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AUTOMOBILITY SPECIAL REPORT

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ROAD MAP TO THE FUTUREAUTOMOBILITY SPECIAL REPORT: Automobility 2016: Reimagining Transportation

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AUTOMOBILITY SPECIAL REPORT PRESENTED BY

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Reimagining Mobility

Accelerating to Autonomy

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GROUP PUBLISHERRichard G. Kline, Jr. [email protected]

PUBLISHERMichael C. [email protected]

SPECIAL REPORT EDITORSteve [email protected]

CREATIVE DIRECTORJeff [email protected]

DIRECTOR OF SALES & EVENT MANAGEMENTPaula [email protected]

ADVERTISING MANAGERRobin [email protected]

Transforming the auto industry—from connected and autonomous cars to ride-sharing and other alternatives.

Automakers are ramping up partnerships and test programs at an unprecedented rate.

Connecting the tech requires advanced engi-neering, robust testing and “deep learning.”

One of the oldest forms of transportation could have a big role in new mobility.

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CONTENTS

© Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. Gardner Business Media, Inc. Cincinnati, OH 45244. Printed in U.S.A.

CORPORATESTAFF

Taking Driver-Assist Systems to the Next Levels

It’s as Easy as Sharing a Bike

Cover art: Nissan Motor Company

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Early Commercial (Truck) Applications

Mobility as a Service

12Safety and fuel economy make trucks prime targets for automation.

Congested city centers are becoming test beds for a variety of emerging “shared” services.

“You are here”—the precise science of locating and tracking vehicles.

Car-Tography

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mobility today. Planet M is

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ROAD MAP TO THE FUTUREAUTOMOBILITY SPECIAL REPORT: Automobility 2016: Reimagining Transportation

The transportation industry is in the early stages of what promises to be a profound transformation that will affect virtually every aspect of how people and goods move from place to place. This includes vehicle ownership, usage, production and design. It also involves how next-generation cars and trucks operate and increasingly interact and share information with each other, the roadside and third-party businesses.

At the same time, a host of new mobility services are emerging to give people more options and greater flexibility. In addition to car- and ride-sharing services, a growing number of alternative transportation modes are being developed and implemented. These include everything from bike sharing, micro- and bus-rapid transit to autonomous taxis and other so-called mobility-as-a-service (MaaS)systems to provide users with door-to-door logistics.

The changes, which are made possible by a rash of technology advances, are being driven by mass urbanization trends and new regulations and concerns about fuel consumption and greenhouse emissions. Transitioning to self-driving, shared electric vehicles could provide a variety of societal benefits that dramatically improve safety and efficiency, lower transportation costs, reduce congestion and pollution and increase mobility for more people—including the elderly, disabled and low-income families.

But getting from here to there is no easy matter. Even the most optimistic proponents readily admit there is a host of sizeable hurdles to overcome. Among the challenges are regulatory and legal issues, cybersecurity, consumer acceptance and infrastructure upgrades. On the technology side, there’s work to be done on testing and validating the array of sensors, software algorithms, controllers and other electronic systems required to ensure that autonomous vehicles operate seamlessly and safely under all conditions and can correctly interpret the unexpected variables human drivers routinely handle every day.

Time for a Change The auto industry agrees there will be more changes to the transpor-tation industry in the next five years than there have been in the last 25, 50 or even 100 years. For traditional carmakers and suppliers, this will include competing and collaborating with a new wave of electric vehicle companies, Silicon Valley tech giants and even small startups to develop new technologies and expand into new services. It also requires reallocating resources and developing and implementing new strategies.

Automation, electrification, connectivity and new mobility services are converging to create a host of new opportunities, notes Chris Borroni-Bird, vice president of strategic development for Qualcomm Technologies. The former General Motors executive—along with his co-authors Larry Burns and the late Bill Mitchell (who led MIT’s Smart Cities program)—correctly predicted the trend in their 2010 book “Reinventing the Automobile.” But he says the pace has acceler-ated even faster than they envisioned with the advent of “disruptive players” such as Google, Tesla and Uber pushing the process forward.

