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 Contents
2 Editorial
The consolidation plot thickens

4 The Navigator
As the world turns to C-V2X, Europe picks WiFi

8 Complexity of Autonomous-Systems Simulation,

Validation Soars to the Clouds
Scalable, cloud-based architectures are gaining greater acceptance for
simulating and testing the myriad development aspects of automated driving.

12 Connectivity Solutions for AVs

The promises of fully connected autonomous vehicles are great, but so are
the challenges.
Simulation’s expanding role in AV systems
19 What M&E Can Teach the AV Industry About Data validation is prompting many tool providers
Media & entertainment offers important learnings on data retention, to move to scalable, cloud-based architec-
management, scalability and security. tures that run operations in parallel to shorten
analysis times. (Cover image: Siemens)
22 The Rodney Dangerfield of Automated-Driving Sensors
Radar and lidar get all the attention, but Inertial Measurement Units are the
backbone of sensor fusion. Suppliers are scrambling to make IMUs more
accurate—and much less expensive.

24 The Sense-itive Side of Autonomous Vehicles

BASF is exploring how specific materials—and even paint colors and
finishes—can improve the capabilities of AV sensors.

26 German University Studying Assisted-Driving ‘Handoff’

Germany’s Kempten University Adrive Living Lab will feature aVDS driving
simulator to research ADAS stress levels.

28 ZF’s Current Work Builds for the EV, AV Future

The Tier-1 giant’s “vision” for improving future mobility leverages its latest
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering™, July 2019, Volume 1, Number 3.
safety and chassis-development innovations. Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (ISSN pending, USPS –
Application to Mail at Periodicals Postage Prices is Pending at

29 Hot New ‘Hands-On’ Direction in ADAS Safety Research
JLR researches use of steering wheel heating and cooling to reduce
driver workload
30 5G Cellular-Enabled Test Infrastructure for AVs Launched
at Millbrook
Autonomous-vehicle 5G development support moves ahead at Millbrook
Proving Ground in the U.K.
32 Delivering on Autonomous Transport
Einride ramps up industry partnerships and on-road demos of its all-electric
self-driving truck that’s missing one thing: a cab for the drivers.
New York, NY and additional offices) is published in March, May,
July, September, November by Tech Briefs Media Group, An SAE
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 3525, Northbrook, IL
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information in the editorial, articles, and advertising sections of
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accuracy of any statement in the editorial, articles, and advertising
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or use content in other media, contact copyright@sae.org. To
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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

35 Driverless Ridesharing Remains in Uber’s Sights

Avenue, Suite 1901, New York, NY 10016

Introducing a new, production-ready AV with partner Volvo, Uber’s ride-

Audited by
share network is likely to offer self-driving vehicles on select routes.

36 Upcoming, Ad Index

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING July 2019 1

Editorial
EDITORIAL Midwest/Great Lakes:

The consolidation plot thickens Bill Visnic

Editorial Director
IN, MI, WI, IA, IL, MN
Chris Kennedy
+1.847.498.4520, x3008
Bill.Visnic@sae.org ckennedy@techbriefs.com
Those charged with analyzing But the other side of the coin is Lindsay Brooke Midwest/Central Canada:
and evaluating the expansive autono- this: the AV tech industry’s infamous Editor-in-Chief
Lindsay.Brooke@sae.org
KS, KY, MO, NE, ND, SD, ON, MB
Bob Casey
mous-vehicle development landscape proclivity for cash burn is creating a Paul Seredynski
+1.847.223.5225
bobc@techbriefs.com
Senior Editor
must be breathing a little easier. Like sense of urgency, even among the top Paul.Seredynski@sae.org Southern CA, AZ, NM,
Rocky Mountain States:
cartographers of old who summit the integrators and stack developers: Better Ryan Gehm Tim Powers
Associate Editor +1.424.247.9207
tallest peak and are finally afforded an sign up with a sugar daddy before the Ryan.Gehm@sae.org tpowers@techbriefs.com
enlightening view of the region, spring double-whammy of global economic Jennifer Shuttleworth
Associate Editor
Northern CA, WA, OR,
Western Canada:
and early summer brought AV-industry and auto-industry downturns arrives. Jennifer.Shuttleworth@sae.org Craig Pitcher
Lisa Arrigo +1.408.778.0300
analysts some similarly illuminating Will those deep pockets necessarily Custom Electronic cpitcher@techbriefs.com
Products Editor
vistas of industry-consolidation clarity. be in the pants of car companies? One Lisa.Arrigo@sae.org International
Technology integrator and AV intriguing angle is where this positions Europe – Central & Eastern:
Contributors Sven Anacker
“stack” developer Aurora’s purchase in the auto industry’s traditional supplier Kami Buchholz Britta Steinberg
Detroit Editor +49.202.27169.11
May of frequency-modulation (FM) lidar base. Several mega-Tier 1s, including sa@intermediapartners.de
Stuart Birch steinberg@intermediapartners.de
specialist Blackmore seemed to kick off Bosch, Continental, Denso and Magna, European Editor
Europe – Western:
Terry Costlow
the scramble to tighten bonds and alli- to name a few, already have made Electronic Technologies Editor
Chris Shaw
+44.1270.522130
ances. The purchase seemed to cement significant investment in the “integra- Ian Adcock, Steven Ashley, chris.shaw@chrisshawmedia.co.uk
Matthew Borst, Dan Carney, China:
Aurora—fresh off an investment “round” tion” space. In some cases, they appear Bruce Morey, Don Sherman, Alan Ao
Paul Weissler +86.21.6140.8920
that exceeded a half-billion dollars and to be pursuing a business model similar alan.ao@sae.org
itself formed barely three years ago—as to those of Aurora, Argo and others. DESIGN Japan:
Lois Erlacher Shigenori Nagatomo
a big-time player. Or are they? Do traditional auto- Creative Director +81.3.3661.6138
Nagatomo-pbi@gol.com
Not long after, the Hyundai Group motive suppliers want to be stack devel- Ray Carlson
South Korea:
Associate Art Director
announced an investment in Aurora opers? Are they equipping to do so? Eun-Tae Kim
+82-2-564-3971/2
and FCA signed an MOU with Aurora Some speculation has the Auroras and SALES & ksae1@ksae.org

for a vaguely described commer- Argos of the world eventually bought by MARKETING Integrated Media
Joe Pramberger
cial-vehicle venture that will “integrate the auto industry’s established Tier 1s— Publisher Consultants
joe@techbriefs.com Angelo Danza
the Aurora Driver (hardware/software or acquired or otherwise absorbed by Debbie Rothwell +1.973.874.0271
adanza@techbriefs.com
platform) into FCA commercial vehicle the auto companies with whom they’re Marketing Director
drothwell@techbriefs.com Christian DeLalla
lines,” FCA’s brief statement said. What aligned. That scenario would leave Martha Tress +1.973.841.6035
Recruitment Sales Manager christiand@techbriefs.com
happened next? Former Aurora partner stack engineering as a de facto compe- +1.724.772.7155 Casey Hanson
Martha.Tress@sae.org
Volkswagen confirmed it was ending its tency of, well, the same companies that +1.973.841.6040
chanson@techbriefs.com
relationship with Aurora, immediately control most of the current automotive REGIONAL SALES Patrick Harvey
North America +1.973.409.4686
leading many to speculate VW will join supply chain. pharvey@techbriefs.com
New England/Eastern Canada:
Ford (with which it recently announced That may happen, but large sums ME, VT, NH, MA, RI, QC Todd Holtz
+1.973.545.2566
Ed Marecki
a commercial-vehicle partnership) in its will be involved. Is there a near-term +1.401.351.0274 tholtz@techbriefs.com
emarecki@techbriefs.com Rick Rosenberg
alliance with AV developer Argo AI. business case to support this calculated +1.973.545.2565
CT:
rrosenberg@techbriefs.com
The broad trend is evident in two and risky consolidation? Stan Greenfield
+1.203.938.2418 Scott Williams
respects: expect integrated AV devel- It’s a virtual certainty that today’s greenco@optonline.net +1.973.545.2464
Mid-Atlantic/Southeast/TX: swilliams@techbriefs.com
opers to increasingly align with, or 80-plus lidar developers will be whittled MD, DC, VA, WV, TN, NC, SC, GA,
acquire outright, key perception-tech to a handful. Will there be an indepen- FL, AL, MS, LA, AR, OK, TX SUBSCRIPTIONS
Ray Tompkins +1.866.354.1125
players. In turn, these developers are dent place for today’s AV tech integrators +1.281.313.1004
rayt@techbriefs.com
AVE@OMEDA.COM

firming their alliances with automakers. to co-exist with long-established Tier 1s NY, NJ, OH: REPRINTS
Ryan Beckman
Why? It’s becoming clear, even to the and the OEMs themselves? Billions of +1.973.409.4687 Jill Kaletha
rbeckman@techbriefs.com +1.574.347.4211
Waymos and Teslas of the world, that dollars rest on the outcome. I don’t have jkaletha@mossbergco.com
PA/DE:
(to highjack the AV industry’s well-trav- a clue how it will turn out; I only know the Desiree Stygar
+1.908.300.2539
eled phrase that originated with Tesla’s lineup card is getting smaller. dstygar@techbriefs.com

