDITORS
March 13: Vehicle Engineering
Technology eNewsletter (all markets)
March 20: Truck & Off-Highway
Engineering
Technology eNewsletter
March 25: Autonomous Vehicle
Engineering
Technology eNewsletter
April: Truck & Off-Highway Engineering
Print Magazine
• Automated & Connected Commercial
Vehicles
• Bauma Preview
• Advanced Emissions Strategies for
Off-Highway
• Electronic Components & Semicon-
ductors/Engine Components/
Fasteners & Adhesives spotlights
AD INDEX
Advertiser Page Web Link
Alluxa .......................................................................3 ............................................... alluxa.com
Create The Future Design Contest............Cover 3 .............. CreateTheFutureContest.com
Dataspeed, Inc. .......................................................5 ..................................dataspeedinc.com
Diverse Optics Inc.................................................25 .................................. diverseoptics.com
Elektrobit Inc. .........................................................13 .........................................elektrobit.com
www.eb-robinos.com

March 28: Automotive Manufacturing April 4: Automotive Engineering FLIR Commercial Systems ........................ Cover 4 ............................................. flir.com/adk
& Machining (WCX Preview)
Gentex Corporation.............................................. 12 ..............................................gentex.com
Technology eNewsletter Technology eNewsletter gentextech.com

April: Automotive Engineering
Print Magazine
• SAE WCX ISSUE
• Supplier Innovations
• Propulsion: ICE, Hybrids, EVs
• WCX Exhibitor Preview & Simulation/
Analysis Tools spotlights
April 18: Truck & Off-Highway
Engineering
Technology eNewsletter
April 22: Automotive Engineering
Technology eNewsletter
April 25: Autonomous Vehicle
Engineering
Technology eNewsletter
MathWorks ...................................................Cover 2 .............mathworks.com/deeplearning
SAE Mobilus ...........................................................17 ....................................... saemobilus.org
SBG Systems ......................................................... 16 .........................www.sbg-systems.com
Silicon Sensing Systems Ltd. .............................. 19 .......................www.siliconsensing.com
SimuQuest Inc.......................................................23 ............................simuquest.com/sae19
Synopsys, Inc. ....................................................... 15 ............... www.synopsys.com/autovdk
TECA, Inc................................................................25 ......................www.thermoelectric.com

Technologic Systems ...........................................39 ....................www.embeddedARM.com

Yura Corporation ................................................... 11 ............................... www.yuracorp.co.kr

UPCOMING WEBINAR

ADVANCES FOR AUTONOMOUS-VEHICLE SENSING

Thursday, March 14, 2019 at Noon U.S. EST
Development of Lidar and absolute Speakers:
localization (high-precision GNSS) for
autonomous-vehicle applications continues
at a breakneck pace. This one-hour Technical
Webinar from the editors of SAE International
explores the latest advances in these
technologies and sensor simulation and Joel Gibson Matthieu Worm Aravind Ratnam
discusses what they can do to speed the Executive Vice Program Lead VP of Product
President, Autonomous Management,
adoption of high-level vehicle automation. Automotive Business Driving, Siemens AEye
Development, PLM
Swift Navigation

For additional details and to register visit: www.sae.org/webcasts

Sponsored by: Hosted by:

40 March 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

 What if…
you let your idea take off.

 
 
   




$20,000
by entering our 2019 Create the Future Design Contest. Help change the
future by submitting your most innovative product idea!

Visit: CreateTheFutureContest.com
Entries: Accepted beginning March 1, 2019
See the website for contest rules and regulations

PRINCIPAL SPONSORS CATEGORY SPONSORS SUPPORTING

SPONSOR
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73012-715