The transition to driverless shared vehicles is no longer in doubt, Borroni-Bird declares. It’s just a matter of how soon it will happen,

what the parameters will be and who will lead the charge. “It’s not clear yet where the real value resides—the vehicles or the software—to identify which partner is the dog and which is the tail,” he says.

Companies need to be increasingly nimble and develop clear business models for non-traditional products and services, adds Kristin Schondorf, EY’s executive director of automotive and trans-portation mobility. This includes forming strategic alliances with a wide variety of partners that could include other carmakers, tier-one suppliers, tech companies, universities and city planners. “There will be innovators and fast followers,” Schondorf says. But she warns that anyone who is complacent risks becoming a commodity supplier or going out of business.

Crystal BallThere’s no shortage of forecasts when it comes to predicting the future of autonomous vehicles and new mobility services. The implementa-tion dates, values and level of technology vary somewhat, but most are trending upward.

In a report issued earlier this year, IHS Markit predicts that global sales of vehicles equipped with semi- and fully autonomous driving capabilities will approach 600,000 units by 2025 and grow at a compounded annual rate of 43 percent to top 21 million units in 2035. The forecast nearly doubles that of an IHS report in 2014 that predicted there would be 11.8 million such vehicles in use by 2035.

IHS expects the U.S. to be an early leader in the trend with several thousand vehicles with some sort of automation on the road in 2020. Annual sales in the region are expected to reach about 4.5 million units by 2035. Growth rates will be linked to other emerging trends, such as connected vehicle technology and car- and ride-sharing services, IHS says.

A recent report by McKinsey & Co. says fully autonomous vehicles will account for 15 percent of the annual worldwide sales of passenger vehicles by 2030. The forecasting firm predicts that shared on-demand vehicles will soon begin to displace privately owned cars and trucks, with sales of such models reaching about 10 percent in 2030 and growing to 33 percent of the market by 2050.

Navigant Research predicts that various self-driving features will be implemented in high volume cars by 2020 and that fully autonomous vehicles could be introduced by 2025. These vehicles will be capable of driving without any human involvement to autonomously shuttle people and goods, according to the Chicago-based consulting firm.

Last year Navigant ranked Daimler as the top carmaker in terms of strategy and execution of driver assist technologies, followed closely by Audi, BMW and General Motors. The initial analysis didn’t

By STEVE PLUMB, SENIOR EDITOR, AutoBeat Daily

REIMAGINING MOBILITY— A ROAD MAP TO THE FUTURE

“It’s clear that the next decade is going to be defined by the automation of the automobile.”—Mark Fields, Ford CEO

Uber and Volvo have formed a $300 million partnership to develop a platform for self-driving vehicles.


TOPICAUTOMOBILITY SPECIAL REPORT: Automobility 2016: Reimagining Transportation

rate Google and other Silicon Valley tech firms or suppliers such as Delphi that are developing their own systems. These companies will be included in an updated Navigant report due in early 2017.

Getting StartedThe comprehensive “Together-Strategy” Volkswagen Group announced in June epitomizes how closely carmakers are aligning autonomy and new mobility programs. As part of the plan, VW formed a new business unit to develop and acquire ride-hailing, car-sharing and transportation on-demand services. Group CEO Matthias Mueller expects such services to account for a “significant” share of the company’s revenue by 2025. VW made its first foray into the market earlier in the year with a $300 million investment in Israeli-based ride-hailing provider Gett (formerly GetTaxi). But Mueller says the ultimate goal is to go beyond traditional partnerships to create an “integrated mobility ecosystem.”

VW’s new strategy also calls for developing and licensing a range of advanced driver-assist technologies by the end of the decade and launching more than 30 new electric vehicles by 2025. The initiative is being led by the group’s Audi unit, which will devote about one-third of its research and development budget to automated vehicles, electric cars and digital services over the next 10 years.

Ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies Inc. also is pinning its future to autonomous systems, which could eventually eliminate the cost of paying human drivers. To this end the company announced a $300 million partnership with Volvo Cars in August to develop a platform for self-driving vehicles. Uber will buy the base vehicles from Volvo, then add its own sensors, software and controllers to enable autono-mous driving capability.