Elon Musk), “building vehicles is hard.” Bill Visnic, Editorial Director

2 July 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

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The Navigator
As the world turns to C-V2X, Europe picks WiFi
Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communica-
tions is a relatively straightforward and inexpen-
sive technology that has the potential to reduce
crashes by improving driver situational aware-
ness. Compared to the automated-driving tech-
nology that most of the industry is rushing to
develop, V2X is cheap and can even be retrofitted
to existing vehicles.
Yet despite these and other benefits, V2X has
Sam Abuelsamid not yet been rolled out globally amid a new tech-
Senior Analyst
nology-standards battle.
Navigant Research
Until a few years ago, a WiFi variant known as
Sam@
abuelsamid.com 802.11p was the preferred V2X technology solution.
Commonly known as dedicated
short-range communications (DSRC) While DSRC
in North America and Asia, 802.11p
carries both the ‘pWLAN’ and C-ITS
was stuck
labels in Europe. Toyota was the first in a holding
automaker to deploy it on selected pattern,
models in Japan from late 2015 and
Cadillac added it to the CTS in North
Qualcomm,
America in 2017. Huawei and
However, the long-anticipated others were
vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) mandate
from the National Highway Traffic
developing
Safety Administration (NHTSA) didn’t cellular
come out until late 2016. Following technology.
the change of administration in
Washington, no further action has been taken on
what would have been a new Federal Motor Vehicle
Safety Standard, FMVSS 150.
While DSRC was stuck in a holding pattern,
Qualcomm, Huawei and other companies were
developing an alternative—C-V2X—that’s based
on cellular technology.
Now there were two competing technologies.
Most automakers weighed their options and, faced
with a not-unexpected lack of clarity from regu-
lators, elected to wait on the sidelines. In spring
2018, Toyota announced its intention to deploy
DSRC across its North American lineup from 2021,
4 July 2019
in hopes of enticing the rest of the industry to
follow suit. That didn’t happen. At CES 2019, Ford
announced it would deploy C-V2X from 2022.
With no other automaker committing to
DSRC, Toyota recently announced that it would
suspend its deployment plans.
Currently it appears unlikely that there will be
any further DSRC adoption in North America unless
mandated by NHTSA. In my view, that would be
unlikely, at least through the duration of the Trump
administration. China, the world’s largest auto
market, also is leaning toward adopting C-V2X.
What about Europe? Despite support for
C-V2X from Audi, Ford and PSA
among others, the European
Parliament recently passed a regu-
lation that would mandate C-ITS
on new vehicles beginning in the
early 2020s. This would make the
European Union the only region with
a regulation mandating V2X commu-
nications based on 802.11p.
With the industry and/or regu-
lators in most major markets now
leaning toward C-V2X, it looks likely
Europe will be mostly alone with this
technology, aside from some adoption
in Japan and South Korea. If the
European C-ITS rules go into effect, it seems likely it
will be only for a transitional period.
Vendors such as AutoTalks already are
sampling global V2X chipsets that support both
802.11p and C-V2X; NXP announced a wide-band
WiFi chipset that supports both traditional WiFi
bands and 802.11p.
With both WiFi and cellular data expected to
become standard on almost all new vehicles by
the early 2020s, it’s a good bet that most vehicles
will be able to easily support both systems. A shift
to C-V2X in Europe seems probable by the end of
the decade. ■
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73014-703
 SPONSORED CONTENT
The Inside Story: Data Management and
Storage for Autonomous-Vehicle Developers
Dell EMC helps automotive companies pursue new
data-driven business opportunities in the Digital Age by
offering massively-scalable, easily managed high-perfor-
mance storage systems that can support both traditional
workflows and data-intensive emerging workflows required
for ADAS projects, including AI/ML/DL.
Dell EMC chief technology officer Dr. Florian Baumann,
Ph.D, discussed with SAE’s Autonomous Vehicle Engineering
the important role of storage systems and data management
in the face of growing data volumes and increasing perfor-
mance requirements.
AVE: What benefits can automotive companies gain by using
remote storage?
Baumann: A remote data lake increases engineering produc-
tivity and reduces license costs, as well as infrastructure costs.
Automotive customers are storing data in a centralized data
lake located remotely instead of having CPUs, GPUs and storage
nodes at different sites, each with their own software licenses.
Compute jobs can be started locally at the remote data lake.
AVE: How do GPUs and artificial intelligence change user
requirements?
Baumann: GPUs massively enhance the training and infer-
encing performance of artificial intelligence (AI) systems and
deep-learning algorithms. Further, they are providing the
vector math to offload the workload from the CPU. Deploying
AI assumes new user requirements, including an end-to-end
training toolchain. Efficient storage management is critical
for gaining the full benefits that GPUs offer.
AVE: Can remote storage meet demanding access times?
Baumann: A well-designed centralized data lake architecture
that’s located remotely can meet demanding access times and
bandwidth requirements. Data ingestion from the vehicle to
the R&D center and then to the remote data lake is a promi-
nent and very challenging task in the development of ADAS
and autonomous-driving systems.
A vehicle’s data collection can generate up to 100 tera-
bytes per day. To meet the access times and counter limited
bandwidth on wide area network (WAN) lines, a local cache
serves as a buffer before data is moved to the remote data
lake. Typical service-level agreements are that data must be
offloaded from the vehicle in less than four hours and ingested
into the remote data lake in less than 24 hours. Tools such as
UDP file acceleration help to fully utilize the WAN line.
And a combination between on-premises infrastructure
and public cloud architecture—also referred to as Hybrid
Cloud—can help to counter peak workloads.
6 July 2019
Dr. Florian Baumann,
Dell EMC chief
technology officer.
AVE: Does the expansion from petabytes to exabytes impact
data integrity?
Baumann: Moving from petabyte scale to exabyte scale
requires a well-established process for data management
as well as meta-data management. Files, objects and sensor
metadata (city, road surface, weather, light level, traffic level,
etc.) should be registered and tracked in a database, with its
location on the storage. Further, it is crucial that the perfor-
mance, storage and database capabilities all scale to meet
larger data volumes without impacting legacy tests, informa-
tion, or infrastructure management complexity.
AVE: What storage-management techniques are used to
enhance data mining and analysis?
Baumann: To enhance data mining, analytics and the training
of machine-learning algorithms, data-management systems
must be in place. A data-management system is software that
receives sensor data as well as metadata. If we choose the task
of object detection, sensor data is the image, while metadata
are bounding boxes around the objects that should be detected.
A data-management system serves as a control unit to which
developers can connect to access and locate data and metadata
to train the machine-learning algorithms.
AVE: How can data be transferred to storage repositories?
Baumann: Data is usually transferred virtually through WAN
lines from the remote site to the central data lake. Alternatively,
storage cartridges are physically sent by postal service. The
virtual data transfer and ingest is done using UDP file acceler-
ation; a 10-gigabyte file can be transferred from U.S. to Europe
through a 1 Gbit WAN line in 1-2 minutes.
Additionally, data can be compressed or data-cleaning
methods applied before transferring the data. Data-cleaning
methods are specific algorithms applied to the data to identify
meaningful data that can be used to train the final system. ■
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Software/Simulation

Complexity of
Autonomous-Systems
Simulation, Validation
Soars to the Clouds
by Terry Costlow

Scalable, cloud-based architectures are gaining greater

acceptance for simulating and testing the myriad development
aspects of automated driving.

As the auto industry strives to improve safety
and edge towards high-level automated driving, the
complexity of proving that electronic vehicle controls will
perform safely is skyrocketing. Simulation’s expanding
role in systems validation is prompting many tool
providers to move to scalable, cloud-based architectures
that run operations in parallel to shorten analysis times.
Automakers and Tier 1s have acknowledged the
value of simulation as an integral tool for getting the
myriad software and hardware elements of automated
driving to work in collaboration. High-level automated
driving requires vehicle controls to “understand” many
complex external elements, which have far more
variables than conventional on-vehicle systems such
as engine controls. Cameras, radar and lidar must
monitor pedestrians, vehicles and highway markings.

One word: Parallelize

As a ballooning number of sensors provide input to
electronic controls that make critical driving decisions,
managing the immense volume of data involved in
simulating and validating operations is increasingly
time-consuming. Verifying the operation of sensors
Siemens

and control functions has become as important as

designing the systems being validated.
Design tools from traditional suppliers like Siemens address design from “People talk about better lidar or artificial intelli-
start to finish. gence, saying they will fix the problems of autonomous