Uber’s goal is to launch a fleet of self-driving vehicles, starting with testing later this year near its Pittsburgh technical center. The company believes a “good portion of the population” will be receptive to ride-sharing in a self-driving car, says Sheriff Marakby, the company’s vice president of global vehicle programs.

GM and ride-hailing provider Lyft Inc. plan to test self-driving Chevrolet Bolt electric taxis next year. The vehicles will incorporate technology GM is acquiring through its acquisition (estimated at $1 billion) of San Francisco startup Cruise Automation. GM, which launched its own Maven car-sharing brand in January, also has

invested about $500 million in Lyft.Ford has had an active year too. It launched a

new subsidiary, Ford Smart Mobility, in January to oversee its growing number of alternative personal mobility programs. And in August it made several major announcements, including investments in companies that are developing enabling technologies for autonomous drive systems. The company also is doubling the staff of its Silicon Valley development team in Palo Alto, California.

But Ford’s most significant news was its announced plan to put a “fully autonomous” vehicle—without a steering wheel or foot pedals—into commercial operation for ride-hailing and/or ride-sharing services by 2021. The company says the car will meet SAE International’s definition of “level 4” autonomy, which means it will be able to drive itself without human intervention in most but not all conditions. The car will be intended exclusively for commercial services and won’t be sold to private owners.

“It’s clear that the next decade is going to be defined by the automation of the automo-bile,” says Ford CEO Mark Fields. He jokes that

as recently as five years ago it would have been “crazy” to have suggested a major automaker would be announcing plans to mass produce a vehicle without a steering wheel. Today it almost seems normal.

Daimler was ranked the highest among 18 carmakers for its strategy and execution of autonomous vehicle systems in a study by Navigant Research. Other leaders include Audi, BMW and General Motors, according to the report.

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Jaguar Land RoverHyundai/Kia Volkswagen

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TOGETHER WE MOVE MOBILITY FORWARD

See how collaboration through consensus-based standards are helping advance the complex issues of vehicle connectivity.

Download 3-part infographic series at alwaysinmotion.sae.orgEssential automotive standards for connected transportation

Collaboration. Despite today’s highly competitive world, it’s still how problems are solved, challenges overcome, and advances are made.

Since 1905, SAE International, a professional society, has been providing the platform for that collaboration among those who want to advance mobility.

In fact, the sharing of knowledge to solve common problems was the impetus of SAE’s earliest standardization e orts—e orts that benefi t all of industry by setting expectations for quality, safety, and e� ciency and allow for focus on innovation.

Yet, while today’s mobility challenges are very di erent from those of yesterday’s, automotive, aerospace, and commercial vehicle engineers continue to look to SAE International to connect with each other and the technical resources needed to advance themselves, their companies, and industry.

SAE International is the authority on vehicle engineering—developing more vehicle technical standards than any other organization, o ering the largest library of vehicle engineering content, and bringing together the largest global network of engineers in the world.

How are the various mobility sectors solving for their toughest engineering challenges? Learn from them at alwaysinmotion.sae.org

US +1.724.776.4841 • Asia +86.21.6140.8900 • Europe +32.2.789.23.443 • sae.org

SAE INTERNATIONAL


ACCELERATING TO AUTONOMYAUTOMOBILITY SPECIAL REPORT: Automobility 2016: Reimagining Transportation

AUTONOMY

Hyundai, which has vowed to introduce vehicles with highly automated features early next decade, is testing autonomous taxis at its engineering complex in South Korea. A public demonstration in the U.S. is planned for later this year.

The road to full autonomy will require a stepped approach, says Mike O’Brien, vice president of product planning for Hyundai America. “Driver-assist and connectivity systems will play a key role,” he says, citing the automaker’s partnership with Amazon.com that allows users to remotely access vehicle functions. Enterprise IT systems also can be integrated to provide benefits for businesses and consumers, he notes.

Widespread commercial applications of fully autonomous vehicles likely won’t happen for at least another decade. But the auto industry seems to have shifted into high gear toward the goal, with a flurry of activity over the last year. Announcements of new partnerships, pilot programs and technical advances are coming on a nearly daily basis.