8 July 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING


Metamoto
vehicles,” said Jeff Blackburn, head of business devel-
opment at Metamoto. “We feel the key technology for
getting a well-behaved autonomous vehicle to market
will be simulation. The best way to handle simulations
is with cloud-based, massively-scalable tools that can
run lots of simulations in parallel.”
Startups like Metamoto and Cognata are gaining
adherents for this scalable, cloud-based approach,
which they say is a fundamentally different architec-
ture than used by traditional design software suppliers.
Many Tier 1s and OEMs are using clouds for simula-
Cognata
tion, though some major players are using proprietary
clouds. Using computer servers that can be located
anywhere lets engineering teams conduct multiple
virtual tests simultaneously.
“When you look at the number of functional
requirements and the number of things an automat-
ed-driving system has to do, it’s outgrown the capa-
bilities of traditional techniques,” said Heikki Lane,
director of strategy and policy at Cognata. “The cloud
allows access to provide near-infinite scaling. When
customers move to the cloud, they can parallelize oper-
ations instead of running them serially.”
Traditional development-software suppliers are
not standing still, of course. They’re enhancing existing
tools while also following the trend to parallel architec-
tures. Conventional workstations and on-premise data
centers will remain a central tool for modeling, simula-
tion and validation, but they’re being augmented with
more parallelized architectures.
“We’re doing a lot with perception algorithm
development, looking at ways to speed up calculations,”
said Matthieu Worm, program lead for autonomous
driving at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “We’re
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Software/Simulation
Validating autonomous driving
requires thousands of simulation runs,
so startups like Metamoto are turning
to cloud-based architectures.
System designers can test many sensor inputs simultaneously using scalable
cloud software.
also developing more software for cluster environ-
ments and cloud environments.”
All the activity in simulation underscores the
complexity of determining whether self-driving tech-
nologies provide safety in even the most complex
driving situations. Though design tools can generate
highly-realistic tests that precisely mimic real-world
operations, even simulation-software suppliers don’t
think virtual testing will eliminate physical driving tests.
“I don’t think physical tests will be reduced, they
may well grow,” Lane said. “The amount of simulation
on top of that will continue to grow.”
Those simulations now go well beyond the vehicle.
Traditional suppliers such as Dassault and Siemens
address the broad spectrum of mobility—from silicon
to smart-city planning. That broad reach can even
extend to roadway systems such as stoplights.
“We go from chip to city, starting with simulating
July 2019 9
Software/Simulation
Metamoto
Validating the many elements of urban traffic requires many thousands
of simulations.
the chips used in design, taking those chips and building
systems and going to the city level,” Worm said. “At the
city level, we’re a big supplier of infrastructure equipment.”
Test commonality is crucial
The complexity of testing many vehicle types in
multiple driving scenarios poses a major challenge
for those tasked with ensuring AVs are safe. Many of
those who are involved with development and valida-
tion believe that some common tests will be needed
as a foundation to determine whether vehicle systems
perform safely.
“It’s important to do repeatable tests,” Worm
said. “Everyone needs to do the same tests with
different vehicles.
The need for common tests extends to the
critical regulatory aspect of vehicle certification. The
National Highway Traffic Safety Admin. (NHTSA)
and industry are expected to work together to ensure
that all vehicles are tested using the same criterion.
Given the complexity of ensuring that vehicles respond
well in myriad situations, no set of tests can guarantee
complete safety—but few standard tests may have to
be used to demonstrate a base level of competence.
“If simulations are going to be used as part of the
vehicle validation process, I feel you have to have an
agreed-upon library of scenarios,” Blackburn said. “I
don’t think NHTSA can develop a testing technique
for autonomous driving—and it’s not like NHTSA will
let automotive companies self-verify their vehicles.”
Not all sensor outputs are equal
While regulators grapple with their aspects of vehicle
safety, engineering teams are wrestling with the
10 July 2019
creation of those safety systems. Simulating sensors
highlights the challenges that arise.
Today, most sensor modules are essentially black
boxes that give automakers and suppliers information
about objects, sending the electronic controls informa-
tion that’s important for decision making. The lack of
information about outputs makes it difficult for simu-
lation suppliers to know whether they’re accurately
representing sensor outputs. Most sensor suppliers
have been hesitant about divulging the code they use—
but that stance may be changing.
“We’re interested in taking a given number of
scenes and seeing if our model gives us the same results
on the output side,” Blackburn said. “We’ve got formal
and informal relationships with radar, camera and lidar
providers; we asked them to provide a scenario, then
we shipped them our raw data from that scenario and
asked them to compare it to their actual data. It’s an
iterative process.”
As with most developmental aspects of autono-
mous technologies, there are many subtleties that can
alter both virtual and physical sensor outputs. Weather
conditions are a factor for cameras, for example.
Lidar’s addition of light bouncing off the target brings
a number of extra parameters.
“With lidar, something that’s sometimes missed is
that you need to know whether the beam is hitting a
wet or dry surface, whether it’s a pedestrian or metal,”
Blackburn said. “The software needs to account for
material properties.”
Artificial intelligence will be an important
element, helping tool providers develop tests and
aiding system developers to improve their data-gath-
ering and analysis techniques. AI can assist compa-
nies building scenarios for testing, helping them vary
conditions and create tests that might be difficult to
run in the real world.
When it’s used in vehicle systems, AI will pose
many challenges for those tasked with validating safety,
since its response to stimuli can change depending on
conditions—meaning more potential variables. Once
more, it’s likely that companies will come together to
create some standard scenarios that will test the tech-
nology’s output to determine that it’s safe. ■
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73014-705
Connectivity
Connectivity
Solutions for AVs
by Chris Borroni-Bird
The promises of fully connected autonomous vehicles are great,
but so are the challenges.
The synergies between electrification, connectivity
and automation in future vehicles are creating new
business models and causing developments in each to
be accelerated. EVs, for example, need connectivity to
assist with finding charging stations and autonomous
vehicles (AVs) require significant levels of electric power
to support their compute demands. But perhaps the
greatest synergy lies between connectivity and autonomy.
Most AV developers, particularly for mainstream
applications, want to minimize reliance on V2X
connectivity because it might introduce interopera-
bility requirements and a need for standards that may
slow down deployment and eliminate competitive
advantage. In general, increased connectivity creates
cybersecurity risks and latency, coverage and band-
width issues. Despite these drawbacks, there is broad
agreement that AVs need connectivity for up-to-date
high-resolution maps as road conditions and land-
marks can change due to construction, for example.
For Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) applications—the
AV as “robotaxi”—there is also a general understanding
that passengers may need to have a direct connection
with a call-center operator for situations where the
passenger needs assistance—perhaps for medical reasons
or for personal safety. This may require that the passenger
presses a button to be connected to an operator or it
could depend on remote sensing of the passenger (e.g.
biometric screening in the seat and interior cameras)
with automatic notification to the operator even in situ-
ations where the passenger is unable to initiate contact.
12 July 2019
Health and wellness monitoring is expected to grow
in importance as at-risk persons may be alone in AVs.
Integrating information from the person’s smartphone
with that provided by in-vehicle sensing can help improve
passenger health and safety—especially if coupled with
baseline data from a cloud service that stores personal
information in a secure and private manner.
OTA’s promise—and challenges
Besides maps and customer service, connectivity is
also likely to be required for Over-the-Air (OTA)
software updates; ironically, the need for connectivity
increases cybersecurity risks which drives a need for
OTA updates. Software can continuously be developed
throughout the vehicle’s lifecycle to increase the func-
tionality of the vehicle’s embedded hardware (e.g. new
ADAS or self-driving features). Or the vehicle might be
tuned differently because actual customer usage may
turn out to be different or less demanding than was
assumed during development—such as extending the
EV battery’s state of charge or tuning the suspension.
OTA updates bring with them two types of chal-
lenges, however. The first involves the practical matter of
how to reliably execute the update. A safety-related OTA
update needs to occur as soon as possible, but the vehicle
may be in an area where there is no cellular or Wi-Fi
connectivity at that time. Even if there is connectivity, the
update may take a long time and cause inconvenience for
the vehicle’s owner (this may be less of an issue with an
AV fleet owner), especially if the update is interrupted
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