Nissan launched its ProPilot system, which can automatically control steering, braking and throttle functions during single-lane highway maneuvers, this summer in Japan. The technology will be expanded to Europe next year and later in the U.S. and China. Lane-changing and the ability to navigate stop-and-go traffic with intersections will be added in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

Volvo Car will begin pilot testing a fleet of XC90 vehicles equipped

Jaguar Land Rover is testing automated technologies for off-road driving.

vehicles in a ride-hailing program in Singapore. The vehicles, which will be retrofitted with more than 24 sensors, will operate at a top speed of 25 mph along three routes within an existing business park to ferry a select group of users between their homes or offices and traditional mass transportation stations.

Cambridge, Massachusetts.-based startup nuTonomy Inc. already has begun public test-rides of self-driving taxis in Singapore with a goal of launching commercial service there in 2018. The so-called “robo-taxis” include modified versions of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Renault Zoe EVs equipped with nuTonomy’s control software and sensors.

BMW plans to launch a new flagship electric vehicle with autonomous driving capabilities for its “i” sub-brand in 2021. Codenamed iNext, the all-new EV will team a variety of automated driver-assist features with a more efficient electric powertrain, digital connectivity, a redesigned interior—the recent Vision Next 100 concept car includes a windshield that acts as a giant augmented reality display—and a lightweight architecture.

BMW also is teaming with Intel and Mobileye to develop technolo-gies and open standards for highly automated and fully autonomous vehicles. The partners plan to demonstrate a highly automated driving system later this year and extend the platform to fleets with extended autonomous test drives in 2017.

BMW’s Vision Next 100 concept car includes a giant augmented reality windshield display.

with advanced driver-assist functions next year in London and Gothenburg, Sweden.

Google and Fiat Chrysler are collaborating on a fleet of self-driving test vehicles. Google will outfit about 100 specially prepared 2017 model Chrysler Pacifica minivans with the company’s latest self-driving system.

Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc., which is testing fully autonomous cars on public roads in Beijing, aims to launch sales of such vehicles in 10 Chinese cities by the end of the decade and begin mass produc-tion of them within five years. The company also has formed a partnership with NVIDIA to develop a cloud-based operating platform for self-driving cars.

Jaguar Land Rover will begin testing autonomous driving technologies on British roads later this year. The company expects to have more than 100 such vehicles in oper-ation within four years. Some of the vehicles will be tailored for automated off-road applications, using sensors to identify changing surface conditions—including uneven and undulating terrain, crevices and standing water—then adjusting suspension, wheel and speed settings accordingly.

Next year Delphi Automotive will begin testing a fleet of six autonomous electric

Delphi will begin testing autonomous vehicles in a ride-hailing program next

year in Singapore.

Nissan is launching

its ProPilot technology

on its Serena minivan.

ACCELERATING TO

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AUTOMOBILITY SPECIAL REPORT: Automobility 2016: Reimagining Transportation

Driver assist technologies can be traced back to the advent of antilock brake systems in the late 1970s. This was followed in subsequent years by a variety of passive and, more recently, active safety systems such as adaptive cruise control, lane keeping, parking assist and advanced headlights. One of the most recent advances is automatic emergency braking, which carmakers have agreed to install on most U.S. models by the end of 2022.

But getting to self-driving cars is a whole other level. In fact, it’s a multi-level process. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration defines five levels of autonomy, ranging from zero (driver is in complete control of all vehicle functions) to 4, when the vehicle performs all safety critical driving functions. Needless to say, we’re not there yet.

Most vehicle manufac-turers offer at least one model with Level 2 automation. This level can be defined as two automated technolo-gies, such as adaptive cruise control and emergency braking, working in concert.

And several manufacturers plan to launch Level 3 vehicles that are capable of automated braking, steering and throttle functions in some conditions but which require drivers to take control at other times.

A Hands-on Approach?Tesla led the way last October with the debut of its Autopilot tech-nology, which offers Level 3 functionality during highway driving. At the time, CEO Elon Musk described the system as being in its “beta” phase, and he has repeatedly urged drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel and remain attentive even when Autopilot is on.