Continental Automotive
and has to be restarted from scratch. The update may
even require that the EV is not charging at the same time
and delaying charging may mean reduced vehicle range
and the associated inconvenience.
These issues, though troubling, are less worrying
than the second type of challenge: ensuring the
security of the vehicle and its associated cloud system
service while the update occurs. Cybersecurity risks
can harm the vehicle systems and render vehicle
operation unsafe with loss of control and vulnera-
bility to theft. Although non-connected vehicles are
susceptible to hacking, the probability and severity of
hacking will be significantly increased with connected
vehicles in the future, especially connected automated
vehicles which will have many more attack surfaces.
Fortunately, mobility-tech companies are developing
holistic approaches to end-to-end security between
vehicle and cloud.
OTA software updates for critical vehicle function-
ality may need to be delivered from an OEM-controlled
gateway to a dedicated modem on the vehicle, separate
from the customer-facing one needed for delivering
Internet content to the vehicle’s infotainment system
(this need for cellular modems makes adding C-V2X
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Connectivity
The industry is working on all levels to optimize
the new 5G and C-V2X connectivity platforms.
Continental’s new flexible platform (shown)
enables OEMs to equip vehicles for different
technology preferences.
functionality easier). OTA solutions are necessary for
securing the vehicle throughout its lifecycle because
even secure embedded vehicle electrical and electronic
systems can become vulnerable over time to increas-
ingly sophisticated cyberattacks if there is no updating
of the security protections.
Robotaxi deployment hurdles
Several companies are developing solutions that will
enable robotaxi operation in an automated MaaS
model. This is SAE Level 4 where the AV may have
no ability to be manually driven but can operate in a
geo-fenced zone, such as part of a metropolitan area,
that has favorable regulatory and climate conditions
for AV deployment.
The currently favored approach to developing
a robotaxi service is to do testing in the geo-fenced
location environment with a safety driver who takes
over control of the vehicle when the AV system is chal-
lenged to make the correct decision. This testing is
intended to allow the AV software to be improved by
learning how it fails in the real-world without jeopar-
dizing safety for other road users. The work is comple-
mented with extensive simulation of conditions that
July 2019 13
Connectivity
In late 2018 Continental, Ericsson,
Nissan, NTT DOCOMO, OKI and Qualcomm Technologies
joined forces to successfully perform cellular V2X trials.
Conducted in Japan, the testing proved the viability of direct and
network-based communications between vehicles, to the infrastructure
and to vulnerable road users tested under varying conditions. The companies
observed a mean latency of 20 ms for direct communication and a nearly
error-free communication even at longer distances such as 1.2 km with
unobstructed line-of-sight condition as measured by the C-V2X test system.
may occur very rarely during the miles accumulated
in physical testing.
What makes the development of an AV solution
even more challenging is that the vehicle not only
needs to drive safely without causing any collisions, but
it also needs to behave in a manner similar to that of
human-driven vehicles (i.e. roadworthiness). It needs
to be able to infer the expected trajectories of other
road users and to be able to proceed in ambiguous
situations and make necessary adjustments based on
the actions of other road users.
It may be possible to achieve a viable performance
using the AV’s embedded sensors and software, but
this has not been proven in practice so far. It will be
argued here that connectivity with roadside infrastruc-
ture and with a Tele-Operator may allow a viable AV to
be developed sooner without jeopardizing road safety
and traffic flow.
Various reasons have been given for why V2V has
not been considered integral to AV deployment. There
has been a lack of global (and even regional) agreement
on standards for DSRC and the emerging challenge it
faces from C-V2X has exacerbated this. The benefits
of V2V require large-scale deployment which will
take several years to achieve. Meantime, there is no
perceived business model incentivizing automakers
to introduce it on their vehicles. Infrastructure-based
solutions for improving commercial vehicle operation
14 July 2019
Continental Automotive
have been limited mainly to pilot programs and don’t
have the same scale as for equipped passenger vehicles.
Since some cities are keen to promote the deploy-
ment of AVs because they promise to improve mobility
and safety, it is reasonable to imagine that funding
for I2V installations (e.g. vision-based sensors plus
wireless communications) at those locations which are
challenging for AVs could help to accelerate safe and
viable AV deployment in perhaps a more cost-effec-
tive and timely manner than without such support. A
simple example might be that of an AV having trouble
quickly negotiating an intersection in a safe manner
as it climbs a hill. With the addition of vision-based
sensors, such as camera, lidar or infrared camera,
information about presence of absence of cross-traffic
and of potential violations can be wirelessly commu-
nicated to the AV and allow it to make a more robust
and faster decision on how best to proceed.
The additional cost to the infrastructure and
vehicles in the fleet needs to be weighed against the
extra time and effort required to improve the software
to a point that the same level of safety and traffic flow
is achieved. In this scenario, the AV fleet does not need
to communicate with other vehicles and the number
of roadside installations is finite and relatively small.
If a city funds the roadside installation it is possible
that this could be used for the benefit of all road users
and not just the AV fleet developer, whereas if the AV
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73014-706
Connectivity
“
Connectivity with roadside infrastructure and with a
Tele-Operator may allow a viable AV to be developed
sooner without jeopardizing road safety and traffic flow.
—Dr. Chris Borroni-Bird
fleet developer were to fund the installation this may
or may not be the case. As the number of vehicles in
an AV fleet increases there could also be value in each
AV being able to sense their surroundings and share
this information with other vehicles in its fleet.
Tele-Operation
Recent events in 2019 have illustrated the potential
benefits that may be realized if Tele-Operation is used
to complement AV deployment. One incident involved
a driver sleeping while in Level 2 autonomy mode.
There are also complaints from the general public
that robotaxis can stop unexpectedly and hesitate to
advance, necessitating a switchover to manual mode.
In both cases, a Tele-Operator could conceivably take
over control of the vehicle and drive it to safety or
enable it to proceed forward without holding up traffic.
It can be argued, in fact, that Tele-Operation
may be necessary in the near-term for a fleet operator
because it not only improves passenger satisfaction
if the vehicle is not overly cautious, but it can also
reduce the manpower to rebalance stranded vehicles.
Corner-cases that can confuse AVs and cause hesita-
tion may hurt customer acceptance but tele-operation
might alleviate the problem and allow a viable robotaxi
service to be implemented sooner. Since passengers
in the robotaxi may need to contact a remote service
center operator for other reasons (e.g. for safety,
security or comfort) this connection may already exist
between the vehicle and a remote operator.
Tele-Operation solutions require that the:
• vehicle senses its environment
• vehicle communicates to a remote Tele-Operator
its 360° awareness of the situation
• Tele-Operator sends commands to vehicle to
control braking, steering, acceleration
Stereoscopic images or 3D sensor date (e.g. lidar,
radar and camera) representing what the vehicle sees is
probably necessary because it is more difficult to deter-
mine depth visualization with monoscopic images.
Color images are easier for humans to process than
black and white images (shadows, in particular, make
16 July 2019
”
it harder to see with monochrome images). Virtual
Reality Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) tend to
provide a more compelling immersion experience
for the Tele-Operator than traditional large simulator
screens. HMD security authentication will be neces-
sary in order to permit secure access to the vehicle in
order to take over control.
Low wireless communications latency is critical
between the vehicle and Tele-Operator and should
be at least 10 times faster than the vehicle’s mechan-
ical latency. Therefore, the time for both uploading
high-quality sensed information, remote processing
and downloading commands will need to be <<100
ms. This is particularly challenging for highway speed
operation and may justify initial deployment with
robotaxis operating in a city center where vehicle
speeds are typically <50 kph (30 mph). Bandwidth
requirements can be reduced with smart data compres-
sion protocols and by sending only the “delta” image
to the Cloud (and perhaps with only the edges of the
object rather than the entire object).
A high bandwidth connection will be needed in
case of decreased performance (multiple users, obstruc-
tions, etc.). It may also be appropriate to select routes
for where the signal strength is known to be high if it
does not affect vehicle safety or trip duration negatively.
The vehicle needs to have, at all times, a planned
emergency stop function in case connectivity fails. The
Tele-Operator, ideally, has approximately 10 seconds
to adjust to seeing a new environment when they are
required to engage. Actuator control is relatively straight-
forward for by-wire vehicles so this should not be an issue.
Although Wi-Fi can be faster than 3G or even
LTE, the latter should be adequate and may enable
large area coverage more affordably. Future 5G
systems with pico-cells can further improve Quality
of Service (coverage, bandwidth, latency). Rather
than sharing with other road users, a dedicated
cellular connection might improve service reliability.
Moreover, each fleet operator may decide to have
its own Tele-Operation center since knowing what
causes the Tele-Operation system to engage will be
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

information for the company and tied in with its
proprietary software development.
The cost of the hardware to enable tele-operation
can be modest, especially for low speed robotaxi opera-
tion, and it should be possible for one Tele-Operator to
manage many vehicles since robotaxis typically do not
fail at the same time and/or can be scheduled to move at
different times. Robotaxi development can learn from
each “remote control” engagement and this should lead
to improved algorithms for all the vehicles in the fleet.
Tele-Operation could become a more active
area for development because corner-cases can delay
robotaxi deployment and business model monetiza-
tion. Some of these applications could include:
• failure for the driver to respond to take over, as
requested, in L2+ operation
• taking over if the AV systems degrades below a
certain level (either due to system failure or environ-
mental conditions) and manual control is impossible
• augmenting robotaxis in the shared vehicle fleet.
Other examples might include moving autono-
mous, electric vehicles at night to charging stations and
returning them to the customer’s parking spot in the
morning prior to being used by the customer; this may
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AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Connectivity
be particularly attractive in regions, such as China, where
homes may not have a charge port and where a remote
charging infrastructure can be less expensive to install
and have greater utilization to reduce costs. Another
example might be driving the passenger(s) in autono-
mous mode to a local hospital or caregiver or even, in
some cases, locking the vehicle and driving the vehicle
to a local police station. While these corner-cases can
be achieved without Tele-Operation, the use of Tele-
Operation can make the performance more reliable and
improve the perceived safety of the robotaxi fleets.
Changing the competitive dynamic
It is possible that, over time, the AV software becomes
so good that Tele-Operation is no longer required.
However, in the near-term there are substantial chal-
lenges to solving the many corner-cases and there can be
a benefit in leveraging Tele-Operation to accelerate AV
commercialization. An AV company wishing to lead in
market deployment must balance safety, roadworthiness
and business viability. How safe is safe enough?
One approach to reducing some of this uncer-
tainty might be to leverage connectivity for V2I and
Tele-Operation to ensure safety and roadworthiness are
&ŽƌŵŽƌĞĚĞƚĂŝůƐǀŝƐŝƚŚĞƌďĞƌĂŝƌĐƌĂŌ͘ĐŽŵͬĂƵƚŽŶŽŵŽƵƐ
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73014-708 July 2019 17
Connectivity
acceptable from the start and to have the AV software
learn from these connectivity interventions. This might
allow an AV company having slightly inferior AV
software to still offer the best overall AV performance.
Over time, improved software from machine learning
could allow reliance on Tele-Operation connectivity
to be reduced while I2V connectivity should evolve
to V2X as more vehicles are able to communicate
with the infrastructure and with each other. This is
likely to happen as vehicles increasingly come with an
embedded cellular connection (to support enterprise
diagnostics and OTA updates as well as to provide
infotainment) and C-V2X functionality can be added
relatively easily and affordably. This should reinforce
safety and might even allow AV costs to be reduced
over time, as sensing hardware might be simplified
if V2X connectivity is ubiquitous in the geo-fenced
location or even more broadly.
The development of safe and well-behaved AVs is
essential to their social acceptance and implementation,
but it is insufficient from the perspective of optimizing the
road transport system. City planners are also aiming to
improve traffic and connectivity will be needed to ensure
that the actions of independent AVs are co-ordinated to
18 July 2019 Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73014-707
smooth traffic flow and increase throughput for the same
average traffic speed, or level of congestion. In addition,
future urban transport systems will need to emphasize
multi-modal integration and encourage diversity of
transport. This includes “first-mile/last-mile” micro-
mobility modes, so that the optimal solution for indi-
viduals and the city as a whole are more closely aligned.
It can only effectively be achieved when there is wireless
connectivity linking the different modes. ■
Dr. Chris Borroni-Bird is co-author of Reinventing the
Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century, with
Dr. Larry Burns and the late Prof. Bill Mitchell (MIT Press, 2010).
He has led advanced automotive-related activites at Chrysler,
GM, Qualcomm MIT Media Lab and Waymo. He is the founder
of Afreecar LLC, where he consults on future mobility and is
developing a novel solar-powered solution for the developing
world. He holds 50 patents, many related to the ‘skateboard’
platform concept.
For more of Dr. Borroni-Bird’s insights, see March 2018 AVE,
Reinventing the Automobile’s Design [http://www.nxtbook.
com/nxtbooks/sae/ave_201803/index.php#/12] and January
2018 Automotive Engineering, Who Wants AFreecar? [http://
www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/sae/18AUTP01/index.php#/28].
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
 People/Ideas

What M&E Can Teach

the AV Industry
About Data
by Jason Coari and Mark Pastor

Media & entertainment offers important learnings on data

retention, management, scalability and security.
At first glance , autonomous vehicles would
seem to have little in common with the Media and
Entertainment (M&E) industry, beyond action-movie
car chases and in-vehicle entertainment screens.
But AVs and M&E do have a lot in common when
it comes to their data. Both generate hundreds of peta-
bytes of data per year. Both need to manage that data
for retrieval and value and both need to store that data
with security and protection.
Despite these differences, these two industries
share two major challenges around massive data reten-
tion and accessibility: storage scalability and data life-
cycle management. Storage scalability is about how
to afford data storage and storage management when
the data is growing so quickly. Economies of scale are
critical to affording massive-capacity storage systems.
Data lifecycle management is how to keep massive
amounts of data searchable, accessible, and protected.
Both industries store large amounts of highly valuable
content that they need to protect and keep accessible
for authorized users.
Breaking out the challenges
M&E is a mature industry that makes heavy use of disk/
flash and tape systems and integration with sophisti-
cated editing software and workflow tools. Yet even that
industry is under pressure to do more and do it faster.
For example, higher-resolution cameras are producing
larger files for ingest. This is happening in real-time: 4K
resolution is common and native 8K is here.

MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

Make money from initial broadcasts and heavily Sell driverless vehicles to transportation companies
Value Proposition
monetize archives. and consumers.

Rich data capture per vehicle using radar, lidar, and

File types Huge, high-resolution video files.
video camera feeds.

Complex data capture and processing involves Develop new algorithms to improve vehicle safety,
Workflow shooting, high-speed ingestion, multiple editing and continually apply new simulation and analysis
processes, and finalizing for distribution. against source data.

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING July 2019 19

People/Ideas
Quantum R-series data
storage strategy.
Multiple editing teams work on film, sound,
special effects, animation and color; they output the
final work by collaborating with each other and with
directors and producers. This level of collaboration
and intensive processing requires storage with high
performance and massive capacity.
Once the works are broadcast, M&E continues to
monetize them. The rerun is the granddaddy of mone-
tization, but M&E also incorporates sections of existing
works to create new ones.
Cyberthreats to M&E also are a major concern:
witness Sony losing millions of dollars to a multi-
pronged attack in 2014. M&E risks losing monetary
and reputational value when something happens to its
20 July 2019
Getty Images
Quantum
data. Advanced storage systems must support equally
advanced security and data protection.
Automated vehicles are a much newer business
than M&E, but this new “industry” also depends on
generating and working with massive amounts of data.
The automotive sector already generates significant
data from its AV test vehicles, typically producing 5
terabytes (TB) to 30 TB per vehicle per testing day.
Researchers build and improve the data intake devices,
analyze massive incoming data and adjust their algo-
rithms for better analysis and testing.
Long-term data retention and accessibility are
crucial to the industry; AV retains data for new research
projects and to validate current ones. As a highly
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

regulated industry, most auto companies plan to keep
20 years of test data for liability protection.
Unlike M&E, autos are not yet a popular hacker
target. But data is not only at risk for malware; IT errors,
lost mobile devices, failed hardware and software data
and even the old-fashioned natural disaster can lose
or corrupt data. An industry that depends on original
data for its success cannot afford that level of loss.
Best Practices for data storage
Plan your infrastructure for both today and tomor-
row’s projected data amounts. Buying for current data
is a cheap option in the short-term, but data growth is
accelerating and will likely outpace the system’s capacity
and scalability in 1-2 years. Replacing the system will
cost even more.
Plan for a highly-scalable system that will grow
along with big data and user needs.
Don’t depend on disk/flash storage alone. If you
depend on storing data on your production systems,
affordability will go out the window. Combine high perfor-
mance disk/SSD production systems with tape libraries for
dynamic scalability and highly accessible archives.
Invest in a storage solution with integrated data
protection. AV and M&E need to protect their valuable
data against intrusion and data loss. Use updated data
protection and remember that tape’s “air-gap defense”
is impassible for would-be hackers—malware cannot
traverse the separation between a system and an
off-line cartridge.
For multi-petabyte environments that include
active archive data, traditional backup apps are not
very efficient or effective. A self-protecting active
MSS/MSD/LPS/LPR Power Inductors
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AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
People/Ideas
archive infrastructure provides the data durability and
protection needed while also offering active access to
all user data.
Don’t depend only on cloud-based cold storage.
Even if you can achieve desired data transport speeds
back and forth from the cloud, large-scale storage and
retrieval from cold tiers is slow and expensive. Use
post-production cloud applications or cloud-bursting
to support intensive processing but keep massive data
storage and active archives on-site.
Build the foundation
Data-intensive industries like mobility/AV and M&E
need dynamic scalability without sacrificing availability
or performance. These industries also need storage
with user-friendly, sophisticated management tools and
smooth integration with workflow and analysis software.
Build your infrastructure from the start to accom-
modate all the scalability, flexibility, protection and
accessibility you are going to need for the foreseeable
future. Do it smart from the beginning and let your
system grow with you. ■
Jason Coari (left) is director, Scale-out
Storage Solutions at Quantum. He leads
the company’s product and commercial
strategy for scale-out storage across all
industries.
Mark Pastor is director for archive solutions at Quantum. He
represents Quantum within the Active Archive Alliance, the
LTO Consortium and the Object Storage Alliance. He regularly
blogs on topics relating to data protection and archival storage.
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73014-709 July 2019 21
Sensors
The Rodney Dangerfield
of Automated-Driving
Sensors
by Bradley Berman
Radar and lidar get all the attention, but Inertial Measurement
Units are the backbone of sensor fusion. Suppliers are scrambling
to make IMUs more accurate—and much less expensive.
The emerging era of highly-automated driving
comes courtesy of much-vaunted sensor tech-
nology—spinning lasers, penetrating radar, sonar
blips. But the sensor that gets the least respect in
the technology stack could be the lynchpin for the
mass roll-out of self-driving vehicles: the inertial
measurement unit (IMU).
“IMUs are the glue that binds everything together,”
said Mike Horton, chief technology officer at Aceinna,
a Boston-based company that develops sensing solu-
tions for automotive applications. “An IMU can help
Aceinna
Although most automotive-grade inertial measurement units (IMUs) are
the size of a match box or smaller, they measure, integrate and process vital
vehicle position-specific data.
22 July 2019
bring different types of data together from GNSS
(Global Navigation Satellite System), lidar and cameras
to make everything consistent and smooth.”
Moreover, an IMU can mean the difference
between life and death. The unit’s main components—
an accelerometer and gyroscope—determine a vehicle’s
velocity, acceleration, heading and turn rate. IMUs
provide a reliable “ground truth” even when there’s a
gap in GPS, a vehicle heads into a blind corner, or lidar
struggles with a snowstorm.
“When other sensors fail, the IMU is the sensor
that gets you to the side of the road to a safe spot,” said
Horton. “It’s uniquely positioned to do that because it
has no external dependency.”
New tricks from an old tool
In its basic form, an IMU uses three linear acceleration
sensors at X, Y and Z axes, as well as rotation sensors
at three axes. By adding a magnetometer, an IMU can
include references to earth’s magnetic fields to expand
from six degrees of freedom to nine. However, given
common magnetic disturbances, the magnetometer
primarily is used to refine gyroscope readings.
The use of physical gyroscopes goes back more
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