Not everyone has complied with Musk’s recommendation, and the controversial system has come under fire this year in the wake of a fatal crash and other accidents involving vehicles equipped with the technology. Tesla has made several over-the-air software upgrades to the system, including sensors that detect if a driver has removed both hands from the steering wheel. If this happens, drivers are prompted to put at least one hand back on the wheel; Autopilot is disabled if they don’t.

While there have been reports that Autopilot has helped prevent some crashes—and even helped a man drive to a nearby hospital after suffering a pulmonary embolism—Musk acknowledges that owners need to be educated more on how to safely use the system.

Part of the problem is Autopilot’s name, which Consumer Reports argues overstates the technology’s capabilities. Tesla stopped refer-encing it in China soon after a local owner had a minor crash while using the feature after observers noted the word when translated could imply fully automatic function.

Moving ForwardTesla’s Autopilot rollout highlights the rapid progress that has been made but also the remaining challenges for autonomous vehicles.

“It’s all happening very fast,” declares Andy Smart, chief technical officer for the newly formed American Center of Mobility (ACM) in southeast Michigan. In just a few years, he notes, development has transitioned from clunky test vehicles that looked like a “whacky science experiment” to near-production models.

But Smart cautions that much more testing is needed to ensure the reliability and safety of the various technologies and integrated systems. This should be done in a controlled environment such as ACM’s new 335-acre proving grounds, where a wide range of real-world situations can be replicated and repeated, he says.

Sam Abuelsamid, a senior analyst for Chicago-based Navigant Research, agrees. To date, most of the road testing for autonomous vehicles has been done in California under favorable weather and infrastructure conditions, he points out. “There are several major technical issues that need to be resolved,” Abuelsamid says. “Companies can’t afford to deploy these vehicles prematurely.”

Advanced driver interfaces, which can quickly and safely alert a driver when to take over, will become increasingly important for vehicles with intermediary levels of autonomy. “Drivers must be aware and ready to assume control as needed,” Visteon CEO Sachin Lawande stresses. He says Visteon’s new architecture, dubbed Project Monarch, will make it easier for developers to create and test new infotainment features that can be installed via over-the-air updates. The platform also is expected to be the first automotive application that meets SAE International’s new J3061 cybersecurity guidelines.

It’s All Connected Autonomous driving doesn’t mean future cars and trucks will operate independently of their environments. In fact, just the opposite is true. Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication is a key enabler for all levels of autonomy.

The more information vehicles have about their surroundings, the safer and more efficient they’ll become, says Chris Borroni-Bird, vice president of strategic development for Qualcomm. He envisions a future in which vehicles will routinely exchange information with each other, the infrastructure, bicyclists, pedestrians, third-party services and cloud computers using a combination of cellular, wi-fi, dedicated short-range communications and upcoming 5G networks. The latter, he says, will improve the speed, reliability and robustness of all vehicle communications.

“Driver assistance systems are becoming the eyes and ears of vehicle,” adds Swamy Kotagiri, Magna’s chief technology officer. He says the resulting information also can be shared between various subsystems within a vehicle to improve overall performance, such as applying torque vectoring in advance of changing road conditions.

Taking Driver-Assist Systems to the

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Bicyclists can be challenging for autonomous vehicles. Sensors must be able to correctly identify a bike’s slender form, and software algorithms need to track and anticipate the movements of riders, including various hand signals.

But bikes also play an important role in multi-modal environments. In addition to traditional owner/rider use, bike-sharing services are making inroads around the world. A recent report by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR; Ann Arbor, Michigan) estimates bike-sharing programs are available in about 1,000 cities, about one-tenth of which are in the U.S.

The concept isn’t new, having started 50 years ago with free services in Amsterdam. This was followed by coin-operated systems in the mid-1990s and IT-based models

More than 25 percent of Dutch workers bike to their jobs, while less than 1 percent do so in the U.S.