The Xsens MIi 600-se-
ries IMU delivers native
CAN support, external
support for a GNSS
receiver and a full-fea-
tured sensor-fusion
algorithm.
Xsens
Aceinna
than a century. But wide use in the modern era came
with the development of micro-electro-mechanical
systems (MEMS). Today’s miniature accelerometers
and gyros are soldered to circuit boards and strapped
into vehicles in enclosures about the size of a matchbox.
Basic IMUs are used to detect sudden deceleration to
deploy airbags and enable stability control. They also
orient your smartphone.
IMU sensors for airbag deployments are available
for tens of dollars from traditional auto suppliers. At
the other end of the spectrum, sophisticated IMUs
from Honeywell and others are used in high-preci-
sion aerospace and tactical military applications. The
step up from MEMS to fiber-optic gyroscopes (FOGs)
brings greater accuracy, but FOGs cost tens of thou-
sands of dollars.
Critically, IMUs also run software—with some
providers focusing primarily on algorithms for sensor
fusion. Aceinna’s open-platform IMU, for one, allows
end users to run their own algorithms.
Unfortunately, the vague nomenclature applied
to IMU variants creates confusion. The lines between
IMUs and inertial navigation systems (INSs) easily get
blurred, making it difficult to make apples-to-apples
comparisons of specifications and cost.
“IMU is an umbrella term to describe a wide
assortment of inertial systems,” said Jaya Krushna
Panda, an industry analyst with Technavio, a London-
based market-research firm. Technavio pegs the global
automotive IMU sensor market at U.S. $1.13 billion in
2018—mostly for rudimentary safety functions rather
than automated-driving; the number of leading IMU
providers targeting vehicle-automation applications
is about a dozen.
Automated driving changes everything
“Going forward, our sensors will continue to get smaller
and more accurate,” said Erica Zelazny, sales director
at Xsens, a provider of inertial technologies for sensor
fusion based in the Netherlands with its Americas
headquarters in Los Angeles. “Of course, everybody
also wants them to be cheaper,” she added.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Sensors
Aceinna’s OpenIMU300 series is a high-performance, open-source inertial plat-
form featuring a three-axis accelerometer, three-axis gyro and magnetometer.
Horton, Aceinna’s CTO, agrees that requirements
for accuracy, size and price are increasing. “I’ve been
surprised how aerospace-like the requirements have
been for IMUs in autonomous driving,” he said. “The
big U.S. automotive companies want really high perfor-
mance.” At the same time, he said the heart of the auto-
motive IMU market remains at under $500 per unit.
One of the biggest challenges is to correct for
gyro drift, often indicated as “in-run bias stability”
measured in degrees per second. “No matter what,
a gyroscope will drift over time in terms of a zero
point,” said Scott Kimbrell, senior field applications
engineer at Xsens. Engineers also battle the effects of
sensor “noise,” such as angular random walk and bias
estimate. These factors could result in a vehicle moving
toward an adjacent lane (or worse) when there are gaps
in input from GNSS or other sensors.
Horton said the goal is to maintain 30-cm (11.8-
in.) accuracy for between a few seconds and a couple
of minutes. “One degree per hour is the sweet spot
that we see in autonomous now,” he said. Aceinna’s
OpenIMU300 series, which typically offers six-degree-
per-hour accuracy, sells for $200 or less.
Xsens’ newest line of IMUs includes the MTi-600, a
high-end unit with advanced features and a gyro capable
of 8 degrees per hour; it sells for $300 when purchased
in quantities of at least 500 units. The company says the
in-run bias stability for its gyros will continue to improve,
but an accurate MEMS gyro is less important than the
power of sensor-fusion algorithms to generate highly
accurate readings for pitch, roll and yaw.
Meanwhile, MEMs manufacturing continues
to improve. While a one-degree-per-hour IMU is
not yet commercially available at automotive-grade
prices, Aceinna promised a June 2019 introduction
for a new IMU offering about two degrees per hour
for less than $100. ■
July 2019 23
Emerging Technologies
The Sense-itive Side of
Autonomous Vehicles
by Kami Buchholz
BASF is exploring how specific materials—and even paint
colors and finishes—can improve the capabilities of AV sensors.
The sensing technologies needed for auto-
mated-driving vehicles are evolving as the industry
moves toward high-level (SAE Level 4-5) automa-
tion. Sophisticated sensors already enable advanced
driver-assistance systems (ADAS) features such as
adaptive cruise control, park assist, lane-centering
and others.
But in order to meet the needs of high-level and
conditional autonomy, sensors themselves need a
BASF
Current dark exterior vehicle paint colors can impede lidar signal transmis-
sion. BASF technology specialists are developing near-infrared reflective
dark automotive exterior paints that are lidar-compatible.
24 July 2019
technology-assist. Materials-science specialist BASF
is enhancing the understanding of what materials may
aid the sensing equation.
“Each step of autonomous driving requires more
sophistication and more surety that the sensing data
is correct,” said Mark Minnichelli, director of tech-
nical development for Performance Materials at
BASF Corp.
Signal integrity is mandatory in order for the
sensing signal to be sent and received, according to
Dalia Naamani-Goldman, BASF’s market segment
manager for Transportation Performance Materials.
“On the radar side, we have transparent materials and
are developing an absorptive material that can be used
on the sensor surface, housing, and mounts,” Naamani-
Goldman said, noting the material is being tuned to
function between 70-90 GHz.
A non-variable production process is crucial.
“There is speculation in the industry that the frequency
requirement could go up to 150 GHz. So if there is a
shift in the frequency requirement that the material
must function in, we’ll need to look at different additive
packages, as well as determine what filler content will be
added to the virgin polymer,” said Naamani-Goldman.
Sensing clarity is another autonomous driving
must-have.
Whether the sensor is radar, lidar, or even a
yet-to-be-developed technology, the autonomous
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
 Emerging Technologies

vehicle needs to see the vehicles, objects, pedestrians, and

infrastructure. “So having vehicle surfaces that can stay
cleaner, longer, or that can self-clean and also maintain
the requirements for transparency of signal are very
important,” said Minnichelli.
One potential solution under investigation involves
plastic parts, such as the fascia concealing a sensor lens.
The team is developing a part that right out of the mold
BASF
has a surface that is easier to keep clean.
The exterior color of an autonomous vehicle This 3-D application unit’s control software, developed by BASF, allows the
company to develop new colors for automotive customers, including shades
can be especially troublesome for a lidar sensor, said
for autonomous vehicles that enhance lidar detection.
Donald Campbell, BASF’s research and development
manager. “A dark color can interfere with the signal
reflection because the color absorbs the signal and surroundings. “Anyone who wears eyeglasses keeps
doesn’t reflect the signal back,” said Campbell. He the glasses clean because it’s easier to see. The same
added that BASF is developing metallic silver colors is true for autonomous vehicles. The car has to see
that are friendlier to lidar and radar. everything around it, so its vision can’t be impaired,”
Without fail, every AV needs to sense its Minnichelli asserted. ■

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73014-712 July 2019 25

Simulation

German University
Studying Assisted-
Driving ‘Handoff’
by Stuart Birch

Germany’s Kempten University Adrive Living Lab will feature

latest aVDS driving simulator to research ADAS stress levels.
Researchers at Germany’s Kempten University of
Applied Sciences plan to embark this year on autonomous
vehicle (AV) and advanced driver-assist system (ADAS)
programs that will include investigation of the safest
ways to achieve handover of a vehicle when control is
returned to a human driver. To do so, it is installing an AB
Dynamics advanced Vehicle Driving Simulator (aVDS)
that will help measure driver stress levels if the vehicle is
not capable of performing a particular maneuver. The
aVDS has been designed to provide high level R&D capa-
bilities specifically for autonomous systems.
The university has established its Adrive Living
Lab with the third-generation simulator helping to
facilitate the study of the driver’s interaction with
autonomous systems and their effect on drivers’
perceived safety and comfort. The program has
identified these two areas as the most important for
consumer acceptance and enthusiasm.
“Driver-in-the-loop (DiL) simulators are essen-
tial to assess the capability of ADAS and autonomous
driving at an early development stage,” said Prof.
Bernhard Schick of the faculties of mechanical and
electrical engineering. “Complex vehicle test scenarios
are difficult to carry out on real roads. A key benefit of
a simulator such as the aVDS is that we can explore the
subjective as well as the objective effects on the driver

AB Dynamics’ handoff
simulator has the ability
to change suspension
parameters on-the-fly
or to conduct complex
automated maneuvers
in chaotic traffic
conditions.

26 July 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

 Simulation

TS-7553-V2
under a variety of circumstances.” Industrial IoT Gateway
The aVDS has been designed to deliver the university’s NXP i.MX6UL 698MHz ARM Cortex-A7 CPU
required level of driver immersion, providing the necessary
4 GB MLC eMMC Flash
dynamic ability together with innovative visual, audio and
haptic assets, and vestibular cueing. Schick stressed the
significance of high-dynamic capability and low-latency
response times.
The university also plans to use the simulator’s archi-
tecture for the mounting of a real car steering system on
the platform. It will be complete from steering wheel to ball
joints. The reason, said Schick, is a steering rack can be diffi-
cult to model because it has many non-linear components.
There are significant advantages to its inclusion within the
simulator’s feedback loop, avoiding any inherent inaccuracy
of a modeled system. Steering-based testing will include
evaluation of on-center feel and driver response.
AB Dynamics Europe Managing Director, Klaus
Weimart, said: “ADAS and autonomous systems will play
a big part in future mobility solutions and the way we as Nine-Axis MEMS MotionTracking Device
humans interact with them is paramount to their success.”
Industrial Temp Range -40 °C to 85 °C
The company’s aVDS incorporates software from rFpro.

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The simulator’s capabilities include vehicle dynamics, ADAS
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and autonomous systems, durability, hardware-in-the-loop,
software-in-the-loop and driver monitoring. The aVDS also
has the ability to change suspension parameters on-the-fly
or to conduct complex automated maneuvers in chaotic
Know Thy
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specification” linear actuators to deliver 6 DoF dynamic
Components.
performance, with up to 60-Hz frequency response. Understanding the limits of your components
This provides a tightly harmonized driving experience, is the first step to innovative design.
the company claims. The motion platform can be quickly
configured to take a variety of payloads up to 500 kg (1,102
lb), facilitating the installation of real vehicle cabins. Faithfully
recreated vehicle dynamics can be experienced in a variety of
common tests, including cornering, lane change, slalom, brak-
ing-in-turn, impulse, sine, step, ramp, swept steer and braking.
The China Automotive Technology and Research Center
(CATARC) has also expanded its vehicle development capa-
bilities via a third-generation AB Dynamics aVDS. “The use
of simulators in vehicle development offers efficiency in both
time and cost but it also allows us to validate autonomous Eco-friendly temperature testing right on
technologies,” said Gongqing Li, the vice chief engineer. your benchtop streamlines autonomous
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AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/73014-711 27