It’s as Easy as Sharing a Bike

Bosch has adapted technologies from other business units to supply ebike components.

soon thereafter that allow riders to reserve and pay for bikes remotely. China is far and away the largest market with more than 1 million bikes, which CAR says accounted for 80 percent of the global shared fleet last year. This compares with some 30,700 shared bikes at 3,300 stations in the U.S. by companies such as DecoBike, Motivate and Zagster.

Bike commuting in the U.S. is increasing by about 7.5 percent per year but still totals only 635,000 such pedal-ists, according to CAR. This represents less than 1 percent of the workforce. By comparison, more than 25 percent of Dutch workers bike to their jobs.

Full-electric and pedal-assist systems could help speed adoption rates. These so-called ebikes allow riders to make longer commutes and provide access to users who other-wise may not be able to make such trips, says Tim Frasier, president of Robert Bosch’s Automotive Electronics unit in North America.

Bosch, which launched its ebike business in 2009, supplies electric components to more than 70 bike manu-facturers. The company adapted most of the technology from its automotive and other business units, including the battery pack, drive unit, controls, charger and display system. Frasier says global industry sales of ebikes are growing 10-15 percent per year, with the bulk of the volume coming in Europe. But he notes that most major U.S. cities are now asking for quotes on ebike programs as congestion increases and residents look for alternative modes of transportation.

College and corporate campuses are taking the lead in deployment, analysts note. In California, for example, both Google and Stanford University are evaluating new ebike programs.

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MOBILITY AS A SERVICE

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Commercial trucks could be one of the first and most significant applications for autonomous driving technologies. Analysts point out that big rigs stand to benefit from driver-assist technologies even more than passenger vehicles.

Trucks are prime targets for automation because they typically spend much more time on the road than cars, notes Jeff Klei, presi-dent of Continental Automotive Systems North American opera-

tions. Conti has been testing such systems for several years. It also is evaluating applications for agricultural equip-ment, which Klei says could allow around-the-clock farming.

Automated driver-assist systems also could enable multiple trucks to travel in high-speed platoons.

Traveling in tight formations enhances the overall aerodynamics of the platooned vehicles and can yield as much as a 10 percent improvement in a two-truck convoy, according to David McShane,

vice president of business development at Ricardo. The global engineering consulting firm has supported several recent truck platoon demonstrations, leveraging control algorithms and other expertise it has gained from automotive and railway systems. The latest tests included lane changing, passing and coupling/ decoupling maneuvers.

Daimler’s commercial truck unit has demonstrated three-truck platoons on Germany’s autobahn with its Actros heavy-duty trucks. It notes that high-speed following distances between trucks can be cut by two-thirds to as little as 50 feet, freeing up road space for other vehicles. Automated driving technologies also can reduce braking reaction times to less than 0.1 second from an average of 1.4 seconds for human drivers.

The potential for automated trucks was underscored by Uber’s recent purchase of Otto for an estimated $680 million in an all-stock deal. The San Francisco-based startup, which was launched in January, has developed a retrofit kit—which enables automated, steering and throttle control functions—that the company aims to license to truckmakers. Some of the technology also is expected to be applied to future Uber autonomous ride-hailing and delivery vehicles. Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski, who previously was part of Google’s autonomous vehicle team, now heads autono-mous driving development for both Uber and Otto.

Nov. 2, 2016 COBO Center Detroit, Mich.

Original Equipment Suppliers Association 2016 Annual Conference The Industry at a Crossroads

Early Commercial (Truck) Applications

Automated truck platooning can improve fuel economy by up to 10 percent.

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Hailing, Sharing and Mobility as a ServiceCongested city centers around the world have become test beds for a growing number of new mobility services, including bike- and car-sharing, ride-hailing and microtransit systems that utilize small buses and flexible routes based on customer demand.

There also are subsets within each group, some of which overlap with each other. Car-sharing, for example, can be broken down between one-way and round trip services that require users to pick-up and return a vehicle to a home station.

CITY PLANNINGA United Nations study says more than half of all people now live in urban centers, and the percentage of city dwellers is expected to climb to two-thirds of the world’s population by 2040, notes David McShane, vice president of business development for Ricardo. He says Ricardo recently launched a web-based tool to help city officials evaluate and implement new transportation strategies. The Urban Transport Roadmap system allows city officials to assess the likely costs and impact of different programs.