ADAS
ZF’s Current Work Builds for
the EV, AV Future
The Tier-1 giant’s “vision” for improving future mobility
leverages its latest safety and chassis-development innovations.
by Bill Visnic
As the product-development landscape for
light-vehicle electrification and automated-driving
technologies becomes less cluttered, it’s apparent that
established automotive Tier 1 mega-suppliers are
intent on merging their established competencies with
whatever new product lines are required in the electri-
fied, automated future...whenever it comes.
This strategy was recently on display at a tech-
nology background event conducted in the U.S. by
ZF. Long regarded for its transmission, driveline and
chassis expertise, ZF showed customers and jour-
nalists various prototype systems intended to merge
current-generation components to create higher-level
functionality—and value.
Zero accidents and emissions
At the event’s test track, ZF demonstrated an advanced
near-term driver-aid that dovetails with automat-
ed-driving features: Wrong-way Inhibit employs
known road-mapping data to prevent the driver (or
autonomous system) from entering a one-way street
or highway in the opposite direction of traffic flow.
On a small spur of the track that engineers had
designated as having opposing-direction traffic, the
test vehicle automatically came to a halt and refused
further progress in that direction.
ZF
Part of ZF’s “Vision Zero” technology suite, the Wrong-way Inhibit system
prevents driving into oncoming traffic.
28 July 2019
Perhaps the most dramatic demonstration comes
from ZF’s Vision Zero concept vehicle, a rolling
showcase of in-development technologies combined
with current-production components to express the
“what if ” goal of the Vision Zero: complete elimination
of accidents and vehicle-borne emissions.
The Vision Zero concept rolls on ZF’s produc-
tion modular semi-trailing-arm rear suspension that
also integrates an electric-drive axle and rear-steering
capability. It makes for a decidedly complete rear axle
that could theoretically be “added” to virtually any
light-vehicle design, ZF’s engineers expounded.
But the concept car also demonstrates ideas for
next-generation vehicles equipped with advanced
driver-assistance systems (ADAS) functionalities.
There’s an intriguing Driver Distraction Assist system
that monitors the driver’s state of attention—but ZF is
going further with a new Interior Observation System
(IOS) that uses a 3D camera to augment information
from other sensors to determine if the driver is atten-
tive and prepared to take back control of the vehicle
if it is in an automated-driving mode.
The IOS also can ascertain the position and size of
other occupants—information that can be leveraged for a
variety of complimentary safety and convenience features.
Due to be production-ready by late 2021, IOS’
“visual data from the interior of the vehicle can be highly
valuable from many standpoints,” said Norbert Kagerer,
senior VP, engineering, for ZF’s occupant safety systems
business. “The development of our 3D interior observa-
tion system leads to enhanced safety and convenience and
helps support the evolution toward automated vehicles.”
To help develop IOS’ full potential, ZF in May 2019
acquired a 90% interest in Germany-based Simi Reality
Motion Systems. The 35-employee company brings deep
experience in image-based 3D systems for the recording
and analysis of human movement. ZF believes such
competencies are fundamental to achieving the best infor-
mation about the passenger-compartment environment. ■
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
 UX/HMI

Hot New ‘Hands-On’ Direction in

ADAS Safety Research
JLR researches use of steering wheel heating and cooling to reduce driver workload

by Stuart Birch

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) recently revealed novel

research into a driver-safety aid: a sensory steering
wheel rim that heats or cools on each side to warn of
upcoming GPS-directed maneuvers—plus serves as an
extra information source in low-visibility situations.
The company believes it even could be used in
autonomous vehicles, changing the temperature of
gearshift paddles, for instance, to indicate to the driver
a successfully completed SAE Level 3 “hand-over” to
the vehicle’s self-driving system. 
With discrete portions of the steering wheel
heating or cooling over a 6-degree C (43-deg F) range,
the safety research concept, created via collaboration
JLR

with Glasgow University in Scotland, offers a subtle,

That warm feeling as a left turn approaches: JLR’s research sensory
less-distracting alternative to audio or vibration cues
steering wheel system.
for the driver. Alexandros  Mouzakitis, JLR’s elec-
trical research senior manager, said, “Research has
shown that people readily understand the heating Getting it right—even in close quarters
and cooling dynamics to denote directions and the Many GPS systems will prompt audibly and on screen
subtlety of temperature change can be perfect for from a sub-500-meter (1640-ft) distance when a right
certain feedback that doesn’t require a more-intrusive or left turn is required, with audible confirmation
audio- or vibration-based cue.”  immediately before the maneuver should be executed.
  But sometimes, turning options may be only a few
Addressing driver distraction  meters apart; the heated steering wheel would need
 Citing a National Highway Transport Safety Admin. to react rapidly to signal to the driver if it were the
(NHTSA) 2017 published Traffic Safety Research sole information source. These details will likely be
Note, JLR stressed that driver distraction is a major clarified as development progresses. Although heated
contributor to road accidents globally, accounting for steering wheels have become increasingly common,
10% of all fatal crashes in the U.S. The sensory steering new cooling componentry would be necessary. 
wheel’s thermal cues, they believe, would support JLR has close relationships with several universities
driver “out of cabin” awareness.  and the sensory steering wheel research is being funded
Full details of the research, its practical applica- as part of a Ph.D study by Patrizia Di Campli San Vito
tions and test-program specifics, have not yet been at Glasgow University’s Interactive Systems Research
released. But specifically-heated areas presumably Section. A further study, “Investigation of Thermal Stimuli
would require the driver’s hands to be placed at the for Lane Changes,” has been published by the university. 
internationally-accepted, clock-referencing recom- Mouzakitis said: “Safety is a number-one priority
mended positions of ten-to-two or quarter-to-three. for  JLR  and we are committed to continuously
Also, roundabouts (traffic circles) with multiple exit improve our vehicles with the latest technological
possibilities would require very precise, positional developments, as well as preparing the business for
warning. a self-driving future.” ■

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING July 2019 29

Connected Vehicle

5G Cellular-Enabled
Test Infrastructure
for AVs Launched at
Millbrook
by Stuart Birch

Autonomous-vehicle 5G development support moves ahead at

Millbrook Proving Ground in the U.K.
Millbrook Proving Ground in the U.K. has offi-
cially launched the AutoAir consortium’s 5G cellular
testing infrastructure for autonomous vehicle (AV)
development. The new facility at Millbrook provides
Millbrook
AV developers access to a low-latency, wide-area
wireless infrastructure billed to work seamlessly
across the entire sprawling test facility 50 miles (80
km) north of London.
According to the facility, the 5G capability “is
crucial for the validation and testing of SAE Level 3
to Level 5 autonomous vehicles, which require high-
speed real-time connectivity to compare real-world
outcomes with decision-making simulation.” 
Developers will be able to simulate weak and
strong cell signals and understand the impact of hills
and other terrain—all within Millbrook’s grounds—
while having access to all data generated during testing.
The AutoAir consortium is led by Airspan Networks
and enables AV developers to create virtual events
using augmented and virtual reality for vehicles on
track, to test in safety scenarios right up to edge cases.
 The technology used at Millbrook is based on

4G and 5G small cells that operate on a “neutral host”

basis. “AutoAir at Millbrook is one of the most ambi-
Millbrook’s high-speed “bowl” is a significant 5G development characteris- tious 5G testbeds and trials sites in the world. The
tic at the U.K. proving ground. project has now completed the deployment of a

30 July 2019 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

 Connected Vehicle
Millbrook

The AutoAir project at Millbrook will make a major contribution to 5G development for AVs.

hyper-dense small cell network that delivers ultra-
high capacities which enables a range of new CAV use
cases to be explored,” said Paul Senior, chief strategy
officer at Airspan Networks.
 The Millbrook mobile network facility comprises
77 small-cell base stations (using 2.3 GHz and 3.7 GHz
spectrum) and 22 millimeter-wave access points around
Millbrook’s banked, high-speed road circuit. (Millimeter-
wave is the spectrum from 30 GHz to 300 GHz.) There
are 59 masts, 38 for the small cell base stations and 11 for
the millimeter-wave access points, plus 10 for the milli-
meter-wave mesh backhaul along a hill route. Some 19
km (11.8 miles) of fiber-optic cable is installed.  users to work on a single network infrastructure, facil-
 
160-mph coverage   and connectivity situations.
The site’s new communications systems provide up
to 1 Gbps real-time connectivity; up to 256 km/h
(160 mph) continuous coverage capability around
the high-speed bowl; access using 4G long-term
evaluation—the network capable of supporting 5G
New Radio (NR) when commercial devices become
available—and secure Multi-access Edge Computing
(MEC) with the assurance that data does not leave
Millbrook’s environs.
 The Millbrook facility offers access to open-source
reference vehicles that can be programmed to emulate
a range of vehicles for AV software development, and
“soft targets” for real-world AV requirements. It also
can provide a digital model of the facility’s test tracks
with 1 mm surface accuracy for vehicle simulation, as
well as a simulator suite for both physical and virtual
development. 
With cybersecurity a continuing concern for AVs,
the 5G testbed can be used to simulate mobile-net-
work disruption and connectivity to test software,
vehicle and infrastructure resilience to interference.
And an open-access network, with slicing to enable
itates testing involving various network disruption
 
To g e t h e r w i t h   A i r s p a n   Ne t w o r k s ,
the AutoAir consortium includes McLaren Applied
Technologies;  Blu  Wireless Technology; The 5G
Innovation Center, University of Surrey; Dense Air; 
Quortus and Celestia Technologies Group.
Another proving grounds, the Swedish test
facility AstaZero, now is accredited by Euro NCAP to
perform tests of active safety systems and automated
driving. It is owned by Research Institutes of Sweden,
(RISE) and Chalmers University of Technology. ■