The University of Michigan SMART (sustainable mobility/accessi-bility research/transformation) team also is working with city leaders to

improve transportation with a focus on new mobility services. “They’re cleaner, greener and more equitable,” declares Susan Zielinski, the program’s managing director. So-called mobility-as-a-service systems offer even more potential, because they allow users to quickly compare and combine multiple services to book door-to-door travel, she notes.

AUTO IMMUNE? It’s not clear what the long-term effect new mobility services will have on vehicle ownership and miles traveled. But such services can create more opportunities than challenges for carmakers, concludes a recent report by the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It lists technology partnerships and new revenue streams as potential benefits.

Daimler already operates several mobility services under its Moovel Group business. These include Car2Go (car-sharing), MyTaxi (ride-hailing), GlobeSherpa (mobile ticketing) and RideScout (mobility-as-a-service).

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In the spirit of thinking big, Veniam Works has a whopper of an idea: turn every vehicle and other moving object in the world into a series of mobile hotspots that connect to each other via “mesh networks.” The four-year-old Silicon Valley startup company kicked off the ambitious effort a few years ago with several hundred nodes in Porto, Portugal. The connected fleet ranges from taxis and public buses to garbage trucks, ships and cranes.

The technology virtually eliminates dead zones and can provide free internet access to hundreds of thousands of people in or near connected vehicles, according to Veniam. The system also allows

data to be shared between the various nodes to improve productivity and efficiency. Porto’s garbage trucks, for example, minimize travel time and

costs by using information from trash can sensors to set daily collec-tion routes. In turn, the connected trucks and other vehicles improve traffic flow by providing real-time location, speed and acceleration information to each other and the infrastructure.

Fleets and other businesses also can use real-time data to track their assets, identify potential bottlenecks and improve overall logistics management. Future applications could include mobile payment transactions and targeted security cameras.

Veniam is launching additional pilot programs in Barcelona, New York City and Singapore. “The potential benefits are enormous,” says co-founder Robin Chase, who previously founded Zipcar, Buzzcar and other new mobility services. “Mesh networks take advantage of excess wireless capacity and leverage existing assets to provide greater connectivity and multipurpose functions.”

We’re in the automated driver’s seat.

www.continental-automotive.com

Continental was the first automotive supplier to receive approval from the Nevada DMV to testautomated driving on public roads. This year, partially automated driving systems will be available for production. Mainly geared toward low-speed, start-and-stop traffic, our systems will improve driver safety, comfort and convenience. What’s next? The first applications for fully automated driving are projected for 2025.

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BMW expects half its engineers and researchers will be software specialists within five years. This compares with about 20 percent-today. The increase is necessary to develop the sophisticated algorithms and other electronic systems needed to enable next-generation connectivity and driver-assist technologies, explains Klaus Froehlich, BMW’s board member in charge of research and development. The goal, he said recently, is to provide customers with the market’s “most intelligent car.”

But finding and retaining top software engineers may be easier said than done. Competition for any type of engineer typically is fierce, given long-standing shortages and increasing demand for them across industries. The situation is exacerbated when it comes to software engineers, who are in even greater demand and tend to favor jobs with tech companies and startups.

A quick way for a carmaker or supplier to add engineering talent is by buying or partnering with a tech company. Ford illustrated this following its investment earlier this year in Palo Alto, California-based Pivotal Software. The carmaker plans to tap into Pivotal’s expertise to help its own engineers learn how to better leverage and expand their software development skills from vehicle-focused technologies to consumer applications.

Mega-suppliers such as Bosch, Continental, Delphi, Magna and Visteon, which already have an abundance of software engineers thanks to their focus on electronic systems, now are turning them loose on autonomous vehicle systems. Bosch has increased the number of engineers working on automated driver assist products from 1,300 to 2,000 in recent years.

To help ensure young engineers have the right skill sets, compa-nies need to work with colleges to develop academic curriculums that prepare them to handle changing industry needs and the convergence of various technologies and disciplines, says Carlo Bailo, assistant vice president-mobility R&D, Ohio State University.

Engineering Talent

Just like their human counterparts, self-driving vehicles need to be thoroughly trained, tested and certified before turning them loose on the open road. NVIDIA’s Drive PX 2 in-vehicle supercomputer uses artificial intelligence and deep learning to quickly teach itself safe driving techniques from simulations, millions of miles of on-the-road videos, real-world testing and input from engineers and professional drivers.

With the ability to process 24 trillion operations per second, the system continu-ally gathers and integrates information from dozens of sensors while the vehicle is driving to monitor its surroundings and handle the nearly infinite number of variables it can encounter, says Danny Shapiro, the company’s senior automotive director. The system also can use cloud computing to access and share information with other connected vehicles, allowing the fleet to get even smarter with subse-quent trips.

Driver’s Ed. for Autonomous Cars

The Internet of Moving Things

Making Mobility Work

NVIDIA’s Drive PX 2 super-computer can process 24

trillion operations per second.

• RIDE-HAILING services rely on smartphone apps to connect passengers with drivers who provide rides (for a fee) in their private vehicles. Online platforms for such services are operated by third-party companies that coordinate the process for a fee.

• RIDE-SHARING is a type of carpooling that uses private vehicles, arranging shared rides on short notice between travelers with a common origin and/or destination. Travelers share costs for the trip.

• CAR-SHARING is a short-term car rental, which includes fuel and insurance costs. Electronic systems allow unattended access to the vehicles. Users typically can pickup and drop-off vehicles from a variety of locations within a city. Trips can be round-trip or one-way, free-floating or station-based.

• BIKE-SHARING provides free or affordable access to bicycles for short-distance trips, mostly in urban areas. Most programs are

Types of New Mobility Servicesorganized either by local non-profit organizations or by public agencies.

• MICROTRANSIT involves private transit services that use small buses and develop flexible routes or schedules (or both)

based on customer demand. Microtransit bridges the gap between single user transportation and fixed-route

public transit.

• MOBILITY-AS-A-SERVICE allows users to schedule, combine and choose between several different types of transportation (mass transit, carsharing, ridehailing) for a single trip via an integrated app. Payments also are integrated into one transaction.

• SHARED AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES are fully self-driving vehicles that do not need human operation, other than providing information regarding the destination of the trip.

Source: Center for Automotive Research

16


Next-generation digital mapping technology is a key enabler for a host of vehicle functions and connected car services. In addition to basic navigation capabilities, such maps can enhance safety and fuel efficiency, improve traffic flow, locate parking spots and share infor-mation among networked vehicles and supporting infrastructure.

The maps provide users with highly accurate information that is continuously updated. This includes a vehicle’s location within a lane—down to a few inches—and the exact height, grade and angle of every hill and curve in the road, as well as road sign and traffic information. Generated by advanced cameras and vehicle sensors, such details are critical for automated steering, throttle and braking functions.

To maintain control of the technology, carmakers and traditional suppliers are navigating into new markets. The list includes last year’s mega deal in which Audi, BMW and Daimler teamed up to buy Nokia’s HERE digital mapping business for €2.5 billion. This year Ford made a much less extravagant investment in Albany,

Continental’s dynamic eHorizon

maps provide real-time data

to motorists.

California-based Civil Maps, which is using artificial-intelligence soft-ware to create 3-D images from sensors in a way that it claims is more efficient and uses less data than other approaches.

In another partnership, Bosch is providing sensor and software technology to TomTom to help make its digital maps more accurate and better able to incorporate data produced by networked vehicles. The technology creates a real-time 3-D representation of the driving environment to help autonomous vehicles prepare for changes in traffic and road conditions.

Continental is adding dynamic features to its eHorizon maps to integrate road data with vehicle and trip information. This can be used to prompt drivers to slow down or apply the brakes when approaching stop lights and sharp curves to maximize fuel efficiency. In vehicles with automatic stop-start systems, the system can time the engine to restart when a stoplight turns green, before the driver presses the accelerator.

CAR-TOGRAPHY

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