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING July 2019 31

Smart Mobility
Delivering on
Autonomous Transport
by Ryan Gehm
Einride ramps up industry partnerships and on-road demos
of its all-electric self-driving truck that’s missing one thing:
a cab for the drivers.
“Data is the most efficient propellant.” This
expression underpins the founding in 2016 of the
Swedish startup Einride. The fledgling tech company
currently is partnering with well-established
Einride
For the first commercial deployment of the T-pod, the route includes a short
stretch of public road where the truck could encounter passenger vehicles.
32 July 2019
transport-intensive companies, at an increasingly
accelerated rate, to run its cab-less autonomous truck,
the T-pod, at their facilities and even on public roads.
These activities are coordinated by intelligent routing
software that integrates customer data, traffic data,
vehicle data, etc., to optimize delivery time, battery
life and energy consumption.
The first commercial deployment of the T-pod,
which Einride claims is the first truck specifically
designed for electric propulsion and autonomous
driving, occurred in spring 2019 at a DB Schenker
facility in Jönköping, Sweden. Ericsson and Telia made
the installation of the autonomous electric transporta-
tion (AET) system possible via 5G-based connectivity
at the site. 
Daily transport between a warehouse and a
terminal commenced in May. The route includes a
short stretch of public road within an industrial area
where traffic speeds are typically low. The Swedish
Transport Agency permit to operate is valid until
December 31, 2020.
“Autonomous trucks will become increasingly
important for the logistics sector,” Jochen Thewes,
CEO of logistics firm DB Schenker said in a release.
“Together with Einride, we have now introduced
autonomous, fully electric trucks to a continuous flow
on a public road—a milestone in the transition to the
transport system of tomorrow.”
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

Einride
Einride also is collaborating with Swedish logis-
tics company Svenska Retursystem to initiate a pilot
project with the goal of introducing multiple T-pods
at a logistics center in Västerås, Sweden.
And Michelin announced at the Movin’ On
Summit in June that it would deploy Einride’s T-pod to
transport goods at a production facility in Clermont-
Ferrand, France, beginning in 2020. A second phase,
requiring approvals from the French authorities, will
involve transporting goods on public roads between
different Michelin sites in the city.
Einride has its sights set on the United States
as well. The company has several customers based
in the U.S., a spokesman told Autonomous Vehicle
Engineering, and it plans to roll out commercial instal-
lations there in the not-too-distant future.
360-degree awareness
Because the T-pod has no driver’s cab, the vehicle can
be smaller—approximately 7 x 2.5 m (23 x 8.2 ft)—but
with increased loading capacity compared to a conven-
tional truck. It can transport 15 euro-pallets and weighs
26 tons fully loaded, the company claims.
The vehicle’s drivetrain concept is centered around
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Smart Mobility
Capable of SAE Level 4 self-driving,
the T-pod’s operation is supervised
and can be operated by remote
control when necessary.
an e-motor with direct drive coupling to traditional axles.
With a battery capacity of 200 kW-h, Einride estimates
around a 200-km (124-mile) range on one charge. The
electronically limited top speed is 85 km/h (53 mph).
The company has also developed an “up-pow-
ered adaptation” of the T-pod for the logging industry.
Equipped with a 300-kW-h battery, the ‘T-log’ can
carry a 16-tonne load and navigate forest roads.
Capable of SAE Level 4 self-driving, the truck’s
operation is supervised and can be operated by remote
control when necessary.
“Connectivity is key for Einride,” chief technology
officer Pär Degerman told AVE. “We can use 4G for
the installations we have today, but of course 5G will
become critical over time when we start managing
fleets of autonomous, electric vehicles.”
Einride has partnered with Ericsson to explore
the opportunities for 5G mobile connectivity. The
two companies demonstrated the technology earlier
this year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,
allowing show-goers to remotely operate a T-pod.
“Our main concern now is that operators start
rolling out 5G as soon as possible and that they rethink
how they build their mobile networks,” Degerman said.
July 2019 33
Smart Mobility
Equipped with a 300-kWh battery, the T-log is an “up-powered adaptation” of the T-pod that can carry a 16-tonne load.
Einride
Strategically placed cameras, radar and lidar sensors provide 360-degree
awareness of the truck’s surroundings.
“5G is all about industrial applications like transport
and manufacturing. It is where value creation can
happen first, which means we need 5G connectivity
not just where people live, but also where businesses
and organizations operate and in between those places,
along transport-intensive roads.”
T-pod boasts 360-degree awareness of its
surroundings, with no blind spots nor dead angles,
thanks to strategically placed cameras, radar sensors
and lidar, or “3D laser scanners.” The NVIDIA Drive
platform provides a robust GPU architecture that can
process the high data rates coming from the sensors as
well as a safety-certified base platform for high integ-
rity control loops, according to Degerman.
“Apart from NVIDIA, we also have a number of
other computing systems that power different parts of our
solution,” he explained. “They range from safety-critical
34 July 2019
Einride
systems, real-time embedded platforms to powerful
processing units for resource intensive algorithms.”
Another important partner in Einride’s quest to
bring autonomous vehicles to market is DeepMap, a
Silicon Valley-based provider of HD mapping, real-
time localization and simulation data.
Wanted: smart, creative types
Einride is continuously growing its development team,
Degerman said, and is actively recruiting “smart and
creative” people with a range of aptitudes and skillsets.
Alongside job openings for systems engineers, test engi-
neers and safety engineers on the company’s online career
page are open positions for software engineers, visual and
UX designers, and perception/localization developers.
He noted that Marc Llistosella, former president
and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus and head of
Daimler Trucks Asia, recently joined Einride’s board of
directors. “His track record of building commercially
successful businesses around electric vehicles will be a
great contribution to Einride, as we continue to scale
the company. Mr. Llistosella’s prime focus will be to
secure the scaling of supply of hardware.”
Einride engineers are currently developing the
second-generation T-pod, according to Degerman.
“We are working on the industrialization process,
to scale production, as well as sizing our operational
capabilities in order to deploy commercial customer
installations,” he shared. “Another challenge is stan-
dardization of different connectivity types and business
models on all markets we operate or plan to operate.” ■
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
 MaaS

Driverless Ridesharing
Remains in Uber’s Sights
by Kami Buchholz

Introducing a new, production-ready AV with partner Volvo,

Uber’s rideshare network is likely to offer self-driving vehicles
on select routes.

Uber hasn’t set a timeline for deploying auton- road tests that can prove out things that we’ve already
omous vehicles (AVs) on its worldwide ridesharing checked in simulation and on the track,” he said in an
network, but plenty has happened since the company interview with SAE’s Autonomous Vehicle Engineering.
began development work in 2015—the latest being More than 1,000 engineers and other specialists
the June 2019 introduction with close partner Volvo are working at Uber ATG hubs in Pittsburgh, San
Cars of a self-driving vehicle the companies claim is Francisco and Detroit, as well as in Toronto for R&D
production-ready. projects. Volvo’s XC90 SUV—the same platform on
“The base vehicle is equipped with key safety which the new self-driving model is based—has been
features that allow Uber to easily install its own self- Uber’s autonomous-driving test fleet mainstay. Other
driving system, enabling the possible future deploy- vehicles are slated to join the development program.
ment of self-driving cars in Uber’s network as an auton- Uber and Toyota announced a deeper AV collabo-
omous ridesharing service,” Volvo announced. ration in August 2018. Each company’s technologies will
The company stated that when paired with Volvo’s
vehicle platform, Uber’s self-driving system “may one
day allow for safe, reliable autonomous ridesharing
without the need for a ‘Mission Specialist’”—Uber’s
term for its employees who are trained to serve as
safety drivers while the car operates in areas designated
and suitable for autonomous drive.
In December 2018, nine months after one of its
self-driving Volvo development vehicles was involved
in a pedestrian fatality in Tempe, Arizona, Uber
restarted AV test drives on select public roads.
“A larger and larger amount of our testing is
Volvo Cars

now being accomplished with simulation,” explained

Stephen Lesh, head of hardware engineering & vehicle
programs for Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group In June, Uber and close partner Volvo Cars revealed a jointly-produced
(ATG). “We’re also now concentrating our physical autonomous vehicle the companies said is production-ready, potentially
resources more on the test track, or on very specific enabling Uber to conduct driverless rideshare services.

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING July 2019 35

MaaS

we design it. If a technology partially exists, we partner

Uber ATG’s Stephen
Lesh said that engi-
to develop it,” said Lesh. He noted that companies devel-
neering autonomous oping the next generation of sensing and compute tech-
vehicles is analogous nologies are among Uber’s supplier partners.
to how well a human Virtually all development projects at Uber have
sees and how fast a a tandem focus. “We work on both the hardware and
human thinks. “Those
are the two big chal-
the software as a single engineering team—and we
lenges that hardware think that’s one of the advantages that Uber has versus
has to provide.” companies that are just doing software and then buying

Kami Buchholz
be integrated into purpose-built Toyota vehicles with the
initial Autono-MaaS (autonomous mobility as a service)
fleet based on the Toyota Sienna minivan platform.
According to a Toyota Research Institute spokesperson,
vehicle deliveries are slated for 2021. Said Lesh, “We plan
to work with multiple OEMs now and in the future.
Although we’ve announced some collaborations and
partnerships, we haven’t announced everything.”
Technology-acquisition options
Uber’s test vehicles are retrofitted with DC-DC
converters and other off-the-shelf hardware, but not all of
the needed technologies are commercially available—or
available from a supplier. “If a technology doesn’t exist,
a hardware kit,” Lesh said.
Field-of-vision studies for sensors using CAE
analysis is a prime point of investigation. “Compared
to designing human-driver sightlines via the seating
position and pillar locations, we need autonomous ride-
share vehicles to be set up with all the sensors having
an optimum field-of-view to the surroundings,” Lesh
said. “That’s why we’re doing a lot of work relating to
the lines of sight.”
Uber drivers around the world complete 15
million rideshare trips daily. “We want autonomous
vehicles to supplement that network, not replace it.,”
Lesh said. Today, there aren’t any Uber network trips
with AVs. “It’s hard to predict timing, but regulatory
actions need to occur and the public needs to trust
that the autonomy is verified and that it’s safe. Those
factors will drive our network rideshare deployment,”
Lesh maintained. ■

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